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Business
Process Management Articles
Integrating Lean and Six
Sigma
Marvin Wurtzel, BPM Institute
Newsletter and Website, March 10,
2008.
Both the Lean and the Six Sigma methodologies have proven
that it is possible to achieve dramatic improvements in cost,
quality, and time by focusing on process improvement. Six Sigma is
focused on reducing variation and improving process yield by
following a problem-solving approach using statistical tools, Lean
is primarily concerned with eliminating waste and improving flow by
following the Lean principles and a defined approach to implement
each of these principles.
Bioteams: The Next Frontier of Business Process
Management
Ken Thompson, BPM
Institute Website and Newsletter, April 2,
2008.
Support for collaboration is the hot discussion in BPM
circles these days, and for good reason. It’s the human-to-human
interactions of teams that count when it comes to innovation and
agility. The age of the monolithic, vertically integrated
company is long gone. In the interconnected world of the 21st
century, you and everyone you work with must be able to function in
and through internal and multi-company teams, and must also grasp
what the latest concept of “team” really
means.
Performance Improvement: A Framework for Defining and
Designing The Structure of Work
Geary Rummler, Alan
Ramias, Performance Design Labs, BPTrends Website and Newsletter, April 2,
2008.
With this Column, Geary Rummler and Alan Ramias launch the
first of a three-part series describing a framework for modeling the
Business Architecture layer of Enterprise Architecture. Their view,
and the approach that has evolved from it, is in contrast to the
IT-centric Business Architecture that generally prevails in
organizations. They suggest that to create a successful Enterprise
Architecture that will be adaptive and sustainable over the long
term, the organization must be recognized as a Super System. To
learn what that means and how to apply it to your own circumstance,
read this well written presentation, enhanced by diagrams
illustrating their concepts.
Metrics Can
Lie
Walter
Howard,
Wall Street Consulting, BI Review Newsletter and Website, April
10, 2008.
Business intelligence (BI) is booming. Everyone I talk to
these days is undertaking or well into a major BI initiative.
Enterprise reporting is a product that clearly has been needed, and
the BI vendors have responded with enterprise class tools to support
enterprise reporting. In the gold rush to provide businesses with
dashboards sporting the latest eye catching visualizations, the
accuracy of the information that feeds the BI tools almost seems
like an afterthought. Do your metrics accurately reflect the events
they are measuring? Is your actionable information accurately
reflecting your customer, ordering, and product transactions?
Dashboards Help Drive and Improve Performance
Metrics
Todd Smith,
Rockwell Automation, DM Review Newsletter and Website, April
15, 2008.
Companies using dashboards to organize and display production
information foster stronger communication among all levels of the
enterprise.
A Recipe for Effective Business
Process Management
Steven E.
Arbogast, DM
Review Website and Newsletter, April 18,
2008
Trying to define what’s in a process is like trying to
outline what’s in a recipe. Not only are there ingredients, but
there is also a set of steps that must be completed in a specific
sequence; otherwise, the output or end result may not be what was
expected.
Follow Three Best Practices to Succeed at Business
Activity Monitoring
Henry
Peyret,
Forrester Research, Intelligent Enterprise Newsletter and Website,
April 28, 2008.
BAM can monitor crucial key performance indicators
around time, cost, quality, and productivity, but many firms
struggle when deploying the technology. Three best practices will
jump start your project and help you choose the right metrics and
alert levels.
Business
Process Outsourcing Articles
Implementing a Customer Satisfaction
Metric
Gangadhar Bhardwaj,
Tata Consultancy Services, iSixSigma Newsletter and Website,
April 28, 2008.
Organizations evaluate themselves by
measuring customer satisfaction with their products or services. As
organizations evolve, the measurement of customer satisfaction
across the entire organization becomes imperative. The first step is
for an organization to implement a metric for tracking customer
satisfaction.
Phillipines needs more workers to sustain BPO growth,
says report
Lawrence Casiraya, Inquirer.Net
Website, March 5, 2008.
The Philippines remains strong in
outsourced voice-based services but needs to have adequate supply of
skilled workers to sustain its growth, according to an outsourcing
advisory firm Tholons.
The Merits of 'Know-nothing' Belts and
Champions
Karl D.Williams, Six Sigma Advantage, iSixSigma
Newsletter and Website,
April 23, 2008.
Just as a jury functions best when it is made
up of unbiased peers of the defendant, so may Black Belts and
Champions during a Six Sigma deployment. By employing Black Belts
and Champions from outside the area that is being improved,
organizations will receive a more objective, and, therefore, more
helpful guide to process improvement.
Dealing with Non-normal Data: Strategies and
Tools
Arne
Buthman, Valeocon Consulting, iSixSigma Europe
Newsletter and Website,
April 2, 2008.
Normally
distributed data is a commonly misunderstood concept in Six Sigma.
Some people believe that all data collected and used for analysis
must be distributed normally. But normal distribution does not
happen as often as people think, and it is not a main objective.
Normal distribution is a means to an end, not the end itself.
