Month: June 2013

Article Contributed by Erik Johnson

Business process optimization can seem overwhelming if your business processes and management systems are in desperate need of an overhaul. Many businesses just put on blinders when they know they need help, because they don’t know where to begin and don’t think they have the resources to make the necessary changes. With the right business process management consulting, however, it’s possible to take the initial steps toward developing a strategy and then follow through on all those steps to complete the process of optimization. Most importantly, it takes the right practices to make the strategy work.

The following are among the best practices for business process management (BPM) optimization:

• Make the Necessary Changes in Phases
• Create a Guide for Documenting Your Processes
• Develop a Matrix for Making Strategic Decisions
• Analyze and Test Ideas Before Implementing Them
• Communicate Well at Every Level
• Observe and Track Every Process and Task

Most BPM consultants recommend making the necessary changes in logical phases that follow one another in a principled manner. With careful analysis and strategic planning, it’s possible to develop a set of stages that keeps teams, tasks and structures organized as changes are implemented step by step. This not only makes the process less messy, but it also makes it possible to more closely analyze and assess what is going on at all levels of the organization as goals are met and deliverables are measured.

Business process improvement consulting experts also recommend a system for documenting every step of the optimization project to understand what’s working, what areas could be improved upon and what strategic decisions should be made. A guide for documenting processes can help make it easier to record all the information related to a project in order to understand its full scope, see what procedures are taking place and figure out who the major decision makers are. A matrix for making decisions can also be quite helpful, and is highly recommended as a best practice for BPM. Information about who is overseeing a project, who is monitoring the successful completion of milestones, what tools are being used to get from start to finish and what decisions are being made can be recorded in such a matrix. When there are many decision makers affecting the outcomes of organizational initiatives, this can ensure a structure of checks and balances even when projects span cities and countries.

Analyzing and testing ideas before implementing them should sound like a no-brainer, but it’s surprising how often we need to be reminded of this best practice for business and life in general. Ideally, this should include imitating a process to see how well the idea works, comparing different processes and testing the outcomes of those processes before adopting them permanently. BPM consulting can help make these processes much simpler thanks to firms’ experience with such aspects of the planning process, so hiring outside help is worth considering.

None of these best practices will work, however, without effective communication. Any project requires effective communication at all levels to succeed. Members of every team that is involved in a project should be fully informed, and should not have to continue asking questions to understand what’s going on and what their roles and responsibilities are. If people don’t seem to understand what’s going on, a breakdown of communication has occurred and must be fixed before moving forward. And, of course, the processes involved in the completion of a project must be monitored to ensure everything is going as planned, and to make adjustments when it’s not.

If it seems more complicated than your organization can handle, you’re not alone. Business process management consulting can help in this challenging effort to improve your business processes.

About the Author

Erik Johnson is the Digital Marketing Analyst for Paragon Solutions, an advisory consulting and systems integration firm that specializes in business process management consulting and business process optimization for organizations in various industries.

 Article Contributed by Aileen Galsim

Sometimes, increasing your business’s productivity is just a matter of using the right tools. No need for rocket science concepts, ideas, or anything of that sort. Just plain old tools.

With how business works online there are tons of softwares that you can use to increase your business’s productivity. Whether you’re looking for something to track your employees productivity, a software that you can use to collaborate your work, or even in simply organizing your tasks, there’s surely something you can use out there.

Now if you find that interesting, you’re in luck. I’ll be sharing with you a few tools that you can use to help you increase your business’s productivity. What I promise you is that if you’ll check out these tools and what they can do, you’ll be swept off of your feet!

But before I even start sharing, allow me to tell you that I am as interested to hear from you and what you have to say about the topic! If you have tools which you think does a swell job at helping in increasing your business’s productivity, I urge you to share them in the comments section below. I’d love to discuss the tools with you and what your experiences are with it so we can journey together at weeding out which one’s performing the poorest and ultimately end-up with the best one!

Here are some tools that you can use to increase your productivity:

• Replicon 

Replicon is an awesome time tracking and expense management tool! If you want to make sure that your employees are doing what they are supposed to do, then getting Replicon is what you need.

Here’s how you can benefit from it:

• Monitor your employees.

With this feature, you’ll be able to monitor the kind of performance your employee shows. You’ll then be able to give the necessary coaching for those who needs it.

• Manage your reimbursable expenses and your projects.

Through this feature, you can enforce your expenses policy (among other things) to make sure that you are working within your means. This will also help you accurately track your expenses to help you with your accounting.

• Tracking time for attendance and payroll. 

You’re able to view your employees attendance and manage their corresponding payroll.

Managing your payroll doesn’t have to be a near rocket science experience. Actually, with this feature, managing your payroll is a cinch!

• And so much more!

Replicon’s functions are definitely a must have for you!

