Business
Process Management Articles
Business Process Leadership
(BPL)
Howard Adams, Chaosity
LLC, BPM Institute Newsletter and Website, July 22,
2008.
Business requires both leadership and management to succeed.
You can’t overlook or over-value one or the other; they have a
symbiotic relation in any business, business function or business
process.
The Limits of
Prediction
Seth
Grimes, Alta Plana Corp, Intelligent Enterprise Newsletter and Website, July 1, 2005.
Predictive
analytics may be gaining new users, but it's still too complex for
mainstream adoption.
Reasons for Six Sigma Deployment
Failures
Marvin Wurtzel, Wurtzel Consulting, BPM
Institute Website and Newsletter, June 13,
2008.
As a Six Sigma consultant Marvin Wurtzel is often asked:
"Have there been any Six Sigma deployments that have failed?" His
answer is ambiguous enough to make him sound like a presidential
candidate. That answer depends on the definition of the term
"failure." His definition of a failure would be a result that does
not deliver the Return On Investment (ROI) anticipated by the
company
The Real Limits of
Prediction
Seth Grimes, Alta Plana Corp, Intelligent
Enterprise Newsletter and Website, August
13, 2008.
Seth
refers to his article back in 2005 (above) on the Limits of
Prediction. He argues with an example that if the direction is
wrong, prediction is useless!
Improving Business Intelligence: The Power of
Metrics
Dorothy Miller, DM Review Newsletter and
Website, August 27, 2008.
The
Six Sigma Way for improving business intelligence (BI)
quality is a program that is rigorous, structured, iterative and
based on metrics. Why do we need to base the improvement program on
data? What are some of the metrics that are crucial to improving BI
quality? What should be measured and how do we measure? How do
metrics fit into a BI quality improvement program?
Making Role-Based Business Intelligence
Meaningful - A New Approach to Performance
Improvement
Peter
Long, DM Review Website and Newsletter, August 19,
2008
Role-based business intelligence (BI), presenting information
tailored to a person’s role and scope of authority, is a necessity.
But it is not sufficient in today’s disparate business environment.
Role-based BI is only effective if it delivers role-based
information within the context of a value stream, a sequence of
processes that are connected by a common customer, product or
service request.
Maximizing Success When Implementing a Basic 5S
Program
Terra
Vanzant-Stern, iSixSigma Newsletter and
Website, August 21,
2008.
5S is a
popular Lean Six Sigma tool that is designed to instill a sense of
responsibility in employees and promote a disciplined approach. 5S
was originally used by Toyota in Japanese factories, primarily at
the shop-floor level, but now it is often used in the workplace to
decrease cycle time and general flow. There are many different
translations of 5S. Because of this, practitioners should reach a
strong understanding of the original Japanese method before
introducing it to their workplace. By gaining this knowledge, they
will be able to educate others in a way that will garner employee
buy-in and achieve the best results in helping their firm become
more organized.
Objective Defect Evaluation Leads Improvement
Efforts
Gorur N. Sridhar, iSixSigma Newsletter and
Website, August 11,
2008.
Many times it is imperative for a firm to
improve the quality of its deliverables even though it is operating
consistently at a high sigma level. The difficulty in completing
these tasks, however, is knowing where to start. When no process
area is clearly failing, but the drive for continuous improvement
remains, practitioners should use an end-effect rating system to
determine where to focus efforts.
Business
Process Outsourcing Articles
Beyond Outsourcing, to
Worldsourcing
William J. Amelio, BusinessWeek Magazine and
Website, May 30, 2008.
We are now in the era of Global 2.0, where
successful companies know how to harness ideas and innovations from
the fast-growing emerging markets.
How Offshore Outsourcing Affects Customer
Satisfaction
Wall Street Journal Online, July 7,
2008.
The outsourcing of customer service to offshore providers has
gotten a lot of bad press in the U.S., with reports citing language
problems and the exporting of jobs. But, despite the potential for
such reports to alienate consumers, this off-shoring continues to
grow, driven mainly by the lower labor costs
overseas.
Tracking Outsourcing's Paradigm
Shift
Robert Malone,
Forbes Newsletter and Website,
May 29th 2008.
Global
outsourcing has undergone a paradigm shift. From a practice
that once offered long-standing opportunity and significant cost
advantage, outsourcing now holds greater risks and, as a result,
requires more highly honed management
tools.
Companies Look to Application Management Mega
Contracts for Operational Improvement
Dominique Raviart, NelsonHall BPO Insight
Newsletter and Website,
July 2008
Application Management (AM) has undergone many
changes in recent years, moving away from T&M to SLA-based
provisioning, from on-site to factory-based delivery, and overall
becoming much more industrialized than in the past. In addition,
Indian vendors have changed the rules of the AM game with their
low-cost, process-oriented and certification-heavy offerings, as
well as by their ability to provide low-cost staff augmentation
services. And this transformation is not going to end any time
soon.
Maximizing Success When Implementing a Basic 5S
Program
Terra
Vanzant-Stern, iSixSigma Newsletter and
Website, August 21,
2008.
