Tales of Westminster: Winning with Brand Excellence

 

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is a present to dog lovers everywhere… and I am certainly one.  This year the show is different, and even better. For the first time, all dogs – purebred and mixed breeds – are competing in a new Masters Agility Championship.Tails are wagging around the world in appreciation. This has inspired me to write about another kind of Westminster tale, one that offers important lessons for those who pursue brand excellence.

Read More at CMSWire Best in Show!

 

A New Era of Client Retention

The insurance industry is experiencing a major shift in market behavior. Whether this becomes a perfect storm for failure or a new growth opportunity will depend on the insurer’s ability to respond to the sea change. Check out my latest article in CMSWire where I look at the challenges insurers are facing, whether they are a duck, a gekko or an elephant 🙂

 

Oz the Great and Powerful

How Adaptive Case Management Transforms the Customer Experience

It’s Oscar season again and while Argo and Life of Pi walked away with the awards this year, I’ve been thinking about a past classic.  The Wizard of Oz happens to be one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies of all time. I will probably be first in line to see the prequel Oz the Great and Powerful, which arrives in theatres this month. Not only does my inner child love everything about the Oz stories, my adult persona believes there are important business lessons to be found there.

In this article I look through the lens of three iconic scenes from Oz to see how case management can help create great customer experience.   Read on at CMSWire my pretty…

 

The Curious Case of the Courts’ CIO

Alliteration anyone?  The mystery of delivering new services is getting harder for the CIO to solve.  Here’s a story about one CIO who solved the case using case,  adaptive case management.

 

The Time Machine: Delivering Business Transformation Success in 2013

It is traditional at this time of year to take some time to assess the closing year and to look ahead.  In this final article of 2012 from my CMSWire series, I look at three prescient customer case management implementations that illustrate what I believe to be the secrets to business transformation success for the future.  Read more and take a ride on my personal time machine…  and Happy New Year!

I have always found myself fascinated by the 1960 film adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic The Time Machine, which asks whether we can change the shape of things to come and teaches us that looking ahead in time can be a dangerous undertaking.

 

A Simple Plan

A Simple Plan: How Case Management Helps Financial Institutions

 

While it’s no secret that lenders are looking for better ways to simplify, streamline and continuously improve the loans, credit and financing processes within their organizations, it’s not always clear to them what changes will have the greatest impact.

A few months ago I helped conduct a survey of North American retail banking executives to examine current trends in optimizing loan processing. We found that most executives are not satisfied with their current environment and see loan complexity as the major factor driving the need to improve performance.

A simple plan then to apply technology to remove complexity should be the answer. However, just as in the movie “A Simple Plan”* we can all appreciate that nothing is really ever that simple. There is solid evidence though that Case Management can make a significant impact.

I captured my thoughts in a series on CMSWire.  You can read more at

1. A Simple Plan: Why Lenders Need Adaptive Case Management
2. A Simple Plan: How Lenders Prepare for the Future with Case Management
3. A Simple Plan: How Case Management Helps Financial Institutions Overcome Challenges

 

Being Human

 Inspired by my twin passions for process improvement (using BPM and Case Management) and the BBC, here is my latest article on CMSWire…

Being Human: Why Knowledge Workers Need Adaptive Case Management

“If a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire can appreciate how difficult it is Being Human, so can a  BPM practitioner”  – Anonymous

How important is the human factor in driving meaningful process improvements for your business? 

I believe it is THE most important, and arguably the most difficult, aspect of any effort to improve performance.  I recently participated in an educational virtual summit aptly titled ACMLive that considers what it takes to properly support human knowledge work.  I share some of the ideas discussed at that summit in this installment of my ACM article series, and take a look at ways that  Adaptive Case Management is helping  Business Process Management (BPM)  practitioners  succeed with the complex task of involving people in process  improvement.   Read the enire article  at CMSWire: Being Human

 

Do you have the right stuff?

Check out my latest article on process improvement. Inspired in part by the movie The Right Stuff, it’s a bit of a walk down memory lane.

 

Fast Cars, Fast Financing… with ACM

When products are comparable what do you do to differentiate?  Customer experience and speed of deliverying results are how automotive leasing and financing companies are capturing and keeping customers.  Case Management is the tool they are using. I recently wrote about this in my adaptive case management series in CMSWire.

 

What a Bank needs, what a Bank wants

I’ve been fortunate in my pursuit of business process improvement practices to talk with a number of bankers, banking technologists, and  industry analysts and advisors about current FSI needs and future wants.  As we come to the end of this year and look ahead to 2012 , I thought I would share some of the highlights of those conversations: 

• Improved ability to focus on the customer is a primary concern.
• Cost reduction, regulatory reporting, rapid delivery of new products & services are and will continue to be top of mind.
• The retiring workforce is seen as a risk, as are meeting the requirements of the “new” (social and mobile) employee and customer profiles.  This drives a perceived need to get new and improved systems in now.
• There is major focus on consistent brand experience and integration across channels (esp. w/mobile)to improve customer service/satisfaction.
• Banks are often pursuing business process and case management solution purchase decision as though getting an application (vs. a BPM technology platform)
• A natural cycle of refresh is happening and banks are open to new sources – the notion of an app is morphing… Build or buy,  is no longer the simple question … category is blurry, a continuum.
• Many of the banks start with a modernization approach (technology focus) but then find they need a business transformation.  
• IBM, Oracle, Microsoft  identified as strategic vendors, but  banks of all sizes seem to be willing to go for mixed solutions and heterogeneous approaches.

Of course, it’s important to realize that the above points are a result of my conversations and not necessarily a scientific study.  I would be interested in your views and what you are seeing and hearing in the banking industry for process improvement initatives.