Bloor Research have published an InDetail white paper on Optimising Back Office Performance.  The report was produced in conjunction with eg solutions, building on the Bloor Spotlight paper ‘Operations Management for the Services Sector’ which looked at operational management solutions for the Service Sector. This latest InDetail release looks at eg solutions operational management solution, including technical architecture and client case studies and is a must read for anyone interested in improving operations management and optimising back office performance.

Here’s an excerpt…..

Bloor Research identified that there were a number of solutions that organisations may have already purchased or are thinking of purchasing to solve the issues involved in gaining control of operations management.  Bloor identified that there were two key approaches of IT solutions built to support operations management.  The first is based around Business Intelligence which requires significant effort to tailor an appropriate solution.  The second approach involves the use of specialised applications consisting of a variety of automated components, including workforce management, capacity management, customer management, process management.

If you would like to be the first to receive this paper please complete the short form below.

Other associated link that may be of interest:

Linked in groups:

eg operations management http://bit.ly/cq6Egd

Operational Intelligence http://bit.ly/acZvOV

Blog: http://bit.ly/b6fVQ9

As companies endeavour to meet social and employee responsibilities there seems to be a growing trend with the number of companies allowing staff to work from home.

Many sources seem to suggest that there are benefits for both the employer and employee with working from home, the employer gaining from higher productivity and reduced long term costs; the employee, greater flexibility and the great feeling that they wont have to fight the rest of the world on the road, train or bus in order to get to work on time.

If working from home is going to be successful, managers must expand their styles of management beyond traditional face to face methods. They need to develop a different approach as well as understanding what good looks like to enable stretching yet achievable targets to be set and progress monitored remotely.

Managing someone you seldom see is difficult.  The big challenge for managers comes with developing a suitable system to effectively communicate, motivate and monitor home workers with to ensure that targets are being understood and being met.

As my colleague referenced in an earlier blog employee engagement and the right behaviours will deliver the right results http://www.eguk.co.uk/blog/remote-working-and-employee-engagement/

I feel one of the key issues is a lack of effective management and the lack of social interaction which often lead to feelings of isolation.

I’m interested to know if you are a manager with team members working from home.  How has your management style had to change and how do you monitor your staff at home? What system do you use and have you developed it in-house or purchased it off the shelf? How successful is it and at what cost?  We can then get some views on your specific experiences.

Please email me to share your experiences at chrisfryer@eguk.co.uk

intelligent operations management

Following the ‘emergency’ budget earlier this week it appears major changes will take place in the public sector.  HR and Operations departments and will face huge challenges under the cuts and recruitment freeze.  So how can lessons be learnt from Financial Services who constantly face these challenges?

I refer to a blog post Colin Whelen, Senior Contact Plannning Specialist at the Professional Planning Forum from who discusses a four step process for planning.

Whilst there are mountains to be climbed, good operational management practices will drive efficiency gains – so lets share some of the learning and ideas we practice daily and maybe the pain of change will be made easier and deliver a better service for all.

When talking to operational & performance managers I hear that many of them are running programmes such as Lean, System Thinking or Six Sigma in order to help them make improvements to their processes. An interesting point that many of them raise is that whilst their adopted methodology is clearly delivering benefits they do experience common challenges which they feel limit the projects short term objectivity or long term sustainability.

I am interested to know if you are running a process improvement programme within your organisation. If so please email me to tell me about it.  How successful is it and why?  What are your challenges and what are you doing in response to them?  What is missing or what would make your project more successful?

Please contact me at chrisfryer@eguk.co.uk with your views and experiences and I look forward to sharing with you what’s recommended.

If you complete your details below we will send you a white paper on ‘Supporting Performance Improvement in Service Organisations’

I read with interest the recent blog from my colleague, Andrew Baker where he explored how important it is to get the people who are dealing with customer interactions and processing to take ownership for a balanced set of operational measures that reward the right behaviours.

This ownership should always be supported by a subsequent ability to capture consistent performance data about the processes and activities as well as the people who are performing them.

