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Business
Process Management Articles
Respect For
People
James Womack, BPTrends
Newsletter and Website, January
8, 2008.
James Womack’s notion of “respect for people,” a core value
in most corporations, may surprise you. In this Article, he compares
and contrasts the implementation of that value in two distribution
centers in the same city, one of them a Toyota Distribution Center.
The results are fascinating and well worth the read. Respect for
People is truly shown when employees are not left just to do their
own thing!
The Softer Side of
BPM
Howard and Tammy Adams, Chaosity Consulting, BPM
Institute Website and Newsletter, February 20,
2008.
The BPM industry continues to improve its technologies
and approaches to handle the many challenges involved with
implementing and practicing BPM. But who is paying attention to the
softer side of BPM? Whether you are using pencil and paper or a more
sophisticated integrated suite of tools, the successful
implementation and adoption of BPM in your organization revolves
around people.
The Secret Weapons That Lean Provides for
BPM
Shelley Sweet, President, I-4 Process Consulting, BPM
Institute Website and Newsletter, January 24,
2008.
Ever notice that executives can call attention to a problem
but they don’t know what it takes to get it fixed? In contrast,
workers have lots of ideas of how to fix things, but they don’t have
the authority to get improvements made. And conversations between
the two groups are too constrained or conflicted to drive corrective
action. To make matters worse, neither group seems to know the whole
process and be able to determine how changing one part might impact
another. In short, we have trouble finding both the forest and the
trees.
Ten Tips for Effective Process
Modeling
Bruce Silver, Bruce Silver Associates, BPM Institute
Newsletter and Website, January 30, 2008.
The BPMN specification presents lots of technical definitions
and rules, but it does not teach you how to create process models
that are effective in their primary mission - maximizing shared
understanding of the as-is or to-be process. To do process modeling
effectively, you need to go beyond the spec and learn a basic
methodology, best practices, and specific diagram patterns to use in
common situations. That’s what we teach in our Process Modeling with
BPMN course.
Process Meets Performance
Management
Jim Ericsson, Editor In Chief, BI Review
Newsletter and Website, February 28, 2008.
ProcessWorld conference provides evidence of future
connections between business intelligence and process
management.
Linking BI and Process
Management
Lindsay Wise, Consultant, BI Review Website and
Newsletter, February 28, 2008
Linking business intelligence (BI) and business process
management (BPM) creates stronger operational business intelligence
(OBI). As organizations move from developing cubes and management
reports towards scorecards, dashboards and real-time BI, the way BI
is used is transformed into a proactive decision-making tool. This,
coupled with BPM, pushes the concept of embedded BI to the next
level.
The 800-Pound Spreadsheet
Jim Ericsson, Editor In Chief, BI Review
Newsletter and Website, February
14 2008.
Improper use of
spreadsheets can occur accidentally or by design; a little knowledge
and an Access database can be a dangerous thing.
Business
Process Outsourcing Articles
Execs Value Outsourcing but Problems
Linger
Brian P. Watson, CIO Insight Newsletter and
Website, February 14, 2008.
Satisfaction levels are high, but inherent shortcomings
continue to damage outsourcing’s value, according to new study.
Off-shoring Financial
Analytics
Tholons Services Globalization Review
Newsletter and
Website, February
2008.
A summary
of Off-shoring of Financial Analytics, the players, issues and
prospects.
Market
Research and Analytics
Tholons Services Globalization Review
Newsletter and
Website, February
2008.
A summary
of Market Research and Analytics, the players, issues and
prospects.
Spreading a Wider Net...India Looks Beyond Tier 1
Cities
ValueNotes Database
Newsletter and
Website, February 20,
2008.
The BPO
industry has been facing severe challenges due to attrition and lack
of suitable talent, for quite some time now. The situation is not
expected to improve anytime soon either - in fact, it may get worse.
In the hitherto BPO hubs like Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai and other
Tier I locations, the expectations of potential candidates have
skyrocketed. Recruiters are faced with ever-increasing entry wage
expectations, huge investments in training along with the
all-consuming attrition.
Time-based Metrics: Accounting for the
Differences
David Holtz, Sirva Relocation, ISixSigma Finance
Newsletter and Website,
February 20 2008.
Green Belts
and Black Belts produce time series plots of the primary Y metric
during the measure phase of projects. The time dimension used
to plot the data takes one of two forms, start-based or end-based,
and the difference between the two can be substantial. Quality
professionals risk incorrect conclusions by not understanding and
accounting for this difference.
