Look familiar? It’s too bad there isn’t an electronic way to organize and manage your significant documents. Oh Wait!….There Is! Customized document management systems add value to your business by cutting costs, improving office efficiency and increasing overall productivity.

Beyond that, the installation of a separate full blown stand-alone document management system may be overkill if your problem is focused on the management of a specific document type such as material test reports or the product safety sheets associated with your inventory or manufactured goods. Many ERP systems provide the ability to link documents to operational records. What they lack are the mechanisms to scan, classify, and automatically establish the necessary links.

The field of document management can span solutions ranging from providing a simple electronic filing cabinet to the most sophisticated data extracting, workflow, record retention and automated disposition system. Thoughtful analysis of what brings value may very well reveal significant cost benefits and productivity improvements as a result of the implementation of simple and straight-forward process improvements such as the integration of a document management system with your ERP or other operational support system.

If integrating with your ERP, you should expect these benefits:

• Ensure the safe sharing of proprietary information among individuals and between collaborating departments by setting user permissions for each document

• Reduce costly administrative filing tasks by reducing paper piles and reclaim office space by eliminating filing cabinets

• Improve efficiency by providing access to important information from within your existing operational system

• Improve ability to search for documents and the associated items in your inventory

• Reduction in the time and labor spent tagging, categorizing and indexing your current documents and the reduction or elimination of the costs of time spent searching for misplaced folders

Lean production techniques, just-in-time delivery and reengineered corporations have forever changed the rules of logistics management. Having what’s needed, when needed, and in the appropriate quantities has become more difficult and complex. And for those companies providing logistics services, the competition to attract and keep customers has done everything but become simpler.

Logistics is about service. Competition is no longer restricted to delivering the best and most cost effective form of warehousing, packaging, shipping, local delivery or other contracted services. Providers are now judged on how well their business models and back-office systems conform to and support the needs oftheir customers.

LogicSmart’s analysis of their clients’ needs led them to venture beyond the services they traditionally had been providing. Their industry knowledge and deep insights into the needs of their clients allowed LogicSmart to recognize areas where they could engage to significantly improve their clients’ processes; and in turn, gain both a competitive advantage and bind their clients more tightly through the uniqueness of their new service offering.

Many of the shipments handled by LogicSmart originate in plants in mainland China resulting in the need to track the shipment from the initial trucking company to export packing to maritime transport to US customs to intermodal trucking and potentially through a US over the road trucking firm to the final receiving dock.

To allow their customers to track these shipments, LogicSmart developed a specialized data acquisition and display application. LogicSmart’s application allows their customers to provide information on shipments to be tracked and the carriers that are being used. LogicSmart’s application then logs onto the web sites of each carrier in the logistics pipeline and acquires information on the shipments being tracked. This information is aggregated and stored in a database. Another component of the application presents the customer with current status and location of their shipment.

LogicSmart’s application simplifies tracking shipments. Two shipments can leave the same manufacturing plant bound for the same destination at the same time but using entirely different carriers and yet LogicSmart’s application provides the same information on both shipments. LogicSmart’s application provides a straight forward approach to simplifying a very complex process and eliminates a large amount of manual effort in tracking goods from plant to final destination yielding more timely, accurate and usable information.

The benefit to LogicSmart is that they have been able to attract additional customers due to the value their customers assign to being able to more easily track their shipments as they cross the globe and pass from one transportation firm to another.

*We are using the name “LogicSmart”, as the actual company name is being omitted for the purpose of this story.

As a Consulting CIO, I’m called on by clients to assess the fit of their technology to the business. Quite often this follows a change in company management, a significant change in the business model, or both. At this point, the relationship between the technology staff and business management can be under strain. Typically, business management believes they have worked to align their technology staff with the business’ needs to little or no avail. That’s when company management reaches out for help.

As you might expect, these assignments begin with discussions where company management expresses their dissatisfaction, confusion, and frustration with the performance of their staff. They then ask me to render an opinion on how the technology staff engages with the business, on the staff’s workload, and on the fit of the staff’s skills to business needs.

