Passageways Blog : Transforming Enterprise and Industry Knowledge into New Success

Nathan and Stephanie discuss the OSI client community and OSI's latest conference.

Check down, Zebra 33, Monkey-Monkey, on two, hut one, zebra L, Zebra L, Loui, Loui, tap on the bottom, left leg lift, Dallas, Dallas, hut two....and the ball is snapped.

Sound funny?  These are not typos.  This is a quick example of what Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts might say at the line of scrimmage prior to beginning a play.  Peyton is one of the only quarterbacks, if not the only quarterback who has the intelligence and leash to run the entire offense completely by himself.  For the casual fan this might not seem like much, but it is so much more.  Running an NFL offense is extremely complex and there are many responsibilities.  Reading the defensive set, looking for the blitz, realigning the line, the receivers, the tight end, the running back(s), reading the defense again, possibly changing the play, and taking the snap.  Not to mention, he has only 40 seconds to do it all.

What exactly is Peyton doing?  He is organizing, giving orders, re-aligning, adjusting, shifting, giving direction, providing direction, etc.  Most importantly, he is communicating!  Incredibly similar, enterprises do the exact same thing....just in a different manner with a different play clock.  The only difference is that Peyton understands the value of organized communication and content management.  Why do some enterprises not act on these same values? Let's take an enterprise portal for example.  There probably is not a hard number to calculate your return on portal investment.  However, if you used technology to organize and manage your enterprise communication and content, what is the benefit?  Circle Bank, CA, is one organization that has seen the light. 

Circle Bank is utilizing a hosted corporate portal which helps with overall efficiency, workflows, business process automation, document management, product and services, help desks, and more.  Let's make one thing clear; an employee portal is much more than a static front page intranet.  Bank Technology News has noticed it when it recognized Circle Bank in their 2009 Top 5 IT initiatives for Community Banks. A portal is a relationship, a growing and evolving product that is designed to mature with your outfit while providing the necessary permission strings.  It also allows for flexibility, centralization, and decentralization of content management.  What does that mean for your business?  Simply that a portal allows you to take the burden off of the Information Technology staff and put the responsibilities on the individual departments or business units.  All of which does not require an IT Guru, coders, techies, developers, consultants, or any other specialized staff.

Now for the soft ROI, let's say that you have 100 employees averaging $35,000 in annual pay.  What if you technology could save each employee just 5 minutes a day.  That's a daily savings of $140.22.  That might not seem like too much, until you calculate that total annually.  That same 5 minutes per employee saves your enterprise over $38,000 annually.  What if you have 200 employees?  Double it.  Those 5 minutes not wasted per employee saves you over $76,000 annually.  Let's also talk about the time saved.  If you have 100 employees and each saved 5 minutes a day, that equates to 124,800 minutes saved.  Think of how many tasks those employees could have completed utilizing those 124,800 minutes more productively.  You may also see exactly how two other enterprises used similar technology to save both time and money.  T Bank and Bank of American Fork were acknowledged in Bank Technology News as 2 of the top 5 Community Banks for Information Technology Initiatives.

You tell me.  Peyton Manning uses innovative communication tools and does it extremely successfully.  With an extremely simple and underestimated ROI calculation, is it worth it?  If others are doing it, you might want to think about using the portal tool as a strategic benefit to your organization.

The Y2K problem is the electronic equivalent of El Nino and there will be nasty surprises around the globe. - John Hamre, United States Deputy Secretary of Defense

It's hard to believe that it has been ten years since the Y2K crisis. Do you remember that? The United States spent $100 Billion on Y2K fixes. When the clock struck 12:00am on January 1, 2000 everything was ok. Maybe it's because $100 Billion was spent on fixes. Money spent to guarantee that the computer infrastructure would not fall.

Ten years ago I was working for Bridge Information Systems. Bridge was a financial market data provider and Y2K was a big deal for us. Some of the world's largest financial institutions relied on our market data and we needed to ensure our systems would be up and running. We had to be Y2K compliant.

Today is no different. Individuals and companies alike rely on computers and the internet to communicate and make informed decisions. Now, imagine for a moment if every company in the world eliminated the use of computers all together.  Just for a moment, imagine it.

Absurd? I think so. Notwithstanding the personal conveniences of online banking and interacting on social media websites, how would the world's business get done? How would companies collaborate, update, and progress? We'd be back in the early 19^th century, relying on paper and mail service.

Surprisingly, the boards of directors of almost all companies in the world are living in the 19^th century. Computers, email and the use of the internet to manage the company's affairs are foreign to these groups of individuals. Why? They like paper books, demand paper books, and refuse any type of change.

How can they possibly be as informed as they need to be?

If I had a nickel for every Corporate Secretary who has told me that their board is adverse to change and refuses to give up their paper books; well I might be able to afford printing and shipping out 20 paper books 10 times a year.

It's time to demand more. I demand more from companies and the boards of directors.

I demand that they receive their materials and addendums in real time so they can make accurate, informed decisions. I demand that they collaborate with one another, regularly, and not once every month at the board meeting. I demand they have access to a board portal so that emergency meetings can be handled quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. I demand that Corporate Secretary's and General Counsel's alike use a board portal to streamline the packet creation process which will free up time to focus on core governance objectives.