The most striking thing that I have learned after nearly 10 years in helping our customers improve overall operational management is that having access to consistent performance data is a basic need that provides the catalyst for first line managers and senior managers to implement consistent operations management best practice.

Without credible information about how well processes are performing, what activities need to be completed and how well our people are succeeding in terms of customer service, productivity, skills and quality; a manager is unable to take the right actions to improve performance and in particular the level of variance that exists.

However, simply providing access to the performance data is only the start and organisations need to put considerable emphasis on first line managers and senior manager to make sure that they are effectively trained in how to analyse and use the information to drive improvements in the level of variance in performance.

So why is it so important to drive improvements in the level of variance in performance?

Let’s consider some examples of the impact of variation across a processing function of 200 colleagues:

• 10% variance in productivity can reduce the amount of customer work completed within by the equivalent of 70 man days a week

• 5% error rate in our quality can mean that we have to have extra 10 colleagues just to re-do work that has already been completed once and this doesn’t even look at the delay to the customer

• The impact of lower skill levels across key process can mean that we need to spend 25% more time producing the same level of work

Therefore the role of first line operations managers in particular, is to analyse the variance that exists and take action.  A large proportion of variance typically exists within the people due to different skill levels; pace and motivation levels or by the fact that different people will follow different procedures to complete the same activities.

Consistent operational performance measures at a people level for skills; quality and productivity therefore should provide suitable benchmarks that can be used to quickly identify where help may be required.  This needs to go beyond simply capturing actual activity levels and has to ensure effective comparison to what Andrew referred to as ‘what good looks like’ in his blog posting.

In my personal experience, the consistency and credibility of this data and its availability on demand is the key to providing confidence to first line managers to take appropriate action and make significant improvement in people performance.

Our clients using the eg operational intelligence^® software suite certainly prove that to be the case.

Tim will be sharing his extensive experience in helping organisations set, implement and sustain effective performance management objectives at the Professional Planning Forum Conference on 19-20 April.

Our next Guest Blogger is Jane Mayhew, Operational Performance Manager in the Client Services Department at Zurich International Life.

Jane wrote this in response to the recent blog entry written by Andy Baker – ‘What’s measured gets better!’

Recently I was asked about “engagement” – What does it mean?  What value does it add?  How should it be done? And why is it important?

Having discussed it with several colleagues I have come to the conclusion that engagement is important in helping our colleagues feel that they are contributing to the business success either as part of a team or as an individual.  

Management should have a good knowledge of their business and subject, they should be able to roll up their sleeves and help when needed and, most importantly, they should be able to talk in a candid manner with everyone, regardless of status.  Our Head of Customer Experience manages to share his vision with everyone within the team in a way that they understand and feel that they can challenge, even during staff briefings.  His warmth “engages” people and they want to be a part of the team’s success.  Some may say he has the Customer Experience factor.

Another manager said “say hello in the morning and goodbye in the evening, no matter what your own day has been like”.  Being professional in attitude and human in approach appears to be the key to success.

eg work manager® provides us with many of our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that permit us to measure our successes.  It isn’t the only tool we use but it does allow us to measure and target team managers and team members and direct them in achieving our business goals.  Team members can see how well they are performing and if they need help, can request it from their colleagues with a clear idea about what the priorities in the team are.

Daily Capacity Planning meetings (DCPs) and bi-weekly performance reviews create opportunities to work as a team of teams and the sharing of resources across global functional units rather than at a local level have helped our ability to improve service to our customers.  With recognition and reward mechanisms in place, team members can feel that their managers talk to them honestly about what the metrics tell them and drive a cycle of continuous improvement at both a personal and process level because they have the MI to evidence this.

Please note: this blog post reflects a personal opinion and is not representative of the formal views of Zurich International Life.

• operational intelligence
• operations management
• operational management
• performance improvement
• workforce management
• resource planning
• operational management training
• productivity improvement
• customer services software
• workforce planning
• business process management

So what do all the above mean……why all the different angles?