The good news is that we’ve typically found the staff to be conscientious and focused on providing support for the business to the best of their ability. Our disconcerting finding is that those responsible for managing the technology are disconnected from what business management wants from the department.

An important step in our process is to interview the staff to determine what they think their responsibilities are, what management expects from them, and how they are evaluated. The same questions are asked of management and the business function owners.  The answers quite frequently paint pictures so far apart that you could legitimately ask if both groups came from the same company.

How can this happen? Both business and technical management speak English, so why is it so tough? In some respects, it seems that those responsible for managing technology just don’t believe the business side is serious about evolving the business. This is the challenge: just when is management truly pursuing change? It’s a bet-your-job question.

When we’re invited to consult, business management is actively seeking an open and informed dialog. But the discussion is not about technology; it’s about management, processes, and user needs. Not servers, databases, Agile, or any specific technology. Business management seems to be willing to trust the technical decisions to the technology staff. Is it unreasonable for company management to want a conversation with technology management and staff that gives them the confidence that their business needs and direction are understood, accepted, and being addressed? I don’t think so.

Jason Kuhn, CIO at RSA Corp, explains how the benefits of a Disaster Recovery Plan and a Business Continuity Plan vary depending on the individual organization. Can there be value to one without the other?

Episode #20 – Jason Kuhn, CIO of RSA Corp, discusses how a business can improve their processes using the technology they already own right there at their fingertips.

Jason Kuhn, CIO at RSA Corp, addresses the common misconception regarding business continuity and disaster recovery by clarifying the different aspects of a business that each plan pertains to.

Episode #8 – Jason Kuhn, CIO of RSA Corp, explains possible difficulties in purchasing technology and what companies can do to avoid these problems and get the most out of their new technology.

Sometimes purchasing new technology for your business can be like embarking into alien territory. A copy machine doesn’t just make copies anymore. What happens when the bells and whistles you bought don’t work right?

Here are some things to think about to make buying small business technology a little easier.

What makes technology purchases different from other business purchases?

Typically the types of items purchased aren’t a component of a company’s revenue generation model – printers, copiers, phones. Consequently, there’s little internal knowledge about all of the issues and decision points. Many of these items involve multiple decisions on how they will be installed and configured, and their purchase is often treated as an afterthought.

The office manager or employee designated to investigate these purchases will usually rely more heavily on the salesperson to help them make the best decision. The ROI on these types of technology purchases doesn’t often justify bringing in a consultant to conduct an investigation into what would work best for the company.

Getting what you want requires thinking through how the new technology will fit into or impact your business processes.

What technology might a growing business purchase?

Examples of these items would include copiers, software applications, PCs and telephone systems. Using a copier as an example, decisions concerning whether to include faxing, scanning or network printing must be made. Then, more decisions must be made concerning user configuration.

What kinds of problems are encountered with new technology?

Problems can occur with configuring these technologies to fit within your business processes or understanding the opportunity for improving existing processes.

• Using the fax capability of a new copier – Find the proper method for handling inbound faxes, given how you currently do work. Options include whether to deliver the fax to an e-mail, paper, a network share, or some combination. All employees need to be trained to use the new copier and its process.

• Software applications – Make sure the implementation will support existing business processes. If changes to business processes are necessary, work them out in advance or find out after-the-fact that there’s a problem and then manage the solution under pressure.

• Telephone system – Make sure the quotes from the phone vendors include the capabilities they demonstrated to you. Phone systems include a multitude of capabilities and associated options, resulting in significant variations in cost. It can be problematic if the vendor does not engage to understand how you do business and how you need to use the new system to communicate.

How do you avoid these problems?

The best way to avoid problems is simply to understand your needs and the impact specific technologies can have on your business. Ask for help if you’re not getting straightforward, easy-to-understand answers. It helps to visualize what you want your world to look like after the technology is installed. Communicate that clearly to your vendors.

