Thinking In Public

Too many teachers have to worry about their jobs. Too many Americans have to worry about their jobs, or lack thereof!

A really good dance song from a few years ago… just for fun! We do need to have fun!

The Muppets sing Rick Astleys -Never Gonna Give You Up-

A recent article posted at the EdWeek.org website talked about the US Chamber of Commerce sponsored report entitled “Leaders and Laggards”.  The current report is a follow-up to one done two years ago.  Here is an excerpt from the Overview:

“Put bluntly, we believe our education system needs to be reinvented. After decades of political inaction and ineffective reforms, our schools consistently produce students unready for the rigors of the modern workplace. The lack of preparedness is staggering. Roughly one in three eighth graders is proficient in reading. Most high schools graduate little more than two-thirds of their students on time. And even the students who do receive a high school diploma lack adequate skills: More than 33% of first-year college students require remediation in either math or English.”

Link:

http://uschamber.com/reportcard/default

The implications of not improving innovation in education will impact the students as they enter our universities and as they move into a Global workplace that is also becoming more demanding of technology, collaboration and innovation.

Last week, IBM held a 10th anniversary for its Innovation Center in downtown Chicago, Illinois.  The event showcased IBM’s campaign for a “Smarter Planet”.  One of the key tracks that day was in the Education area.  A series of speakers talked about the technology and cultural changes that are driving a definite need to change education, especially at the high school level, but extending into the colleges and universities.  The speakers were IBM employees and also subject matter experts in the education, collaboration and social networking arenas.  They were:

Alex Kaplan, IBM Associate Partner/Director, Education Industry

Michael Schroeck, IBM Partner, Global Leader-BAO Analytics and Optimizing Operations

Ed Brill, IBM Director, Product Management - Lotus Notes and Domino

Paul Kontogioris, IBM Program Director, IT Services Curriculum

The IBM presenters focused on core issues and salient events in the education area.  They did not even attempt to sell a single IBM product, although IBM has a stable of products that can help companies and educational institutions become more innovative… today, right now.  The speaker’s experience, insights and ideas were what mattered that day.

Was there a full moon last week?  There has to be some explanation.  Three times last week, in separate circumstances, human carelessness or oversight added time to a process.

In one case, a photocopy of a document was requested in a follow-up telephone call by a bank employee.  The document had been included in the packet of materials that was sent in.  The employee just overlooked the document.  Why?  We have no idea, and we are not looking to place blame.  Human beings make mistakes.  But there were telephone calls back and forth, including time spent leaving and listening to voicemail messages.  All this added time to the process.

In a second case (and a different entity from above), a form for setting up an automatic bank account deposit was completed and submitted along with some other forms.  A few days later in the week, a different form was sent here for setting up the automatic bank deposit.  Did the entity’s process have a glitch where the employee sending out the original forms had an outdated form for the automatic deposit setup?  Maybe.  Or did a second department enter into the process and they were sending out their version of the form?  Perhaps.  But this led to more time and postage being taken to complete a process.

In the last of the three incidences, an e-mail and follow-up telephone call was necessary to shake loose a printing order that had been placed.  Somebody at the company missed a step that sent the order into an active printing queue.  Several weeks have now been added to the order before delivery.

This post probably sounds like a complaint rant, but that is not the intent.  When companies have a process, there are likely going to be parts of the process that depend on computers and programming and technology.  There are other parts that rely on human actions and controls and communication.   Companies must review their customer interactions and they must maintain and read the metrics.  If the normal time a process takes is determined to be  “n” days, then why did certain interactions take “n plus one, two, three…” days.  Were there mitigating circumstances or was it just human carelessness?  If it was carelessness or oversight, what controls or reviews can be put in place to recognize the problem before affecting and involving the customer?

Process improvement calls for dedication of time and resources for just this type of gathering of metrics and for their analysis and review.  The process definition should also include the customer’s role and any potential glitches from that direction (more human beings).

A warning about the current phase of the moon within the process is probably still in the category of folklore.

A month ago, a major airline announced that a large computer maker/IT company was going to help them build out a new reservation system that also better tied into their frequent flier/rewards data.  The project was described as being large (no kidding) and was going to take several years (absolutely, for sure).

One goal was to improve customer service and the reservation experience by tying all the data together in a massive database application.  The initiative is to be applauded, but they should be wary of building a significant, large-scale database system where too much information is tied together in a tight fashion.   Will the failure of a database from the rewards area prevent (or slow down) a reservation from being made?

The airline was turning away from their current IT company, one that helped them build out their current system and who has been in the database business since databases first came into existence.  The new IT company is not particularly known for database work, but that is not to say that they haven’t brought some expertise on board.

We wish the airline “good luck” with their project.  No computer system will last forever.  At some point in time a company just needs to re-architect the application for the new times and re-build it.  Our hope is that the IT company’s design will couple data together in a loose enough way so that the whole system is not made to suffer when a component piece is having a bad day.

Two photography books have recently been made available for sale and they were author-published.  Two companies were utilized.  One is Xlibris and the other is LuLu.  With Xlibris, all work was done electronically, via e-mail or file uploads, and just a few follow-up telephone calls.  The book “Reflections from Stone” was a more complicated work and took longer as a result.  The book “Gallery Number 9″ was created at LuLu.  This was a great way to create a professional looking photo album that really presents one’s work well.  Their computerized process worked quite well and was easy to utilize.  Turnaround time was speedy.  E-mail communications and their website informed of status as one would hope.  These are two good examples of how computerization can make a process much better, faster, cheaper… actually enjoyable to use.

On a different side of the coin, it was decided to open a business checking account at a bank via their online website, without leaving the office.  What could have been done  in a visit to the local branch office in a day, is now moving into a second week with their computerized process.  It was mentioned that the “Welcome” packet would be overnight delivered to the office.  For some reason, the bank sent the packet via regular mail.  We are still waiting and a telephone call had to be made to inquire about the status.

The lesson here is that for a company to consider improving a process with computerization, they must consider all components of the process, especially the ones where humans still participate.  Will they be the weak links in the process?  If weak links of a human or computer type must remain, does the revised process have built-in tactics for keeping customers informed.  Status updates can help customers know that the process is still working and that progress is indeed being made.

Welcome to Westedge Corporation’s “Thinking In Public” blog.

Why this title for a blog?  Well, the acronym “TIP” can be made from the first letters of each word in the title.  This blog will very likely have tips from time to time as related to the Information Technology field.  This is really an afterthought.

Thinking in public is actually reflective of what many blog author’s do.  They are thinking.  Then they are writing to you, the public.  Hopefully, what blog authors write about will strike a resonance with their audience.