Improving efficiencies through process improvements.

This is 2010 and more and more companies are achieving efficiencies through implementing newer technologies that is making their lives easier and more effective. Technology evolution has started many conversations about the true value of efficiency and long term value chain.

Strategic planning in a company is lot like planning a city. It needs long term vision, short term memory and continuous improvement opportunities. If you plan for continuous improvement keeping your long term vision, you will always find opportunities for improvements in the processes without applying technology. Six Sigma is a great example and has been very successful in creating and managing efficiencies across many verticals.

Many corporations apply technology without proper process evaluation that some times lead to disastrous outcomes. We expect a lot from technology and why won't we? If you spent between $5M-$50M in purchasing an enterprise solution that is suppose to save you money, time and make you and your company more efficient, you will expect the technology to perform.

But there is a slight problem with that scenario. 8 out 10 clients will try to change the scope of work during the implementation phase and that is just a beginning. It happens more often where companies don't go through proper process evaluation and definitions and hope that the new solution will take care of it.

There is a vast difference in "needing" and "wanting". Technology can get your excited and can quickly change your needs to wants. But with process process evaluations, you will always stick to the plan.

If you internally blueprint processes and create "achievable" maps, you can simplify implementation process and manage the project "on time" and "on budget.

Clients who righteously manage their internal processes can define implementation steps better and are a true contributor in the scope of work. They highlight the areas of improvement that they expect the software to perform and they create continuous improvement roadmaps.

I have worked with some really smart customers who manage internal centers of excellence and are motivated to save money by doing their due diligence in creating their requirements and forcing vendors to align their solution strategies with those requirements. If there is a match, great, if not, they find ways to keep improving.

A process map is a lot like a city map, if you can't understand it, how do you expect any one getting around it externally?

Every positive outcome has well defined process maps that shows efficiencies, gaps, areas of improvements, time line and cost involved. It shows where you might add a new technology solution and how much it will cost.

When you assign cost to every process, it becomes very clear how you will justify a purchase and if that purchase has an ROI or a TCO or both.

Technology has changed our lives and the way we think and act. But it has also made us more ineffective in doing our primary functions more effectively. Example: IPhone, an awesome tool with 150,000 applications (functions) that are really not needed. It is all about convenience and "want to have".

Thank you
Regards,
D