October 2007

Online Version of This Newsletter

Business Process Management Articles


Extreme Competition : Innovation's Child
Peter Fingar, Greystone Group, BPTrends Website and Newsletter, September 4, 2007.
Peter Fingar takes up the timely topic of "innovation." For a fascinating summary of some key innovation issues companies must face in the context of globalization,

What is a Process?
Alan Ramias, Performance Design Lab, BPM Institute Website and Newsletter, September 24, 2007.
In this article, For years my partners and I at the Performance Design Lab have defined a business process as "a sequence of steps or tasks that produce a valued output", or words to that effect.  Every definition of process I have seen in the books and articles written by others use pretty much the same verbiage.  Nothing wrong with the definition - it does describe what a process consists of - but it does nothing to indicate some of the key principles of process design, nor does it do more than hint at why processes are so important (i.e., "valued output").

Defining Process Properly: Beyond Just Functional Excellence
Jim Sinur, BPTrends Newsletter and Website, September 4, 2007.
Jim Sinur draws on his years of experience in BPM to offer a model for "proper process design." Read his Column for succinct and practical advice on scoping processes from the top down, rather than the bottom up.

Operational Business Intelligence : A New Approach
Barry Wilderman, BI Review Newsletter and Website, September 24, 2007.
Business intelligence (BI) software mainly supports executive decision-makers and a subset of strategic analysts. Traditional BI solutions have usually not been available to line-of-business managers and frontline employees or to external stakeholders like suppliers or customers. The next horizon for BI involves deploying applications along with specific operational solutions and processes, thus enabling "right-time" decision support to a broader base of users at all levels of the organization. These new types of applications are called operational business intelligence (OBI). OBI unites the transactional world with the analytical world, allowing knowledge workers and executives to analyze operational processes in real-time, make decisions and enter those decisions back into operational systems.

The Tone at the Top's Influence on Performance Management
Gary Cokins, BI Review Newsletter and Website, September 13,  2007.
One of the mysteries that I have pondered is why organizations are so slow to adopt performance management solutions. Why do managers not more fully deploy the power of robust analytics such as statistical forecasting, pattern recognition and customer segmentation?

Managing for Continuous and Breakthrough Improvement
Steve Crom, Valeocon Consulting Management, ISixSigma Europe Newsletter and Website, September 18,  2007.
As a set of state-of-the-art tools for solving operations problems, Six Sigma can be used for both continuous and breakthrough improvement. What separates the two is the structure by which they are managed. When managers confuse the two types, the result is usually below-par performance. Even worse, such confusion could result in yet another dead-end quality program. Leaders who appreciate the nuances of managing both through different approaches, yet under the same Six Sigma improvement initiative, will get their cake and can eat it too - enduring culture change that has a 400 percent return on investment.

Reaching Excellence in Black Belt Performance
Edourdo Monopoli, Ame Buthman, Valeocon Management Consulting, iSixSigma Europe Website and Newsletter, September 5,  2007.
What separates high-performing Black Belts from low performers? Most people would probably automatically refer to project success: High-performing Black Belts better execute the Six Sigma methodology and deliver significant process improvements and accompanying financial benefits. While this answer is definitely true, it reflects a limited view. This article outlines a more comprehensive picture of Black Belt performance and its drivers.

The 5 Whys a Simple Tool in Value Stream Analysis
Gary Burger, U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers, iSixSigma Insights Website and Newsletter, September 10,  2007.
Value stream mapping is hard work because it requires looking at a process as if every step is non-value-added and is costing the organization time and resources. The 5 Whys is an easy way to root out as many non-value-added steps as possible. Using the 5 Why technique does two things:  First, it makes the team understand that they cannot just accept every step as necessary because it had been done that way before. Second, team members understand that they are going to have to defend their position and support it with facts. As the team goes along the process, it becomes easier and easier to find steps that are truly not necessary.

Business Process Outsourcing Articles


How to Measure Real Outsourcing Success (Hint: It's not the SLAs)
Stephanie Overby, CIO Insider Newsletter and Website, September 17, 2007.
If you really want to assess the health of your outsourcing relationship, you've got to give it a full physical, says Forrester analyst Dr. Paul Roehrig.

Outsourcing's True Value Still Goes Largely Untapped
Linda Tucci, SearchCIO.com Newsletter and Website, September 12, 2007.
New data suggests U.S. companies have not even begun to unlock the value in IT outsourcing.

HP's Journey to Shared Services Finance & Accounting Success
Les Mara, HP, Sourcingmag.com Newsletter and Website, September 24, 2007.
It's not a question of should you do it, but when and how you do it. The "it" is the shared services operating model for finance and accounting (F&A). Companies that do not implement an F&A shared services will definitely be disadvantaged in the markets they serve. Not only will they fall behind on responding to change quickly, they will also have higher operating costs due to the inefficiencies and duplication of effort associated with performing F&A functions throughout the company. This article details how HP shifted to the shared services model, and how this approach helped improve our business.

