Transforming Solutions Inc. (TSI), was engaged by a Southwest University Health Science Center to create an organizational culture of continuous improvement. As background, the institution is one of the nation’s premier graduate academic medical centers, with five schools that specialize in patient-centered education, research and health care. They are part of the University system. 

Spearheaded by the Chief People Officer, the University sought to explore new ways to address problems and continuously improve through guidance and training to transform the institution into one that embraces LEAN and Agile in an employee-centric and pragmatic way. 

Starting with pockets of exposure to Agile and LEAN methodologies, the University wanted TSI to help the overall organization take this, along with other cultural attributes (such as their vision, mission and values) and transform the culture to improve quality and gain efficiencies. 

TSI’s Approach and Role

Approach

To accomplish the identified goals, TSI engaged in the following:

• In the initial phase, the University sought to develop and prioritize processes for improvement and initial process improvement implementation for critical need areas to help build a business case with proven effectiveness and value for further buyin. This work intended to implement and share best practices and training with internal LEAN coaches and key stakeholders for process improvement, establish a usable, sustainable communication plan, evaluate improvements through metrics, and estimate return on investment for the improvement initiatives.
• In the second phase, TSI was asked to develop a Continuous Improvement methodology to be shared with University staff through training with follow up coaching. This methodology was intended to be sustainable and usable for improvement initiatives across the University. 

TSI collaborated with the University Leadership Team to identify and prioritize business processes to implement a practice-based training and mentoring program to enhance LEAN and Agile understanding and development of implementation skills. TSI created a training program for continuous improvement and led a cohort of leaders through process improvement methodology using processes that were identified as critical processes including Budgets, Contract Administration, HR Hiring, and the University Leadership as a pilot. Once the pilot was complete, phase two was implemented that provided full training and mentoring to the cohort for implementation of business process improvement and other continuous improvement strategies throughout the University Health Center and coaching for growth and development for future Continuous Improvement sustainability at the University.

Role

TSI served as a methodologist, project manager, continuous improvement leader, trainer, coach, and facilitator throughout this project. TSI provided and tailored its methodology as the basis for the methodology that is currently in place. After that, TSI evaluated trainees and quality of deliverables after they were trained and did a variety of “hands on” activities to get familiar with the tools. 

Results

This project was viewed as a huge success. Based on TSI’s involvement the University achieved the following:

• Developed and used a repeatable methodology to use on areas deemed “ripe for improvement”
• Took dozens of areas through the methodology which resulted in hundreds of improvement ideas implemented
• Trained over a dozen practitioners thus improving their skillsets
• Realized tangible savings, from the improvement ideas mentioned above, that resulted in hard dollar savings of over $1 million dollars annually.

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I wasn’t completely right (not the first time that happened).

To make a very long story short and tie it back to another favorite topic – process transformation – let me share a few things I’ve learned. These lessons are courtesy of the many hours I’ve spent making brick oven pizzas from scratch.

1. The Right Environmental Conditions are Essential

It took longer than I care to admit to learn how to create a proper fire, as well as how to heat up the oven. These factors, as you can imagine, are essential to the process. Apologies to any of you who may have been victimized by our early undercooked, bland experimental pizzas. Likewise – during process transformation – the stakeholders, capacity to change, self-awareness, case for change, and other factors are 100% essential. Trying to change, without any one of these is like trying to bake a pizza on a cold pizza slab. Take a look at our Change Readiness Survey for a more detailed look at these factors.

2. Preparation results in a better experience and outcome

As illustrated both above and below, having the right ingredients and proper tools that are organized in a logical order will make all the difference in the output you deliver. The methodology one uses to map, analyze, and improve the process is critical. While the organizational culture and other factors that change are sought, if the facilitator/practitioner knows his or her approach well, they can get the analytical and creative input needed to transform the process. To that end, TSI’s 6-Step Methodology is a solid framework. Yet, depending on circumstances, it can be adapted. Those of us who use it on projects may also adapt it to fit each of our styles.  But in the end, we know which tools and techniques work. This way we can leverage these and deliver a meaningful project to our clients.