I demand that companies and directors alike get with times. If you're not willing to progress I will invest my money elsewhere and spend my money elsewhere.

Last night I attended a lecture by Jason Fried of 37 Signals at Purdue University. He was speaking to an entrepreneur class my bosses Paroon and Chris teach.  If you haven't heard of Jason Fried, he is a relatively famous guy in software development and start up circles. He is known for innovative ideas in the realms of product design and management. Most of his talk was geared towards future entrepreneurs, but here are three ideas that I think are applicable to Credit Unions, and at least interesting enough to share with you. I think these ideas, and probably a lot of other ones are available in his book Rework.

1. You Can't Build a Brand- you have to build a business, and the brand flows naturally from the business. This is an interesting point, and I think it is partially true. If you try and build your Credit Unions brand on "Member Service" or "Convenience" you need to actually be an organization that values (spends time, energy and money on) Member Service and Convenience.

This makes sense, and in many cases should be true, but I also see examples of companies that build brands, that don't really align with their product.  The domestic beer industry is a great example:  Miller Lite proclaims that their product is "Triple Hops Brewed", while delivery a light fizzy product in which a hop like flavor can barely be detected.

2. Interruptions are the Enemy of Productivity- Jason said that his company works in different locations, and have very few meetings throughout the day. He proclaimed that Americans are working longer hours today, because they are working less at work. He suggested limiting the number of meetings, and turning off email and IM while trying to get work done.

I agree that it is hard to get work done in 45 min spurts between meetings and conference calls. Our concentration is diffracted by things like email, twitter, IM, Meetings, people coming over and saying Hi, and a thousand other things that keep us from getting work done. Minimizing distractions are an important thing, and allow us to get actual work done.

3. Useful is more important than Innovative- Jason claimed that innovation means nothing if it is not useful. Paperclips, pens, pencils are not innovative, but they are useful and are put to use every day. Don't do something innovative just to be innovative, ensure that your innovations are useful, otherwise they may end up looking like some of these products: http://www.vagabondish.com/top-20-useless-travel-gadgets-2007/

When considering new products, technologies, and services that you are offering to your members, think about how useful they are, not just how innovative they are.

Nathan and Chris do a review of the iPad.  Check it out and get some information on how you can win one for your very own.

 

 

"Since the responsibility of directorship comes with significant personal liability, executive and non-executive directors should receive relevant development and education to inform them of their duties, responsibilities, powers and potential liabilities in working at board level." - (King II Report)

In today's economic environment a company's board of directors and senior executive team face increased pressure, scrutiny and expectations. This serious environment demands a more acute knowledge of company activities. The Corporate Secretary's office is expected to provide more information, and do so more efficiently and much more quickly. As a result, Directors are now being asked to review, and be responsible for, considerably more information.

The advent of the board portal is streamlining the communication process for many companies, not-for-profit and Fortune 500 alike. These companies recognize the need to improve the governance process, are looking to achieve Green objectives by going paperless, and want to provide their directors with the ability to collaborate and interact electronically.

Let's take a look at 5 strategies to achieve a paperless shift with your board of directors.

1. Choose a strong partner - There is no shortage of providers to meet your board portal requirement. Although you should not be looking for a provider, but rather a partner. Your board portal is the last solution you want to have to implement twice. Choose a partner that you are confident can meet the needs of your board members. Check their references and ensure that all end-users, administrators and directors, use the solution and are happy with their choice.
   
2. Assess the current cost of the packet creation process - Once deemed to be an expensive alternative to the paper process, board portals are now proven to be a cost-effective alternative to printing large quantities of paper based reports. Ask your potential partners to work through a cost-analysis of your current paper process accounting for: billable hours, shipping, printing, and collaboration.
   
3. Assess the advantages of using a portal solution - Have you had an emergency meeting? How common are 11^th hour changes to your packets? Do your directors truly have enough time to review all of the content? Is your organization more environmentally aware? A board portal eliminates all of these concerns. Materials are received immediately and updates can be processed in real-time. Paperless, emergency packet changes can be handled online directly from the portal.
   
4. Find a solution that is scalable - Choose a solution and a partner that is committed to ongoing development and enhancement of its services. Ask potential partners for a list of updates processed over the last several quarters to ensure that they are consistently updating their application.
   
5. Find a champion - Every new implementation needs a champion, especially when you decide to implement a board portal. Involve a director who is progressive and recognizes the benefits that a portal offers. The supporting voice of your "champion" will aid in the process of making a paperless shift with your board of directors.

It's time for a shift in the way your board of directors communicates. A board portal streamlines the board communication process, encourages collaboration and interaction among directors, and reduces organizational risk. 

Two recent phenomena make this age old question very relevant, especially for businesses.  Businesses have traditionally relied on Experts or Consultant; the phone a friend option, if you will. This is first reaction is fast changing in business, as well as in every aspect of life!

