Project and Programme Management
You are experts at making decisions for your business; however, decisions need to be enacted to have a chance of having the effect that is desired. This action should be monitored and coordinated, and the outcomes understood to ensure that what is desired is achieved. I can provide this management (either at a project or programme level) whilst also providing access to the skills below, and being able to advise your staff on how to overcome issues within their projects.
Mentoring and Training
'Knowledge Transfer’ if often specified during an assignment. This usually has to go beyond simply letting your staff know what was done, and progresses into helping them understand why, and how to re-use that knowledge in other, similar, situations. It does however require commitment, both by offering up appropriate staff and ensuring that they have sufficient time to learn. Done properly, knowledge transfer leaves behind someone who is able to carry on the same type of work independently, and will often create a significant uplift in morale as the sustained attention and the learning of new methods is a very positive force.
Process Improvement
Of all the factors that affect how a business performs, the performance of its processes are a significant influence, with some or all of the following being crucial:
- how consistent your processes are
- how much effort your processes consume
- how well your processes meet your customers expectations
There are widely recognised tools that I am able to deploy, either on your behalf or as a part of a training program with your staff; these tools are Lean and Six Sigma. Whilst both of these started
in manufacturing they are perfectly applicable to any organisation. I also come with the advantage of being able to look in from the outside, and apply simpler changes to create
improvements quickly.
Analysis, Data Translation and Information Provision
There is often a need to get additional information out of the data naturally stored within the business; this is often not easily accessible as the system was not built with this requirement in
mind. These limitations often show up as information provided at the wrong frequency, available to the wrong people, with too much amalgamation or at too great a level of detail.
This information can be extracted and used, and the method of extraction used to inform more permanent methods of ensuring this information can be supplied on a regular basis. Analysis, statistical
or otherwise can be carried out on the data to determine what exactly it is telling you, helping you make more appropriate decisions.
These same techniques can be used to help you move from one system to another by transforming and translating data so that it can be used by other systems. By using someone familiar with Process
Improvement techniques the sources of poor data can be investigated alongside the transformation process.