We retained Smart Dolphins to conduct a third party technology assessment of our network, hardware, software, systems and security. At all times through the process they were efficient, effective, easy to deal with, and clearly had extensive experience both with current best practices and some of the specific challenges we were facing. The completed assessment report we received at the end of the process was written in a way as to be clear and easy to understand by all members of the management team; while also containing sufficient detail to be useful for our IT staff.  The report highlighted some areas where we already knew we could make improvements but provided much needed added context with respect to why the changes were important and how best to implement. The report also identified some additional areas where we weren’t consistent with today’s best practices or where there was risk that changes in technology were going to represent a long term challenge. Again, the management team here found the added context, independent perspective, and the long term strategic guidance to be very helpful.  As a final note, in addition to the final report, it was very helpful to be able to sit down in person with the Smart Dolphins team and have a deliberate conversation about where we were at and where we were headed.