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In this issue: Keep growing in a downturn – |
November 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A letter from the executive officeIncreasing performance and profitability
Of course you would. Yet you might also be surprised at the variety and sheer number of organizations that are doing just that: increasing performance and profitability by capitalizing on existing resources, space and systems. Globalization has brought a new sophistication to businesses in highly advantaged labour markets and in this economy, every dollar counts. As a result, North American enterprises are looking to keep competitive edge in new ways. All organizations suffer from waste in one form or another, and there is an opportunity at every level of any organization to optimize operations and improve profitability and performance. Trimming away inefficiencies in the way that work is accomplished and resources are used is one of the best places for any enterprise to start. Imagine for a moment a world in which organizational change and flexibility are constants that inspire exhilaration rather than anxiety, where critical business information is always at your fingertips and both information technology (IT) security and storage processes are well managed. Now imagine increasing your productivity by double digits and reducing your operating costs. It may sound far-fetched, but this is a real world scenario within reach of virtually any organization. And Bell can help you get there, as we have worked with large organizations in a variety of sectors to help them trim out operational waste and achieve dramatic results. We recently helped a well-known loyalty marketing company increase productivity by more than 50 percent by eliminating steps and establishing new protocols. And a provincial government department was able to reduce the timeframe required to execute one of its key functions from 18 to 6 months. You could be next in line to achieve such results by simply changing how you manage the resources you already have. In this month’s Expert Q&A, Bell business transformation expert Luc Bernardin explains how a change in philosophy from the top levels on down can help you do this. You can also learn how to pull greater performance out of your ERP platform with our Five tips for optimizing your ERP or find out how to handle security and storage with less hassle and at a lower cost in Get lean: The case for managed security and storage solutions. If you want to know more about how you can make your enterprise leaner and more efficient our professional services team is waiting to hear from you. Contact us today for an overview or an audit on your environment. As always, we welcome your feedback on the tools and resources we offer you in Impact and on any other aspect of our services. Best regards, Stéphane Boisvert President, Bell Enterprise ... Assessment tool: How lean is your organization?The concept of ‘Lean’ refers to the efficiency of the processes used to transform an organization’s goals into reality. How efficient are your processes? Use these questions to find out how organization can create efficiencies and boost profit. ... Case study: Aeroplan process optimizationAeroplan was formed more than 20 years ago to build customer loyalty among Air Canada's most frequent air travelers. Today the loyalty marketing company generates $1.5 billion annually, has millions of loyal customers, and a network of more than 60 partners from the world of finance, retail sales and travel. Over the last few years, the company had expanded its range of activities without significantly adjusting processes. Aeroplan’s impressive growth put their ability to perform in jeopardy because new actions were handled as exceptions to existing methods, putting a heavy strain on operations. As a first step towards ensuring strong performance to match its growth, Aeroplan worked with Createch, a Bell Canada company, to evaluate its numerous processes and process categories. Just four out of 21 categories were retained:
Workshops were then held to identify and prioritize commercial processes. These included mapping the value chain in order to redefine processes, standardizing work methods, developing standard forms and identifying indicators used to evaluate process performance. Key project success factors were then identified, including:
Immediate results were encouraging, with a:
Find out how your organization can benefit from business transformation services from Bell by contacting your Bell representative today, or click here to have a Bell representative contact you. ... Expert Q&A: Dealing with the downturn – increasing efficiency and eliminating waste with supply chain optimization and ERPImpact sat down with Luc Bernardin, a Director with the Createch Group, a Bell Canada company that provides business transformation services and information technology solution integration. We quickly found out that fast, inexpensive changes based on the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean Enterprise (generally referred to simply as Lean) can increase efficiency and production in almost any industry by 15-30 percent or more. Find out how you can streamline your organization with these and other profit-boosting techniques.
