Poka-yoke – I never had heard the word before, but I was delighted to discover it two weeks ago in a Harvard Business Review article written by Michael Schrage.

Poka-yoke is Japanese for “mistake-proofing.” Think of the “In Case of Fire Break Glass” boxes found in office buildings. Because they include a wee stick with which to break said glass, they would qualify as poka-yoke.

Best of all, your employees will experience minimal downtime and very little lost productivity.

In business, Schrage explains, poka-yoke is the “simplest, cheapest, and surest way to eliminate foreseeable process errors.” He urges managers to perform a poka-yoke audit of their own department.

“What are the persistently simple — and simply persistent — dumb mistakes we make that our technologies can help us catch and destroy?” he asks.

Here’s where I believe IT managers should start: the help desk.

Say your company is planning an Office 2007 migration, and you, as CIO, have decided that because of the current economic climate, assistance isn’t needed. After all, your reliance on internal help desk staff during previous Office upgrades didn’t turn out disastrously. Read more…

admin Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, ROI CIO, Harvard Business Review, Help Desk, Japan, Michael Schrage, Outsourcing, poka-yoke, software support

According to an Aug. 12, 2009, Computerworld UK article, six out of 10 CIOs were not able to measure the financial effect outsourcing had on their company. The result has been a whole lot of pointed fingers, canceled contracts and dissatisfied customers.

Stop clinging to the old rules, which said that if you hired an outsourcer with a pretty SLA, things would work themselves out. Try a new tack. Here are six things to look for in an outsourcing outfit:

1. First-level certified consultants: First-call resolution rates are higher, and callers are less likely to be put on hold and bounced around from tier to tier.

Stop clinging to the old rules, which said that if you hired an outsourcer with a pretty SLA, things would work themselves out.

2. After-hours and round-the-clock coverage: If you think keeping a tech or two on the clock to cover after-hours calls suffices, think again. It penalizes employees who work off-hours or in other time zones. An outsourcing company should offer the same level of support at any hour of the day.
3. Advanced-level support: Advanced-level requests should not be treated with any less urgency than basic-level calls. The result will be less worker frustration and downtime.
4. Wide range of supported applications: Mobile devices are becoming essential tools in the workplace. Hiring an outsourcer that supports a range of applications, plus mobile devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry, translates into less downtime and positive overall image of the help desk.
5. Smart training programs: If a help desk focuses solely on break-fix issues, it’s just serving as a Band-aid. By addressing employees’ needs with training, you’re not only fixing the Read more…

admin ROI BlackBerry, CIO, Computerworld UK, Help Desk, iPhone, Mobile Devices, SLA, software support

A recent Associated Press story was almost silly enough to qualify as a headline from The Onion: “Chicken farming growing trend in suburbia.”

What do chickens and software support have in common?

The article wasn’t a spoof; it was a legitimate news story that appeared in the Dallas Morning News. The piece detailed the how suburbanites have taken to rearing chickens to make it through the recession. It sounds like a lot of work for one egg per day for each hen. There’s a coop to build, feed to buy, local livestock laws to obey. And then there’s the smell.

Chicken-rearers say it’s a way of “getting back to basics.” My gut says it’s just too much work considering the return.

But upon further inspection (namely, the mere existence of “Raising Chickens for Dummies” – yes, it’s a real book – and the popularity of a the site BackyardChickens.com), it seems it’s not such a crazy notion after all. Yes, there is an upfront investment, but the ROI is supposedly stellar.

Chickens are working pets that guarantee a steady supply of fresh eggs (and, perhaps, an eventual main course). Raising your own chickens is also “green.” They help control bugs and weeds without the use of chemicals, and they create excellent fertilizer.

All this talk of getting back to basics got me thinking about dwindling IT budgets and the move on corporate America’s part to get back to basics. In particular, it brought to mind the misconception that services like software support and training for employees are excessive and unnecessary in an economic downturn. Read more…

admin ROI Associated Press, backyardchickens.com, Outsourcing, productivity, Raising Chickens for Dummies, recession, ROI, software support, The Onion

I cannot say if productivity was a watchword 10 years ago, when salaries were fat and perks were plenty. It’s definitely on everyone’s minds these days though, when many companies have smaller staff and employees have fatter workloads.

Throw social networking and other electronic communications like e-mail and instant messaging into the mix, and productivity becomes a greater challenge for employees.

In particular, the study found that those who IMed frequently with their bosses were more productive than those who didn’t.