Well the crux of things I feel is that we need to deliver to the customers’ expectations while minimising the costs of doing so.  If this is the case what is the best path to take…..getting people to do the correct thing at the correct time…not just for a project’s sake, not because a newer technology promises the world but takes too long or is too expensive to do so. Run your business properly.  Understand what you already have in place, use what you have coupled with real-time operational metrics and change operational management behaviours.

This brings sustainability, continuity and supports the proliferation of continuous improvement best practice. What do you think and which initiative has delivered the best benefits for you?

Over the last few weeks we have been developing a new area on the website for case studies.

The case studies detail projects with organisations such as The Co-operative Financial Services, Legal & General, Resolution (South Africa) and HBOS and will help anyone with an interest in operational management to understand the benefits that can be achieved through the implementation of eg’s operational management software and methodology.  All are available to download in pdf format or can be easily forwarded in an email.

If you have any questions about any of these case studies or would like to find out more about the eg operational intelligence® software suite, email ask@eguk.co.uk.

Last time (“You can’t measure my work” versus “What get’s measured get’s managed”) I looked at the tension between measuring variable processes and the value if you persevere in doing this.  It looks like I stirred up a hornet’s nest of feedback – and thank you for it!

I also promised to feedback those views.  Some of these were posted direct to the blog.  But however you fed back to me – whether there on the blog, through e-mail, calls/text or when we met face to face at your office, our Focus Group or Software User Group – thank you one and all!

Let’s start with Debbie Strickland, as she explained about the desire people have in WANTING to achieve the goals you set them based on the measure.  As they strive towards these goals they show their colleagues, themselves and you, HOW they add value.  So make sure you think carefully about WHAT each target is when you set it!  And don’t “micro” manage as you use the measure, but make sure you look at consistent performance over a longer time.

Gary Stone points out the need to measure the right PEOPLE, delivering service in the right way with the correct result.

Even though we measure a process, Paul Cooper reminds us to involve the team.  PEOPLE bring different strengths – so make sure you recognise these strengths and those that deliver QUALITY steadfastly – as well as those who produce volume.

Next time, we will focus on team involvement to support ownership and engender belief in measures, what they show us and the potential to achieve a POSITIVE impact on REALISING tangible business benefits.  Contact me at andrewbaker@eguk.co.uk or sms +44 7785 29 03 46 if you have examples to share too!

Written by Guest Blogger Colin Whelan, Senior Contact Centre Planning Specialist at the Professional Planning Forum.  

The Professional Planning Forum (www.planningforum.co.uk) is the independent industry body for effective resourcing and planning in the contact centre industry, working across all industry sectors to provide specialist support for contact centre professionals.  Championing the importance of these critical skills, the Planning Forum is widely recognised for its best practice research and case studies, as well as the results focused nature of its professional development training and in-company workshops.

Take a look at any call centre planning job on the market today and you’ll find a dizzying array of requirements.  Now, in increasing numbers of cases, employers are also looking beyond the call centre.  They’ve seen the gains to be made by bringing exceptional planners into their customer service environment and want to replicate their skills in the back office as well.

The problem, however, is that back office activity is inherently different to front office operations.  Instead of matching staffing levels to a call demand profile, back office planning is about creating a demand profile that suits the staffing levels already in situ.  It’s not aboutqueue management, it’s about workload management – and this, for many
planners, is a relatively untested area.

In fact, by following a four-step process, planners can not only get to grips with back office planning, but can actually start making as much of a difference there as they do in the call centre.  The fours steps are Process, Data, Planning and Performance Management.

• Process – Understand your processes and their complexity
• Data – You need to determine what level of detail you require from the data you’re capturing in order to ensure that each of those processes outlined in step one becomes as streamlined as possible and can be measured
• Planning – It is at this stage that a planner will be able to produce forecasts for workloads, start tracking targets and begin scheduling according to individual back office workers’ abilities
• Performance Management – Here, a planner will need to identify productivity, not only in terms of the individuals carrying out the work, but also the effectiveness of the processes those individuals are carrying out.

