Value – Achieve faster, better, and less expensive methods of doing business.
Best Practices
Best Practices are used by companies and organizations which are seeking highest quality and greatest efficiency. Best Practices are methods, activity, or behaviors that are most efficient, effective, and result in fewer complications and failures. Best Practices are not just "good ideas" or suggestions - they are proven strategies and tactics for anyone who wants the best possible outcome to a given endeavor.
Business Process Improvement (BPI )
BPI focuses on "doing things right" more than it does on "doing the right thing". In essence, BPI attempts to reduce variation and/or waste in processes, so that the desired outcome can be achieved with better utilization of resources. BPI historically has been responsible for reducing business cost and cycle time by as much as 90% while improving quality by over 60%.
We follow a systematic approach to creating and improving business processes including the use of detail process charts to provide a level of understanding that is essential for effective analysis. This approach has been used by world-class organizations to achieve excellent results for over half a century. Some approaches such as Reengineering, ISO Certification, Six Sigma, and Sarbanes-Oxley all specify an organizational focus on business processes, however, none provides a specific method for understanding the processes. This leaves many people attempting to figure it out as they go. Without a solid methodology to support process understanding and improvement, many efforts fail, drag on, or (at best) require more effort than was initially anticipated.
We help uncover the “what” is happening as well as the “why” so that the issues can correctly be addressed and effective business processes established.
Organizational Strategy
Organizational strategy is a subset of business processes. An organization must be focused on goals and communicate those goals clearly. Leadership, marketing, and infrastructure work together closely when an organization is successful. We focus on several roles in the management including business leaders, process owners, operational managers, and process operators. We help leaders and managers define, articulate, and implement smooth operations.
Deliverables:
- Leadership roles – upper and middle management
- Management resource development
- Organizational charts
- Communication flow diagrams
- Accountability regimens
Knowledge Management (KM)
KM makes business faster, better, and less expensive by capturing and integrating an organization’s knowledge into efficient useable formats within informational structures, electronic systems, and personnel processes.
Many organizations lose or cannot utilize critical internal information that is known only by a few employees and/or is hidden in deep information reservoirs. It is important to save this information so it is lost if an employee leaves or data is destroyed or corrupted. It is also important to bring this information to the organization’s finger tips so it can be used effectively when it is needed.
We use proven knowledge analysis and distillation tools, asset collection mechanisms, and process models – all of which fulfill the KM core productivity goal: "better, faster, less expensive".
Our KM leaders have deep roots in KM from early in its infancy at SAIC and other large corporations that had to manage enormous amounts of information while being agile for clients. Over the years KM has been fine tuned, yet has maintained the same core values and methodologies, which we apply successfully within our own organization and for clients. Some of our KM consultants are published authors.
Policies and Procedures
Policies and procedures must be correct, understandable, and accessible or they are a waste of money. We create functional, clear resources that employees can use and access – electronically or in print. Our Instructional Designers and Content Writers are skilled in capturing and creating well structured easy to use documents. Then, we help strategically position the resources in the most effective access locations so employees will find and use them – whether in a physical office environment or in a virtual office environment on intranets and portals.
Deliverables:
- Sales & Marketing guides
- Management guides
- Employee orientation
- Human Resources guides
- Office procedures
- Technology procedures
- Training procedures
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM goals are about relationship – to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. The method to accomplish this is by managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. The tactics involve using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes – principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support.
CRM software and technologies are at the core of good customer relationships – we have many CRM systems at our fingertips to discuss with our clients. Solutions ranging from large enterprise-wide systems to local desktop databases are all options we can present.
The people using CRM are also very important, which is why focus on who will be using the processes and technologies so they can be given the greatest opportunity to succeed. Therefore, as part of our initial analysis we talk with the people who will actually use the system to understand how they think and work. This ensures buy-in and faster adoption within the organization.
I.T. Governance
Key components of I.T. governance include resource, asset, and project management; risk management; accountability; improved alignment between I.T. and business goals; and measurement of the value created by technology initiatives.
A study of 250 large enterprises conducted by Gartner and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) showed that "...companies with well-designed [I.T.] governance programs have at least 20 percent higher profits than those with poor [I.T.] governance programs, given the same strategic objectives." CFO-IT magazine.
Contact us today to make your infrastructure as cost effective and efficient as possible.