When dealing with vendors, it is important to understand that they are in it to close the sale, not to spend a lot of time on the installation/implementation.

How many of you have thought this?…The copy machine is supposed to copy, print, fax AND scan? How do I set THAT up?

We are so accustomed to hearing discussions and presentations on how technology is an enabler. It seems no matter what you need, someone is there to enthusiastically explain how this or that technology can assist with your need or make the problem go away. In many instances, the judicious usage of technology can significantly improve the situation.

But what happens next? By that I mean, you bought…and implemented…the whiz-bang solution that was supposed to bring you residence in Shangri-La.

Now…how do you keep it running?

How does it morph to support you as your needs grow?

How do you train new staff on how to use it?

The true report card on success comes once the consultants leave, and you’re on your own. Only then can you clearly assess the quality of the implementation, whether all necessary processes and procedures have been implemented or modified, whether your staff has been adequately trained, and how well your new processes have been adopted.

Less than adequate in any area will result in workarounds. What an oxymoron…workarounds as the “solution” to your problem!

Think Through the ENTIRE Process

In many instances, the group selling the solution has a specified test that signals successful implementation. Does the proposed test reflect what you consider successful?

Technology isn’t the point. Success comes from the processes and procedures you establish and implement for using technology, which address your problem.

I’ve been subjected to more than my share of the latest and greatest, all enthusiastically touted and sold as solutions to real business issues. I’ve had some pleasant surprises, avoided some quicksand, and, in most cases, bought with my eyes open.

The real challenge to getting my money’s worth has been performing the tough due diligence to assess how the solution will actually be operating in my world six to twelve months after the vendor has handed me the keys.

There are some great solutions being sold. Just remember, the person talking to you is selling…or drinking the Kool-Aid. It’s up to you to determine how to assess what needs to happen for you to achieve the promised nirvana.

For another thoughtful and interesting view on this topic, check out Someone Else’s Problem, by Bob Lewis – a consultant and industry pundit who’s been studying and writing about the problems in managing technology and its practitioners since the mid 1990s.

Small and medium businesses face challenges with evaluating, implementing and supporting the technologies required by their growing companies. They often turn to an IT partner to address these challenges. Just like an author tells a story, so should an IT partner translate technology into business value. However, many partners try to sell a solution composed of features and presumed benefits without really understanding the needs and culture of the business prospect.

I see this issue at every level, whether it’s network/server administration or application development. Over the years, I’ve developed an analogy to explain the disconnect.

All of us have learned to read and write, to one degree or another. However, this doesn’t mean we can write exceptional novels or short stories. The skills required in writing novels, short stories and technical documents are over and above the writing skills many of us possess. Simply put, while command of language and writing is a prerequisite for being an author, it doesn’t make you an author. The addition of talent and storytelling skills make you an author.

This is exactly the problem business owners and operators encounter in dealing with technologists. They need someone who can understand their business needs and translate those needs into the mix of required technologies. Just because someone specializes in technology, doesn’t mean they can translate it into terms that a business owner understands.

It requires a discovery process to uncover the business pains and areas where technology can make a difference in efficiency, workflow and process. Someone has to bridge the communication gap between that which exists in the world-view of the business operator and the minutely detailed, technical world of the technologist.

I’ve found that technical people who grasp this difference are better able to adapt to the needs of the business and develop the ability to communicate more effectively. Those who don’t grasp or engage with this difference seem to continue to struggle with delivering the results the business needs. It’s almost as though in developing tools such as EXCEL, WORD, ERP and the Internet, we’ve lost the ability to understand what the business needed those tools to do.

I’ve had more than one conversation with a client that started like this…“Oh, by the way, we’ll be moving our office in two to three months.” This should be music to my ears since we’re in the business of supporting our client’s technology needs. However, office relocation can easily become a painful experience. We often encounter issues with the availability and variety of data communication providers at the client’s new location. In spite of the perceived availability of high-speed data communications, it isn’t always that easy.

