Ten Mobile BI Strategy Questions: Business Processes

When developing a mobile business intelligence (BI) strategy, you can’t ignore the role that business processes may play. In many cases, the introduction of BI content into the portfolio of mobile BI assets provides opportunities to not only eliminate the gaps in your business operations, but to improve the existing processes. Often, the impact is seen in two main ways. First, the current business processes may require you to change your mobile BI approach. Second, the mobile BI solution may highlight gaps that may require a redesign of your business processes to improve your mobile BI assets and your business operations.

Communicating with Numbers: The Most Critical Skill for Finance Pros?

Assuming we gather, interpret, and understand financial information, the manner in which we communicate this information will impact how we are perceived within our organizations, and the extent to which executives and operational leaders will take action based on your work.

The ROI of Follow-Up

Making time to review earlier proposals and decisions is hard… very hard. But it’s still one of the best time investments a leader can make.

When operating budgets are squeezed, we usually cut the training budget first. It’s an easy target because there is little visible, immediate impact. When time is squeezed, we usually cut follow-up reviews. Follow-up is an easy target because we tell ourselves we’ll get back to those reviews… when there’s time. So, when will that be? And how much might delay cost?

Ten Mobile BI Strategy Questions: Communication

I am often amazed to discover that the lack of communication in technology projects stems not from a lack of resources but from wrong assumptions made about what’s perceived to be communication as part of a mobile business intelligence (BI) strategy. Just as we know that social media analytics isn’t just about counting Facebook likes or Twitter tweets, we should know that in mobile BI an announcement e-mail along with an attached instruction document alone isn’t synonymous with communication. When developing a mobile BI strategy, you must consider all facets of communication—that includes not only multiple channels but also different formats. Moreover, you must pay attention to both quality (effectiveness) and quantity (volume and frequency) of the content to ensure its maximum effectiveness.

9 Steps for Launching Your BPM Program Successfully

Any process development program is a phased program. The first important phase is the launch. You need a plan in which the organization describes how it will roll out the Business Process Management initiative, selects processes for development and trains the people to lead the actual implementation.
Your plan for a successful BPM deployment should include, but is not limited to the following nine steps:

Two Moves Ahead

Anticipating Your Competitors’ Response In any extended conversation with and airline executive I’ll inevitably hear complaints about frequent flier programs.  They lament: Lost revenue High operating costs Customer dissatisfaction over error and restrictions (particularly angerous with today’s social media) And just what do airlines get in return from their loyalty programs? Woefully little loyalty. Schedule…

Don’t Try This at Home

I’m a fan of the television series, Mythbusters… getting paid to blow things up is one of my dream jobs.

Sitting comfortably in my sofa, it’s temping to think, “Hey, I could do that!” Whether dynamiting a cement truck or creating a massive fireball from non-dairy creamer (really!), I’m tempted to dismiss their “Don’t try this at home – we’re professionals” warning as mere hype.

The source of this over-confidence is simply that I don’t know what I don’t know.

Shoddy or Integrity?

Ancient Romans used integritas to describe pottery. Saying a ceramic piece had integritas meant the quality that appeared on the outside existed throughout the entire piece. There were no hidden weaknesses or imperfections covered by an attractive glaze. A vessel with integritas will hold up under stress.

Double Your Money In 7 Days Or Less!

Powerful pressures lure the most sincere project teams into over-valuing the projects they have been working on a long time. A simple question can alert leaders the numbers are unreliable.

You are the leader of a large organization and in front of you lies a proposal for a new IT project. You normally hate IT projects. They are usually are laden with incomprehensible acronyms & jargon and it is difficult enough trying to understand the problem they are describing let alone the solution. In this case, however, the team has done a smashing job: They have used plain English, all the right experts were involved, and the team achieved consensus for this recommendation. Best of all, the financials projected a credible and respectable 20% Return On Investment.

Now let me tap you on the shoulder and burst your bubble: