Join the customer focus panel discussion to find out what visionary companies are doing to foster a culture of customer focus.  Hear experienced industry leaders answer the question – “Why should anyone outside of sales or the customer service department care about customer focus?”  Share the discussion as we explore what customer focus means for Operations and IT.

In this session, our diverse panel of seasoned Operations and IT executives will address the following questions on customer focus and why it is important for Operations & IT in Equipment Finance today.  Audience participation will be encouraged throughout this session.

Discussion Topics:

1.      What does Customer Focus mean in your organizations?

2.      Why should anyone outside of sales or customer service care about customer focus?

3.      How do you get an organization to focus on the customer?  What works and what does not work?

4.      How important is it for Technology efforts or Process Improvement efforts to include customer needs?

5.      What were drivers for your company to shift to focus on the customer?

6.      How do you measure success?

7.      Wrap up and parting words of wisdom from our panelists.

How much information can we fit into 3 days?

A Lot.

A total of nine sessions have been spread out over three days of the 2008 Operations and Technology Conference & Exhibition, May21-23, with each scheduled in a way as to provide attendees with the opportunity to see as many as possible while still having the option to pick and choose between what they would like to see. Among the featured sessions are:

• Principles of Process Modeling
• Principles of Leasing Workshop
• Transformational Year: How the Strong Stay Strong
• Enterprise Project Selection: Deciding Where to Place Your Bets
• Survival Tips for the Accidental Project Manager
• Operations Process Mapping—Tools for Getting the Job Done (Workshop)
• Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)/ Software As A Service (SAAS) in the Real World
• Customer Focus—Why Should Operations & IT Care?
• Operations’ Role in Project Execution
• With this much information available, you can’t afford to miss this event.

For a full session descriptions, and to register online, go to:

http://www.elfaonline.org/pub/events/2008/OTC/

This interactive session will be great for the both those with process mapping experience (good and bad) and those who have never mapped a process before.  We will begin the session with a brief outline of tools and tips which will lead to “real world” discussion of what works and what doesn’t.  We will finish the session sampling some process modeling tools.  Bring a challenge of your own.

Discussion Outline:

Where do I start?
 
Defining Objective
 Set clear goal
 Executive Management Sponsor
 Team Member Support
 Communicate!!

Team Identification
 Appoint Project Manager
 Identify Team Members
 Maintain Cross Team Communication
 Set Reasonable Accountabilities and Deadlines

Process Review
 Identify Stakeholders
 Identify Process Components
 Define the Scope

Purpose of Process Mapping Exercise
 Identify Gaps
 Identify Redundancies
 Identify Bottlenecks
 Identify Training Opportunities
 Identify Handoffs
 Identify Measurements
 Identify Processes within a Process

Common Pitfalls
 Too Much Detail
 Results are not measurable
 Wrong Team Identified
 Mapping what “should be”, not what “is”
 Not Saying in Scope
 Losing Focus on Goal

 
Tools of the Trade 
 Do I need software?
 How much detail do I need?
 Sample Maps

Presenters:
•Mike Romanowski, VP & Director of Alliance Solutions, CoBank & Farm Credit Leasing
•Paul Anderson, VP of Information Technology, TCF Equipment Finance

Moderator: 
Joe Lane, International Decision Systems, Inc.

Selecting a Business Project
•How does your process work?
•How do you select projects?
•What are the challenges?

 
1. How does your process work?
•Who leads it?
•Who else participates?
•What are the steps?
•How do you keep track of project ideas?

 
2. How do you select projects?
•Developing & evaluating business cases
•Setting criteria
•Prioritizing projects

 
3. What are the challenges?
What do you see as the biggest challenges in the process?
*This session is going to be conducted informally with Joe Lane interviewing Mike Romanowski and Paul Anderson. 

Download presentation from the Blog Home Page – Scroll Down the Right Side!

How do you become the Accidental PM?
Company experiences new growth /change
Company has low process maturity
Scope creep
The project that transitions to Operations that really is still a project

 
What are the Pros & Cons of this Role?
Discussion of when it can and can’t be beneficial to play this role.

 
Keys to Success
Recognize a project when you see one
Definition of a project.
Group exercise discussing what is and what isn’t a project
Assess the size (risk, complexity etc.) of the project
Walkthrough an MCAP tool which helps you assess size/risk of a project.
Develop basic project management skills and tools
PMI organization
PM training courses
Review an MCAP tool called PM-Lite which can be used for lower risk projects.

Review Key Lessons Learned from Past Projects
Resourcing must be appropriate
Vendor commitments need to be met
Roles & Accountabilities must be clearly defined
Defined proven methodologies should be followed – they work!
Requirement gathering must be done well
Communicate, communicate,communicate!