 

• Evernote

Evernote is a good tool to use when storing, organizing and collecting information. It saves and synchronizes your data across all of your devices making it a useful tool when communicating and updating your team.

You can create photo libraries, categories your notes, you can even save web pages or just parts of it, etc.

While this tool has a free and a paid version, I’d like to emphasize that the free version is already a FANTABULOUS! But if in case you’d like to know more about the paid version (which is only for $5 per month), then here are some if its benefits:

• You can allow others to edit the notes you shared with them. This makes collaborating your work more seamless and flexible.
• You can store larger files, and bigger notes.
• You can store your notebooks offline if you’ll go with the paid Evernote. This makes it ideal for people on the go. Through this feature, you can still work on your tasks even if you don’t have any internet.
• You’ll be prioritized in our support. If you have any questions or tickets, you won’t have to stand in line and wait. Your inquiries will be sent in front of the queue.
• And so much more!

Have you ever used Google docs? Imagine that then multiply its effectiveness by 1000 times! It’s like Google docs on steroids!

 

• Skype Screen Sharing 

If there are things that you want to teach your employees real time, then using the Skype screen sharing is a remarkable way to do that.

They no longer have to go to your place simply to watch your training. You can do it on Skype, share your screen and voila!

The good thing is, Skype’s so user friendly and almost everyone has it. This makes Skype your ideal tool for increasing your business’s productivity.

While there are more tools out there, you’ve go to use these are my top picks so you might REALLY want to take a look at these! If you take the time to download and learn how these tools work, it will get you the increase of productivity that you are looking for.

It’s your turn! Remember to share your ideas in the comments section below! I can’t wait to see the nifty tools you’ll be suggesting!

About the Author

Aileen Galsim is a business blogger from http://www.comss.org . Comss is a software company with a difference – their products are designed by business people to be used by business people. They offer Construction Accounting Software, distribution, retail and project-driven businesses.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had a conversation with a business owner who has wanted me to help them set up their systems, whether that’s:

• Creating an automated system to deliver their free report
• Having a system in place so that attendees can register for their teleclasses
• Creating a system so that customers can purchase products and/or programs via their website

All of these business owners have ONE thing in common – they want the system to make it all work, but they’re not prepared to INVEST in the right system.

I usually tell them that if they want to do all of the above (and more) they need an all-in-one ecommerce system, such as 1ShoppingCart** or Infusionsoft**, which can do all of the above, plus so much more!

The response I usually get to this advice is, “I can’t afford it”, or “I don’t want to make that kind of investment”.  But what they are really saying is, “I’m not serious about my business so I don’t want to pay for that kind of system.”

Here’s the thing… when you don’t have the right system in place

• You make it difficult for clients to do business with you
• You make it difficult for you to run your business
• You lose revenues

So today I want to share with you my top five reasons why having an all-in-one ecommerce system is CRUCIAL to your business success:

1.  Your Client Database Is All Together In One Place.  If you’ve ever tried to fudge together two different systems to make everything work (the voice of experience is talking to you here!), then you know exactly the kind of hassle you’re setting yourself up for. You have some clients in one database, other clients in the other database, and even clients in both databases.  This makes sending out broadcasts, emails, and other materials messy.  Some clients may get them once, some twice, and some not at all!

2.  Easily Upgrade To Paid Programs And Products. When you’re ready to start introducing paid programs and products into your business it’s easy to do.  You already have the infrastructure in place, so it’s just a case of adding in the shopping cart elements, and you’re ready to start accepting payments.

3. Tracking Your Business Is Easy.  One area that business owners ignore is their numbers.  They very rarely look at their broadcast rates, open rates, sources of new subscribers, or any other important data that will tell them how their business is doing, which will help them plan effectively for future revenues.  When you’re using an all-in-one ecommerce system, all the critical business planning data is right there at your fingertips, so you always know how your business is performing. And you can make adjustments accordingly.

4. Create Your Own Personal Sales Army.  Once your business has grown to a certain level, you’ll be ready to add an Affiliate Program to it. An affiliate program is basically your own personal sales army of affiliates who recommend your products and programs to their networks.  This is a great way to automate sales and widen your networking reach, without you having to do any additional work … your affiliates do the work for you.  And when you are using an all-in-one ecommerce system, adding this piece to your business is really simple.  The affiliate program is part of the all-in-one ecommerce system, so it’s right there waiting for you to use it.

5. Automate and Streamline.  My favorite part about all of this is when you’re running your entire business through just the ONE system, you can very easily automate and streamline a large part of your business activities, from upselling to products and programs, to marketing.  What could be more hassle-free than that!

Having an all-in-one ecommerce system in place is at the heart of running a thriving and profitable online business.  If you are serious about building your online business, don’t even consider any other option.  Make the decision now to invest in the right system that will grow as your business grows.