February 2008

Online Version of This Newsletter

Business Process Management Articles

Six Fallacies of Business Process Improvement
Dominique Vaquier, BPTrends Newsletter and Website, January 8, 2008.
Jean-Jacques Dubray has translated this Article by Dominique Vaquier which identifies six commonly held beliefs pertaining to Business Process Improvement and demonstrates the fallacies inherent in each one. If you proceed with your improvement project believing any or all of these beliefs, mistakes can occur. Learn what these beliefs are and how to avoid their potentially costly consequences.

ERP, Old IT and the Rise of Something New
Michael Hugos, CIO at Large, BPM Institute Website and Newsletter, January 28, 2008.
Complex and proprietary ERP systems symbolize the final evolution of “Old IT”. They are the embodiment of a frame of mind that is inherent in the culture of the industrial economy and its great invention – the assembly line. That mindset attempts to organize every activity down to the lowest levels of detail. It makes rules and regulations for everything and then tries to run each activity over and over, faster and faster without changing anything. This is how you get greater and greater productivity at lower and lower costs; this is what we call efficiency. But this model is breaking down.

Why Your Sales Process Cost Matters, and What You Need to Know to Get it Right
Michael J.Webb, Sales Performance Consultants, BPTrends Website and Newsletter, January 08, 2008.
Michael Webb’s message is loud and clear—don’t assume your sales process is effective in generating profit. In this compelling Article, he provides a method of cost analysis that may prompt you to make changes to eliminate the weak links in your organization’s sales process.

The Next-Generation Knowledge Enterprise
Michael Reingruber, Garth Knudson, BI Review Newsletter and Website, January 28, 2007.
For many organizations, the challenge of managing intellectual capital is exacerbated by retiring professionals and shifting workforce demographics. In light of these dynamics, organizations must capture and distribute employees’ intrinsic knowledge and experiences. To prevent further loss of valuable time and resources, it is important that organizations evolve to become a next-generation knowledge enterprise. A process-driven approach to effectively manage and continually optimize knowledge retention and project management processes is key to building a next generation knowledge enterprise. By design, a process-driven approach and the solutions that enable it align organizational goals and objectives with daily work. As a result, organizational productivity increases through more effective work processes and a more agile knowledge-based workforce.

BI Architecture: What is the Best Choice for my Organization?
Brian Swarbrick, DM Review Newsletter and Website, January 8, 2007.
Your CIO has asked you to design a data warehouse to support the analytical needs of your Organization. At first this seems like a pretty straightforward request. But then after much due diligence, talking to different vendors and browsing Web sites and knowledge databases on the subject you find yourself more than a little confused. There are many different alternative architectures and implementation approaches that organizations have adopted. There is much disagreement on the pros and cons of one approach versus another, Industry experts often disagree with one another. Does this mean that any approach is OK? Are there any pitfalls if you choose the wrong approach, and what are the implications for your organization if you choose one approach over another? This article attempts to put some context around the confusion of picking the best architecture and approach and provides several considerations you should ponder to help you make the best choice for your organization.

Define and Control: Bridge Between Business and Project
Massimo Appiotti,Arne Buthmann, Valeocon Consulting, iSixSigma Europe Website and Newsletter, January 9,  2008.
The Define and Control phases are seen as an integral part of the Six Sigma project roadmap, however, not in order to shift the responsibility for their execution to the project leader but to build the bridge between the business and the project. If business does not play an integral role at the beginning and the end of each project problems can occur. It is, therefore, key to the success of the project that business takes the lead in the Define and Control phase.

Business Requirements Document: a High-level Review
J. Delayne Stroud, DeLeeuw Associates, iSixSigma Finance Website and Newsletter, January 23 ,  2008.
A business requirements document (BRD) details the business solution for a project including the documentation of customer needs and expectations. The BRD process can be incorporated within a Six Sigma DMAIC culture. The BRD is important because it is the foundation for all subsequent project deliverables, describing what inputs and outputs are associated with each process function. The process function delivers CTQs (critical to quality). CTQs deliver the voice of customer (VOC). The BRD describes what the system would look like from a business perspective.
 

Business Process Outsourcing Articles

Operational BI: Getting 'Real Time' About Performance
David Hatch, SearchCIO Newsletter and Website, January 28, 2008.
Operational business intelligence is about delivering information to people when and how they need it in the context of business need. Explore the five best practices best-in-class companies are using to drive faster, better decision-making and higher customer satisfaction.


Rural BPO: The trickle grows
ValueNotes Database Newsletter and Website, January 23, 2008.
As the Indian outsourcing industry looks to expand capacity beyond the likes of Bangalore, Mumbai, NCR, Chennai, Pune and other large cities, they are reaching out to smaller cities and towns in India. But will the spotlight ever turn to the vast rural hinterland of India? There have been some concrete steps in this direction.

