Business Making Progress

Tweet and Be Damned

The following is an excerpt from Dr. John Bates’ recent commentary on Huffington Post, which discusses Twitter’s ability to predict financial market sentiment. 

Another firm has jumped on the Twitter sentiment bandwagon; Topsy Labs is planning to release a Twitter trading tool to investors later this year. Topsy follows U.K. hedge fund Derwent Capital, which launched a fund last year using a Twitter algo that claims to predict market direction three or four days in advance with nearly 88% accuracy. And U.S. firm Wall Street Birds, which offers a free service for investors to use to make investment decisions based on the analysis of social media data. (It has become so popular that to sign up you must get invited by an existing user.)

But are emotionally laden Twitter messages able to provide reliable bellwethers for market sentiment? As I said in an interview with Advanced Trading in April, I think you can use a Twitter algo to get a sentiment reading on particular topics, but by the time you've got the information it is more of a trailing indicator rather than a leading indicator.

Read the full post from Dr. Bates here. 

 

Improving the Banking Customer Experience - An Internal Perspective

Banking organizations are fraught with silos. Operating this way must feel like looking at the world through a straw, I imagine. With a limited view, your ability to affect change is thwarted by the distortion of the full magnitude of any given situation. With this narrow perspective, you’re vulnerable to errors or worse, fraud and revenue leakage.

Compounding this issue is the increase in customer demands. As expectations rise, tolerance for dissatisfying banking customer experience is at an all time low, and grumbling customers take to social networks to complain.

The good news is: there’s an answer. Banks can reevaluate their operations and gain the critical business level visibility needed to achieve premier levels of customer support. To do this, business leaders should assess four key areas:

• Volume – the number of customer requests coming in through all channels such as call center, online, mobile etc.

• Velocity – the pace of customer expectations (same session service expectations) and the ability to meet big data and customer requirements in real time at the moment they are requested

• Variety – the variety of data and channels we see such as web, mobile, call center, outsourcing services etc. The more channels there are, the harder it is to track, control and resolve issues before they reach the customer. Many institutions now outsource IT needs, etc. making it even harder to control each channel 

• Complexity – having end-to-end visibility into internal transactions despite multiple channels

You simply cannot offer new products and services and maintain consistent customer experience if you have not taken a hard look at your internal operations. The lack of visibility makes the complex dependencies between data sources and channels too hard to see and thus too hard to control.

To hear more about gaining end-to-end visibility in the banking world, check out Bank Systems & Technology’s recent webcast, “Customer Transaction Management - Gaining Visibility, Control and Reliability.” 

 

Straight From the Source: How One of Our ISV Partners Uses SaaS to Improve Business

Almost all businesses—large or small—have a need for a comprehensive human resources (HR) program to serve their most valued resources, employees. Leading integrated benefits, payroll and human resources solutions provider Unicorn HRO provides solutions to manage HR processes with greater speed, scope and depth.

In the ’80s, Unicorn’s on-premise solution addressed approximately half the target market needs, and they knew they wanted to offer more.  Today, Unicorn leverages the Progress OpenEdge SaaS application development platform to help their customers, from mega-corporations like McDonalds to lesser-known SMBs (small-medium businesses), do business with greater efficiency.

I asked Tim Diassi, EVP and GM for Unicorn HRO to share the top reasons they use SaaS and this is what he told me:

• Ability to deliver services via the Web -- Unicorn releases new software upgrades twice a year with updated federal, state and local tax rates. SaaS helps Unicorn keep everything up-to-date so that customers can quickly and easily take advantage of the newest software version to stay compliant.
• Reduced time-to-market – The scalability and flexibility of a SaaS application development platform accelerates the speed with which Unicorn distributes software upgrades. In fact, Unicorn migrated 50 clients over a single weekend, without a hitch.
• Business continuity and disaster processing – Just because your network goes down, doesn’t mean your business can stop running. Unicorn’s service teams have kept customers’ applications up and running during all kinds of crises, including Hurricane Katrina.
• Increased ROI – Thanks to the cloud, Unicorn has experienced double-digit growth for the past 5 years without adding any significant cost of capital investment for the development of new services.

The Progress–Unicorn partnership shows the true power of SaaS. We’re excited to continue to work with such an innovative company as they plan further leverage SaaS for increased efficiency and business process integration.

