Critical thinking, achievable results
Whether you’re a CEO or an intern, you’ve thought “there has to be a better way to work.”
Technology offers exciting opportunities to save time, and improve performance and quality. With an overwhelming amount of new products and services available every day, it’s easy to wonder if you’re making the right choices. Will this system grow with our needs? How will we train our users? Is it secure? Compliant? How will we archive our data? What will this cost us now and in the future? How will we integrate this solution with our other departments?
At Thorsen, we’ve been helping companies automate business processes for over 25 years. We connect with our clients to understand their needs and create elegant solutions to complex problems. Let’s work together to meet the challenges you face today–and in the future.
About Us
Thorsen Consulting is a woman-owned technology consulting firm founded by Molly Connolly in 1997. The core focus of the organization is to provide technical solutions to organizations seeking to improve day-to-day processes through custom software development. Thorsen works with dozens of large and small businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies to reduce duplication of effort, improve efficiency, integrate with disparate systems, and provide secure access to data.
Customers come to us when they can’t find an off-the-shelf solution to meet their needs. While we work in a variety of industries, our primary area of focus is the development and support of workflow systems for student information systems for schools and universities.
Molly Connolly
Molly is the owner of Thorsen Consulting and has been developing and supporting custom software implementation since 1997. Before starting Thorsen, Molly worked as a Senior Consultant for Ernst & Young in Washington, DC.
Molly's project experience focuses primarily on solutions for workgroups within universities, including Chicago Public Schools, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and Loyola University. She also supports implementations at large companies, including HCSC, Toyota, and Omnicom.
Molly's technical and process experience informs her ability to seamlessly communicate and translate between customers, developers, and all other stakeholders. She has an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in International Politics and Economics from Macalester College.
Neal Elward
Neal Elward has over ten years of experience developing education enrollment software, including large projects for Chicago Public Schools. He has extensive experience leading diverse software development teams across various platforms and technologies. A cloud implementation expert, he has over a decade of experience architecting, deploying, and supporting cloud-based software solutions.
After nearly a decade leading a software development team at XR Extreme Reach, a longstanding adtech firm, Neal joined the Thorsen team to help bring enterprise capabilities to clients of any size. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Loyola University Chicago. He has deep knowledge of software and data architecture, application security, compliance, and user interface design, as well as a passion for mentoring the next generation of developers.
Our Clients
Chicago Public Schools
Thorsen is a preferred vendor for Chicago Public Schools and has worked with various departments including The Office of Access and Enrollment (OAE) and the Assistive Technology Resource Center (ATRC) for over 20 years.
We developed and managed complex algorithms associated with CPS selective enrollment and lottery programs for PreK-9. Our work with OAE included managing applications, test scores, evaluations and scheduling and notifications.
With ATRC, we developed a system to help manage the thousands of yearly evaluations for students with IEPs and 504 plans. We also built a system to allow them to track inventory for assistive technology devices assigned to students and classrooms.
University of Chicago
Thorsen has worked with various departments at the University of Chicago for over 10 years. As such we have developed systems for student management, grant tracking, alumni giving, creative services project management, and mobile solutions for the Office of Special Events. Within each system, we developed links to other university systems, including Banner, via a variety of technologies to ensure we were meeting IT goals.
Health Care Service Corporation
HCSC is the licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association for five states. Large organizations like HCSC have to adhere to complex rules regarding security, integration and data management. Thorsen built a project and content management system for their marketing department to quickly and easily track assets, changes and deadlines across multiple product lines. We have worked with them for over 10 years helping them to successfully adapt and integrate with new departments, rules, and technologies.
University of Illinois at Chicago
At the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Nursing, Thorsen created custom software tools to manage the entire application and admission process, curricular planning, student advising, and student information management. This custom software integrates with institutional student information systems via API and automated data exchange. Thorsen also implemented multiple web interfaces to allow users of different roles to contribute to data in the student information system, including faculty advisors, application recommenders, and more.
Testimonials
“Thorsen is always focused on providing options that allow us to decide the best use of our time and budget. They are very responsive and have provided and continue to provide excellent customer service – we really could not ask for a better partner.”
— Michelle Holbrook
Director, External Affairs Electric Cities of Georgia
“Thorsen has been able to help us articulate our vision and offer us options to implement various solutions. They have proven to be excellent problem solvers and I have particularly been impressed by their ability to quickly adapt to changes. Often within our university, certain process changes have called for more complex data tracking and reporting— a need Thorsen has consistently and successfully met.”
— Deneen Gillespie
Executive Director, Loyola University
“I enthusiastically recommend Thorsen Consulting for any project! No matter what our obstacle was, Thorsen always came to the rescue time and time again.”
— Christopher Rose
IT Technical Associate, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing