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Posted on 12 March 2013 by Patrick PattonI work with companies every day that use email not only as a business communications tool but to initiate work processes. Is your company using emails to kick off manual back office processes? I am willing to bet that a majority of companies have adopted email as a means to trigger processes.
There are several problems that companies face when using email as a way to manage workflow in the back office, including:
Visibility -Once an email is sent it is hard to keep track of what is going on with that piece of work. Someone will have to manually [...]
Posted on 14 January 2013 by Patrick PattonWhen most companies think about business process automation (BPA), they think about customer-facing or “production” processes. Most companies that I’ve worked with are concerned with improved cycle times, cost reductions for operational areas, improved efficiencies for contact centers, and reduction of manual processes for transactional areas. However there are many other opportunities that your organization can benefit from by looking at internal processes.
One example that comes to mind is the human resources (HR) department. Most HR departments have defined, repeatable processes, such as employee onboarding, employee separation, and employee moves. These are ideal for automation and can lead to [...]
Posted on 28 September 2012 by Janet ThalackerThe latest buzz regarding customer contact channels is mobile applications. How do you ensure success within this channel? I recently attended a webinar by Information Week Financial Services called Getting Answers from Mobile Initiatives where they discussed different applications for the insurance industry, metrics that indicate mobile success, and where companies are focusing their money for mobile applications. According to Forrester Research, the top 3 priorities/objectives for mobile applications are:
Increasing customer engagement Improving customer satisfaction Appear as innovative
I would like to examine the first two objectives, customer engagement and satisfaction. As a consultant, I have received the consistent [...]
Posted on 20 June 2012 by Patrick PattonCompanies are always looking for ways to improve their processes, increase operating efficiencies, and ways to cut costs. Many know they need to automate business processes but how do they choose which are good candidates? Today many companies struggle with capital budgets and resource constraints and put off automation projects because they “don’t have time”, “it is not a priority”, or there are just too many other projects.
There are a few areas that I believe a company could focus on to help narrow the list of candidates for BPA projects.
Frequency – Processes where you see a great deal [...]
Posted on 21 May 2012 by Jason AlleyWhile preparing for a presentation I was delivering at ACCE on mobility, cloud and the future of customer care, something hit me…the killer app for mobility might be as simple as harnessing the power of customer moments!
Think about how we use our SmartPhones and Tablets. We expect to pull these powerful computing devices out of our pockets, backpacks, purses and handbags, and do business in the moment, on a moment’s notice, with only a moment to spare. It’s all about the moment.
While I’d like to take credit for the insight, a seed was likely planted while reading [...]
Posted on 21 March 2012 by Patrick PattonBPA – Why? We already have BPM! Can they co-exist?
So your company has invested a great deal of money and countless hours into planning and implementing a Business Process Management (BPM) suite in an operating department. Now your boss starts asking you about something they read about Business Process Automation (BPA) and if your department could benefit from it – how do you respond?
While both a BPA and BPM project starts with some type of Business Process Mapping, and both aim to improve business process efficiencies, there are differences. Here is a quick look at some of the [...]
Posted on 6 February 2012 by Patrick PattonDoes your company have detailed process maps for all of their business processes? If your company is like most my guess is that the as-is process maps are nonexistent or very outdated. I have heard it time and time again – “we don’t have time”, “we don’t have the resources,” etc. Companies that are starting process improvement or business process automation projects will many times skip the as-is step and move right into the to-be design. If you don’t truly understand your process how can you improve it?
A personal case study
My first taste of as-is process mapping [...]
Posted on 6 September 2011 by Abi ChandraEven though I work primarily on the Pre-Sales side designing and architecting customer solutions, it is not uncommon for me to help with Post-Sales support. I will usually become involved at that juncture when a customer voices concerns about poor audio quality, and I need to troubleshoot. However, there is frequently a communication barrier when the end user generically summarizes the symptomotology as “crappy audio” or a similar unscientific description of the actual problem. A medical doctor has to run multiple diagnostic tests when a patient has a broad or ambiguous set of symptoms in order to narrow down [...]
Posted on 14 April 2011 by Murph KrajewskiTick tock, tick tock… April 18 waits for no man.
Let me spoil the surprise for you now. There’s no (direct) monetary benefit at the end of this post, but I’m going to keep it short for a reason. The tax break that you’re getting here is a break from filling out forms and deciphering the tax code. A moment of clarity. A “guided exhale,” if you will.
Think about all of the confusing documents and work sheets we’re saddled with every year around this time. Think about who has created those forms. The procedures are documented by [...]
Posted on 7 March 2011 by Joe StaplesI’m going to tackle this topic in several installments (lest I get yelled at by the blog crew police for having a post that is too long). So here’s where I’m starting from…
Most contact centers that I visit….well….they "exist." What I mean is they do pretty much what they did yesterday, and the day before that, and the year before that. Not a lot of change. Plenty of ideas for change, but not much action.
Then there are the rare innovative ones. Those like Vegas.com, Phillips Medical, and Loan Depot, where everyday, the people at these contact centers wake [...]
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