LSSE Partners With Software Company to Define and Improve Current State Operations
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A combination of outdated methodologies and undefined business processes contributed to variations in the implementation of services. These variations made it very difficult to forecast annual sales and determine appropriate work force size. The current processes were not defined or well understood. As a result, implementation teams were all using slightly different methodologies on their individual projects. Best practices were only loosely established and not often shared between internal departments. The resulting effects were wide variations in lead time for providing a service and unpredictability in forecasting annual sales.
Under the direction of new leadership, our client contracted LSSE to help define the current services and their respective offerings. The company has grown dramatically in the last few years and is expected to continue its growth trend well into the future. The question posed to LSSE was, “How can we do more with the same number of employees we have now?”
The first step in creating a more productive process is understanding what the current process is. There are always speculations about what’s currently happening and what the problems are, but until an accurate model is created all the speculation is purely subjective. Problem areas need to be identified based on evidence, not speculation. In doing this, LSSE was able to identify critical areas for improvement that will yield measureable results.
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Through a combination of workshops and 1-on-1 interviews, we were able to capture the current state in a series of process maps. These maps were customized to the specific needs of our client. By combining elements from value stream mapping and process mapping, we created a highly informative and intuitive tool used for analyzing current processes.
As a result of this deep analysis, we were able to identify the key pain points that were plaguing the organization. Once those pain points were identified, a root cause analysis was performed. Based on this evaluation a team was selected to address the root causes.
A future state is being developed to correct the major issues that were discovered during this project. This future state will take into account the problems that were identified as affecting productivity and efficiency. Future state improvements will also address many of the wastes identified during the current state analysis.
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There were significant differences in the time it took to develop a service solution for a new customer and our client was interested in finding out why there was so much variation in their process. They looked to LSSE for help defining their current state and identifying critical gaps. LSSE was also used to identify the key pain points in the existing process and isolate the root causes.
The output of this project was a comprehensive process analysis that lead to the identification of key problems and their causes. Understanding these issues was critical for assessing what changes needed to happen in order to become more productive and take on more work.
By capturing an accurate snap shot of our client’s current implementation processes we were able to focus improvement efforts on the critical areas for rapid transformation. This current state analysis was the foundation for improvement projects across the organization. By using a detailed current state mapping approach, we were able to resolve internal disputes on problem areas and focus the efforts of the company on processes that will make the biggest impact.
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Business Analysts such as Aberdeen, suggest that workers hired as contingent or temporary employees make up as much as 25% of the global work force. With these numbers continuing to rise, it is no wonder why companies are looking for work force management companies to help solve their labor needs.
In the midst of this growing industry our client, who is world leader in providing workforce management software service (SaaS), was faced with developing a strategy to facilitate their customer’s need for new and expanded services. Business was growing so fast they were in danger of missing opportunities due to a lack in capacity. Under their current methodologies they were only able to take on a limited amount of new work each year. Rather than immediately increasing their own workforce to accommodate the increase in demand, they sought out the expertise of LSSE to help initiate best practices within their industry.
LSSE was brought in to clearly define a baseline for the Sales and Implementation processes along with identifying pain points in these areas and their associated root causes. This baseline would be the launch pad for creating a better, more efficient future state for implementation services.