First phenomenon- business communication has increasingly turning social. This is clearly evident at industry conferences accompanied by the now essential tweetups, and  also in the scores of social tools being announced in business software suites every day now equipped with social networking tools.

Second phenomenon - our collaboration tool sets are getting closer to real time at allowing activity streams to be incorporated in the way we work. Whether it is status updates being incorporated in software or businesses learning how tags are a great way to organize knowledge; just examples of how enterprise software is getting better at collaboration in real time.     

These two phenomena are leading to a more collaborative enterprise which in turn is driving a demand for industry wide communities. In fact, Passageways is proud to be associated with several such industry wide communities and observing the interaction in such communities truly insightful.

In our experience and from all empirical evidence, it appears that if you have a large wise crowd (diverse and independent), the crowd WILL beat out the experts in calling it right. Of course the crowd has to be somewhat knowledgeable, without being experts in the subject.

In the popular game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the "phone a friend" (expert) strategy has resulted in the right answer 65% of the time, quite impressive indeed. But if you really want to be a Millionaire, "poll the studio audience" strategy has been right an unbelievable 91% of the time! We have already seen how Google, Wikipedia, and the stock market, all of whom rely on the large groups of people, are already teaching us how "poll the studio audience" is a better option that "phone a friend".  

So, next time you have a question such as "which is the best industry conference to attend in 2010", you should try posting it to the biggest crowd you have access to,  and not default to the phone a friend option. Can this also be your best bet for next new product idea, for new recruits, vendor selection etc?

These results and the fact that we now have the tools to harness the collective wisdom of very large groups of people are fuelling the next phase of innovation at Passageways. Your business can't snooze on his one, as such community portals are already being planned across our industry. After all, individual and businesses can use this studio audience several times a day!

Yes, I admit - when you are a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail. But right about now, "Y'all need communities", or so I heard at GAC. So, what's the one community you really wish existed, online rather than on emails and forums?

Like every other business, hospitals need to make money. Yet most of them have been the slowest to realize that they are not an amalgamation of small sections, but enterprises that need to utilize their size better and get more efficient to become more successful. No other industry could survive with the kind of margins that hospitals make, but they can't afford to charge patients more. The only option:  have less cost.

Hospital woes are low margins, increasing receivables, reduced cash balance, and uncompensated care.  And since the start of the economic downturn these problems have become worse. The initial response to this has been downsizing in terms of staff, services, and stalling or even cancelling capital projects. Now that the new healthcare bill has passed, some relief should be provided to Hospitals (once it becomes active) on their uncompensated patient care. But it's too early to start counting that money. Hospitals need to shape up to keep the doors open until that flow starts. The goal is to get efficient to reach the stage where they start becoming more profitable.  It doesn't matter if you are for profit or not, the money shall just help you invest in better services for the community.

 Here are 5 thoughts on what Hospitals can do to get more efficient...

• 1. Focus on what you are good at - "Oft given and cheap advice, seldom taken to heart." Not every hospital needs to be a multi specialty location. Look at balance sheets to understand money makers and loss leaders. Other than convenience why would anyone come to your Hospital? A couple of important non-clinical focus areas have to be Patient Satisfaction and Staff Satisfaction. Do not just measure it, get active on it. Find the pain points and work towards changing those. If you are not sure then get help.

 

• 2. Get the experts - "A lot of hospitals have gone this route and ....... nothing changed." Honestly, industrial experts understand more about material and work flow. Get their help to design your patient flow. IT experts know more about how to get the best out of your information network, use their services. Get your people on board with these changes early and keep them engaged. Measure progress through the cycle of change and you might have to tweak the process if it is not working. Remember to do a sanity check to ensure that you are not slipping back to old habits.

 

• 3. Dashboards - "What gets measured gets done." This old saying is very misleading. What people believe in is what actually gets done. Choose your dashboards very carefully and make sure to the right stakeholders to buy in. Be sure that stakeholders understand their role in a process. Harvest information from your peers and network to see what is working for them and why. There is a cost associated with every action (time, manpower, IT etc.), be cognizant of that and focused on what the problems are.

 

• 4. Manage your dollar - "It is very easy to spend money but very difficult to make it." Think very carefully before investing your money. Ask your peers and others within the medical community. If you are not already a part of an association or community, join one and become an active contributor. Utilize the power of an interested and invested group of people to understand pro's, con's, and options.

 

• 5. Retention is the key - "The cost of losing an employee is about 38 percent of the departing employee's annual wage." Retain your staff. They are the ones who developed a rapport with the patients. Use your intranet portal to develop an organization identity. If you don't have and intranet portal, then get one. Use intranet portals and other communication tools to make their job simpler and reduce stress at work. Making information easier to access on your intranet portal empowers your employee and helps create standards at work. This helps making life simpler, therefore making you employees happier.

None of the above can be done without a strong and engaged management team. If you can't convince the board, a smaller group of people, then you can't convince the staff. Professional management and governance needs to become the norm rather than the exception. Improvement requires change at various levels, workflow is the easiest one. Pushing the belief that we can do better and getting out "I know best" rut is the tough one. Get people on board early and keep them engaged is key.