I am going to suggest something that will seem completely off the wall. Startups should document their processes (properly) — even though they know that they will change — because the act of documenting them will clarify and reveal some insights. We are too busy will be the cry. But you don’t have time to work inefficiently because no one has an agreed view of the process (even when there are only 5 of you in the team). The […]
Last month. Walter Bril, one of the Elements.cloud Customer Success Managers presented his 650 page book “Blockchain organizing” to a member of the European parliament. He co-authored the book with Paul Bessems, an organization and logistics expert. We thought it would be really interesting if he wrote a guest blog…. Now… Have you ever wondered why in Elements.cloud we use the default text “Why” on our flowlines? And what this has to do with […]
We have an expression “drinking our own champagne” – i.e. using our own products on ourselves. So how good is it? Here are 2 perspectives of the same experience; Day 1 for a new summer intern who started this week. Alyssa: Head of Operations This week, the first new US employee started, on my watch as Head of Operations at Elements.cloud. Exciting moment! A smart summer intern, but an employee nonetheless who needs nearly the […]
You’ve had it on your bucket list; presenting at the BIGGEST and coolest tech conference. So what’s stopping you? Presenters block Can’t think of something to present, or don’t know how to make what you know sound compelling. No problem. We’ve got your back. Here’s a list of 45 ideas with compelling titles and abstracts. DOWNLOAD / VIEW Fear of presenting I get it. People fear death more than presenting. But it is a critical skill […]
At the recent Salesforce TexasDreamin‘ event in Austin where Ian was presenting, Jeremy Whittington from Thinkaholics grabbed him to find out more about Elements.cloud.
Alexander Kurm talks about the power of process at Bank of Montreal. For those who think that a process diagram is something you throw together to help the developers build an app. Think again. This excellent video from Bank of Montreal (BMO) shows how valuable good process documentation is BEYOND the project. Let the numbers sink in; over 500 authors developing and maintaining 1000’s of process diagrams. They are not doing it because it is fun (it […]
Your users often don’t know what they really want. They think they do and express their needs as Business Requirements. Your job as an analyst is to try and interpret them and understand what is really required. But first, you need a consistent way of capturing, managing and analyzing the requirements. The tools used by your IT team are too heavyweight and complex. You could build an app. But where would you find the time? So […]
We got the band back together in 2015. We spent 2 years writing some new material (Elements app) and rehearsing. Our comeback gig was Dreamforce 16. We weren’t sure if we could still do it. “We rocked” apparently and got a few more gigs; a supporting set at Tahoe Dreamin’ and then as the main act in the Admin Theater at World Tour in Sydney and then Southeast Dreamin’ in Atlanta. Where next? We’d planned a […]
Ian Gotts was invited to speak at Automation Hour. Below is the recording of the webinar. The Elements section starts at 3:00. The webinar covers: why business analysis is important skill for Salesforce Admins the principles of hierarchical process mapping a simple, proven notation how to run a live mapping workshop how to document your Org The free ebook referenced in the video can be downloaded here
Document your Org in 3 easy steps You all know you should be documenting your Org. If you don’t then you limit the agility of the company. Every time you think about making any change to your configuration, there is always that nagging doubt “What will I break if I change this”. A well-documented Org will enable you to understand the impact of changes. Then you can accelerate the pace of change with confidence. Migrating […]
Supporting the UserGroups – we all have a part to play We’ve been customers of Salesforce since 2002 and spoke at the first London event which was 3 customers, Marc and just 120 delegates. The last 15 years have been an amazing ride; the growth in the number of clients, the expansion of the scope of the platform, and the amazing support for non-profits. But if I were to pick out one aspect that makes […]
Originally posted on SalesforceBen.com – Migrating to Lightning; take a business led approach Why now? The correct answer is 2. If you answered 4, then you’re clearly a huge Salesforce evangelist. But your executives will only allocate investment to projects that drive “better business outcomes” – answer 2. Migrating to Lighting will require investment from you, your team and your users. The benefits need to be compelling to make the move because we […]
In Brief – Quick Guide to Drawing from Elements.cloud on Vimeo.