Overview – Purpose
Discuss the concepts of Service-Oriented Architecture.
Reference real-world examples to help you build a stronger understanding of the need, value and use of SOA within an organization.
Discuss two particular approaches to meeting the needs of varying business processes within an SOA-based organization. (Services and SaaS).
Help you differentiate among methods.
Show you how elements can be brought together under a Service-Oriented banner to add value to your customers/companies.

Service Oriented Archtecture (SOA)
SOA: What is it?
SOA: Value Proposition
SOA: What do I need?
SOA: What do I need? – Macro Strategy
SOA: What do I need? – Enabling Technology
SOA: What do I need? – Governance
SOA: What do I need? – Focus on Process
SOA: What to be aware of

Service-Enabled vs Software as a Service
Where to use Service-Enabled vs Software As A Service?

Service-Enabled Software
Service-Enabled: Overview
Component-based design that enables the deployment of repeatable/reusable processes that can be “consumed” by multiple applications.
Service-enablement allows business process to be independent from the technical solution.
Helps to deliver or enhance core processes and/or processes that differentiate your business.
Service-Enabled: Value Proposition
Service-Enabled: What to be aware of
Service-Enabled: Examples

Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a Service: Overview
Best described as standard software, similar to packaged application, but delivered through a hosted online model
Most SaaS are ASP’s, but not as many ASP’s are SaaS.
Traditional ASP – Single-tenant, dedicated hosting environment, highly customized
SaaS – Multi-tenant, shared (or common) hosting environment, highly configurable
Vendor-based
Normally targeted to a vertical or niche business processes (i.e. purchasing, CRM, HR, payroll)
Typically requires business to standardize processes based on common or “best practices” for THAT FUNCTION
Software as a Service : Value Proposition
Software as a Service : What to be aware of
Software as a Service : Examples
SaaS – Case Studies

Wrap Up
Questions?

The first recorded EDI dates back to the 1850s when the railroads and Western Union used the telegraph to communicate business information. Starting there, Samuel Morse’s patented code was the single method used to communicate across the lines.

Moving ahead to the 1960s, larger scale digital communication began supporting e-commerce. Companies could exchange order information and delivery schedules, but no standard existed, so small business enclaves created their own processes. Case after case, individual companies belonged to multiple enclaves and were forced to use multiple data formats to exchange similar information. The need to converge multiple data syntaxes and vocabularies was obvious.

With all the emerging benefits of electronic commerce – more powerful communications and exchanges, faster response times, stronger relationships with trading partners – we needed standards to harness the great potential of electronic commerce.

B2B and Industry challenges

* Increasing business requirements for managing the exchange of data outside the enterprise:
o Product development
o Financial services and insurance
o Service and warranty management
o Global trade
o Transportation and logistics
o Supply chain
* Proliferation of industry standards increasing complexity
* Cross-organization and cross-industry automation a growing requirement

The growth in volumes and asset classes in the Financial Services Industry has led to the development of standards in areas such as Credit Cards and Mortgages.
Despite the growth in equipment leasing and finance volumes, the Industry has not as yet established a framework for defining and adopting data interchange standards. With the globalization of the industry, penetration of electronic commerce through the internet, it is imperative for equipment leasing and finance companies to develop and support electronic data exchange standards and related documents for the US and international marketplace to enhance business processes, reduce costs and expand organizational reach.

Session Objectives

Leverage the Equipment Leasing & Finance Association (ELFA) industry forum to build and support electronic data exchange standards, related documents and products that are available for use worldwide for the industry.
Bring together industry professionals and associated service providers in an industry forum to develop and support electronic data exchange standards and related documents for the US and international marketplace to enhance business processes, reduce costs and expand organizational reach.

Benefits to the Industry

* Enhance business processes – reduce processing time, cost of data preparation & import / export (inbound and outbound)
* New business / expansion of business – flexibility in business transactions / M&A
* Leverage new technology advances – service oriented architectures and enabling web services to integrate cross-organization automation.

Next Steps (suggested)

Short Term Deliverables (by May 2008)

* Solicit volunteers from industry professionals and associated service providers to serve as members of the Steering Committee, Task Groups (for e.g., Policies & Procedures, Marketing, Process-wise Industry Standards, etc).
* Agree on Vision and Objectives of the ELFA Data Interchange Standards organization
* Prioritize areas / items of interest for Industry representatives for defining Data Interchange Standards.
* Workshop on Securitization and Syndication data interchange standards.
* Present status at ELFA Operations & Technology 2008 Conference and solicit feedback and recommendations from participants.

Longer Term Deliverables- Define standards for identified Equipment Leasing & Finance Data Interchange items

- Develop strategy for marketing of standards

Join this Special Interest Group !

* Volunteer as a member of this Special Interest Group (post a response to this blog post)
* Participate in monthly conference calls
* Contribute and share thought leadership through across a wide cross of Senior industry professionals
* Participate in the ELFA Operations and Technology 2008 Conference session