Business Operations Today
The Lack of Knowledge

If the lack of time locks the door to Business Operational Efficiency improvement, the lack of knowledge makes sure that the key gets buried.

Technology is evolving so rapidly that its hard for even the professionals who are active in their respective disciplines to keep up. This especially true in the Information Technology domain. As time goes on, an increasing percentage of the work load for most business Processes is involved in managing and communicating information. There are many powerful and new programs becoming available all the time that help with these kinds of tasks. But there is a fundamental problem with powerful software tools. They carry a significant cost in time and effort to effectively incorporate them into existing Processes. Even the most common programs that most of us use like word processors are designed with incredible capabilities that only about 10% of which are even used in most offices and business environments. This is because of the high investment in time and training required to use the other 90% of the capabilities.

Technology and power are not in and of themselves effective solutions. It's the knowledge of what can be done and how to apply it to a need that represents an effective solution. The most efficient tool is one that is only as complex as it needs to complete the functions that it is required to do. Therefore, the most efficient solution to incorporating powerful programs into business Processes is to design an interface to the user that utilizes the capabilities of the program but shields the user from the unnecessary complexity. To do this, knowledge of the program capabilities must exist as well as the knowledge of the functional needs of the Process being improved. In short, it's the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principal and is not as difficult to implement as it might seem to someone without an in-depth knowledge of software technology and its application.

Software tools are not the only opportunities for Process improvements but they are the most obvious and prevalent. Every task, no matter what it is, conforms to a very simple model. It takes in information and/or physical items, uses tools to process them, and then outputs new information and/or modified physical items. A mowed lawn outputs a lawn with shorter grass. There are many techniques that are effective at approaching, organizing, and improving tasks of all kinds. As eluded to earlier, there is even an emotional component to completing tasks that can be dealt with effectively so that efficiency improves. Knowledge of these techniques is critical to being effective in what we call "Process Solving". An important point here is that everyone can be taught the principals of Process Solving to begin to generate Process improvement ideas themselves.

We intend to turn Business Process Engineering into a science. Every solution we find becomes an opportunity for those businesses we work with to improve and there will always be an endless supply of newer and better solutions for working better and smarter with more personal fulfillment.