3. Pizza (& Process) Is Best Consumed When You are Starving

In the early days of our pizza making, when our oven needed an extra hour or more to be at the right temperature, some of our guests got quite hungry (maybe even hangry) while they waited. Then, when the amateur pizza finally came out and was instantly devoured, I was amazed to hear how much folks enjoyed it.

Obviously, the product was not stellar, but the reaction to an average pizza was.

In terms of transformation, this reaction makes me wonder how a better way of process transformation may be considered.  

Are your constituents starving for improvement, or they relatively fulfilled?  Is the impetus to change being forced upon a group or is there a “pull” for change?

Give that some thought when fashioning your approach or selecting your next area to transform.

If you are ready to transform an area within your organization, let’s connect! If you are still selecting your next area to transform, learn more about how we serve our current clients.

The post What Making Pizza has Taught Me about Process Transformation (and organizational change management) appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Personally, I agreed with all of those principles and, especially for organizations that needed a different paradigm about doing business, this made perfect sense….at least until a recent conversation I had.

Let me tell you about an experience I had, which highlighted the potential shortcomings of treating your customer like a customer. 

I had a meeting with a doctor (I’ll just refer to him as Bob) that I’ve known for many years and he shared a perspective that impacted my view of this “customer centric” perspective. Now if you are scratching your head that an MD could teach us something about being customer focused, then get behind me in the line for skeptics. Perhaps we’ll save the blog about how the healthcare industry should transform for another day/blog.

So during our conversation, Bob said “yeah, we’ve had consultants come through the hospital telling us that we need to treat our patients more like customers. We shouldn’t simply view them as a queue of work that will always be here or, even worse that we treat them in a manner that indicates how inconvenient it is that they are seeking our services at times that are not always convenient.”

Bob went on to say something that stuck with me.  He said “I became a surgeon so I can heal people. So they can walk out the door in significantly better shape than when they arrived.  For me, if I simply reduced this to a ‘customer relationship’ whereby they have a need, I have a service and they pay me for that services, it completely depersonalizes what we do here. In fact, that defeats why I became a doctor in the first place”.

I reflected on that a bit, especially in the context of some recent articles and books about servant leadership.  Does this mean we now need to treat our customers like a patient?  Or act like doctors?

So much of the time we get consumed with important metrics, that we don’t want to ignore, but this begs the question, how can we think about our organization beyond the typical revenue per customer, average spend, customer loyalty/retention and other measures.  Hmmm, so much to ponder here.

Like you, over the years, I have seen a few trends and see a few more on the horizon and I would like to share a few takeaways:

• Hiring people whose mission and/or personal value system is aligned with that of the organization is the single best action leaders can take so that an organization’s culture and how it operates the majority of the time, is in turn with your most important stakeholders. I’m not an expert in recruiting and assessment best practices, but it would seem that the big challenge is how do we assess this alignment with the candidates we are considering? How do we truly know if a candidate is all talk and no walk?
• I would argue that no amount of training, empowerment, job enrichment or compensation will, with integrity, overtake a disconnect between an individual’s values and the culture an organization is striving to embrace over the long term.
• Those of us that are in the business of providing a service, have a lesson, if not an obligation, to consider. How aligned is our personal mission with that of the service we provide?  Are we providing: consulting, financial planning, legal, educational, insurance, hospitality, health and wellness and other services merely for the money or are we truly in it to get our “customers” to a significantly better place?
• The same standard holds true to anyone providing a product – are you selling the product to meet quotas or is it truly the best solution for the customer’s need? How have you integrated the “voice and needs of the customer” into the continual evolution of the product?
• The patient/customer has an obligation here too. If this relationship truly has integrity, how ready is the patient to follow the treatment protocol? By the way, here is an excellent change readiness survey if you need to assess how ready your organization is to change.

