Products

At Steersman Technology we have two main product lines. These are the Associate Systems and the Fuzzy Causal Map (FCM) Causal Analysis Tool - FCMCAT for short.

Both products are fully configurable for the needs of your business, and you can find out a little bit more about them below.

Associate Systems

Associate Systems can be thought of as advanced forms of help file which are configured as an intelligent assistant, or associate, to provide help and guidance to your employees - whether this be help on standard day to day procedures to assist new or temporary staff, or whether it be capturing the knowledge of key staff so their expertise can be available when they are not around.

The Associate Systems are software tools which support / augment cognitive skills and bolster the users cognitive resources in the context of detailing the contents of aides memoir, manuals, guides, processes, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in a knowledge based architecture that can respond in context to user requests and inputs with intelligently selected information.

The Associate Systems hold information as a browser based help system which will work with any internet browser on any system (including mobile devices such as PDAs) and features:

Advantages of the Associate Systems are that they provide the user with the required data quickly (without the need for manual searches), are available to remote users, and provides context sensitive advice, guidance and SOPs to your employees, leading to increased business effectiveness.

They provide a useful adjunct to training, allow your employees to find and use procedures that are perhaps not used very often, aid in succession planning, and their should be no excuses at the next ISO audit!

An example of the various data access options in an Associate System is shown in Figure 1 - Associate System Navigation Features. The data in the figure is from a Soldier Associate System prototype, but the concept is applicable to any business or role.

Figure 1 - Associate System Navigation Features

We at Steersman will work with you to develop Associate Systems which will help your business reduce training times, increase productivity, and derisk succession planning amongst many other advantages. For further information on how Associate Systems can help you please contact us.

Fuzzy Causal Map (FCM) Causal Analysis Tool (FCMCAT)

A Fuzzy Causal Map (FCM) allows you to connect systems, people, events, processes and objectives together in an analysis network, and then allows you to predict the outcomes of complex events.

The best way to understand FCMs and how they can help a business is to look at a specific real-world but relatively simple example:

On the 21st September 1999 a major earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale hit the island of Taiwan. Over 2,000 people were killed and 400,000 made homeless. The earthquake also impacted the technology zone between the cities of Taipei and Taichung, the major area of computer RAM chip production in the world. It took six weeks for the technology parks to recover to pre-quake production levels.

In addition to the physical devastation of the earthquake itself there was a dramatic affect on certain stocks and shares and products around the world:

Whilst the earthquake itself could not be predicted, the likely impact of such an earthquake on the financial sector could be analysed and predicted, because the interconnections between the event, its direct effects, the companies affected, and the other companies operating in the same market sectors can be modelled using our FCMCAT tool. The simple FCM analysis network is illustrated in Figure 2 - Taiwan Earthquake IT Sector Impact

Figure 2 - Taiwan Earthquake IT Sector Impact

The technique of modelling the effects of unpredictable events on stocks, shares, commodities and derivatives is known as Event Impact Modelling (EIM). It is just one example of waht can be achieved using FCMs. By modelling the interactions of your business sector, your customers, your suppliers and your competitors you can keep one step ahead and know what is likely to happen given any business decision or marketplace event. Another use is to model internal relations in large organisations, making it easy to see which departments are vital, which interactions work and how and what changes will affect the organisation.

The FCMCAT tool is easy to use and install and we provide comprehensive training it its use. We can also supply our consultants to work with you to produce the FCMs that will help your business.

For further information on our FCMCAT tool please contact us.