New format, big risk, monster rewards Rather than go with the tried ( tired ) format of getting a client to present a hours worth of Powerpoint slides to a lifeless audience, we thought we’d go for a slightly higher risk interview format. I interviewed a client on stage with my questions and those submitted by the audience as the session progressed. Benefits More interesting for the audience who feel engaged The audience feel they […]
Pro Process Knowledge and Salesforce Config Manager launched We have just launched 2 major areas of functionality: productivity tools for Editors; this is the start of a slew of updates as part of the paid PRO Plan. Salesforce Config Manager; now Salesforce Admins can document their Org and understand the impact of changes. Mapping productivity tools in Process Knowledge We have launched some of the advanced mapping capabilities as part of the PRO plan for Process […]
If you are not involved with Salesforce as an Admin or implementation consultant; keep walking as there is nothing to see here. This post is about the scary situation that many clients find themselves in – and how we can help them get out alive. How did we get here? You are responsible for a customized Salesforce Org – custom objects and fields, approvals, email templates, VF page…. – and now you have NO IDEA how or […]
We have designed Elements to be quick and easy to use in live workshops. But it also has some extremely powerful features. The trick to balance simplicity with power. So here are some Diagramming hints & tips. 5 mins now to can save you hours later. In EDIT mode, the palette on the left allows you to drag and drop. Or close the panel (icon on top bar) and use the following tips: Activity boxes: Double-click to draw boxes. […]
After the fantastic response from our live workshops at Dreamforce we are getting questions for Salesforce Admins who want to get going. It is really simple – you don’t need to install anything inside Salesforce to get started. And everything I am describing here is Free. For Ever. For Everyone. Elements Business Analysis App Register for Elements. This gives you access to the business analysis app which is standalone running on AWS. It is where […]
In this short video, we’ve tried to capture why Elements is perfect for Salesforce Admins
eBook – Analysis, Automation & Adoption for #AwesomeAdmins This is absolutely amazing! I will be sharing this one!! You’ll especially want to check out the steps for leading live mapping workshops in the appendix. Salesforce User Group Leader The ebook will quickly help you master a simple business analysis approach that has been proven in 1000’s of clients in every industry, ranging from Fortune 500 down to innovative start ups. The business analysis approach […]
Richard Parker, Chief Customer Officer at Elements talks through the thinking behind the freemium pricing model and the scope of the free capabilities.
We had such an amazing response from the audience of Salesforce Admins at Dreamforce. The brand new theater within the Admin Meadow called AutomationStation was focused completely on Business Analysis and Process Automation. We delivered 12 live mapping workshops and were blown away by the enthusiastic support. Here is a short video up to the point where we started live mapping. The presentation deck INCLUDING examples of the process we mapped can be downloaded here […]
The Directors Cut There is a great ebook that Accenture has written called The Director’s Cut. The thrust behind it is: How do movie directors create new value with their previously released films? They issue a “director’s cut”— a revised, updated version of a previously released movie over which the director has complete artistic control. In issuing an original film, directors battle against deadlines, budgets, resource constraints and movie studio executives who sometimes demand a different product […]
Presenting is the most under-rated skill that can super-charge your career. Great presentation technique gets you noticed inside and outside your company, gets you promoted or better still – headhunted. Ian shares his top tips on wowing an audience.
Jenifer Lee is interviewed by Mike Gerholdt and Gillian Madill at ButtonClickAdmins Podcast on her process-related sessions at Dreamforce. Also they have a discussion about the Automation Station which is in the AdminZone at Moscone West. The Automation Station will be covering discovery, live process mapping, automation demos and case studies.
Salesforce have come a long way and we’ve been with them from the beginning – 2001 It is not until you look back that you realize how far you have come. We have been a customers of Salesforce from the very early days. At Nimbus in 2001 (the exact timing I forget) we became a early customer when Salesforce was 2 guys (Steve Garnett and Ryan Ward) selling out of a Regus office in Bracknell, UK. The application […]
[READ TIME 5 mins] We spent 15 years building Nimbus, a process mapping company, to a reasonable size in the UK and a very successful exit. 4 years after the exit, the 3 founders have got back together and have launched Elements, cloud process mapping app with a highly disruptive freemium pricing model targeting the Fortune 5Million, not just the Fortune 500. And the sweet spot is Salesforce.com implementations. Why? Because it is a massive market […]
[READ TIME 2 mins] Swimlanes can be a visually powerful aid to group the roles, departments, systems or locations involved in a given set of activities. With Elements Process Knowledge, you can have BOTH swimlanes and resources on activities. This allows you to draw the flow of activity boxes that is most logical and understandable, with the visual power of swimlanes and the analytical capabilities of resources. There is no limit to the number of […]
[READ TIME: 3 mins] I was asked the question – What does Operational Excellence look like in 2025. Here are my thoughts. “We wanted flying cars and got 140 character tweets” When people predict the future they always look at the technology and try and guess what it will look like. But if we are looking at the future of Operational Excellence we need to look at what companies will be like – their business […]