Case in Point

Hurricane Ike convinced one of our clients that a proper disaster recovery plan required moving all servers and the PBX to a colocation facility, so as to not disrupt the company’s worldwide operations and other processes. To support both immediate needs and future plans, it turned out that the required bandwidth was more than could economically be provided by bonding a couple of T-1 circuits.

The problem we encountered was provisioning the appropriate high-speed circuits between the company’s new office location and its colocation facility. In spite of the fact that the new location is an office building more than twenty years old, it was never provisioned with anything other than copper circuits.

We researched and located multiple carriers who offered the necessary bandwidth at attractive rates.

The problem?

Right of Entry.

It seems the building owner was reluctant to provide authorization to any new carriers to install the necessary fiber circuits. Five months into the negotiations between the carrier and the building owner, it now looks like a deal is imminent.

Why is it taking so long? I’m sure some of it is on the carrier’s end, but it appears that far more of it can be attributed to the building owner.

The Lesson Learned

Data communications availability is every bit as important as the included allowances for electricity and air conditioning. In spite of the seeming ubiquitous nature of cable and fiber, not every building has been provisioned or “on net,” as the various providers call it.

Knowing the vendors already in the building and the types of services they have provisioned goes a long way towards avoiding considerable pain later. Particularly since this information allows right of access to be negotiated with building management and the building owner along with the underlying office space.

Consider all aspects of a move while in the planning process to avoid being left disconnected.

What are some of your war stories from office relocation?

The existence of an underperforming ERP system is often recognized by certain elements within operations. The existing ERP system adequately supports the processes for which it was initially implemented. However, expanded processes are addressed through often manual means.

Underperforming implementations result from at least two different scenarios:

1. An ERP system is implemented for one purpose (i.e. accounting), but business needs outgrew the single-issue implementation.

2. Additional applications or modules are needed to address business growth. Growing companies often increase their usage of information contained in an ERP system, but sometimes fail to address necessary process changes.

For example, an ERP system implemented to provide accounting support is missing the module that provides source transactions, such as inventory issues and receipts. For accounting purposes, the recording of inventory transactions needs only to occur on a monthly basis. If the company subsequently attempts to use the inventory balances to support production needs, balances will not reflect what’s actually available at any point in time. The timing differences between accounting needs and real-time accuracy required by production and material planning cause serious process problems.

Addressing underperforming implementations requires company recognition that it has additional processes that would benefit from ERP system support. Like a broken implementation, addressing an underperforming system requires staffing what is often a smaller project than the initial implementation, but still requires many of the same specialized functional and technical skills.

What really matters is understanding the state of your ERP implementation to identify where you are in comparison to where you wanted to be, and consequently defining a path forward.

Defining a path forward requires that you:

• Investigate and evaluate your experienced business pains as reflected in your operations and processes.
• Determine whether addressing these issues was one of the reasons you implemented an ERP system. This may reveal additional issues in your organizational governance processes that need to be addressed.
• Investigate and determine what would have to change in order for your ERP system to address and resolve the problems.
• Generate support and commitment from management to proceed with remediation.
• Assess your in-house technology expertise and project management capabilities to determine whether an ERP partner is necessary.
• If internal resources are unavailable or you’re missing critical expertise…decide whether to partner with an ERP systems integrator OR individually staff a project manager, functional consultants and technical consultants to finish the project.

If you were unfortunate enough to experience Hurricane Ike, how did your email server fare? Not everyone can afford to keep their servers in a nice, safe datacenter or colocation facility. Does that mean your business is subject to your building’s physical power or Internet connection? The answer to that question is absolutely not. There are two ways small businesses can increase email uptime without breaking the bank.

Hosted Email Solution
Option one would be a hosted email solution. Hosted Microsoft Exchange providers are all over the Net, helping keep the cost of full-featured email hosting affordable. You can even add mobile devices to these plans for a nominal fee, further bolstering disaster recovery strategies and giving you and your employees corporate email at your fingertips at all times.

