BPM-PS Experience and Results

Arpin Consulting

Business Process Management and Professional Services Consulting

Experience and Results - Case Studies

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Small Business Consulting
In a recent survey, over 87% of small businesses and organizations are trying to reduce costs, retain or reallocate headcount, maintain or increase revenue, and retain customers. They are all in the same situation, trying to survive in this economy. Some can do it on their own. If you are reading this, you probably realize that you could use some experienced help to achieve some quantifiable results.

Small business consulting example results (PDF)

Professional Services Case Studies

Business Process Management Case Studies

Typical Professional Services Results Achieved for Clients and Companies

Typical Professional Services Results Achieved

A $25M consulting division of a $125M international IT research and advisory company was experiencing numerous problems with internal operations and client engagements. In nine months, three clients were considering cancelling projects; senior consultants were not fully utilized or billable; and new hires were being thrown into a pool of resources and sent into the field without training or direction. There was no clear strategy or visibility into the financial condition or status of the consulting business or any engagement. And, 80 sales reps were left on their own to figure out how or when to sell consulting services.

Other challenges and opportunities:
* 10 consulting practices operated totally autonomous; no cross-training; different sales approach
* Disjointed processes, systems, and tools
* Each senior consultant had their own way of working
* Additional, qualified senior consultants needed to be recruited and brought on board quickly. No standard process for defining job definition or recruiting to identify and hire the best qualified consultants
* No leveraging of corporate expertise across all business units, especially consulting and research analysts.
* Support for consultants in the field was virtually non-existent, and time and expense control and reporting was slow and cumbersome, for the consultants and corporate accounting.

Approach and Action

Rescued 3 engagements by working with client executives to reset expecations and sold additional consulting. Recommended a total restructuring and integration of the consulting business and strategy. Developed a client-centric, full lifecycle PS methodology with tools, templates, integrated systems, management and quality controls, training and certification for 175 senior consultants, internationally. The methodology covered the processes from sales, through proposals, high quality delivery, lessons-learned, continuous improvement, add-on business, interaction and integrations with other business functions to propose and sell larger deals. Implemented a complete, targeted recruiting and on-boarding process to rapidly assimilate and cross-train new hires into the business.

Engaged senior consultants to provide suggestions, work products, and specifically to gain consensus, buy-in, and motivate them. Developed a Consultants Toolkit on CD with the methodology and tools to be used in the field for increased productivity. Took the initiative to integrate and streamline internal systems to support the consulting and overall business; central repository; reduce expense costs and reporting/processing from over 1 month to two days; invoicing and payments by 30 days. Trained 80 sales reps on solution selling, account management, and selling consulting and bundled solutions to C-level clients.

Results

The consulting business grew 25% in one year and was managed like a business with accountability, reporting, and real time controls and visibility. Achieved margins of 30-45%. Executives better understood the consulting business and the value and profit generated across the corporation. With the PS methodology, consultants were 30% more productive; cross training increased utilization to over 80%; on-boarding took only 2 weeks from date of hire; quality and client satisfaction resulted in 90% of clients providing excellent references; no significant client complaints. Improved the PS capabilities maturity from Level 2 to Level 4. The 3 rescued problem engagements resulted in over $1.3M in revenue, and $550K in add-on business. Sales were developing strategic accounts and selling larger deals. All consulting processes were organized and streamlined, requiring significantly less administration and "fire fighting," everyone was more focused and productive.

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PS Case 2: Software Company

Situation

Product development Software Company needed to establish high quality, standardized and repeatable professional services to facilitate client implementations; manage, train, and recruit qualified technical staff; oversee and guide all implementations; and provide specialized consulting and sales support. There was nothing in place and implementations were haphazard and ad hoc. Many clients were complaining about the implementations and the product.

