Ascent Technology helps you get started quickly and keeps you working productively

Ascent Technology offers consulting services in the areas of resource allocation, resource management, workforce optimization, workforce planning, workforce scheduling, and workforce management for mission-critical and labor-intensive environments.

Since our founding nearly 40 years ago by members of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ascent Technology has helped organizations deploy costly resources as efficiently, effectively, and economically as possible. Ascent Technology's highly trained and capable team of technologists, problem solvers, and solution designers has broad domain expertise and substantial experience in artificial intelligence, computer science and engineering, system design, mathematical optimization, operations research, and resource optimization, planning, scheduling, and management.

The Ascent Technology team is always available to provide independent advice about resource allocation, optimization, planning, scheduling, management, and deployment methodologies; develop cost-benefit analyses; analyze business processes; manage projects; gather and document technical requirements; and develop functional specifications.

Ascent Technology believes that careful project management is key to successful on-time and on-budget deliveries of the SmartAirline Operations Center solution, the SmartAirport Operations Center solution, and the Ascent WorkZone workforce-management system. This is why we dedicate an experienced project-management team to each delivery of our solutions.

Our project-management team works closely with you, following our time-proven delivery methodology and using a combination of face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, web conferences, and email exchanges to keep you informed every step of the way.

We believe that cooperative project management ensures a successful working relationship and a successful delivery. We manage our projects transparently. You always have the ability to view the information captured in the project-management plan; there are no hidden tasks or surprises. At the start of each project, we work with you to define our respective roles, responsibilities, and tasks and to create a project-management plan to guide the on-time and on-budget delivery of our solutions. At the end of each project, we are hopeful that the combination of a successful working relationship and a successful delivery leads to an equally successful long-term relationship.

Knowledge engineering is the process of identifying your business knowledge—the business rules, policies, procedures, preferences, and requirements that guide the way your organization operates—and then codifying your business knowledge in the knowledge base at the heart of the SmartAirline Operations Center solution, the SmartAirport Operations Center solution, and the Ascent WorkZone workforce-management system. The business knowledge in the knowledge base determines how the solutions behave.

During the knowledge-engineering process, Ascent Technology's knowledge engineers work with you to gather the business knowledge that enables the solution to behave exactly the way you want it to.

Typically, we ask you to provide general information we need to start to configure the knowledge base. Then, after we enter the general information in the knowledge base, we work with you to gather additional information about your organization and your organization's preferences for operation. We enter the additional information and operational preferences as business rules in the knowledge base and demonstrate to you how modifying business rules affects the behavior of the solution.

Throughout the knowledge-engineering process, we show you how to gather your business knowledge, how to enter your business knowledge in the knowledge base, and how to modify business rules stored in the knowledge base. This way, you are able maintain the knowledge base without our assistance.

Ascent Technology provides access to its solutions by subscription through the From Touchdown to Takeoff cloud-hosted service, a secure, highly-available, and readily-expandable cloud-hosted infrastructure. We provide, configure, support, and maintain the computing environment and the solution in our hosting center. You procure, support, and maintain your desktop computers, kiosks, and other devices and the network that enables you to connect over the web to the solution running in the our hosting center. Our From Touchdown to Takeoff service always includes 24x7 support services and performance monitoring.

Ascent Technology offers a variety of implementation, integration, and installation services to get you started quickly and to keep you working productively. Our implementation team provides system integration and testing services; develops product extensions and enhancements; develops connectivity software for importing data to and exporting data from external systems; and creates reports.

Ascent Technology provides training courses for trainers, planners, managers, users, workers, system administrators, and IT professionals.

Ascent Technology offers classes in person at your location, at Ascent Technology's headquarters in Boston, MA, USA, and remotely over the web. In addition, Ascent Technology trainers offers operational training services when you begin to use the Ascent Technology solution. Ascent Technology can create a package of standard, customized, and refresher training courses to meet your specific needs.

Ascent Technology provides 24x7 remote support services to ensure you can use the SmartAirline Operations Center solution, the SmartAirport Operations Center solution, or the Ascent WorkZone workforce-management system confidently and productively around the clock. We provide comprehensive remote support services via telephone, email, web conferences, and internet, as well as software maintenance, such as product updates, patches, and releases. Our customer support community portal and ticket system enable you to ask questions and receive responses, request service, report problems, and track issues day and night.