In summary, organizations own the responsibility to create and cultivate an environment where the mission of the organization and the personal mission of its employees are aligned.  Beyond that, enabling employees with the proper processes, policies, technology, analytics, training, reward mechanism and physical environment can only serve to keep an organization thriving.  As you know, this takes time. It takes an intentional focus.  The best time to start this was last year.  Then second best time is now.

Transformation initiatives like this one is a good example of the types of challenges that TSI helps our clients with.  Please reach out to us and let us know how we can assist you or your business.

Written by: Dan Feely, TSI’s President and Founder. For more information on TSI’s expert consultants, visit The TSI Team page.

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Do you remember when you graduated from college? I’m guessing if we try really hard, we can remember all the way back then. Like you, I was filled with excitement and had so many questions after I graduated, ranging from what my first projects would entail to how soon I might be able to be promoted. While everything was new, naturally, all of us were filled beyond capacity with questions about nearly every aspect of that first “real” job.

However, sadly, over time, for many of us, this natural curiosity dissipates. In fact, within many organizations we are encouraged to “shut up and do our job” versus slowing activity down to ask clarifying questions.  This is unfortunate since that exact sense of wonder is exactly what so many organizations need to innovate, reinvent, remain relevant to customer and employees, and just stay ahead of the competition.

Over years of consulting and being involved in a number of diverse industries, I believe one of the best tools we have as business leaders, organizational change leaders and business analysts is asking a well-crafted question (and of course carefully listening to the response). Based on the response given, or the response you do NOT get, both verbally and non-verbally, this well-crafted question is one of the most valuable tools you have at your disposal and should be used on a daily basis.

At TSI, we’ve crafted a handful of questions that we use both internally and with our clients.  While some of these may seem basic, these questions have yielded insightful, poignant responses time and time again.  And based on this information, we’ve made remarkable progress in refining our clients’ strategic direction and even more so, in implementing key changes that make a difference for these organizations.

Here are 7 questions that we use with regularity. Some of these are intended for discussion with small groups and others are more appropriate for individuals. Regardless of the audience, feel free to leverage these for your own transformation needs and ask these questions with regularity, ranging from daily to monthly:

1. What specific organizational goals related to growth, quality, customer service, efficiency and profitability do you have that shape the context of how the organization, or parts of it, should improve?
2. What specific targets or metrics do you have for each of these goals?
3. What is your personal “brand” and what evidence do you provide that makes your brand apparent to those around you? How is this brand working for you?
4. What threats exist that you must address to be competitive and grow in the manner you are expecting?
5. What area in your organization operates in largely the same way as it has for the past 5 years or more? Does that hold it or other areas back?
6. What do your customers say your organization’s key overall strengths are? Relative to any differences in price, how “bullet proof” are your key customer relationships?  How differentiated is your product or offering?  How about your business model overall?
7. What is going well at your organization that you can possibly replicate in other areas?

On a different level, another tool that organizations find useful when they need to take a step back and see the forest through the trees is the Business Model Canvas. The Business Model Canvas was proposed by Alexander Osterwalder based on his book: Business Model Ontology. Here is a link where you can create one for your organization.

This way of thinking, leveraging well thought out questions, has served TSI well over the years. Hopefully these questions will elicit valuable responses for you as well. Feel free to send us your favorite to tsi@transforming.com or post a comment.

The post 7 Questions to Keep your Organization Relevant appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Over the last 30 years, I have seen a lot of buzz words and management fads come and go. The area of organizational change has certainly generated more than a few new acronyms and theoretical approaches during this timeframe. Many of us are involved in and responsible for making change stick in our respective organizations. In a world where the majority of programs and projects fail due to a lack of focus on the people side of the equation, we all ask “what’s the secret formula for success?”