Other challenges and opportunities:
* No formal project plans or cost controls
* Existing internal systems were not being used or used effectively
* No methodology or tools were established
* Sales was arbitrarily quoting PS fees
* Resources were frustrated, overworked due to constantly having to switch clients and fix problems, and given little direction or guidance

Approach and Actions

On the second day, a client was threatening to cancel the contract and I was asked to see if I could rescue the implementation and retain the client. Reset client expectations; formed a team to address all concerns; developed project plan; and tightly managed all activities to satisfy the client in two months, along with selling additional services.
In six months, implemented a complete PS methodology with tools, systems, repository, and training. Established use of systems for management control and reporting for profitability, utilization, staffing, and invoicing. Worked with and trained sales on solution selling, account management, and establishing effective procedures for proposals and to quote profitable PS fees.
Managed PS staff to focus on clients and use of methodology to simplify implementations and increase client satisfaction; provided remote access to tools, templates, and repository for increased productivity.
Worked with two other disgruntled clients to reset expectations and satisfy them; streamlined implementations, and optimized staff utilization.
Achieved PS capabilities maturity Level 2 in 6 months. Integrated internal time and expense reporting, invoicing, CRM, and other applications and systems, along with training all employees, including CEO.
Managed software partners to integrate products into solutions and provide training to PS staff, while training partners on product and services.

Results

Client satisfaction improved dramatically; turned around 3 clients in six months. Increased PS staff productivity by 35%+ and resulted in more teamwork across PS, customer support, sales, and accounting. Significantly improved invoicing accuracy and time from over 30 days to 2 days. Executives had visibility of implementation status, profitability, utilization, and staffing requirements.
Work with clients generated over $800K in revenue in first four months, including add-on services.
PS staff was more effective, motivated, and satisfied; providing additional suggestions for improving implementations and the product. PS was instrumental in guiding product development to increase client satisfaction.
The first disatisfied client became an excellent reference and was quoted on the company website.

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PS Case 3: Consulting Company

Situation

Two senior IT/business consultants identified a unique consulting start-up opportunity. With over 50 years of IT and business process improvement consulting experience, working for Fortune 100 companies and Global 2000 clients, they realized three key opportunities. 1) The basic approach to start any consulting engagement was similar, if not the same. 2) Most clients were looking for ideas on the internet for how to improve their business and IT organizations. And, 3) the key to success for consulting sales was “qualified” lead generation. They wanted to develop an overall business strategy and plan and launch a start-up to achieve profitable benefits from the opportunities.

Other challenges and opportunities:
* They had acquired significant experience, tools, and templates from their 50+ years of consulting
* They had no experience in starting a business, developing a complete business strategy and plan, or other start-up requirements
* They had little experience in designing or developing a business website with ecommerce and other important functionality
* Both partners were still working, full time
* They needed someone to take their ideas and generate a business plan for the start-up that could be used for finances and implemented in 12 months.

Approach and Actions

The first steps were to facilitate business strategy and planning sessions to define the overall objectives, differentiators, and all strategy components; conduct research to determine viability of the offerings in the market and estimate realistic revenue potential. Unique components of the strategy were:
* Generate a high volume of “pre-qualified” leads from the internet
* Automate the basic Discovery process used by top consultancies so that prospects could do a self-assessment, compared against industry best practices
* Develop a Channel / Partner program for engagement staffing and joint business development
* Create unique, effective sales, marketing, and project/engagement collateral
* Develop a recruiting and training plan for staffing and partners

Once the draft business plan was complete, the basic website was designed, an RFP sent to website hosting and development companies, a developer was selected and a detail plan developed. Within 6 months, the business and website was launched, a qualified sales leader hired and trained on the approach and offering, and channel partners identified and signed.

The website was designed with unique functionality. Prospects had to pre-qualify themselves in order to obtain information and take the self-assessment. As soon as they submitted their information, an email was immediately sent to the partners and sales lead for immediate follow up. The prospect had to receive value and be able to immediately see how they compared with other similar organizations in their industry, with a detailed, professional report. The information obtained from the website assessment could then be used for a) contacting and discussions with the prospects, along with a sales account plan and b) a starting point for a rapid assessment and proposed consulting engagement.

Results

The partners were able to quit their jobs and concentrate on developing, managing the business and execution of the business plan. They were able to self-fund the business start-up and were prepared with a professional business plan for funding if needed for continued growth.
In the first month, the website was generating over 900 unique visitors and 15 pre-qualified leads, per day. They signed a state government client in the first week as a direct result of the website assessment.
Six channel partners were receiving qualified leads that generated finders’ fees and numerous joint sales opportunities. One client was one of the top document management software companies.

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PS Case 4: Systems Integration and Software Company

Situation

A $15B systems integrator (SI) acquired a $350M CAD/CAM PDM/PLM software company to expand their business into new markets and support Fortune 100 clients. The SI had no experience in the software business and developed a high-level, strategic plan for targeted industries and significant growth in software and service sales for the new division. They needed to integrate the new division into their business model and culture. The PLM division needed to significantly increase sales of software and services, including SI services.