Digging for Data: Insurance Companies Strive to
Improve
Michael
Sullivan, George Group,
iSixSigma Finance Newsletter and Website, Februrary 6,
2008.
Based on experience with property and casualty insurers
(P&C), one of the biggest profitability drivers is the expense
incurred staffing and settling claims. Many P&C insurers
struggle with timely and efficient claims processing. In working
with P&C companies consulting groups found three common
challenges that project teams must address to improve the overall
claims settlement process.
DMAIC Project Selection Using a Systematic
Approach
Mark R. Tellier, CIO Insight Newsletter and Website, February 4,
2008.
Growth of the DMAIC methodology in the United States' more
service-oriented economy is not as fast as earlier in manufacturing
industries. While DMAIC is well-proven, it requires a systematic
plan for project selection in transactional environments. As
business objectives that impact customers are determined and linked
to key process characteristics, how projects align with particular
business cases follow relatively subjective project selection
procedures. In some cases the selected project just might work so it
is determined to just go with it. An objective project selection
process within a defined business problem could alleviate skepticism
and allow Black Belts to do what they were trained to
do.
Notable
News
India Outsources to U.S Tech
Workers
Rajan Chandras,
Intelligent Enterprise Newsletter
and Website, February 25, 2008.
The buzz in the local Indian trade
magazines is about IBM recently grabbing a multi-year outsourcing
deal from the Indian operations of Vodaphone, the global
communications giant. Deals like these demonstrate that countries
like India and China are more than merely the source of competition
for US-based IT firms (and US-based consultants), they offer a solid
opportunity for those willing to brave the geographical and culture
gap.
Report From India: U.S could learn
from Offshorer's Training
Obsession
Chris Murphy, InformationWeek Newsletter and Website, February
23, 2008.
Many companies
in the United States complain about an IT talent shortage. Indian IT
companies face brutal competition for talent, and one big part of
their answer is huge hire-and-train efforts. There's something for
U.S. companies to learn here.
Tata Will Drive Chrysler`s
IT
Lawrence
Walsh, Baseline Magazine
Newsletter and Website,
February 21, 2008.
The India-based
outsourcing firm won a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract to
provide the struggling American automaker with IT support and
services.
Report From India: Look for More
Pay-For-Performance Offshoring
Chris Murphy, InformationWeek Newsletter and Website, February
20, 2008.
Indian
outsourcers are inking some deals that tie their pay to performance
-– usually to some operations yardstick such as uptime, but in the
more innovative cases, to some business measurement. One CIO talks
of tying outsourcer pay to the same measurement that his bonus is.
Here are a few examples I've picked up the last two weeks here in
India.
Offshore Market Research industry Outperforms Domestic
Market Research Industry
ValueNotes Database Newsletter and Website, February 6,
2008.
India
revenues from offshored market research services stand at $148 m for
FY07 while the domestic market research industry is estimated at
$145 m for the same year. In a span of seven years, the offshore
market research industry has surpassed the domestic market research
industry that has been around for over 50 years.
Data Breaches Increasingly Costly, Especially in
Financial Services
Melanie Rodier,
Insurance and
Technology, February 6, 2008.
As the number of data breaches reported
annually continues to surge, the costs incurred by companies that
report incidents also are increasing, according to a new study by
the Ponemon Institute. In 2007, the average total cost of a breach
for a company in any industry was $6.3 million, reports the security
and privacy research organization, which surveyed 35 companies
across all industries that experienced a data breach during the past
year.
Insurers Seek Competitive Edge Through Underwriting
Analytics
Anthony O'Donnell,
Insurance and Technology, February 4,
2008.
Analytics are increasingly being
applied in the insurance underwriting realm to create a competitive
edge in an increasingly commoditized business, both at the micro
level of pricing and at the macro level of product portfolio and
line of business performance.
Banks Scrutinize Lending Technology and Underwriting
Practices Following the Credit
Crisis
Mario Bruno-Britz, Bank Systems & Technology,
February 21, 2008.
On the heels of the credit crisis,
lenders will demand more from technology as they struggle to
reinvent themselves and prevent another mortgage
meltdown.
Notable
Events
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.
7th Annual Lean, Six Sigma and Process Improvement in
Healthcare Summit April 1-4, 2008,
Las Vegas, NV. WCBF.
4th Annual Lean and Six Sigma Summit
April 29- May 2nd, 2008, Chicago, IL.
WCBF.
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