At TSI, our seasoned group of performance improvement consultants considers the following fundamentals as three basic elements needed to drive and sustain organizational change:

1. Impacted people must clearly understand what they need to do differently,
2. Those impacted need to gain the skills, knowledge, confidence and tools to successfully perform their new roles, and,
3. The right people need to be incented and held accountable for achieving measurable and sustainable results.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?  If it’s that simple, why do so many efforts fail? Well, chalk a lot of it up to human nature and the challenges that can come along whenever people assemble under boxes on an organizational chart.

To increase your odds of successfully driving organizational change, consider the following best practices:

• Getting people to adopt and sustain change takes more than the traditional communication and training tasks. Not to say that these two areas aren’t important, but other levers often need to be pulled. Determine if your change program includes all the right elements, no one size fits all.
• Involve influential stakeholders early in process and solution analysis and design. This increases the likelihood of effective requirements definition up-front with increased downstream buy-in, understanding and adoption. Focusing on business processes, while keeping the end customer in mind has proven itself to be a valuable framework time and time again.
• Communicate a clear and simple business case for change. Don’t assume people will figure it out on their own. In fact, assume they will not. And even if some individuals won’t agree with the reasons for change, they will appreciate the upfront effort to share critical information and will be more likely to follow early pioneers and adopters. In addition, celebrate and reward wins wherever possible, small and large, as part of an on-going communication strategy.
• Assign dedicated roles/teams to assess operational readiness, develop migration/transition plans and support successful cut-over and sustainment of the new solution and/or environment. An effective way to get from point A to point Z is to define Z, work backwards to A and assign responsibility for executing the tasks needed for the successful transition.
• Pilot and test solutions before full roll-out and incorporate lessons learned in subsequent implementation waves. Fail small and learn vs. fail big.
• Try out agile and fast approaches (e.g., SCRUM and Work-out) to rapidly design and implement small chunks of change. In today’s fast moving economy, many groups do not have time for long, drawn out change exercises.
• Finally, identify and actively involve the right sponsors and advocates in your change efforts. Don’t be afraid to prod leaders for active involvement and support, they will appreciate your focus and discipline on important goals and objectives.

Keeping the 3 basic tenets of successful change management in mind and following the above best practices will pay huge dividends to you and your organization. At TSI, we are always available to help rapidly power up and enable your efforts. We would love to hear about your challenge and what works in your companies.

The post 3 Overarching Requirements for Successfully Managing Organizational Change appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

I wasn’t completely right (not the first time that happened).

To make a very long story short and tie it back to another favorite topic – process transformation – let me share a few things I’ve learned. These lessons are courtesy of the many hours I’ve spent making brick oven pizzas from scratch.

1. The Right Environmental Conditions are Essential

It took longer than I care to admit to learn how to create a proper fire, as well as how to heat up the oven. These factors, as you can imagine, are essential to the process. Apologies to any of you who may have been victimized by our early undercooked, bland experimental pizzas. Likewise – during process transformation – the stakeholders, capacity to change, self-awareness, case for change, and other factors are 100% essential. Trying to change, without any one of these is like trying to bake a pizza on a cold pizza slab. Take a look at our Change Readiness Survey for a more detailed look at these factors.

2. Preparation results in a better experience and outcome

As illustrated both above and below, having the right ingredients and proper tools that are organized in a logical order will make all the difference in the output you deliver. The methodology one uses to map, analyze, and improve the process is critical. While the organizational culture and other factors that change are sought, if the facilitator/practitioner knows his or her approach well, they can get the analytical and creative input needed to transform the process. To that end, TSI’s 6-Step Methodology is a solid framework. Yet, depending on circumstances, it can be adapted. Those of us who use it on projects may also adapt it to fit each of our styles.  But in the end, we know which tools and techniques work. This way we can leverage these and deliver a meaningful project to our clients.