The reality is that defining processes and capturing data will only give you a snapshot of what’s happening in the
back office.  Equally, planning will only give you a tool to effectively resource the demands you’re anticipating. To
create a really streamlined back office environment, planners need to go one step further; they need to analyse all the
facets of steps one to three to identify what is being done well and, conversely, what aspects could be re-engineered and how.

Strategically focused planners are arguably the best people to support this process re-engineering work. But even the best planners in the country will not succeed if they don’t, right from the outset, have a firm grasp of what their success criteria are.

Summary taken from a white paper written by Mr P Ezzard, eg solutions plc.

To request a copy of the full white paper please email racheloliver@eguk.co.uk

Research in the USA retail banking sector suggests that at the turn of the century, 70% of customer transactions were still undertaken by face-to-face contact in High Street branches.  By 2005 this had reduced to 42% and it is predicted in 2010 it will account for only 30% of service transactions (Corporate Executive Board 2006 – Lean Manufacturing for Financial Services).

These face-to-face transactions have been replaced by telephone; internet and ATM entered requests routed to large Contact and Processing Centres. This pattern is being repeated in service organisations across the world.

This change has been driven in part by the development of technology but also by organisations wanting to reduce costs and improve service through centralisation, outsourcing and off-shoring of service support and processing.

In this context further research in the USA suggests that in service industries 40% of operational costs are wasteful even when the work is undertaken in dedicated centres (Corporate Executive Board 2006 – Lean Manufacturing for Financial Services). Similar research in the UK suggests that “failure demand” in Contact and Processing Centres can account for anything from 20 to 60% of all customer transactions in financial services, often higher in local authorities and utilities (Seddon 2003 and 2008).  (Failure demands are customer contacts and subsequent processing activities caused by a failure to do something or do something right for the customer.)

It is therefore not surprising that service organisations are continuously looking at ways in which to improve performance.

Two key ways of doing this are through:

• Operational management improvements that result in the more effective utilisation of resources and processing systems available.  For example, implementation of operational intelligence and improved operations management practice.

• Initiatives aimed at achieving improvement through re-engineering processes, structures and cultures.  For example, “Lean” and “Six Sigma”.

The two approaches are separate but complementary.  The purpose of the full white paper is to provide an overview of several of the more common improvement methodologies and then to show how eg operational intelligence^® can be used alongside them to monitor success and maximise the benefits that can be achieved by organisations striving to meet customer and cost improvement requirements.

To request a copy email me or contribute to what improvement methodologies you are using please comment.

Let’s unpack this a little more and then please feel free to comment:

Given my previous blog entry around the problems with the “silver bullet” mentality to solve operational management issues, I wish to emphasise my belief that by getting the day-to-day running of an operational management area to be “optimised”, a minimum of 20 and up to 50% productivity gain is easily possible – while working with the existing operational parameters (the as is) before spending huge effort (time, money) on the move to a new future view (the to be).

This then underpins the understanding of the current situation, generates productivity gains and becomes the “measurement system” to understand what is required to migrate to the “to be” in a more controlled and structured manner.

Broadly speaking operational management should:

• Define what you have in terms of current processes
• Apply real-time operational metrics to unlock the understanding
• Gain control of the current operational space by applying a tried, tested and proven operational management methodology
• Deliver rapid productivity gains
• Understand the type and appropriateness of interventions (combinations of items mentioned under the “silver bullet” point above) and be able to measure their impact in transforming from the “as is” to the “to be” environment in a controlled fashion.

And yes, be able to do this before, during or after other initiatives….

Do you agree or can you share your experience of chicken or egg?  Please comment and we can get some debate going.

At our recent Focus Group at Think Tank, Birmingham, we discussed operational needs for now and the next 6-12 months with our customers.   With a range of operational responsibilities represented, these varied.  However, when it boiled down to it, the majority of delegates needed to understand their business (customers, processes and employees), forecast and then optimise their operation to ‘cope’ with the future.