Want to learn more? Download our assessment tool to uncover the efficiencies waiting to be discovered within your organization, or click here to have Bell representative contact you to discuss your requirements. Luc Bernardin is a Director with The Createch Group, a Bell Canada company that provides business transformation services and IT solution integration. ... Five tips for optimizing your ERPTransitioning processes and systems to an enterprise-wide platform brings obvious advantages. But to fully realize these advantages, as companies evolve and technology improves, ERP solutions must evolve as well. The biggest challenges in a continuously evolving environment include:
So why optimize? A freshly optimized ERP system can quickly deliver valuable business intelligence while reducing corporate risk and supporting governance. It can also reduce all manner of operating expenses, which fully justifies the cost of ERP optimization. Following are some top tips to get you there: 1. Keep current to ensure stability Keep your current ERP system software version up to date with patches and updates. Here are some of the technical benefits you can expect from regular ERP system updates:
2. Upgrade functionality for optimal efficiency Functionality upgrades take advantage of added capabilities offered in a newer ERP software version, enabling business process optimization. Such upgrades are almost always justified by the savings they generate. An ERP expert can help determine if a new version contains functions that will create a significant return on implementation for your business. If so, they should then be able to set parameters so that the system operates in line with your business process. It’s important to understand that functional upgrades are complex and involve a close working relationship with the affected user – special attention is needed to integrate new functionality with your existing data and processes. A functional upgrade should also eliminate non value-added activities and can also be used as an opportunity to:
3. Training, training, training Today’s ERP systems are so highly sophisticated that much potential functionality goes unused. So it pays to ensure that your employee’s are trained to be proficient with as many capabilities as possible. A greater knowledge of functionality will lead to time savings, faster procurement of information and improved ways of working. Improvements you can expect from ERP system upgrade training include:
4. Create custom dashboards Highly functional dashboard tools provide customized, real-time snapshots of the specific business metrics that matter most to managers and executives. This is done either by using the ERP’s existing modules or by means of a specialized dashboard / business intelligence tool. Benefits include:
5. Develop an ERP roadmap Your ERP is the central nervous system of your business – you need to have an integrated plan for its evolution and upkeep in order to make the most of your investment. For this you should find a trusted advisor like Bell who:
To learn more ... Get lean: The case for managed security and storage solutionsThe best way to get the most out of your threat detection and storage solutions while simultaneously reducing your security and storage costs may be to use managed solutions. Consider this: The high cost of viruses and spam Although virtually all organizations today have anti-virus and anti-spam systems in place, unwanted messages and malware still cost billions of dollars each year in bandwidth, storage and – especially – technical support. Spam makes up more than three-quarters of all email and this number is on the rise. One in every 200 emails contains a virus and 19.5 percent of emails contain links to malicious code. And in spite of organizations’ best efforts, some spam emails still make it into employees' inboxes, wasting their time and creating aggravation. In addition to driving up the cost of ownership, this can put business continuity, regulatory compliance and corporate reputation in jeopardy. Why managed security? Premises-based anti-virus and anti-spam systems are reactive and resource intensive, blocking intrusion while consuming bandwidth and storage. On the other hand, managed security solutions strip out unwanted content upstream before it reaches your network and staff. That means no additional storage fees and no decrease in bandwidth, not to mention a 99 percent spam capture rate and 100 percent virus protection. It’s a bit like turning on the tap and getting filtered water that’s safe to drink. Save on storage too Sophisticated data storage can also cut costs. This is made possible through techniques such as weeding out multiple copies of a document that were created during its distribution and by using what is called de-duplication technology to eliminate redundant data. Further cost savings can be realized by automatically archiving seldom-accessed and/or final copies of files and emails. These records, selected based on custom archiving rules can be transferred from expensive primary storage to a secure online remote storage infrastructure. This results in time-efficient backups and a more cost-effective use of storage. To evaluate your own organization’s security and storage status, complete a practical self-assessment download tool. For more information on how managed security and storage solutions from Bell can help your business, contact your Bell representative or click here to have a Bell representative contact you. You will also find informative articles in the May 2008 edition of Impact, and helpful information on our Web site relating to Managed Network Security for Content service, and Data Archiving Storage Utility. ... Assessment tool: Are you getting the most out of your security and storage solutions?When do managed IT services make sense? How do you decide which options are best for your needs? And do you really know your total cost of operation? Use these questions to find out to what extent your organization can generate greater efficiencies in security and storage. ... What your colleagues are reading – top downloadsAs the year comes to a close, here is a quick round-up of some of the most popular downloads from the last few issues of Impact. 1. National Do Not Call List needs assessment tool This remains one of our most popular downloads as organizations continue to come to grips with the National Do Not Call List that came into effect in September. Companies are contacting us to help them build a better solution in order to avoid any monetary penalties imposed by the CRTC on telemarketers who violate the Unsolicited Telecommunication Rules. These 24 questions will help you understand what’s involved in complying with this legislation. Topics covered include:
2. Virtualization white paper – navigating the road to IT optimization This white paper surveys the virtualization opportunities and choices available today and provides recommendations that will help you get to the solution you need. Topics covered include:
3. Collaboration white paper – enabling an efficient enterprise Collaboration has come to mean many different things to different parts of an enterprise, and has evolved with technology over the past ten years. What is Bell's vision of the collaborative enterprise – and how do our own internal practices help us assist customers with their collaboration initiatives? Find out in this insightful white paper. 4. IP migration needs assessment tool Considering migrating to IP? This tool will help you understand what you need to think about. From anticipated business benefits and the specific types of applications you'll be looking to deliver over the network, to how your existing infrastructure will help support your migration, these 26 questions will help you understand what you need to look at before planning your migration project. |
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If someone told you that you could increase output by 25 percent with minimal capital expenditure and no investment in resources, would you be skeptical?