8 Signs That You're Not Ready for Outsourcing
Jennifer Zaino, bMighty Newsletter and Website, September 24, 2007.
Small and midsize businesses should proceed to IT outsourcing with caution. Here are eight telltale signs that your business isn't ready for outsourcing.

Why Do Tech-Support Responses Often Seem Slow?
Eric Chabrow, CIO Insight Newsletter and Website, August 30, 2007
The number of computer support specialists in the U.S. has fallen by nearly 12% since 2001. No wonder many CIOs say their companies technical support teams are 40% smaller than they should be.

Collaboration: Superhero in the Cubicle
Virginia Citrano, CIO Insight News Newsletter and Website, September 5, 2007.
New collaborative tools empower workers to do their jobs in ways that make the best use of their time and company resources. No wonder many feel a bit like superheroes, capes rippling in the wind.

Process Improvement for Lean Six Sigma Program Too
Bryan Carey, Brad Thomas, iSixSigma Financial Services Newsletter and Website, September 19, 2007.
A Lean Six Sigma program is a dynamic process and needs to be systematically and objectively reviewed for opportunities to improve. Continuous process improvement is applicable to the Lean Six Sigma deployment in the same way it is to other processes.

Notable News


Microsoft Outsources Its Back Office
Paul McDougall, InformationWeek Newsletter and Website, September 13, 2007.
The software maker has been quietly outsourcing its back office operations to service provider Accenture over the past several months, Accenture disclosed Thursday.

Reducing Delayed Starts in Specials Lab with Six Sigma
Lewis Brown, Denise Taylor, Baptist St, Anthony's Hospital,  iSixSigma Healthcare Newsletter and Website, September 12, 2007.
Special radiology procedures can be some of the most difficult to manage in healthcare. Their production relies on the chorus of a multidisciplinary team working within a limited time frame. Ancillary department performance can directly affect outcome performance for the unit. In an effort to improve the efficiency of the Specials Radiology Department, Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital in Amarillo, Texas, USA initiated an improvement project. The goals of this project were to improve start times, increase throughput, implement control mechanisms for continuous improvement and to provide feedback to ancillary departments concerning performance.

Removing the Bottlenecks, Improving Flow in Radiology
Manju Bansal, Faisal Darwazeh , Carolyn Pexton, GE Healthcare Performance Solutions, iSixSigma Healthcare Newsletter and Website, September 12,  2007.
Moving patients efficiently through the system had become a challenge for the radiology department at Watson Clinic in Lakeland, Florida. So the clinic employed Lean Six Sigma to find and remove the bottlenecks for its patients. While delays can be common in radiology, there is rarely a single common cause - instead there may be multiple factors slowing the system down and adversely impacting patient throughput. Often the answers are not as obvious or intuitive as they may appear on the surface.

Improved IT Project Forecasting Through Six Sigma
Lakshmi Dhulipala, Tata Consultancy Services, iSixSigma Software Newsletter and Website, September 12,  2007.
The various costs of an information technology (IT) project is forecast at the beginning of the fiscal year and usually re-forecast at the end of each month based on the actual spending pattern. Variation in the IT project forecasting process can result in either under-spent or overspent budgets. As is true in most processes, variation is not good. A Six Sigma approach applied to IT project forecasting process minimizes forecast accuracy variance resulting in dollar savings for the business.

The Pros and Cons of Use Case Diagrams
Kevlin Henney, SearchSoftwareQuality Newsletter and Website, September 24, 2007.
Putting too much into a use case diagram can often render the otherwise effective technique of use cases almost useless. Kevlin Henney recommends a more balanced and restrained approach in order to not lose readers in a myriad of bubbles and microscopic text.

CIOs Must Execute On Innovation
Stephen Prentice, Gartner, Bank Systems & Technology, August 20, 2007.
Most IT leaders lay the foundations of their own demise in unimaginative, me-too decision-making, content with emulating the competition or making marginal improvements. They insist on deploying only proven solutions with solid reference sites, thereby ensuring they'll never rise above their peers. CEOs' highest priorities are to improve business processes and implement projects that deliver business growth. Controlling costs and meeting service-level agreements are no longer enough. The future for successful IT leaders lies in creating capabilities that differentiate the enterprise in the market. That requires them to achieve real innovation, either by introducing new technologies or, more likely, by effectively exploiting established ones.

Data Mining Improves Fraud Mitigation Efforts
Nathan Conz, Insurance &Technology, September 6, 2007.
Data mining technologies can help insurers like Farmers and Nationwide access and leverage the institutional knowledge vital to fraud mitigation efforts that is locked inside their current and historical claims data.

 

Notable Events