That made me think, as a Team Manager or Customer Service Manager, what should my priorities be now in the current climate?  Have my needs really changed over the last 12 months?

I don’t think current needs are really any different from what most organisations have always tried to do (some just more effectively than others).  The current economic climate has just put the effectiveness of this process under the microscope.

So where should you start in improving your own organisations ability to manage now and in the future?  Paul Cooper from West Bromwich has already blogged about the challenges of a quantitative and qualitative dilemma.  If we add in the need to understand our customers’ journey, delivering on our promises, case ownership versus functional ownership and the business improvement projects that we have to deliver – oh by the way at a reduced cost -  what should we do?

Back to basics I say!  The old adages are the best – ‘If you cannot measure it you cannot manage it’.  Do you and all of your colleagues really understand your business?

Until you do, your ability to deliver is challenging.  So what pearls of wisdom do I offer I hear you shout?  Well how about these to start with:

• Make sure the information you collect adds value to your customers and your organisation.
• Make the collection of it as easy as possible – but make no mistake that collecting it is important by demonstrating the value of the output for those who have to collect it!
• Focus the measures on understanding your customers, the processes they have to follow and your co-workers who have to manage your processes.
• Engage all your staff in the importance and benefits of the Management Information for them and your customers – it is generally a self fulfilling process.  It then becomes an embedded part of your organisations DNA – the way we do things around here.
• Targets change – so change your focus but retain the balanced set of measures – it means you will be making fact based decisions.
• Make sure you share the information within your business – it’s amazing what impact sharing knowledge about your back office processes does for the front office and ultimately your customer.

The list could go on – but perhaps you could share some thoughts on what has worked best for you?  Leave a comment or email me: jamesblackhurst@eguk.co.uk.

All those specialist case handlers, counter staff, underwriters, complaints specialists and more tell me that every work request is different.  When I ask if we can measure how long the task should take, the number there are or the result achieved, I’m also told: “Well you should have been here yesterday” or “That one’s not typical” or “This is different because…”or “Yesterday they were all easy ones!”

However, there is no need for anyone to worry!  We all know that there is variation in how long things take and so any measure that covers standard time, quality, skill, service levels or process performance can be a good guide – even if the measure is not 100% precise.  It will then support how we report performance or plan for the next period ahead.

The great news is that by getting comfortable with a “robust” measure for these things, aka “the balanced range of measures”, then we have a basis for both: 1) telling us how well our process or operations perform now and 2) telling us how to plan for the future.  They provide a guide to help us answer “How many people do we need to hit our service levels?” “Who should I train next on which process?” and “Which processes will need more or less resource in the future?”, amongst many more issues you might like more information on.

So using the law of averages and the 80/20 principle (“Pareto’s Law”, where 20% of the time gets 80% of the result) we can refine the measures and move them ever closer to what everyone believes is a truly accurate figure.

Tell us your experience of measuring your processes – what works for you?  What should we avoid?  We’d love to hear!  Contact us: ask@eguk.co.uk.

The operational environment is characterised by the proliferation of initiatives that touch on the all-too-often cited people, process and technology space but operational thinking is confused by a number of familiar misconceptions:

1. The infamous ’silver bullet’ – whether this be BPM, New System Replacement /System Enhancement, Lean Six Sigma or BAM is characterised by the incorrect belief that in focusing all efforts on one of these initiatives our operational world will be transferred into the infamous ‘greener pasture’.

2. You can’t focus on more than one thing at a time – in conjunction with the first misconception, there is the belief that, or rather lack of understanding of, what is actually required to support the ability to do ‘multiple things/projects’.

The reality is much of the above is premised on the fact that day-to-day operations are already being run optimally…….isn’t this where so much success or failure is pinned from the get go?