[READ TIME – 5 mins] As you can learn from the good and the bad, Brexit is a great example of how NOT to do change management. So here are 5 lessons that can be learnt from the last few weeks. It is hard to think of a larger change management “project” than Brexit when you look at the number of people impacted, the degree or change and the worldwide visibility. I am not sure […]
Adrian King is COO & CTO of Elements, the free cloud process knowledge app – process capture, collaboration and communication – or as some people call it “Visio on steroids”. He was the CTO & COO of Nimbus Partners where he developed an on-premise process mapping app which was used by over 10% of the Fortune 500 including SAP, Nestle, AstraZeneca, Barclays and Chevron. But he inherited many architectural decisions which were made before he […]
So is this “digital revolution” even a thing? Or is it just another cynical concept promoted by the consulting firms and software companies to sell more of their stuff? The more you look at what is happening in industry after industry and company after company, I believe that only now are we are seeing the true “Digital Revolution”. And the cataclysmic change will match that of the industrial revolution – with both good and bad […]
[READ TIME 2 mins] Distraction kills focus. And as a start-up you have the opportunity to do anything and everything. You see a million possibilities. Your vision is dominating a market worth billions. But to execute that long term strategy you need a short term survival plan. And that means focusing on a market with laser precision. Which is probably the greatest challenge for an entrepreneur, especially when the doubts set in, customer deals fail […]
[WATCH TIME – 6 mins] Back in 2006 we recorded a video to describe the power of Nimbus. It proved to be very popular and was coined “the triangle video”. 10 years later we have launched Elements and everything in that 2006 video is the same now as it was then – apart from Ian Gott’s hairline and his dress sense. So here is the 2016 version: If you want to see the original then […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] We have improved the way that teams work to be more flexible and more powerful. Anything you have done to date in Elements will be maintained. Principles of Teams Teams contain a group of Users who have access to specific Maps. Teams also have their own library of Resources and Data Tables which can be applied across the maps in the team. When Elements was launched, people had to have the […]
With all the great case studies and conferences on Customer Experience you would think that most of the major consumer facing companies have got it together. But it seems that the telco industry, fails time and time again. I blogged recently in an article titled #CXFail You couldn’t make this up about a friend how posted this on Facebook It’s a sad reflection of business nowadays is that my major accomplishment today was getting to speak […]
We used to say Elements is like “Visio* on Steroids”, but maybe we should say it is like “Visio on hydrofoils”. Hydrofoils have transformed sailing, kitesurfing, wake boarding and now surfing and standup paddle boarding. Put hydrofoils on something and… you get there faster, everyone wants a go, and you are constantly grinning. Sounds like Visio users who have experienced Elements. *it is not just Visio, but Powerpoint, Lucidchart, Gliffy and any diagramming/flowcharting app […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Happy teams get more done. That’s a fact. There’s a great deal of research that supports the hunch that happier teams and individuals are more productive. CEO of iOpener and author of Happiness at Work,Jessica Pryce-Jones tells Forbes, “Happiness at work is closely correlated with greater performance and productivity as well as greater energy, better reviews, faster promotion, higher income, better health, and increased happiness with life. So it’s good for […]
[READ TIME: 2 mins] Aragon Research is an industry analyst focusing on Work and People, so the intersection of technology and business. Jim Sinur, who was a VP & Distinguished Analyst at Gartner for 20 years covering the BPM space, is a VP & Research Fellow at Aragon Research. He is covering Digital Transformation, BPM, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Each year, Aragon Research selects Hot Vendors across multiple markets that are doing something […]
[READ TIME: 10 minutes] MWD Advisors is an industry research and advisory services firm and their core focus is how digital technologies are changing the ways that organizations and people get work done. MWD have covered the BPM space for a number of years and are therefore seen as the industry experts. Q9 Elements is essentially a reboot of Nimbus Partners, but with a more modern technology approach and a business model designed to encourage viral adoption. […]
Pride parades are a big corporate deal. An estimated 150,000 took part in the SF event in 2016. So it is an opportunity to really enhance your brand. Or it could be just a way to waste money by throwing swag at people who will put it straight in the trash. As usual planning ahead and being creative dramatically improves your bang for the buck. This blog gives you some ideas and thoughts – our way […]
There are many huge implications; financial, political but I woke up thinking about the practical. There are huge number of cross-border processes that need to be reengineered – or even reinvented. Remember that it was 1973 when the UK joined the EU, so no-one except Iceland who left in 1992 understands what it is like to leave. And these processes that need to be reengineered are not just in the UK, but in the other […]
[READ TIME: 2 mins] Why is it so hard to get corporations to deliver consistent operational processes? Maybe this parable will help. Four blind men surround an elephant. Each is grabbing the elephant in a different place. Someone asks each of the blind men in turn “What’s an elephant like?” The blind man holding the elephant’s tail says, “An elephant is like a rope.” The man holding one of the elephant’s ears replies, “An elephant is flat, like […]