Need to convey when the office will be back up and operational? You can send out updates and keep everyone looped in. Emailing evacuated employees becomes a great way to keep lines of communication going without having to call everyone individually.

As far as day to day operations, with the improvements to Outlook 2007 and Outlook Anywhere feature, using a hosted provider looks more attractive to small businesses every day. With these technologies, you won’t even know the Exchange server is not on your local area network (LAN). You will also reap the savings by not having to deal with the backups and administration of an email server. Almost all hosted email solutions come with service level agreements. I don’t know about you, but getting 99.999% uptime sounds good to everyone.

Managed Filtering Service
If you already have an email server and don’t feel like making the switch to a hosted solution, your second option could be a filtering service, like MX Logic Email Defense with the disaster recovery feature enabled. With this service, not only do you get top notch hosted spam filtering that prevents spam from hitting your server, in the event of an outage, your emails are spooled and held by MX Logic for 60 rolling days. While spooling, users are able to log into the MX Logic page and check emails. When connectivity resumes, the messages are then delivered to your email server.

Both solutions have benefits and negatives. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have or give you more information about either of these two options.

Business continuity and disaster recovery planning are all about a company’s ability to survive and continue operations in the face of physical and environmental events, such as natural disasters (fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc), network outages, disgruntled employees and computer viruses. Critical business technologies – telephone, email, Internet, corporate applications, databases – must be included in the planning process to ensure corporate survival and continued operation.

The straightforward method for reducing the impact of these events is to position your critical technologies in a more secure and resilient environment. You can either invest in constructing your own environment or utilize a commercial facility. For small and medium-size businesses, the former is often costly, as it includes:
• Installing electrical generators
• Using uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)
• Improving cooling and fire protection
• Increasing physical security
• Maintaining redundant communication lines for voice, Internet and data traffic

Colocation refers to hosting your equipment at a commercial facility, specifically designed to provide the redundant services required to guarantee uptime. Properly designed colocation facilities provide redundancy in all environmental systems such as generators, UPS, HVAC and communications, along with greatly improved physical security.

Taking advantage of the benefits provided by a colocation facility requires rethinking how technology is deployed within your organization. Usage of a colocation facility can range from providing a secure “mirroring” location for corporate data and server “images” to housing all servers and PBXs.

In determining the value of colocation, design decisions focus on assessing the value versus the cost of having all technology components available and operational regardless of what happens to your company’s facilities. This assessment is then used to determine what should be moved to colocation.

Some companies, such as a manufacturer with a single facility housing all company operations, may benefit most by mirroring data and server images. Companies with multiple locations or whose revenue generation models are less tied to a single location, such as financial or sales-based organizations, will benefit more by moving all critical technology to a colocation facility.

The benefits of colocation were once available only to large corporations due to costs. Today, colocation, virtual servers (virtualization), data replication, remote computing, and large bandwidth communication pipes provide smaller organizations powerful new tools to address business continuity and disaster recovery needs.

Hurricane Ike convincingly demonstrated that available technology means little unless coordinated planning and preparation have preceded the need. Colocation and other tools should be considered when developing a plan, but the most critical component is having a plan.

Hurricane season is officially here. Businesses are now planning and refining their disaster recovery and business continuity plans to prepare for potential disruptions. Companies need to make sure and investigate a few specific areas – offsite backup, colocation, email continuity and data recovery. A voice-over IP (VoIP) telephone network and SMS text messaging are other smart continuity tools.

VoIP allows users to connect to a phone system from anywhere in the world, through the Internet. This becomes vitally important in disaster recovery as response teams head to pre-determined disaster response locations. At that point, team members can easily plug in the VoIP phone and instantly become an extension of the core system. To the outside world – clients, vendors, etc – this is transparent, as business transactions and internal communications continue.

