a standard methodology was also in line with the Firm's "one-firm" philosophy which required all partners to follow a common approach in the ways they dealt with clients' problems and communicated about them. From its earliest days, the Firm had espoused the policy of speaking with one professional voice, and abiding and upholding the official viewpoint of the Firm.The formalization of the Modus methodology made possible the next major innovation in MCP's consulting practice -- the introduction of a standard set of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools, which MCP called "productivity tools," to support and implement the methodology. This integrated tool environment included software to capture ongoing documentation of the new system into a data dictionary; project estimating aids; the project control system; screen and report design aids; data and program design aids; installation tools; and prototyping facilities. The tools "implemented the standard software engineering design philosophy and project management method articulated in "Modus." ln fact, "the tools were deliberately based on the methodology as it was recognized that production technology logic had to be compatible with that of the production process, else inconsistency and discontinuity would disrupt the systems development process." (Orlikowski 1988, p. 183) The use of the methodology and the CASE toolset was mutually reinforcing. Since the tools were based on Modus, their use ensured compliance to the methodology. At the same time, Modus was also constantly being updated to better reflect the tool environment. This reciprocal interdependence characterized the co-development of the tool and methodology. Furthermore, the use of computerized tools enhanced the aura of professionalism in the consultants' normal work activities:Tools render an image of a room of consultants all seated in front of their personal workstations, all bent over their keyboards, flashing through complicated-Iooking screens, performing sophisticated cut and paste procedures, and all done to the accompaniment of the reassuring whir of the disk drives, the steady tapping of keys, and the regular sigh of the laser printer emitting its professional-Iooking documents. It certainly looks industrious. (Orlikowski 1988, p. 403)As a result of employing the tool-methodology, MCP reported savings of 30% up to 50% in code generation, and an elimination of between 50% and 70% of the systems installation phase. The use of tools "dramatically" increased MCP's profitability, and allowed it to reap the benefits of operating economies of scale. Competitive position has been improved by enabling the firm to bring the price of its services down, to lower its bids on contracts, to go after larger projects, and to increase the income contribution of each partner. Besides productivity and profitability gains, there were other important and somewhat surprising benefits derived from the use of the CASE tools and methodology. As a professional services firm, MCP is expected to provide customized solutions to each of its clients. lndeed, each client will have its own data processing environment that made customization mandatory. Although this might appear incompatible with MCP's standardized production process, the software utilities in the CASE toolset were in fact relatively easy to modify so that they could work well with a client's hardware and