[READ TIME 10 mins] I consider myself a Dreamforce veteran – a repeat offender. I was founder and CEO of Nimbus who were a Salesforce customer in 2000 when Salesforce had just 2 people in their London office and there were Leads, Accounts and Contact objects. We were one of the 3 featured customers at the London event where there were 120 delegates with Marc beating the “no software” drum. We were early evangelists. Since then I have […]
[READ TIME: 1 min] A genuine post from a friend on Facebook. It’s a sad reflection of business nowadays is that my major accomplishment today was getting to speak to someone at VirginMedia that was able to use a telephone and find out the problem with our order. He also managed to retain my number and call me back. Mind this took 3 calls yesterday speaking to 5 people and 2 calls today, one of which was […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Gartner research by Christian Hestermann titled SaaS ERP Only Reduces Part of the Effort Needed to Implement and Operate Your ERP spells out what many of us involved in SaaS implementations have known for a long time. Just because the application (ERP, CRM or other line of business app) is cloud or SaaS doesn’t mean that it can be implemented in days. As the report says “Do not believe the hype about […]
[READ TIME: 2 mins] I find myself writing articles where each time I have to explain the power of a simple modeling notation. No swimlanes. No flowchart symbols. No palette of 300 BPMN shapes to interpret. Just a simple building block (When, What, Why, Who, How) The principles behind UPN were first published in back in 2004 in a book called Common Approach UnCommon Results. Nimbus released this as an open standard in 2008 called […]
[TIME TO READ: 2 mins] Picture: Illustration by Andras Baranyai for Fortune I am sitting under an umbrella outside a Peets Coffee shop on my super-light Macbook connected to free wifi with access to all my apps and content through a browser – on a public holiday. I am at work whilst waiting for my son to finish his flute lesson. Now, “at work” is an activity and no longer a location or time in the day. […]
[READ TIME 2 mins] A simple enough question. My children understand that if I am in my office, or I walk into the house after a business trip and am on the phone that I may still be at work. Have you noticed that the term “I am at work” has become a meaningless term for a huge swathe of the workforce? For those who are self-employed, road warriors (sales and consultants), mobile workers and senior […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] The starting point A client asked me to work with them to review their process for Customer Success. They sent me their 6 page Powerpoint deck with their process documented and it was pretty good. For client confidentiality I have “sanitized” the BEFORE and AFTER process diagrams. BEFORE: Below is the sanitized process that I was sent. I am sure many of you recognize processes like this. But what was really good […]
[READ TIME 5 mins] Simple mistake x social media = PR nightmare You have probably heard about “the Sainsburys 50p challenge poster”. If not you can read about it here. In summary, a poster intended to encourage staff to get customers to spend just 50p more, was put up in a store window. Another recent example was Salesforce’s recent #NA14 5 hour outage. As well as the outage, customers lost five hours of data (according to their […]
[READ TIME: 2 mins] The issue for small businesses is: at what point do you move from heroic actions by staff to get the job done, to more formalized processes that enable effective, consistent Customer & Employee Experience. Which in turn enables growth. The answer is always “too late”. This is because process/BPM is never a priority. What tips companies over the edge and forces them to get serious about process? If could be any […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] We have just completed a 12 week project where I have been the Program Manager for a critical business transformation project for a multi-national company that delivers major ($1-10 billion) construction projects. The first phase, which has just finished, was a proof of concept. The objective was to develop a hierarchical process map for their Deliver Construction Project process. But as it is so huge – 90% of the employees are engaged in delivering […]
CIOs have lost the confidence of the business because they are seen to be unresponsive in delivering the infrastructure and applications that the business feels they must have to be competitive. In the last 5-10 years, the business users’ experience of what a great technology UX feels like, and what applications are capable of doing is shaped by their experiences as consumers. And that colors the business user’s expectations. Over the last 2-3 years, […]
We have crowdsourced from the San Francisco locals all the “inside knowledge” in 80 pages packed full of critical insights. It is a useful resource for any of you traveling to SF for one of the many conferences or just socially. Getting around SF and the Bay Area; did you know the Richmond Bridge ONLY takes cash? Where to stay in the coolest boutique hotels; avoiding the standard Hiltons and Hyatts Where the locals eat; we’ve […]
Kinky Boots – a great “educational” film Written in 2005 it has some great messages that are even more relevant today in a time of turmoil: You history won’t guarantee your future Change is uncomfortable, but not impossible Find a niche and get REALLy good at satisfying it
[READ TIME: 10 mins] For many, change is frightening, threatening and therefore it is resisted at all costs. It is that old pain versus pleasure thing. People act to eliminate pain and bring pleasure. Therefore you need to make the new world look more pleasurable than the perceived pain of change. Or you need to make the pain of not changing greater than the pain of the change itself. Either way, make change the path […]
READ TIME: 2 mins The change is remarkable. Better technology. Better coordinated team. Better result. So have your processes improved this much? What could you learn from Formula1 teams about their attention to process detail?