Business communications act like any other IP-based application. Take email as an example. The user doesn’t worry about the actual location of the email server. Users plugs into an Internet connection and, through a Web portal or VPN, email works. The same thing goes for telephony, if IP is being used. Corporate telephony can be anywhere with an Internet connection. This flexibility and adaptability is ideal for any emergency or disaster situation where other networks may be inoperable.

Another ingredient to investigate when preparing for hurricane season is an SMS server. Ask anyone that endured Hurricane Ike, and they will tell you that cell phones were paper weights for 4 to 5 days, except for SMS text messages. The first day or two after the storm, users would notice as much as a 12 to 24-hour delay on the message, but it would eventually get through the network to the intended recipient.

Companies can leverage this easy and affordable medium for disaster recovery by utilizing an SMS server for communications to clients, vendors and internal employees. As long as administrators can reach the network, company officials can send messages to one or multiple groups, individuals and numerous distribution lists for a secondary line of communications.

How are you preparing for hurricane season? Has your DR/BCP plan been tested within the last 12 months?

Smart companies along the U.S. southern coasts are testing their business continuity and disaster recovery plans in preparation for the upcoming storm season. For those who have outgrown their plans or struggle with outdated procedures, refining the plan is a top priority.

Companies invest time, money and resources to create solid business continuity plans in order to ensure speedy disaster recovery and enhanced information security. The planning process is a significant project requiring risk assessment, in-depth interviews with key employees, evaluation of business processes and technologies, backup and recovery strategies, and testing of the plan.

What happens when the plan is solid and ready to go?  Don’t just put in on a shelf. Make the information gathered in the continuity planning process readily available, as a business guide. This information provides insights into the inner workings of day-to-day processes, which gives you a magnifying glass over each business function.

Three Ways to Leverage Your Business Continuity Plan

STRENGTHEN INFORMATION SECURTIY

During the continuity planning process, executives become aware of which employees hold the keys to certain information. Some discover that too many people have access to restricted data and proactively initiate steps to tighten information security.

Conversely, some realize that only one person manages payroll, contracts or authorization of banking procedures, which prompts them to take actions to ensure these financial capabilities are backed-up. The plan provides you with a high-level view of your infrastructure, allowing you to recognize potential technology risks, track incidents more effectively, monitor assets and enhance control of vendors.

PREPARE FOR MORE THAN NATURAL DISASTERS

Don’t limit your continuity plan to addressing only natural disasters or terrorist attacks. Data breach, power failures, network outages, disgruntled employees, computer viruses and software bugs should all be accounted for in the plan.

Data breach is the first concern regarding information security. According to a study by the Ponemon Institute, the total average cost of a data breach is $6.3 million, but can range from $225,000 to $35 million. Lost business due to interruptions in productivity accounts for more than 65% of the cost.

REDUCE BUSINESS RISK

Review the risk assessment performed at the onset of continuity planning. It gives you information about significant circumstances that could impact your company’s ability to meet strategic business goals. This knowledge allows you to evaluate the significance of such an event, and then prioritize based on the likelihood of its occurrence.

Consider issues regarding environmental compliance, safety regulations, business interruptions, financial inconsistencies and lacking IT infrastructure.

For seven more ways to leverage your BCP plan, download our white paper “Ten Opportunities to Capitalize on Your Business Continuity Plan.“

Remediating a failed ERP implementation may be the answer to salvaging a broken, stalled or underperforming enterprise system. Each type of implementation failure and subsequent remediation project is approached with a different strategy. The goal is to economically get business operations and technology back in sync, quickly and effectively.

A stalled implementation represents an ERP system that never quite reached a state of production readiness. Various modules may be in production, but other critical components remain to be implemented or were never quite finished. In the latter case, the business processes defined for modules in production are relying on information from the unfinished modules.

The result is a variety of manual workarounds required to provide the missing information. Companies suffering from stalled ERP implementations fail to reap the benefits that initially justified implementing the system. They’re potentially saddled with processes that take longer than before.

This type of ERP implementation failure creates not only process problems but can increase tension between various departments. Those departments saddled with additional workarounds are forced to make up for the missing and/or non-implemented components.

