Matthew Shepker
Overland Park, KS
To provide real value, one must be willing to contribute to other areas than what they were originally brought in for. This could be as simple as offering an alternative viewpoint to a problem, or as complex as helping to build a program around a solution. This is what differentiates a consultant from a contractor.
Experience
Matt Shepker leads the Information Management & Architecture group at ATG. This group is responsible for all database and data-facing applications designed and developed by ATG. Matt has been with ATG for 12 years and is the first official employee of the company. Prior to ATG, he worked with several other consulting companies in a variety of roles. In his consulting career, Matt has worked in all sizes of organizations and in every imaginable environment from co-op to Fortune 500, and from meat-packing plant to high security defense facility. Matt lives in Overland Park with his family. He is involved in several open source hardware and software projects and is currently building a semi-autonomous ROV.
Career Highlights
- Led the first three iterations of a software platform that had an installed base of 1.5 million users – the platform was purchased by a major systems integrator for over $500 million
- Designed and implemented a data collection system for use in food processing facilities that allowed for extremely accurate product tracking and targeted recall ability
- Was responsible for a very large database consolidation project for one of the top five telecom companies in the United States
- Has published six books on SQL Server and systems integration
- Founding member of ATG
Viewpoint
"I look at consulting as an opportunity to contribute to the entire organization, not just an individual department or a business unit. An organization may initially look to a consulting company, or even an individual consultant, for specific expertise, skills, and experience. To provide real value, that individual or company must be willing to contribute in different areas than what they were originally brought in for.
"This could be as simple as offering an alternative viewpoint to a problem, or as complex as helping to build a program around a solution. This difference, while subtle, is what differentiates a consultant from a contractor; a consulting firm from a staffing company."