The debate around the value of BPMN continues. Clearly it is the critical modeling notation for those in the business of “process execution” i.e. workflow automation. But its huge range of symbols often makes it impenetrable by end users who need a view of the end to end process for training, support or compliance reasons; the operations manual. Also it does not lend itself to strategic operational design for executives. Enter UPN (Universal Process Notation). It […]
[READ TIME 5 mins] Stage plays entertained kings and queens throughout the ages – and anyone else wealthy enough. Think about the film “Shakespeare in Love.” Playwrights were impoverished artists who did it for the love and recognition. They were the ultimate story tellers. So where does the story go? Films were online theatre Then came the film, with the first-ever public screening of a film in 1895. The early films were no more than capturing […]
The benefit of cloud software is we can respond to feedback with sprints delivering updates every 14 days. So here is the first release. NEW FUNCTIONALITY Onboarding: We heard you. New users arrive at the Home Page and go “Hmmm”. And we know there was too much pop up help – because 54% of you didn’t get to the end!!! It will continue to improve. So here are the changes, so far: Drastically reduced pop-up help. Help is […]
Think rocket, not bullet Rockets start slowly and keep accelerating. Bullets come out fast and slow down. We had over 100 invited clients and partners register. While organic growth is fine, we will only start proactive marketing efforts when you tell us we’re ready. We expect to improve the onboarding, usability and core capability significantly with sprints delivering updates every 14 days. Word-of-mouth will fuel this rocket as we get it right. What we have […]
We can’t wait. It is really great to see all the pieces coming together after all the months of planning and development. The Elements software will be available as beta at 12 noon PCT on 29th February. Webinar Overview We will run two webinars to demo the software and talk about the roadmap for March and beyond on Thurs 25th Feb. (8am PCT – 16:00 UK time) and (12noon PCT – 20:00 UK time) Timing […]
Next week is the annual SaaStr conference – THE event for startup and growing companies. The tag line is “THE FIRST $100M ARR IS ALWAYS THE HARDEST”. It is going to be an overwhelming week. All 5,000 seats are sold and a huge line up of sponsors, so great networking opportunities and 150 speakers so a chance to learn from those who have already done it (or funded those who have done it). And for […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] A great article by Wade Foster from Zavier on the Hubspot blog called Why the Best Marketing Teams Embrace Process talked about the importance of process to marketing. The heart of the discussion is that marketing is more science than art. But the best marketing organisations combine both. The worst teams hope that their art will pull them through. But process sounds boring, is limiting, adds inertia, kills creativity and is just not sexy. […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Over the last five years, industry after industry has seen disruption due to the combined forces of cloud, social, mobile, and big data. Each of these forces on their own is a powerful agent for change, but in combination, they’re deadly. As far back as 2011, Mark Andreessen summarized the current phenomenon with a simple phrase, “Software is eating the world.” Andreessen argued that every business in every industry would feel […]
Launch date: Feb 29th “Are we on track for beta on Feb 29th?” YES. This is the question that all of you wanted to ask. And then. “Is the ‘Elements Process Knowledge’ application still going to be free?” YES. So firstly, thank you for your patience and the wide ranging support and input. Delivering a functional, beautiful, scalable, enterprise cloud app using the latest technologies requires solid foundations. Really solid. It just takes time…and […]
[READ and WATCH time 5 mins] There have been several films about the tech scene plus the sitcom series, Silicon Valley. But many of these are simply lampooning the Silicon Valley excesses. They are funny, but ultimately empty. The Intern has a different and interesting take. Plus the chemistry between Anne Hathaway (young start-upCEO) and Robert DeNiro (her 70 year old intern) is beautiful. However behind this entertaining film there are some very important messages for all start-up […]
[READ TIME – 5 mins] The COO or Operations Director is the one who keeps the wheels turning, no matter how much grit is thrown into the innermost workings. He is Chief Elf to Santa the CEO. So why do COOs hate Christmas? It all revolves around two things – more work and fewer people – with an artificial, yet unmovable deadline set some 2000 years ago in a stable. Here are 10 reasons that the COO hates Christmas. Reason […]
[WATCH TIME: 16 mins] Sometimes delivering a better customer experience is all about changing the customer’s expectations about what they really want. In this fantastic TED video, Rory Sutherland describes it in his own inimitable style.
[READ TIME: 2 mins] I am a non-exec director of a rapidly growing startup called Zuant – iPad lead capture. One of the challenges of a growing company is keeping the culture and brand values as you scale up the team. They have a young and committed team which responds well to rewards. At the end of each year the team votes on the MVP (most valuable player) and they get a check for $2500. One […]
Do you recognise any of these discussions in your dealings with customer or vendors. See how they make you squirm when applied to ‘real life’. Or to put it another way “I only negotiate UPWARDS. You start”.
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Self service fail Self service “kiosks“ are now appearing in airports, supermarkets and banks, and we’ve had automated call answering services for decades. Good ideas in principle, but too many companies get it seriously wrong. As a customer, I’ve never been clear about why companies choose to provide self-service. And based on my user experiences I am not sure that they are clear. Most companies are schizophrenic, oscillating between the two options: Reducing […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Non value demand You make your customers do something that has no real value for them. Your call center staff have to deal with unhappy customers and they also know that their time is being wasted and that makes them more hacked off which then filters through to the customers. Here are some examples of Non Value Demand (work created because we failed to do something) vs Value Demand. Non Value […]
