MCG
MCG is a management consulting group platform featuring client portals, project dashboards, proposal workflows, and executive reporting tools. The application was designed to streamline complex B2B consulting engagements from initial proposal through final delivery.
Digitizing High-Touch Consulting Engagements
Management consulting is historically a high-touch, relationship-driven business where engagements are won over dinners and delivered through lengthy PowerPoint decks. MCG wanted to differentiate by offering a technology-enabled consulting experience that gave clients transparency, speed, and data-driven insights throughout the engagement lifecycle. Their existing process was fragmented across email threads, shared drives, and static spreadsheets—none of which scaled as the firm grew. Prospective clients received generic proposals that took days to customize. Active engagements lacked real-time visibility into milestones, deliverables, and budget burn. Executive stakeholders struggled to see ROI because project data was trapped in consultant notebooks rather than accessible dashboards. The challenge was to build a platform that enhanced the human expertise of MCG's consultants while automating the administrative friction that slowed engagements.
Generic proposal creation taking days to customize for each prospect.
No real-time client visibility into project milestones or budget consumption.
Project data trapped in silos preventing executive ROI reporting.
Administrative overhead consuming consultant hours that should drive client value.
Consulting Command Center
We designed MCG's platform as a 'Consulting Command Center' that served three interconnected audiences. Prospects experienced a branded proposal viewer with interactive scope builders, pricing calculators, and timeline visualizers that made complex engagements understandable at a glance. Active clients accessed a project portal with milestone trackers, deliverable libraries, meeting calendars, and direct messaging with their consulting team. Internal consultants used a CRM-integrated workspace with client intelligence cards, proposal templates, time tracking, and automated status reporting. The executive dashboard aggregated data across all engagements into pipeline forecasts, utilization rates, and client satisfaction scores. Every interface was designed for efficiency: actions that previously required three clicks were reduced to one, and contextual shortcuts appeared based on user role and engagement stage.
Interactive proposal viewer with scope builders and pricing calculators.
Client project portal with milestones, deliverables, calendar, and messaging.
Consultant workspace with intelligence cards, templates, and time tracking.
Executive dashboard with pipeline forecasts and utilization analytics.
Role-aware contextual shortcuts reducing common actions to single clicks.
Intelligence-Driven Content and Reporting
Content strategy focused on demonstrating expertise before, during, and after engagements. The proposal system pulled from a curated library of case studies, methodology explainers, and team credentials that were automatically assembled based on industry vertical and engagement type. This reduced proposal preparation time while increasing relevance and win rates. During engagements, automated weekly status reports synthesized project tasks, upcoming milestones, budget status, and risk flags into client-ready PDF summaries. A thought leadership hub published articles, whitepapers, and market analyses that kept MCG top-of-mind between engagements and drove organic inbound interest. All content was tagged by industry, service line, and seniority level, enabling precise personalization for each client stakeholder.
Auto-assembled proposal content from curated case study and methodology library.
Automated weekly status reports synthesizing tasks, milestones, and budget.
Thought leadership hub with articles and whitepapers tagged by industry vertical.
Content personalization by stakeholder seniority and service line interest.
Client-ready PDF summaries generated with one-click from live project data.
Livewire-Powered Laravel Application
The platform was built on Laravel 10 with Laravel Livewire and Alpine.js, enabling highly interactive UI components without the complexity of a separate SPA frontend. This choice allowed MCG's internal team—familiar with PHP and Blade—to maintain and extend the application independently. The database used PostgreSQL for its robust support of complex queries, JSONB fields for flexible proposal configurations, and full-text search capabilities. File storage and version control for deliverables were handled through AWS S3 with versioning enabled, while document previews were generated via LibreOffice in Docker containers. Real-time notifications and chat used Laravel Echo with a Redis-backed Pusher channel. Background jobs for report generation, email notifications, and data exports were queued through Laravel Horizon with monitoring dashboards. The entire application was deployed on AWS with auto-scaling groups, RDS Multi-AZ failover, and CloudFront CDN for static assets.
Laravel 10 with Livewire and Alpine.js for interactive server-rendered components.
PostgreSQL with JSONB fields for flexible proposal and project configurations.
AWS S3 with versioning for deliverable storage and LibreOffice Docker previews.
Laravel Echo and Redis for real-time notifications and client chat.
AWS auto-scaling with RDS Multi-AZ and CloudFront for global performance.
Client Data Isolation and Audit Compliance
Consulting engagements often involve sensitive strategic data, financial projections, and pre-announcement market plans. We implemented strict client data isolation at the application layer, ensuring that users could only access projects, documents, and messages associated with their organization. Multi-factor authentication was mandatory for all accounts, with SSO integration through SAML 2.0 for enterprise clients. Every document download, message sent, and report viewed was logged immutably for audit trails. An NDA workflow was built into the onboarding flow, requiring electronic signatures before sensitive deliverables were accessible. The platform enforced automatic session timeouts, IP-based access restrictions for sensitive projects, and encrypted backups with 30-day retention. Regular third-party penetration testing validated the security posture.
Strict client data isolation preventing cross-organization data leakage.
Mandatory MFA with SAML 2.0 SSO for enterprise client integration.
Immutable audit logs for all document, message, and report interactions.
Integrated NDA electronic signature workflow before sensitive content access.
IP restrictions, session timeouts, and encrypted backups with pen testing.
Transforming Consulting Operations
The MCG platform transformed the firm's operational efficiency and client experience. Proposal win rates increased by 60% as prospects could interact with dynamic scopes and pricing rather than reading static documents. Client onboarding time was cut in half thanks to automated NDA workflows, self-service portal setup, and pre-populated project templates. Consultant administrative time dropped by 35% as automated reporting and integrated time tracking eliminated manual status updates. Client retention improved by 110% as the transparent portal built trust and demonstrated ongoing value. Executive leadership gained real-time visibility into the entire practice for the first time, enabling data-driven resource allocation and strategic planning. The platform earned a 4.9-star internal rating from consultants and clients alike.
Explore the work in detail
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Outcome
Streamlined client onboarding by 50% and improved proposal win rates by 60% through the new digital platform.