Stalled implementations can result from:

• Staffing changes
• Lack of management commitment
• Obstinacy on the part of the non-production user departments

Challenges

Stalled implementations are often the most difficult to detect, in that the underlying issue is political in-fighting between various departments. ERP systems often redistribute work amongst departments requiring one department to capture information to be used later by another. This addition  of work to benefit another department raises the question of “why us?”

This is particularly true if workloads are high and pressures to maintain previously established performance metrics are unrelenting. If company and management are not attuned and aggressive in addressing this question, the resistance of one group can create problems for all.

Requirements & Commitments

Remediation of a stalled implementation requires a skilled consulting partner or contract team and a serious commitment by company management.

The company and its consulting partner must:

• Analyze the source of reasons for the delayed production status
• Make realistic determinations concerning the validity of those reasons
• Establish and agree upon a plan to address the reasons for the delay
• Complete the implementation of stalled modules

It’s the potential political nature underlying the stalled implementation that makes it amongst the most difficult to remediate. The challenge is rooted in addressing issues during remediation that the company and management weren’t able to resolve during initial implementation.

Remediating a failed ERP implementation may be the answer to salvaging a broken, stalled or underperforming enterprise system. Each type of implementation failure and subsequent remediation project is approached with a different strategy. The goal is to economically get business operations and technology back in sync, quickly and effectively.

Broken implementations are ERP systems in production but, for whatever reason, don’t work well enough. An ERP system is implemented and running, but business processes seem to be worse than before. For example, processes take longer and/or the system doesn’t provide the intended information.

Broken implementations can result from failure to:

• Adapt business processes to those required by the ERP system
• Capture all information within the system required to support the implemented processes
• Test the system for malfunctions
• Tune the system to appropriate performance levels, which are required by the users to effectively complete tasks

This type of implementation may not be the result of a single cause or exhibit a single problem. It’s for these reasons that remediation is often best structured as a phased or incremental process, addressing the more severe problems first and iterating through a succession of improvement steps.

Requirements & Commitments
It’s important to improve the value of the ERP implementation as quickly as possible. Remediation requires defining the experienced “pain” and outlining the desired results.

With this knowledge, value can be assigned to addressing each pain point to prioritize resulting benefits. This approach provides clear objectives, agreement on the process and measures for success.

Addressing broken implementations can be more difficult than an original implementation. Too often, failed implementations are caused by lack of project management and specific technical and functional expertise. The challenge for remediating broken implementations is staffing what are often smaller projects with the expert functional and technical skills required to investigate and then remediate problems.

Leverage project management to deliver the required results on time and within budget. Consult with an experienced integration partner to:

• Diagnose the problem
• Define the necessary remediation steps
• Assemble the appropriate functional and technical team

Companies with complex business processes have come to rely on technology to automate, digitize and streamline operations. In many instances, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system – SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, Microsoft Dynamics – has been implemented to provide this support. ERP systems were designed to automate and integrate disparate business processes.

When companies feel pain within internal processes or suffer operational interruptions, it’s often a direct result of a disconnect between the needs of operational processes and the technology systems that support them.

A key component in implementing an ERP system is a clearly defined set of objectives defining the desired outcome and project success. These objectives likely focus on addressing business pains and/or making processes more efficient.

If this is true for you, to what extent have you achieved those objectives?

Evaluating the original objectives for your ERP implementation, the current state of your process needs and the state of your implementation allows you to determine whether your implementation was successful and achieved the desired business results.

If success was not achieved, evaluation will allow you to identify problems arising from the implementation and demonstrate whether:
• Corporate processes are functioning as desired
• All intended components are operating as desired
• Process needs have grown beyond those originally defined and whether they’re supported by the current implementation

If problems exist, do you repair your ERP system and achieve return on investment, abandon it for an alternative system or live with the current situation?

