The eg blog has been launched to encourage discussion and debate between people interested in operations management, operational intelligence, performance management and related topics. We will also cover key issues we see affecting our clients, the financial services industry and customer service operations in general.

As an operations management software company with over 20 years of experience of implementing software and services within blue chip companies throughout the world, we hope the content published on this blog will give you ‘food for thought’ and stimulate conversations between ourselves and other people with experience or an interest in our field.

The writers who contribute to the eg blog come from varying backgrounds with a diverse selection of expertise, as you will see by reading their profiles. We welcome all comments and contributions and hope we can create an online community which will offer real value to our readers. If you have any requests for a certain topic or discussion please get in touch.

As this is the very first blog entry, we have decided to start with the basics. We use the terms ‘operations management’ and ‘operational intelligence’ regularly, but what do these terms mean and how are they connected?

If you have a different take on these subjects or have any additional information you would like to share, please leave a comment.

Operations management – the methodology
True Operations Management should provide a consistent approach to actively managing work, people and processes across multiple locations – to deliver improved operational effectiveness through customer service, quality and productivity standards. It should also minimise rework and unlock bottlenecks.

The problem with many Operations Management technology deployments is that they often overlook the reason why the technology is needed in the first place. They set out to deliver the ability to ensure that work is ‘done’ – consistently, on time, and correctly. Yet they miss one of the key ingredients to corporate success – the day-to-day management of the people involved. 

Firms need to manage the way their people interface with processes & systems more carefully. Successful firms have derived as much as 40% additional productivity improvement over and above that achieved by a technology solution in isolation. 

It is only this fact-based management of work, people and performance that will deliver real, tangible results and long term benefits.

Operational intelligence – the tools to do the job
How can you improve your business operations to become more efficient, transparent and agile? 
Operational Intelligence enables you to analyse and manage your business activities in real-time to improve your business operations. Managers and Team Leaders can choose effective actions quickly and make better decisions to allow optimal response at the right time. 

By bringing together existing technologies such as BPM, BI, Workforce Management and CRM, Operational Intelligence provides the missing link – historic, real-time and predictive Management Information (MI). 

It’s not just about monitoring or looking at and comparing historical results. Think of it as technologies operating from a common infrastructure, but looking at the data at different frequency levels. Operational intelligence is about driving action and embedding the capabilities to take action and deliver improvements. Operational Intelligence will impact business results – guaranteed.