5S is a
popular Lean Six Sigma tool that is designed to instill a sense of
responsibility in employees and promote a disciplined approach. 5S
was originally used by Toyota in Japanese factories, primarily at
the shop-floor level, but now it is often used in the workplace to
decrease cycle time and general flow. There are many different
translations of 5S. Because of this, practitioners should reach a
strong understanding of the original Japanese method before
introducing it to their workplace. By gaining this knowledge, they
will be able to educate others in a way that will garner employee
buy-in and achieve the best results in helping their firm become
more organized.
Reactive Complaints: A Valuable Source of Customer
Data
Uwe. H. Kaufman,
iSixSigma Newsletter and Website, August 28,
2008.
Voice of the customer (VOC) is a
key topic in customer service, as well as Six Sigma training and
project work. VOC involves gathering information about customer
needs in order to provide them with best-in-class products and
services. There are two main categories for VOC: reactive data and
proactive data. Proactive data is collected with methods such as
focus groups, interviews, observations, surveys or test customers;
reactive data is mainly based on customer complaints, feedback,
hotline data or warranty claims. Practitioners can benefit from
understanding the differences between these data types, and knowing
that reactive data, which perhaps does not get as much attention, is
a great opportunity for process improvement.
Picking the Best Approach for the Problem at
Hand
Jason Bates,
iSixSigma Newsletter and Website, August 18,
2008.
As more organizations expand their efforts
into multiple process improvement methodologies, choosing the
methodology to solve a particular problem can be as difficult as
solving the actual problem. While simply using a problem solving
methodology significantly increases the success rate of a project,
choosing the correct methodology optimizes the solution
process to achieve the best result. A simple tool, adapted from a
marketing concept called a positioning map, can help practitioners
choose the best methodology.
Notable
News
Outsourcing Prospects in Brazil Good, but Economy is a
Barrier
Zach Church, CIO
Mid-Market Newsletter and Website, August 4, 2008.
Brazil may be a leader for Latin American IT
outsourcing, but all isn't well below the equator as an appreciating
Real cuts into potential cost savings.
EMS CIO Outsources the Mundane to
Focus on Rebranding
Zach Church, CIO Mid-Market Insight
Newsletter and Website, August 6,
2008.
It was a case of slimming down to move forward. And the
northeastern retail chain's IT department had to do the same. EMS's
leaders expect the IT department to do more than keep the lights on,
CIO Jeffrey Neville said. They want innovation and projects that add
to the business. And that takes staff
time.
Measuring Training with Return on Investment (ROI)
Analysis
Robert Last, Help Desk
Institute, Newsletter and
Website, August 6, 2008.
Determining the cost of a course or an
entire training program is not nearly as hard as it used to be. In
fact, there is a substantial body of literature that has been
developed in just the last few years on quantifying the value of
training.
Is Cloud Computing A Cost
Saver?
CIO Reader's View
Newsletter and Website, August 11, 2008.
Cloud computing is gaining
steam, but is it helping businesses save money?
Making the Journey Toward Culture Change in
Healthcare
Anita M. Yelton, GE Healthcare, iSixSigma
Healthcare Newsletter and Website, August 27,
2008.
Recognition is
growing among healthcare leaders of the need for a culture change
within their organizations. Moving from recognition to reality,
however, is more difficult. The problem lies in the perception – or
misperception – of what a culture change actually entails. Culture
change is not a program with a completion date, nor is it a quick
fix. It is an ongoing journey – a journey that requires leaders to
understand the current state of the organization, establish a clear
vision, align behaviors and instill accountability.
Flexibility, New Technology Key To Attracting Young IT
Workers
Nathan Conz,
Insurance and Technology, July 08,
2008.
Insurers are finding that both newer technology
environments and more flexible working environments are keys to
attracting top IT talent from younger generations.
Financial Supply Chain Management Continues to
Evolve
Maria Bruno-Britz,
Bank Systems & Technology, August 19,
2008.
In the world of treasury management, corporates (at least the
largest ones) have always placed pressure on their banks to provide
innovative products and services designed to optimize performance
and cost savings. In the current economic environment, their
petitions are likely to become louder as companies are impelled to
shore up their working capital and every new expenditure is
subjected to intense scrutiny.
Notable
Events
3rd
Annual Service Level Agreements Conference-
Operationalizing Your
Contract
September 29 - October 1. JW Marriott.
Mumbai, India. Infor-Media India.
Nari
Kannan, CEO, Ajira Technologies, Inc will present the topic "A
Framework for Business Process Outsourcing Governance" at this
conference.
Business
Process Management Conference Europe
2008
September 29- October 1,
2008. London. IRM UK.
BPM Think Tank 2008
October 6 - October 7, 2008. Chicago, IL. Object
Management Summit.
Global Lean, Six Sigma, and Business Improvement
Summit & Awards
October14 - October
17, 2008. Orlando, FL. WCBF.
10th
Annual Lean, Six Sigma, and Process Improvement Summit
January 18 - January22, 2009, Orlando, FL.
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