During our recent presentation at the IT Web BPM summit much support was expressed around the following for:

1. The inability for BPM on its own to transform operational management and guarantee results.

2. eg’s ability to either precede or implement concurrently with a BPM deployment to ensure managerial behaviour transformation.

I have the presentation slides from this event that cover how day–to-day operations are not being run optimally and what can be done to turn this around quickly, with some outstanding results.

For anyone who is interested in receiving the slides please email tonycohn@egsa.co.za

After reading an article in Management Today on management trust it got me thinking how trust is fundamental to effective organisational performance. 

“Organisations continue to flatten structures to remove unnecessary layers of management, develop team working and empower employees to take more responsibility for their own performance.  To achieve this you need leaders and you need trust”.  Download the full report at www.i-l-m.com

I agree with the report’s findings.  When an organisation is transparent, applies structure and measures performance of both teams and individuals and then reports on this, it creates a common goal so trust is bound to improve.

Management Today and the Institute of Leadership & Management investigated what trust there is between employees and their managers and leaders.  They surveyed 5,673 people in total.  They asked how much they trusted their line managers and their CEO’s to get a unique snapshot of the state of trust within their organisations.

The most trusted line managers are highly competent, understand what is involved in their employees’ roles, are principled, honest and treat people equally.  How well do you measure up?

The length of time someone has been a line manager or how long a leader has been in a post has an important bearing on employees levels of trust.  However, I would say having the right skills is just as important but often overlooked and not used to enhance business operations. 

Can you answer honestly and accurately who are the leaders, top performers and most trusted in your organisation – those who deliver business results?

eg has tried, tested and proven management principles based on production management techniques (capacity planning, short interval scheduling and line balancing) that offer an approach to improving the management of operations functions through managers managing. 

The methodology supports a software solution that alone has limited benefits.  Using this methodology people, leaders, teams and management are able to:

• Identify appropriate decisions and actions that improve efficiency and customer service while reducing costs
• Deliver consistency in management of work, resources and performance across the business
• Develop a world-class operational management capability where teams take responsibility for their own performance.

The core of the eg principles of operational management® is the eg process for managing®, where Managers and Team Leaders are coached in using management techniques to enable them to make the right operational decisions using the software.  So often we take for granted the skills of our people, teams and individuals without actually really knowing.

The better you know your line manager the more likely you are to trust them.  I add that the more transparent an organisation and its performance levels and expectations can seriously improve your business operations and enable your people to deliver results. 

Are you taking steps to maximise your own personal and team capability that develops trust through the right behaviour?  I’d be interested to hear how so please share your stories with me.
 
Note:
ILM is Europe’s leading management organisation that improve leadership and management skills.  The ILM certificates the Managers and Team Leaders who successfully complete the eg principles of operational management® training programme, thereby providing them with the recognition from a leading national professional and awarding body.

To download the full survey visit:

http://www.i-l-m.com/downloads/Index_Leadership_Trust_09_%282%29.pdf

eg would like to introduce Paul Cooper, Contact Centre Operations Manager from West Bromwich Building Society, as our first Guest Blogger.

Having spent the day at an eg user group it got me thinking re the dilemma of Quantity vs Quality.  To me it is a quandary in so much as whilst each should form the basis of a balanced scorecard, how do you balance this?  I’m not sure how you can truly achieve both, as each has such conflicting aims.

Consultants and “experts” over the years have moved their thinking away from quantity towards the quality angle.  When working as a Team Manager 10 years ago, the aim was to shift the bits of paper from the Team Inbox to the team Outbox as quickly as possible.  It wasn’t until I’d been running the team for a while that I realised that these bits of paper represented the real lives of customers – if the team got things wrong then the consequences were more than just a bit of re-work.

Now I have to take the holistic company approach for MI and forecasting purposes, I can understand completely the impact of both, with regards to reworks, complaints etc, etc… When we look at Continuous Improvement programmes the key driver is ensuring that the company does more for less, whilst ensuring that quality is of a high standard.  So the focus remains on Quantity with Quality as an important Output.