Other challenges and opportunities:
* The PLM division was entrenched in a long history of selling software and an uninventive culture; services was an after-thought
* The SI executives wanted quantifiable results, cultural upgrading, cross-selling, standard and repeatable processes to justify their investment and significantly grow the overall business in 2 years
* The PLM eastern region had not made it’s sales quota for the prior three years
* A new PDM/PLM product was just introduced and professional services had to be set up, staffed, and organized to effectively help sell, configure, and implement the software, from scratch. This included providing product development with product direction and coordinating activities with the offshore developer.
* PLM sales reps, managers, and VPs were extremely doubtful and resistant to change. They focused on selling software (seats), calling low in the prospects/clients, and had no experience in solution/services selling
* Any changes had to be motivational, demonstrable, incremental and non-disruptive in order to at least maintain the current sales and operations.

Approach and Actions

I was asked by the SI corporate executives to lead the division business and cultural transformation to significantly increase sales of SI and all professional services, and organize and improve the service and product delivery organization. This position was completely matrixed and everything had to be accomplished without specific authority, collaboratively and convincingly. The first week, I assessed the operations, skills and abilities of the entire eastern region; identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; develop an initial action plan; and obtained buy-in from the management team. Specific activities included:
* Training and mentoring 21 sales reps in the eastern region on solution selling, calling higher, account planning, and related
* Present to prospect and client executives and immediately established credibility, differentiation, and innovative solution creation
* Push hard for better qualifying prospects, developing account plans, and targeting high potential prospects – then follow through
* Create a complete professional services methodology
* Develope a targeted staffing and recruiting plan, along with retraining and restructuring professional services
* Train and mentor 10 major project/engagement managers with key clients to ensure satisfaction and add-on business

Results

Initially, only 3 sales reps were qualified, able, and willing to call higher and solution sell. Working closely with these 3, accounted for closing 5 major deals in 2 months that generated $2.5M in revenue. In six months, the average deal size grew from $35K, primarily software, to over $150K (over 400%), with add-on business of $400-800K in both software and services!
In 12 months, we sold more than $2M in non-traditional consulting services, alone.
The sales reps moved from calling on the manufacturing and engineering managers to corporate VPs. Once the other sales reps noticed the results, they began to follow the process. The major result in 18 months was that the eastern region exceeded it’s quota for the first time in 3 years. This could have been accomplished sooner except for initial management resistance and the mind set of doing what they always did just to keep the basic business.

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Typical Business Process Management (BPM) Results Achieved - Research

Percent of organizations surveyed that achieved these typical results

Typical Results from BPM

Situation

A major pharmaceutical company mandated company-wide cost reductions; quality and customer satisfaction improvements, requiring each function to develop a specific initiative. The IT organization decided on developing a world-class BPM Center of Excellence (PMO) to focus on consistent, repeatable business processes for the entire company. After more than a year, the initiative had stalled and executives were pushing for results. Another major factor was that this initiative had to be integrated with all the other company-wide initiatives.

Other challenges and opportunities:
* Over 100 major investments and initiative were underway across the enterprise, along with existing and new systems – all needed to be integrated and leveraged
* They had already selected a BPMS product/vendor, but the vendor did not have capabilities beyond the product
* Internal resources were limited in time due to other work priorities, and BPM knowledge
* They needed a solid, structured, and robust methodology that could be applied and managed, world-wide
* Aware of the capabilities maturity model, they wanted to be at level 2, immediately and level 3 in 12 months

Approach and Actions

I was asked to lead and complete the project as quickly as possible to establish a world class, BPM CoE to level 2 to be rolled out, corporate-wide. Identified current initiatives; any work done to date on BPM; gaps between a world-class BPM CoE and what needed to be done; formed a project plan and team. Immediately established an aggressive project and worked closely with the client and the team to the tight schedule. Worked with other initiative teams to coordinate and leverage components and resources. Identified and estimated cost/benefits for initial pilots and projects for the BPM CoE and various business units.
The BPM CoE methodology included the following major integrated components:
* BPM CoE Charter – document and various presentations
* Operating Model and Plan
* Delivery Framework
* Standard Metrics and Measurements
* Communications Framework – plan and documents
* Business Process Standards and Cost/Benefits Analysis
* Detailed Roles and Responsibilities (RACI)
* Design Principles, Patterns, and Metadata Model
* BPM CoE Offerings Catalog
* BPM Project Selection Criteria
* BPMS Architecture Guide – Functional, Logical, Physical, Components

Results

The complete BPM CoE framework was customized for the client and completed in four short months, with identification of next steps, prioritized list of projects, and corporate-wide rollout plan. The client executive sponsor stated that it more than met the corporate mandate and positioned the company to realize the value of BPM. Furthermore, it was totally integrated with other initiatives and took advantage of existing processes and systems.