New York – Broadway I was recently in New York on holiday and took a very excited family to see the Lion King. The production itself is absolutely fantastic: the drama, the costumes, the scenery, the lighting, the music. Theatrically, it was an onslaught on the senses and exceeded expectation in so many ways. But especially in the abhorrent customer experience that we had there. While the product itself was fantastic, it is a shame that […]
READ TIME : 2 mins, watch time 2 mins How difficult can it be? How can companies get online payment systems so wrong when taking payment is not exactly rocket science…. But many websites make it difficult for the customer to do just 3 simple steps: Find item, add item to their cart, and pay. There are lots of mistakes that are made around the layout and operation of ecommerce websites. Here is the harsh reality of […]
[READ TIME: 2 MINS] We don’t hate BPMN. We just think it has a time and place. And that time is NOT when business users are trying to map high level end to end processes. Using a simplified notation means that everyone, across the different departments and at every level, is talking the same language. BPMN is a great notation when you are down in the detail thinking about how to automate a task. We […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Recently my iMod – an iPod with internal electronics replaced with Hi-Fi components – stopped working. (Yes I am a Hi-Fi nerd but the sound quality is fantastic). As it was expensive and had been modified in the US I wasn’t too comfortable giving it to just anybody to fix. So I asked around and the iPod Surgery was recommended. I went to their site which seemed pretty self-explanatory. I found […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] The image is of the slowest roller-coast in the world. You literally walk around it. It still gives you that scary feeling of being miles up in the air, but in slow-time. It is rather like a software start-up. Sadly great software, despite the claims you hear from some platform companies, cannot be built in minutes. Building beautiful, enterprise scale software takes months just to get the MVP (minimum viable product) […]
[READ TIME: 2 mins & book] Sadly, improv is not seen by most business people as anything more than an art form, a interesting past time, or a great night out. They miss the fundamental relevance to the world of work. Every day we are thrust into situations where a knowledge of the simple principles of improv would massively raise a persons game; an interview, a promotion or redundancy conversation, a conflict over meeting room […]
[READ TIME: 2 mins] A simple task: I needed to update my credit card for my wife’s health insurance with Assurant Health, who are number 285 on the Fortune500 with the revenues of $10.3 billion. So it is 2015, so I naturally went to their website. Fail #1: The website is an unintelligible mess i.e. it doesn’t match the now standardized layout we all expect Fail #2: I needed to registered online. All I needed […]
[READ TIME: 1 min] One thing I can guarantee: it will be more expensive to do ANYTHING than you ever believed. Hotels, restaurants, taxis… But if this is the first time you have been to San Francisco, you will also be amazed by what a cool place this is. Seeing the sunrise from the Golden Gate Bridge. Watching the fog blow across the Bay. Wandering through Chinatown. And so much more. A while ago in […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Are your customers and staff fighting poorly thought through processes and systems? It is time to define successful outcomes from the customer’s perspective and the good news is that their expectations are incredibly low. Social media is consumer power Many experiences we have with companies is utterly appalling. It leaves us feeling empty, frustrated and bitter. But now we have the mechanism to vent our anger which has real impact: social media. […]
Software’s eating the world. Are you next? [READ TIME: 10 mins] Industries are being reshaped at a frightening pace making it difficult for the established players to respond. The power is with the new entrants. They get to develop new business models without the baggage – people, premises and processes – collected over the years. They are able to innovate and then iterate rapidly. It is a scary time to be a “major player”. Every industry […]
[READ TIME: 3 mins] It’s like singles dating Dreamforce, like most conferences now is geared up to be presentations and a series of “business networking” events. With talk of mixing business with pleasure made me consider the real similarities between networking events and singles dating clubs. Location: Networking events are often held in a bar. Guess what? Singles mingle in bars all the time, and the booze is a flowing in both types of events. Attendance: Much […]
[READ TIME: 3 mins] This is a complaints letter to Ryan Air, a low cost, no-frills carrier in Ireland. It surfaced on the net back in May and we can’t believe we’ve only just chanced upon it, posted by DJ Lockley to Facebook. Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing for the attention of your customer experience team. I am definitely a customer, and believe me, you didn’t fail providing us with an experience. My wife and […]
[READ TIME 10 mins] I consider myself a Dreamforce veteran – a repeat offender. I was founder and CEO of Nimbus who were a Salesforce customer in 2000 when Salesforce had just 2 people in their London office and there were Leads, Accounts and Contact objects. We were one of the 3 featured customers at the London event where there were 100 delegates with Marc beating the “no software” drum. We were early evangelists. Since then I have […]
[READ TIME: 1 min] PassionePizza.com are Italians on a mission to give everyone the opportunity to make great pizza at home. Just DON’T follow their simple instructions on the packaging (which I have summarized) Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F Remove dough from the bag and let it thaw for 4-5 hours and roll dough into a 10″ circle Add toppings Bake for 8-10 mins. Enjoy I kid you not. These are the instructions. […]
[READ & WATCH TIME 5 mins] If you have registered for a free pass (registration link) to Dreamforce15 you will not be able to get into the Gala where the Foo Fighters are playing…. or any of the 100’s of sessions. But back to the Foo Fighters. You could pay between $300,000 and $500,000 to book them for your private party. Suddenly makes the Dreamforce ticket price of $1,599 seem a bargain. But there is […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] For years I have collected miles with a few different airlines but managed to fly only twice using my miles. And it is in that one sentence that you have the problem with airline loyalty program and my loyalty strategy. Airlines want to you to fly with them and collect miles. But they really don’t want you to use the miles to fly – or so it would seem from the […]