Offshoring: Conflicting Reports?
Brian Watson, CIO Insight Newsletter and Website, January 23, 2008.
New data on IT offshoring reveals some interesting results. The net seems to be that it works better for larger companies than smaller ones.

Publishing BPO Trends: 2008
ValueNotes Database Newsletter and Website, Januray 9, 2008.
Offshoring of publishing services to India continues to grow, both horizontally and vertically. New "horizontal" niches and opportunities across hitherto untapped segments of publishing are opening up even as vendors develop vertical capabilities across the publishing value chain. We expect that the increasing activity witnessed in the publishing outsourcing space will be sustained during 2008.

Top Ten Trends in Services Globalization for 2008
Avinash Vashishta, Tholons Globalization Review Newsletter and Website, January  2008.
Globalization has taken a strong turn in the past few years. Drivers have shifted from mere cost arbitrage to more strategic fulfillments such as organic business growth across geographies and reduction in time to market. Many of our predications for 2007 are now established business trends. The emerging trends that we see taking shape in the services globalization space is expected to have a strong impact in shaping the future of global outsourcing.

How to Stay Close to the Business
Thomas Wailgum, CIO Insight Newsletter and Website, January 10, 2008.
The best way to get close to the business is to embed your best and brightest IT staffers inside the business. A Forrester Research report examines how Kimberly-Clark's CIO did just that.

Success factors for Corporate Intranets
Esther Schindler, CIO Insight  Newsletter and Website, January 15, 2008.
The Nielsen Norman Group say the top trends in the best intranets flip the priority from "information" to "people." Doing so can keep maintenance manageable, costs down, and information current.

 

Notable News

Outsourcing EMEA outpaces Americas
Linda Tucci, CIO Insider Newsletter and Website, January 22, 2008.
Indeed, for the first time, the EMEA countries account for more than half the global outsourcing contract value tracked by TPI.

Shell Plots Massive IT Outsourcing Deal
Lawrence Walsh, Baselinemag Newsletter and Website, January 3,  2008.
As crude flirts with the $100 per barrel market, Shell will replace more than 3,000 IT pros with managed services to reduce operating costs and ease downward profit pressure.

Use Forecasting Basics to Predict Future Conditions
J. DeLayne Stroud, DeLeeuw Associates, iSixSigma Finance Newsletter and Website, January 9, 2008.
It is often easy to find a model that fits the past data well. It is quite another matter to find a model that correctly identifies those features of the past data that will be replicated in the future. Do not create a model to be an exact replica of reality. Create a model because it is quick and easy and guides toward reality. A model also emphasizes the complexity and unreliability of predictions.


How Arab Countries are dealing with Globalization
Knowledge@Wharton Newsletter and Website, January 9, 2008.
At the beginning of 2008, crude prices are at record highs, creating immense wealth for oil-exporting nations in the Middle East. Yet the Arab economies also face what economists call "a demographic bulge of a fast-growing labor force" -- and the challenge of creating enough jobs for the population. This is happening at a time when the arrival of China and India is raising the competitive stakes for other emerging economies that want to make their mark on the global economic stage. How are the Arab economies dealing with these challenges? Howard Pack, a professor of business and public policy at Wharton, and Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, address these issues in a book titled, The Arab Economies in a Changing World. Knowledge@Wharton recently spoke with Pack about his book.

IBM Expects $1 Billion in India Revenue This Year
John Ribeiro, CIO Insider Newsletter and Website, January 15,  2007.
Who's the biggest IT services provider serving the local Indian market these days? It's not Tata or Wipro or Infosys. It's IBM Global Services. And Big Blue says it will see even more green flowing into its coffers from India this year.

Real-Time Information Crucial To Informed Healthcare Decisions
Peggy Bresnick Kendler, Insurance and Technology, January 7,  2007.
Facing increased pressure to control costs, the health insurance industry must empower consumers to make informed healthcare decisions by providing them with access to real-time information.


Insurers Improve Claims Process Through IT Alliance
Anthony O'Donnell, Insurance and Technology, January 7, 2007.
Achieving optimal claims performance requires a high level of IT/business alignment to deliver high-tech, high-touch service.

Banks Increasingly Deploying Green Technologies in Data Centers
Nancy Feig, Bank Systems & Technology, January 29, 2007.
As energy consumption and costs continue to mushroom, banks increasingly are tapping new technologies -- such as IT asset management, virtualization and cooling solutions -- to improve the efficiency (and environmental friendliness) of their data centers.

Notable Events
 

Lean Six Sigma Healthcare Summit January 29 - February 1, 2008. Orlando, FL, IQPC.

Process Excellence for Financial Services March 3 - 5, 2008. New York, NY. IQPC.

The 12th Annual Shared Services Week   March 31 - April 4, 2008. Orlando, FL. IQPC.