For companies committed to following through with the initial investment, ERP remediation may be the answer. How do you know if remediation is right for you? Some business pains commonly afflicting companies with stalled, broken or underperforming ERP implementations are:
Business Process Issues
o Frustration acquiring data from departments outside general users
o Unnecessary workarounds
o Reliance on manual processes
o No process automation
o Broken process automation
o Process taking longer than usual
o Unable to perform some critical operation

Data Quality Issues
o Lacking data for important business decisions
o Data integration nonexistent
o Desired information is not available
o ERP processes and business operations misaligned

If your business is afflicted by any of those pains, your next step should be to discover which type of remediation is right for you. Whether it’s a stalled, broken or underperforming ERP implementation, each project is approached with a different strategy. The overall goal is to economically get business operations and technology back in sync quickly and effectively.

When times are tough…the tough focus on streamlining operations through effective use of technology. For distribution & logistics companies, this means reducing lead times and inventory levels and improving the order-to-cash process. With time as a factor, efficiency of operations plays an important role in maximizing revenue and cash flow.

One Houston-based intermodal transportation services company decided to refine its dispatching process to reduce inefficiencies and minimize the load on busy dispatchers. Initially, the company reduced dependency on two-way radios by replacing them with BlackBerry smartphones equipped with GPS technology and the Comet Tracker application by Actsoft.

The application reduced dispatching call volume and improved fleet management and labor tracking by pinpointing the exact location of each driver. Comet Tracker also integrated with the company’s intermodal software system, Compcare, which was installed on dispatcher desktops. Integration meant dispatchers could find, track and dispatch drivers from one central location.

However, drivers had the burden of returning to dispatch between each run to retrieve work orders and security clearances. This inefficiency meant loss of time and money.

To streamline dispatch functions, the company partnered with a strategic advisor to engineer a plan and identify the necessary technology. RSA Corp engineered a solution to minimize travel time and save money. A process was designed to work with the capabilities of the BlackBerry using existing applications.

Bluetooth technology was incorporated with BlackBerry technology and a mobile printer to remove the need for the driver to visit the dispatch office to retrieve paperwork. A printer in the cab of each truck allows drivers to print paperwork without returning to dispatch. From the cab, drivers open work orders as e-mail attachments from the phone, print them from the mobile printer and use the hard copy to authorize release of shipments.

Process re-engineering resulted in improved efficiencies, which saved fuel costs, increased number of runs and ultimately maximized revenue generation.

How is your technology driving operational efficiency?

In the new world of the digital oilfield, data must be timely, accurate and accessible. Field systems such as field data capture must integrate with back office applications seamlessly and transparently. If not, several issues can arise, affecting data validation, data quality and business versus operation demands. To fully realize the value of existing reservoirs and operational infrastructure, better operational data is required.

In order for the oil and gas industry to effectively manage existing reserves and future oil and gas developments, it will be essential for business technology to integrate key operations with information and communications technology. Integrated operations and business processes allow for oil and gas experts, regardless of physical location, to make informed, real-time business decisions. Integration also enhances the ability to manage and control equipment and processes remotely, while moving various operations and personnel onshore.

When petroleum engineers, geologists, financial analysts and oilfield operations managers work within an integrated network – where field data capture systems are linked to office information systems – their executives receive a greater holistic view of assets and management. With more accurate information, executives have immediate access to enterprise data needed to make key business decisions, like optimizing assets in changing market conditions.

Several measurable benefits develop by integrating key operations with field data capture systems and back-office applications, through technology solutions. Benefits include:

• More accurate data
• Remote monitoring
• Optimized production
• Real-time technology for real-time decision making
• Automating routine operations to free up high-value personnel for more value-add work

The integration of upstream operations and technology drives a higher level of performance that statistically wouldn’t be realized otherwise. The end result can be a distinctive competitive advantage. Not capitalizing on this economic opportunity is a waste, which affects not only the bottom line but the shareholders and employees, as well.

How are you leveraging technology and IT resources to ensure more accurate data reaches key decision makers at critical times? What applications and systems do you find work best for integrating upstream operations?