The main target for processing staff is their productivity.  Quality scores come second. Whilst we have dabbled with the targets, staff still work to ensure that they achieve 100% productivity at all times.

When a whole culture within a large department has been fostered towards achieving good performance measures and then the experts change their mind, how do you change the culture to focus on quality (within a short period of time), whilst also ensuring that staff do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay?

If anyone has achieved this successfully I would be grateful if you could share any experiences with me. Answers on a postcard please….

Please leave a comment or contact Paul by emailing ask@eguk.co.uk

My role in the Client Implementation team involves coaching clients of eg in operations management techniques and in the use of the eg operational intelligence® software suite.  In order to measure, manage and improve productivity we spend time at the outset of each project measuring how long it takes staff to complete tasks.  The unit times we record help us to assign standard times to tasks – taking into account skill level – and these times can then be entered onto our software and used to forecast how long it will take teams to finish work and analyse how well they are performing against standard times.  This is essential to help Managers and Team Leaders understand how staff are performing and helps them to identify and correct any issues – such as training needs or underperforming staff – swiftly to reduce any impact on the performance efficiency of the organisation.

So, do you think individuals should be credited with additional time for reworking a case?

Historically eg’s stance has been no i.e. rework tasks should carry a zero time.  This is on the basis that there is no incentive to complete the case right first time if you know that you’ll get a generous allowance of time to correct it.  However, many of eg’s clients allow between 1 minute and 10 minutes to rework a case to avoid challenge and conflict.  This is inflating levels of productivity and masking underlying performance issues.  Is this still the right approach?

Please let me know what you think – leave a comment or email me terifebery@eguk.co.uk

To continue the theme of customer service, and as eg are hosting a Software User Group today, I have decided to write a post on customer forums and their customer service benefits.

Every year eg run several operations management best practice forums, split between Focus Groups for Team Leaders & Managers and Software User Groups for Business Administrators.

The forums are developed to align event content with industry issues and client requirements and contain three core elements:

• Networking
• Operational Management Best Practice Development
• Product Development

Over the years we have found these forums have helped us to understand more closely the needs of our customers.  They also enable our customers to discuss and debate common issues, share best practice and suggest ideas for how we can develop our products and continue to help them reach their project or organisational goals.

Do you host or attend forums similar to eg’s?  Or perhaps you use online customer forums?  Who should own these forums: is it the client attending or the company that is hosting?

Whatever the case, I’d be interested to know what you think makes a good customer forum and the benefits you think forums like this can have on a customer service programme.  Please leave a comment or email me: catherinestaite@eguk.co.uk.

I have been training and coaching operational management disciplines in the UK for over 10 years and recently been working in South Africa too.   I think that regardless of the culture or operating environment the following tips for Team Leaders are the basic fundamentals in achieving operational excellence. 

Do you have any other daily tips you think should be added to this list?  Email me: wendyjeavons@eguk.co.uk

1. Keep your measures up to date!  Put in place a quarterly review process to validate all measures including service standards, staff skills and quality.

2. Maximise your available hours.  Produce stretching plans each day to meet individual and team targets.

3. Ensure all team members have a full days work based on their available hours and skill.  Apply the principles of short term scheduling to maintain motivation throughout the day.

4. Communicate daily objectives to the team.  Hold ‘Buzz Sessions’ each morning to energise and motivate everyone.

5. Involve the team in visualising performance throughout the day.  Update a whiteboard to show progress against plan.

6. Manage By Walking About!!  Don’t get stuck behind your PC.  Monitor work completion throughout the day by visiting each member of the team.

7. Actively feedback and coach on personal skills e.g. customer service in addition to technical areas.

8. Manage performance variance across the team.  Be prepared to challenge and don’t forget to recognise achievements throughout the day to maintain pace and productivity.

9. Analyse your results.  Understand the cause and effect relationship between all Key Performance Indicators.  For example the impact of skill levels on quality standards.

10. Undertake process reviews in consultation with your team members and other areas that impact the process.

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.