Update and Observations May 2014

May 8, 2014 Leave a comment

I have been meeting with government and healthcare organizations over the past few months and it apparent that there is a general frustration with existing work based technology and applications.  I have discussed this earlier; that we are technically “rich” in our personal lives and technically “poor at work.

ERP, HRMS and CRM systems that have been deployed over the past 20 years had inherent user interface issues (i.e. they sucked).  We have done Business Value Assessments in the past where we found end users printing screen shots of the work they did in an ERP system because they did not trust the technology and feared being audited: that is fundamentally bad when you are supposedly using technology and reverting back to manual processes.

So with your personal life filled with smartphones, tablets, smart televisions, smart thermostats that talk to your smartphone etc.; and the “Appification” of everything where you the consumer have a broad choice of applications, data and platforms to interact with said software and content your expectations rise rapidly.

So when you show up to work on a Monday and look at multiple login screens to archaic and dysfunctional technology you get depressed (which I would argue affects your productivity ).  You have diligently documented how to get work done via the “Cheat Sheets” at your cubicle or work area and you plod along.  Juxtaposed with what is on your smartphone on your hip vs. what you look at on your workstation.  Things need to change you need to be able to have a richer work experience.

So, as  mentioned my discussions with clients in all areas of public sector have been interesting.  They want to be more effective in getting work done with technology that provides what they want when they want and on the platform of their choice.  So over the next few posts I will be covering:

Work Optimization – Think about what method you use to get work done.  Task Outcome or Time Sensitive work are done differently and there is always a process or workflow productive people stick to; so understanding how people work becomes more important in deploying technology.  

Open Data – What does this mean and how does ECM fit into this.  Since with Open Data Sets organizations have information in a format that can be repurposed and presented for constituents to be better informed or government agencies to enhance their decision making process in getting work done.

Contextual Computing – IBM has done a recent study on this new developing area and how it helps people work better with better decision making etc.

As always I look forward to questions of discussion.

Filed under Case Management, Context 3.0, Contextual Computing, Government, Open Data, Work Optmization Tagged with , , ,

What will be covered at the IBM ECM Solution Summit in DC on Oct 17

October 2, 2013 Leave a comment

I will be attending the IBM ECM Solution Summit in DC on Oct 17th.  One of the sessions is very timely: Loss Prevention or others may call it Fraud, Abuse and Waste.  It is an area in any progressive government where one can get back monies or services lost due to people or organizations taking advantage of weak internal controls.  So how does one use analytics and case management to better handle the investigation of fraud etc. ?  Well one session will discuss this in great detail.

Intelligent Investigation Manager provides powerful analysis and investigative tools integrated with highly efficient case management. It’s more than just a forensic analysis tool. It performs discovery over broad data sets and creates transparency throughout the investigation process. Intelligent Investigation Manager extracts and analyzes massive amounts of structured and unstructured data from existing sources, including documents, emails, databases, data warehouses and social media. It rapidly creates patterns, links and relationships to highlight the connections between entities. It can also create visualizations that illustrate the scope of the fraud, generate investigative leads and provide evidentiary documentation.

 

Will you be there ? 

registration page ibm.co/SCS_DC  #ibmecm #smartercontent.

Filed under Case Management, ECM Tagged with , , , , , ,

The demise of Water Cooler Decision Making

July 31, 2013 Leave a comment

 

On a recent meeting I had with a government department wrestling with providing better service; and to improve effectiveness and efficiency to it’s workers:  I started to discuss how government departments are attempting to eliminate water cooler decision making within in it’s programs.

They looked at me with a strange look. I sometimes get a tilted head as people try to understand what I mean.  Fundamentally it comes down to using technology to capture the decision making process.

If you have workers standing around a water cooler and making decisions on work or a case file; you are not capturing the knowledge or the information associated with the discussion or the decision.  If you have workers making decision around the “water cooler” it also means that the technical infrastructure is not providing a robust enough work environment that the workers feel comfortable enough in order to make a decision.

If workers are making decisions at the water cooler you have lost the ability to go back and understand who made the decision, why did they make that decision and how did they make the decision.  You want the technology to capture as much as that as possible to ensure compliance to policy and legislation.

 

IMG 1022

So we start to have a discussion about Advanced Case Management (ACM).  ACM is recognized by the majority of the analyst firms globally.  ACM is a strategy not a product.  The strategy typically involves planning around ECM, Task Automation and Metadata then leveraging technology that puts more of the information, knowledge and collaboration in the hands of the worker.  

So as a worker is dealing with a case or work order etc. they can; within the technology or application, access email and IM or other collaborative tools to be able to reach others to ask and share knowledge to help them make a decision on the task or case file at hand.  ACM technologies need to be able to provide a rich UI and work experience so that government workers trust the application or technology.

In a recent business value assessment I was involved in we found finance clerks “PRINTING” screen shots of their work in an ERP system !  So they were using technology but did not trust it in case they would be audited.  They then kept those printed screen shots and not only filed them but copied them for their manager because the manager did not trust the system of engagement or system or record !!!  This blows my mind.

So technology and strategy around case file management in government departments has to be well thought out from best practices and the benefits of an integrated ECM, Task and Metadata strategy.

More on this topic soon.

Filed under Advanced Case Management, Case Management, ECM, Government, Task Optimization Tagged with , , , ,

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