[READ TIME : 2 mins] Every company at some point is likely to be hacked, have an employee make a PR mistake (Sainsburys 5op challenge poster, or have the CEO say something they bitterly regret (Microsoft’s Satya Nadell women’s raise). Some hacking incident’s are worse than others. Sony’s hack was dubbed “the hack of the century” by Fortune magazine who ran a headline piece on it. In the case of Ashley Madison, the damage of their […]
[READ TIME: 15 mins] The memo linked below was sent to the team at Tiny Speck, the makers of Slack, on July 31st, 2013. It had been a little under seven months since development began and was two weeks before the launch of Slack’s ‘Preview Release’. It is worth reading in its entirety. It beautifully sets out what the team should be focusing on and sets a very high bar for them to achieve. It […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Every major organization has some form of customer call center. You may have renamed yours “contact center.” They are manned by staff that are trained, tooled-up with technology and incentivized to support customers. The center is critical because it drives long term sales and protects repeat revenue. It may even be considered a “profit center.” Customer Strategy But your customers are calling you less, and only when they really have to. […]
[READ TIME: 1 min] The numbers around recalls are staggering.There were a record 74.2 million recalls in 2014 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The most recent in the US is 433,000 2015 Focus, C-MAX and Escape cars are being recalled to dealerships for a software update. But the largest recall to date is the 36 millions cars being recalled because of potentially dangerous airbags made by Japanese manufacturer Takata. This may seem to […]
When we started Nimbus we were evangelists. Every sale was a triumph. Not beating the competition, but finding a like-minded client who “got it”. Clients that understood: The audience for the process maps is everyone in the company, so it needed to be simple The process content was the “operations manual” and “single source of truth”, so it needed to be managed That you could get benefits without automating every single activity, so it needed to be […]
It was 35 years ago today when The Blues Brothers first hit theaters in 1980. It was 19 years ago today that Nimbus was formed in 1997. And now the band is back together again,
John Oliver normally fights for the under-dog. But today he gives us a fascinating – and funny – insight into the lives of those who work at the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The article has some fascinating stats: you could wait all day outside an IRS office to talk to someone IRS, because there are so few staff working 4 in 10 get through on the phone, with 5 million having “courtesy disconnects” […]
They say that everything in life is timing. Certainly for the punchline of a good joke. But now it seems that timing is the most important factor for any startup. In this short, but fascinating, TED talk Bill Gross reveals his research on over 200 startups. He discovered the most important factor in the success of a startup is TIMING, more important than the other 4 factors; idea, team, business model or funding. Too early […]
In this fantastic keynote he describes what is happening with digital disruption. He sets out the challenges for leaders in a future that is changing increasingly quickly. A must watch (for the first 15 mins).
John Stewart from The Daily Show interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson at 15min. Jon’s favorite element is Carbon, for some great reasons. http://thedailyshow.cc.com/full-episodes/ogafvo/april-23–2015—neil-degrasse-tyson
Neil Ward-Dutton, co-founder and research Director of the analyst firm MWD Advisors gave an excellent and thought provoking keynote at the BPM Next conference in Santa Barbara. In fact his presentation title suggested the conference should probably have been called “BPM Last”. He very generously shared his presentation and made it publicly available to a broader audience than just the BPM Next delegates. The presentation is worth reading in full (below), but here are the […]
Today’s technology challenge: I bought something and I hope I can get home before it is obsolete. Comedian, Robin Ince reflects on why we should spend more time appreciating what we have rather than wanting more.
Something as simple as making toast should be easy to describe as a process. Boring even. Everybody will draw the same simple process. Or will they? Watch this TED video and you will be amazed at the results of the research by Tom Wujec. He then draws some conclusions about the way to get people to describe processes that solve wicked problems. Sadly, he hasn’t discovered the power of hierarchical mapping applications, but his discoveries […]
You can build everything with BPM platforms Any client COULD use a BPM platform to develop their corporate apps. But they would be mad. Salesforce has huge team that think about nothing else but building customer success apps (CRM, support, marketing), WorkDay have a huge team that think about nothing else but building HR apps etc etc. And whilst these off the shelf (off the cloud?) applications are not a perfect fit for clients, the […]
[READ TIME: 3 mins] To go “Green” requires changes to how people work, interact and use technology. Having just launched Q9Elements in San Francisco it is pretty difficult to miss the ‘greening’ trend. Northern California is the green heartland. Yesterday I cycled past a Toyota Prius Hybrid with a bumper sticker “Tree hugging dirt worshipper.” Everything and anything is recycled. But there is a rising consciousness driven by companies wishing to be seen to be green. Oil companies […]
[READ TIME: 8 mins inc video] Back in 2010 I wrote a blog about the the transformational shift caused by cloud, social, mobile and big data. That was over 4 years ago. It is still very relevant, and worth a read. But in that blog I put a link to a Microsoft video which portrayed the future. The notes to the video said that most of the technology shown was already in existence, just not […]
[READ TIME: 4 mins] Everyone recognizes the critical importance of “mobile” in a company’s approach to CX (customer experience), employee engagement and in their partner programs. But it is not that straightforward to pivot the company’s entire IT strategy. New companies can adopt a “mobile-first” strategy, but it is not “mobile-only”. Which means every app that is developed needs to be able to support web and the myriad of mobile devices; the combination of screen […]