Well, that’s what conventional wisdom says.

MIT and IBM present a different case. In a study published in April, researchers at the two institutions found that instant messaging and other forms of constant communication actually increase employees’ productivity levels. Another win for Chatty Cathy. (For Win 1, see the post “Facebook Addicts + YouTubers = Sharper Employees?“)

According to an article by Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, the researchers analyzed the e-mail traffic, buddy lists and social networking friends of 2,600 IBM consultants over 12 months. They compared the consultants’ communication patterns against their performance in billable hours. Those who maintained constant communications averaged an increase in revenue of $588 per month over the average, while those who did not produced $98 per month less than the average. Read more…

admin Outsourcing, ROI, Worker Productivity Ars Technica, FACEBOOK, IBM, Jacqui Cheng, MIT, Mobile Devices, YouTube

Every workplace has an office tech expert. Someone who knows how to use Excel formulas, can put up a good fight with a gnarly mail merge, and knows what temp files are and why they should be cleared.

They’re valuable people to have on your team. If only more of your employees were so clever with the computer, your business would hum.

Shadow support may seem harmless, but it’s actually taking two employees away from their jobs. That’s double-downtime.

Unfortunately, not everyone’s strength is software or logic — and that’s just fine. (I can’t do my own taxes; that’s why I outsource it to my mother.) However, you cannot continue relying on the office computer guy forever. As much as he saves your office’s collective rear-end on a regular basis, the time he’s spending doing something other than his job is costing you dearly.

There are two types of downtime: unavoidable and avoidable. Unavoidable downtime includes hardware malfunctions or network connectivity problems — problems that will always exist and are really just part of running an IT infrastructure.

Avoidable downtime is where the office expert comes in, and includes shadow support, self-help, and no help at all. Read more…

admin ROI, Worker Productivity Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, downtime, Excel, mail merge, PowerPoint, productivity, TCO

After reading a recent rant on CIO.com, I’ve decided that Meredith Levinson is my new favorite blogger*. Her post, a response to Computerworld’s Best Places to Work in IT feature and accompanying sidebar 7 Tips for Keeping IT Employees Upbeat, was laced with vitriol, but it wasn’t wholly bitter. She included a speck of humor, and a heap of truth.

The Computerworld piece that raised her hackles included these suggestions for building employee morale: Read more…

admin Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, ROI CIO.com, computerworld, Meredith Levinson, software support, Training

Despite the reports that IT spending is down, CIOs are still expected to keep their IT infrastructures current, which may mean committing to an Office 2007 migration. Read more…

admin Office 2007, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, ROI, Worker Productivity BlackBerry, golf, migration, Office 2007, Outsourcing, productivity, ROI, Windows Mobile

People inside Microsoft have openly related a story about Bill Gates’ initial evaluation of Office 2007. He congratulated them on a number of new features, but the additions weren’t exactly fresh; they were introduced with Office 97.

Hearing about Gates acting human is always a pleasure, but why would anyone at Microsoft admit that he didn’t know about features that had been a part of one of his company’s premier products for 10 years? (Another question: How is it that they still work there?)

The answer is simple: Office 2007 does what it was designed to do. That is, to make it easier for users to find features that were buried in previous versions’ meandering menu structures. It turned Gates into a guinea pig, enlightening him about product functionality he didn’t know existed, even though he had undoubtedly seen it before.

But the redesign’s success brings two new challenges to help desks, which they didn’t face with earlier Office upgrades.

The first is bringing users up to speed. The new interface renders even the most perceptive employees helpless when trying to complete tasks they’ve done for years. Read more…

admin Office 2007, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, Outsourcing, ROI Bill Gates, guinea pigs, migration, Office 97, upgrade

This year promises myriad challenges for CFOs across the globe. Chief among them, according to a December 2008 USA Today study, are increasing productivity and profitability.

The study asked 1,400 CFOs which issues would Read more…

admin Outsourcing, ROI best-of-breed, CFO, CIO, USA Today

The economy may be showing some signs of rebound, but that doesn’t mean CIOs are back to their old spending habits. In fact, according to a report released this month by Gartner, four in 10 CIOs significantly cut budgets in the first six months of 2009.

What, or whom, to cut is never easy, especially when the software for the upcoming migration has already been purchased. It’s easier to drop services than it is to lay off employees; services don’t have a face or a family. Read more…

admin Office 2007, Outsourcing, ROI 24-7 support, best-of-breed, CIO, Gartner, Microsoft certifed