Thanks and as always, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Inventories lag as sales grow - supply chains balancing act

While many on the economic front were drawn to two numbers - the unemployement rate which was lowered to 8.5% the lowest it has been in 3 years and consumer spending/confidence was inching upwards - two signs that the economy is slowly moving upwards. There is another report, less heralded, but just as interesting: inventory levels. The wholesale inventory levels barely grew at the end of 2011, yet the sales for wholesale did well. For the month of November, the inventory level grew by only 0.1%, yet sales in October grew at 0.8% and in November 0.6%. Is there a disconnect there? Clearly the wholesale supply chain did not properly plan the growth of inventories to keep up with demand. Granted, it is not as simple as turning on a faucet and producing more inventories. Add to this the strain on inventory that certain companies such as Toyota suffered due to natural disasters and there is invariably going to be a drop in the availability of inventory.

What it does remind us, is the fact that we are still stuggling to close the loop between planning and execution.The growth in sales in October coupled with the upcoming holiday season, should have been signals that inventories needed to be ramped up. Now maybe the plans did not forecast a continued growth trajectory, but with a better tuned ability to sense, these companies could have done better responding as well.

I am fairly certain that we will see inventory levels grow a more rapid pace over the next few months to catch up with the demand. I also realize that there is a lag time between inventory and demand. The situation remains a good example and reminder of the importance of closing the window between sensing and responding to changes and shifts in demand.

Maybe it is time to buy some stock in manufacturing companies!

Greetings 2012 – Say Hello to OpenEdge 11

As was mentioned in mid-December, the latest update to our OpenEdge platform is now shipping, and I am pleased to say that it is enabling hundreds of our customers and ISV partners to securely develop and deploy applications across any platform, any mobile device, and any Cloud.

One of the highlights of OpenEdge 11.0 is our patent-pending Multi-tenant Tables, in which data is physically (not virtually) separated in the database - providing greater security and control for Cloud deployments. Multi-tenancy is a critical component and key differentiator for our customers and partners, along with our multi-Cloud deployment options, business process-enabled development, and support for mobile devices.

Feedback has been very positive and many customers are migrating to OpenEdge 11.0 sooner than expected to take advantage of the increased security in the Cloud, greater deployment flexibility, reduced costs, and faster time to market. Let me share some of that feedback with you now.

Security and Flexibility through Multi-Tenancy

Jeffrey Brown, Senior Development Project Manager at Infor notes, “Progress provides us with the technology to power our Infor10 Distribution Business, a distribution application specifically designed to help distributors with complex business models run an efficient, end-to-end operation. We are interested in the new multi-tenancy capabilities in the OpenEdge platform that could provide us with the flexibility to add an additional level of security and separation of data at the database level that is unique in the industry.”

Reducing Cost While Speeding Time to Deployment

Another Progress partner, a global medical software and services provider, used OpenEdge to develop an order management system for internal call centers. Multi-tenant Tables in OpenEdge 11 provide a viable solution for compliance with data security regulations customary to the healthcare industry. Moreover, it facilitates the roll-out of their order management system to all companies they acquire moving forward, which will be deployed in a fraction of the time, for a fraction of the cost, and with better security measures.

Efficiency and Moving Down Market with SaaS

Over in Germany, EDV-Software-Service AG (ESS), a provider of ERP software and services for the mid-size housing and real estate market, is leveraging OpenEdge 11 Multi-tenant tables to move to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to gain efficiency and expand into new markets. Their CIO Michael Förster explained, “Progress Software understands the needs of medium-sized businesses and helps us provide value to our customers and accelerate our time-time-market with new solutions. We took part in the OpenEdge Early Adopter Program and Multi-tenancy Workshop, and in only five days were given the tools and expertise needed to get our new release ready for launch in early 2012.”

I look forward to hearing more about how our customers and partners are taking advantage of OpenEdge 11.0. For more information on OpenEdge 11.0, please review the “What’s New in OpenEdge 11.0” feature highlight.

Here’s to a great start to 2012!

Thanks and as always, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Merry Christmas...unless Santa ordered your gifts from an online retailer

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become just as much a part of the Christmas holidays as stockings, midnight mass, a large man with a white beard in a red suit, candycanes and packed malls. North American retailers look to this season as their...well...Christmas. A time when they will push their finances into positive territory, make profits and fill coffers with cash for the upcoming year. We have all read about the horror stories that are also linked with this shopping season: stock outs, long lines, unruly clients and the list goes on.

Of course now you can avoid these hazards of leaving the safety of your home to do Christmas shopping and instead tackle your entire shopping list in the comfort of your home, while you are at work (take advantage of that high speed connection...I sure hope my boss isn't reading this) and even via your smartphone or tablet. It is so easy - use Google or Bing to find your items, do some price shopping, look for any deals on shipping or discounts, enter your credit card, hit "buy" and voila...your shiny new train set, book, tv, hand knit sweater, box of chocolates, lego city police station, iPad etc etc...will be dispatched to you. Most sites are now so kind as to tell you when is the absolute LAST moment you can order so that Santa will ensure you receive your desired items by Xmas.