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BPM Case 2: Air Freight Company

Situation

World-wide Air Freight Company was in the process of developing a major, world-wide application to manage their pickups, consolidation, delivery, customers, and related information and processes. The CEO and CIO were concerned about the progress of the project and whether it would achieve their objectives – to streamline and expedite complex processes, consolidate information, reduce operating costs, and be ready for world-wide rollout in 8 months. They specifically wanted outside expertise and advice, and to co-lead the overall project with a focus on the business processes.

Other challenges and opportunities:
* Process were not defined, documented, measured, or understood by key stakeholders across the company
* Initial project review showed that the system would not be ready for implementation for at least 2 years
* No cost/benefit analysis had been developed for the project and the board of directors were questioning the value
* Key stakeholders doubted that the system would be ready by the due date and whether any processes would be improved
* No project leader was designated, other than the CIO
* Optimizing space utilization on aircraft was being done manually
* After initial pickup of packages, locations of packages/shipments was unknown until they arrived at final distribution center
* Frequently, packages were lost or shipped to the wrong location
* Customer service was ad hoc, without any system or technology, and customers were dissatisfied
* During the course of a six month engagement, there were 3 changes in CEO, CIO, and CFO, requiring restating/reselling the engagement objectives and value

Approach and Actions

The first activity was to quickly understand the current situation and status of the system being developed. Within two days, specific actions were identified to improve control of the project, develop a cost/benefit analysis, and document the entire process. Assigned as co-project leader with a client executive. Proposed a Customer Service Center project to streamline processes, select and implement software, significantly improve customer satisfaction, and integrate with the new system. Also, recommended a space optimization software tool and process to streamline and optimize loading aircraft. Developed current state and future state process models to analyze and improve end-to-end processes, and clearly show executives and stakeholders the value of proposed process changes recommended. Provided an investment and project prioritization process that included business and technical considerations, process modeling, cost/benefit analysis, resource staffing, and project management best practices.
Worked closely with client executives to set, reset, and manage expectations and avoid possible cancellation of the contract.

Results

Cost/benefit analysis and process improvements showed a first year cost saving of $15M. The world-wide rollout was back on schedule to be implemented and rolled out world-wide in two months. Major stakeholders became proponents after they understood what the process improvements and system would do for them. Process models became a key component for all cost reduction and continuous improvement projects, and also simplified the cost/benefit analysis.
Contract was successfully completed to client satisfaction in six months; bringing in and selling additional subject matter experts to address specific client needs. Engagement team grew from 2 senior consultants to as many as 10, and reduce client project team resource requirements by 30%.

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BPM Case 3: Medical Device Company

Situation

A major medical device company was losing market share in spite of excellent products. An executive mandate was to reduce costs, improve relations, and reallocate and retain staff. Vendor and provider contract management was a critical and major business process. They wanted to streamline the contract process, reduce costs, and improve vendor, provider, and customer relations. Product and business units, and business functions, operated autonomously with redundant operations, staffing, information, and data reentry, which all caused significant process inefficiencies and ineffective prioritization of even simple tasks.

Other challenges or opportunities:
* Very few processes were defined or documented, using different tools and standards
* Management did not have a clear understanding of the time, costs, and staffing required to manage contracts and satisfy customers
* Numerous vendors and providers were complaining about lack of information and resulted in redundant payments and loss of discounts
* The time to process new contracts from initial request, through legal and business review, and closing the sale was over 90 days and in some cases much longer – delays and one-off requests had become the norm
* Most of the employees were highly qualified, capable, and well paid, but were extremely frustrated – attrition was increasing annually
* A few key employees had all the business process knowledge and experience in their heads
* Some executives were promoting buying different contract management software, as a “silver bullet” solution, without any clearly defined business requirements.