Gaining and Using Six Sigma
Intelligence
Bryan Carey, DeLeeuw Associates, ISixSigma Finance
Newsletter and Website,
April 2, 2008.
The ultimate
reason for spending valuable time, money and human resources on a
Six Sigma initiative is this: the customer. Establishing a culture
of continuous process improvement helps companies earn customer
satisfaction and loyalty.
Gartner Explains Why Windows Is
Broken
Esther Schindler, CIO Insight Newsletter and
Website, April 30,
2008.
Two
Gartner analysts said the words that enterprises dread, and that
will move alternate operating system proponents to tears of joy:
"Windows as we know it needs to be replaced."
5 Six Sigma Deployment Mistakes - And How To Avoid
Them
Abash
Chandra, Tata Consultancy
Services, iSixSigma Newsletter and Website, April 14,
2008.
A well planned Six Sigma deployment can lead
to a rewarding experience and immense benefits for an organization.
On the flip side, however, a flawed deployment may lead to
disappointing results – the failure of the entire deployment effort,
and/or a significant waste of time and resources. There are five
problems in Six Sigma deployments, which, if not handled well, will
derail a deployment effort. By recognizing these mistakes and
working to avoid them, a team can stay on
track.
Notable
News
Guess Where the No. 3 Offshore
Outsourcing Destination: USA
CIO Minute Newsletter and Website, March 27,
2008.
Believe it or not, the United States is the third most
popular destination for offshore outsourcing, at least for one major
nation.
Cautious
Optimism - The New Mantra of the Indian IT Services
Industry
Tholons Services Globalization Newsletter and Website,
March 2, 2008.
The industry today faces several global
macroeconomic challenges - talent, manpower and infrastructure
issues - that will need to be addressed collectively. There are
worries of a technology spending slowdown in the US market – a
market from where the industry earns more than 60% of its revenue.
Furthermore, local factors related to the end of tax holidays,
rising wages and other costs have become more pressing causes of
concern. However, the leaders in the industry are not sitting back.
A series of strategies are being thought through and enacted to
minimize the impact of these challenges. This difficult period will
help separate the“men” from the “boys.” In this article, we analyze
some of the different winning strategies being adopted by industry
leaders.
Outsourcing Gets Animated!
Valuenotes
Newsletter and Website,
April 2, 2008.
India's animation outsourcing industry
continues to thrive as large media conglomerates like Viacom, Walt
Disney and Cartoon Network are increasingly sourcing animation from
India. Recently, Compact Disc India bagged a $15.7 m contract to
provide animation outsourcing services to iMedia Ventures for a
movie that is slated to be released in December 2009.
Why Business Analysts Are So Important for IT and
CIOs
Thomas Wailgum, CIO Insight Newsletter and Website, April 16,
2008.
For two decades, the CIO has been viewed as the ultimate
broker between the business and technology functions. But while that
may be an accurate perception in the executive boardroom, down in
the trenches, business analysts have been the ones tasked with
developing business cases for IT application development, in the
process smoothing relations among competing parties and moving
projects along.
Five Essential RIM BlackBerry
Keyboard Tips and Tricks
Al Sacco, CIO Newsletter and
Website, April 7,
2008.
Add another notch to your BlackBerry black belt with these
great smartphone keyboard tips and tricks.
The Architecture of Adaptation: Enabling Flexibility
With Business Architecture and
BPM
Anthony O'Donnell,
Insurance and Technology, April 1,
2008.
Business process management (BPM) -- in combination
with business architecture and service-oriented architecture --
enables insurers a rapid response to a changing marketplace by
pulling processes and functionality out of legacy code and legacy
thinking.
The Hartford’s P&C Division Enters Execution Stage
of Transformational Effort
Nathan Conz, Insurance and Technology, April 2,
2008.
After four years of investment and
organizational transformation, The Hartford’s P&C division looks
to execute its new strategy to provide better value to its business
customers and end
Analytics Are Becoming Increasingly Important Tools in
Banks’ Customer Retention
Strategies
Maria Bruno-Britz,
Bank Systems & Technology, April 28,
2008.
Predictive analytics tools are
helping banks understand customers’ behaviors and meet their unique
needs with tailored products and services, improving customer
retention as a result.
Notable
Events
Shared Services
For The Public Sector
May 5 -
May 7, 2008. Alexandria, VA. IQPC
Process Intelligence & Performance Management
International Conference 2008
May 7 - May 7, 2008. Split, Croatia.
IDS-Scheer
Telecoms Business Process Management
May 12 -
May 15, 2008. Prague, Czechoslovakia. IIR
Conferences.
Business Process Management Conference
May 13 - May
16, 2008. Lake Buena Vista, FL. IIR Conferences.
Shared Services
Exchange
June 8
- June 10, 2008. Ponte Verde Beach, FL.
IQPC
The 8th Annual Shared Services for Finance and
Accounting
July 14 - July 16, 2008. Cambridge, MA.
IQPC
Global Lean, Six Sigma, and Business Improvement
Summit & Awards
October14 - October
17, 2008. Orlando, FL. WCBF
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