But wait, it is not as simple as that. While the user experience has become much easier and truly allows a wide array of choices and prices, the fulfillment that empowers this process is only becoming more complicated. Bah humbug is what is usually muttered from the supply chains that have to fulfill these orders. Retailers start planning early in the year and are positioning inventories, in some cases, as early as August. Warehouses, transportation and store shelves assets have to be planned well in advance: what items will be in high demand, in what geographic locations, at what price...add to this the fact retailers are dealing with multiple suppliers who themselves have...you guessed it...multiple suppliers. Never mind the supply chain processes needed to build an Xbox, or packaging all the pieces for the Lego City Police station, determining the right combination of size and color for the Paul Smith shirt collection, and the list goes on. All these factors render the fulfilment process for all those holiday goodies a challenge to even the best of retailers and supply chains.

So no surprise that certain retailers are not able to fulfull their online orders, companies like Best Buy are finding themselves in a pinch. Looking to aleviate the strain on their brick and mortor stores (as well as push inventory back into distribution centers) they sought to push consumers online for their holiday shopping, however poor visibility and a lack of connection between their plans and execution led them to where they are today: not being able to fulfill client orders! Ouch. Best Buy, themselves, admitted that there were orders from as far back as November that could not be fulfilled.

As I thought about this I remembered a piece done by SC Digest in the spirit of the holiday, click here. The point of this "supply chain christmas carol" is the need for great connectivity between systems and suppliers and improved visibility into your channels. Do you have the inventory in your system but it is in the wrong location? Are demand and POS data showing you that an item you thought might be a good seller is becoming a red-hot item (think of the Furbies or Wii crazes from Xmas past) or is an item you thought would be a hit with 10 year olds a dud? 

During many conversations I have had this year, I get some looks like "I don't need that level of visibilty" when I talk about gaining real time visibility, but as the Best Buy case demonstrates if you are measuring visibilty "success" in terms of months maybe that is not the answer either.

Happy Holidays to all! And if Santa or whomever is bringing you a gift is a few days late, you can always blame their supply chain.

 

5 Signs You Need a Business Process-Enabled Application

As I have mentioned many times before in various forums, next generation business applications need to be able to quickly adapt to business changes. The old, traditional way of hard-coding workflows is just not acceptable anymore. There is a need to drive continuous change and process improvement even within pre-existing business applications.

But how can you tell whether or not your application is in need of an update? Here are five signs that you need a business process-enabled application:

1. You have more menu items then puzzle pieces.
   While using an application, users want to seamlessly get through their work with as few detours as possible. Unfortunately some applications make customers feel like they are putting together a puzzle – lots of pieces and no guidance as to where to begin. A business process-enabled application can guide users through the application with a customizable wizard-like interface, creating a much friendlier and better user experience.
2. Your workflows are set in stone.
   Hard-coding workflows into your application may have worked in the past, but today’s dynamic applications shouldn’t force users to follow a path that might not be correct and/or efficient. Today’s customers demand more flexibility and continuous process improvement, and business process-enabled applications allow you to tailor processes as needed.
3. Your customers are NOT all created equal.
   Ford used to say you can have your Model T in any color you like, as long as it’s black. Unfortunately, the same goes for many applications these days. A company will tell its customers or users that they can use the application to get the job done as long as they do X then Y then Z. That specific process might not make sense for each customer or user. They want to be able customize the workflow to work best for them, and by providing business process-enabled apps, you can provide the right solution for each specific need all with a single application.
4. Your IT team makes your business decisions.
   Business decisions should address customer and market demands, not what works best for the IT department. Yet many applications are updated based on what the IT department thinks is best. By adding business process management (BPM) capabilities to your existing application, you can drive better decisions that are acceptable to the business folks, all while adjusting quickly and easily to market changes.
5. Your application picture is worth a thousand lines of code.
   Many companies will collaborate with their customers or users to determine what processes and workflows should be included in an application and then capture them in some form (e.g. paper, whiteboard, graphical diagramming tool like Microsoft® Visio®). Next, they hand over the results to the developers and tell them to “build the application.” Ultimately, this means the work is done twice as the developers try to figure out how to code what they see. Business process-enabled applications let you quickly capture the process or workflow graphically and simply “plug it in” to the business logic of the application and you are off and running. Think Visio on steroids. That graphical “picture” is now worth much more than the 1000s of “words” or lines of code. It means you only do the work once and also gain better visibility into how the application functions without requiring a master’s degree in computer science. Plus, the business folks can stay engaged.

In summary, if any of these points resonate with you, maybe it's time to think about business process-enabling YOUR business application.

Thanks and, as always, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.