Approach and Actions

The engagement was to review the contract management process and recommend opportunities for improvement. The initial activity was to quickly assess the current processes, recommend best practices, and quantify potential cost savings and how to improve customer and vendor relations. Three senior consultants were selected with specific expertise – contracts management, medical device industry, and process improvement. My specific role was enterprise-wide business process management, improvements, and recommendations. In four weeks, we had defined and documented the current processes across all business units and functions. Major problems, gaps and opportunities were identified from a root cause analysis. A current state process model was created with associated time, cost, and staffing. The model clearly showed the process flow, along with detail time, costs, and staffing. The business leaders were surprised to see how much they misunderstood how the basic business was performed and each one had their own clouded opinion. Everyone was now on the same page, a common understanding of what was going on, the roadblocks and delays, redundancy, waste and non-value-added activities.
The next activity was to develop specific recommendations to streamline processes and reduce costs, and develop a future state process model. The model simulated and demonstrated “what if” scenarios, allowed the business leaders to consider and easily make changes, and clearly show the potential savings in cost, time, and staffing.
Directly from the process model, we developed a prototype BPMS solution in less than 2 weeks, to show how the processes and existing systems could be linked, managed, controlled, streamlined and integrated across the enterprise.

Results

Processes were defined and documented, and knowledge of key employees captured for education and training of employees. The basic sales process was reduced from over 90 days to less than 2 weeks. Process steps and delays were reduced by over 75%. Duplicate contract payments were virtually eliminated. Redundancy in data re-entry and contract administration across product and business units was eliminated and personnel was reassigned to other, value-added activities.
The management team realized that a contract management software solution first required streamlined and controlled processes and defining business requirements. The BPMS solution would easily enable integration of existing and new software applications, based on business goals and objectives. The BPM approach also significantly improved and simplified regulatory control, compliance, and reporting.

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BPM Case 4: High Tech Manufacturing Company

Situation

The CFO of an international high tech company needed consulting resources and expertise to become compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Initially, he just wanted to document processes and controls to meet the basic regulatory requirements. During initial discussions, he indicated that processes were not documented, either in finance/accounting or the entire company and that they needed to reduce costs to achieve profitability for the year. Additionally, the company was in the middle of a major, high cost IT initiative and upgrade for their enterprise-wide ERP system. The executive team was unsure if the initiative or upgrade would improve the business or even if it was cost justified.

Other challenges and opportunities:
* Their “big 4” external auditor was recommending another big 4 company (high cost) to document the processes
* The CFO wanted to improve the finance and accounting functions and provide additional services to other functions and business units
* The IT initiative was experiencing frequent delays and associated costs due to changes in functional requirements and business objectives
* They had three consulting firms working, independently, on the IT initiative and ERP upgrade
* The executives wanted better visibility into how the business was performing and to make better, faster decisions; the CFO had to provide more than monthly or quarterly reports.

Approach and Actions

At first the CFO was only interested in “documenting the processes” to be SOX compliant. I proposed and convinced him that if he was going to document the process, he might consider a BPM approach to address more of the challenges and opportunities faced by the company – specifically to improve the processes and controls at very little additional cost.
The first activity was to document and model existing processes and review the IT initiatives in the first two weeks. I also conducted formal facilitated sessions with the executives, managers and key stakeholders to review the current processes and gain consensus on how the business “should” be operating; integrating requirements for all business units and functions. The IT initiative project leaders indicated that the business requirements were not clearly defined and management and key stakeholders kept changing them. The main reason for the changes was that each of them had a different perception of the business goals, objectives, and processes. Clear business requirements for the IT initiatives were a natural by-product from the facilitation sessions.
In the follow up sessions, we reviewed potential improvements to the business processes and established a roadmap to achieve major corporate goals and objectives, with a cost justified plan of actions for the next six months and follow on phases.

Results

In three months, the external auditor stated that they were fully compliant with SOX requirements.
The CFO determined that not only would they realize a profit, but were on target to increase overall profits by 10% in the coming year. The finance and accounting staff provided additional BPM and activity-based costing/management (ABC/M) expertise and guidance to business units, initiatives, and executives.
The project managers were delighted with clear requirements for the initiatives and were able to re-structure the project plans to reduce implementation time, contractors, and overall costs.
Dashboards were developed for managers and executives. Management was able to see the quantitative and qualitative value of BPM and the initiatives. The executive staff mandated that processes, definitions and models, would be the driver for the business. The CFO and executives decide to investigate, evaluate and select a BPMS solution in 12 months.