Psychopaths lack empathy, are pathological liars, have an enormous sense of self-worth, are impulsive, irresponsible and won’t accept responsibility for their own actions. They make up 1% of the total population, 25% of the criminal population. But do you recognize the traits. Perhaps in the upper reaches of your corporation or our Governments? The Psy-Fi Blog in their blog Is your CEO a Psychopath? puts a strong case for as high as 4% of corporate […]
[READ TIME: 4 mins] Do the math. We all spend a significant percentage of our lives at work. And based on this poster by Charles Schwab and the state of the Government’s finances, we are all going to be working even longer. So as leaders it is our role to make sure that the lives of our staff is valuable and rewarding, if not fun. People have incredible levels of drive, ability and enthusiasm as […]
[READ TIME: 3 mins] Rethinking ROI Everyone has heard of ROI – Return on Investment. Every business case has some calculation that shows that the project will have a positive ROI. Once the project has been signed off and the software purchased, then the ROI is often forgotten. No one is there monitoring the return from the project to ensure that the benefits are realized. But with low cost cloud-based applications and particularly the low-code […]
[READ TIME: 3 mins] Business-IT gap getting bigger We have talked about bridging the business-IT gap for years. When IT was all-powerful it was important for the business to maintain a decent relationship. But now the power has reversed, paradoxically at a time when ITs importance has never been higher and their credibility is at an all time low. In another blog I have talked about the “App Gap” which is the huge backlog of […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] Change is frightening, but a critically important competency For many, change is frightening, threatening and therefore it is resisted at all costs. It is that old pain versus pleasure thing. People act to eliminate pain and bring pleasure. Therefore, to drive effective change, you need to make the new world look more pleasurable than the perceived pain of change. Or you need to make the pain of not changing greater than […]
[READ TIME: 3 mins] Another driving analogy Think about driving alongside a pavement crowded with shoppers. A pedestrian steps out and thanks to your lightning reactions and the ABS on your car you manage to avoid hitting them. So ‘agility’ is whether you are able to respond if something jumps out in front of you. The measure is “did you hit them”. You could have been just as ‘agile’, but required a far less violent reaction […]
[READ TIME: 5 mins] More and more companies are recognizing the value of creating a unique and exceptional customer experience. New roles like the “Chief Customer Officer” and “Chief Digital Officer,” are emerging as companies invest in aligning processes, technology and communications to better serve the customer. But it is all the hoopla about customer experience (CX) just a fad? Kia Puhm, Chief Customer Officer (CCO) of Blueprint Software, a Requirements Definition Management software company. […]
[READ TIME: 2 minutes] BPM focus BPM is normally associated with streamlining back office functions and cost reduction. But this is the wrong focus. BPM activities should be focused on driving business growth if it wants to be seen as a valuable part of business strategy. Business growth is about gaining new customers and keeping existing ones. One of the few competitive differentiators left is Customer Experience (CX). Product innovation is short lived and no […]
[READ TIME: 3 mins] True story: our IT department sucks I recently got a speeding ticket in California doing 80 mph. I was told I could do “traffic school” which is an online test and avoid a fine. The officer said I would get a letter in the post. That was 13 December and still no letter. So I rang up the local country court number which was on the bottom of the speeding ticket. […]
In a great article in Bloomberg Business Week they catalogue the demise of Abercrombie and Fitch, in the cover feature called The Aging of Abercrombie and Fitch. Whilst the article shows the challenges that every company has of “staying relevant” in a rapidly changing world there was a very interesting insight into the unnecessary level of detail that the CEO Jefferies demanded of his private jet staff. This came to light when Michael Bustin, a […]
We all know the value of remote working. Many of the benefits you know, plus some that you may not have considered are in a blog called “Daddy are you still at work?”. But a necessary evil of remote working is the conference call. And with it there are 3 major issues 1. Protocol: Surely by now we should all be able to make conference calls a seamless experience. But how many calls go like […]
“Daddy, are you still at work?” A simple enough question. My children understand that if I am in my office, or I walk into the house after a business trip and am on the phone that I may still be at work. Have you noticed that the term “I am at work” has become a meaningless term for a huge swathe of the workforce? For those who are self-employed, road warriors (sales and consultants), mobile […]
Social media amplifies the good and bad Social media is a great vehicle for reaching more people. So instead of fixing problems, it in fact it AMPLIFIES them. So if you have a customer experience issue, then using social media to fix it is like putting lipstick on a pig. It may work for a short while, but pretty quickly it will get out of control and work against you. Laura Click from Blue Kite […]
The recent PEXNetwork conference in Orlando brought together process professionals to think about the future and the role process has to play. This was the opening video… which does a great job of setting the scene. The future is difficult to predict, and the video highlights the benefits of Google Glass, just as Google announce they are suspending sales. But don’t let this detract from the very important message. “The future is fast and agile […]
Should you be designing processes first or focus on the outcomes? This is a critically important question when thinking about redesigning your business processes. You have one chance to get this right and a room full of senior people with high expectations of the process workshop. When running live process mapping workshops, when we define the top level of the map (which could be Quote to Cash or Recruit to Retire or even the entire […]