3. Pizza (& Process) Is Best Consumed When You are Starving

In the early days of our pizza making, when our oven needed an extra hour or more to be at the right temperature, some of our guests got quite hungry (maybe even hangry) while they waited. Then, when the amateur pizza finally came out and was instantly devoured, I was amazed to hear how much folks enjoyed it.

Obviously, the product was not stellar, but the reaction to an average pizza was.

In terms of transformation, this reaction makes me wonder how a better way of process transformation may be considered.  

Are your constituents starving for improvement, or they relatively fulfilled?  Is the impetus to change being forced upon a group or is there a “pull” for change?

Give that some thought when fashioning your approach or selecting your next area to transform.

If you are ready to transform an area within your organization, let’s connect! If you are still selecting your next area to transform, learn more about how we serve our current clients.

The post What Making Pizza has Taught Me about Process Transformation (and organizational change management) appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Transforming Solutions, Inc. (TSI) was engaged by Information Technology Services at a southern public flagship university as a strategic, transformation partner to ensure that appropriate mechanisms were in place to meet the needs of the multi-institution University community for the modernization of its student information systems. One goal of the initiative was to build a more centralized environment for university system-wide functionality. As a strategic partner, TSI’s transformational team worked to identify, align, and drive the needs of the University with the identified institutional priorities as well as analyze the academic governance structure of each institution to ensure alignment with the new system to maximize successful implementation. Using change management strategies throughout the project, TSI emphasized people and processes over software while working to ensure that the proposed student information system efficiently and effectively aligned with key university values. 

TSI’s Approach and Role:

Approach

To accomplish the identified goals, TSI engaged in the following:

Change and Cultural Management

To achieve the goals of the digital transformation project, TSI used various strategies. Change management strategies were employed throughout the entire project across the four campuses. TSI assessed change readiness with various key stakeholder groups, leadership, and other critical players using a series of organizational context definition sessions. TSI worked collaboratively to foster a culture of innovation and improvement throughout IT Services and the University campus community. The conversations with stakeholders, the development of requirements, and the early discussions with the vendor regarding functionality all facilitated the development of detailed Business Cases as well as a Roadmap for demoing the proposed software.  

IT Needs Evaluation and Assessment

TSI conducted an IT needs assessment to determine areas of need, technology currently used, integrations needed, existing gaps, functional and technical requirements, etc. TSI worked closely with an identified vendor to gather and analyze all necessary functional and technical requirements to support the customized demonstration of and design of software to meet the needs of the institution. Working collaboratively with representatives from the four campuses and Workday, TSI led the development of user stories, scenario narratives, and personas based on the gathered requirements to lead software functionality demonstrations.

Business Process Improvement and Requirements Gathering

Additionally, TSI spearheaded process improvement initiatives across the four campuses to assess the current state of readiness for change, opportunities for improvement, pain points, process complexities and connections, requirements for a new student system, and collect data about student, staff, faculty, and administrator experience. TSI created a visual representation of business processes that identified the stakeholders responsible for the process, to what standard it should be completed, and how the success of each process should be determined for critical entities with direct influence into the Student System. The team also helped drive the designing of future state processes to foster interconnectedness throughout campus, improve efficiency in university operations, and maximize use of technology. These student-focused units were assessed independently at each of the four institutions to document the similarities and differences of the current state business processes.

TSI managed the process work in order to appropriately plan for, staff, and map out processes for all functional areas across the institution that worked with the current student system. This included all functional areas that touched Recruiting and Admissions, Student Records, Student Accounts, and Financial Aid such as Athletics, Bursar, Financial Aid, Registrar, Advising, International programs, the Graduate School, Online programs, and others. Processes and session outcomes were used to align system requirements and processes across all four campuses to align requirements and needs for a new system and ensure all campuses’ needs were met. The team mapped 350 process improvements and held constituent experience sessions and supplemental requirements gathering sessions resulting in the gathering of 1119 unique requirements to support the broader system selection project.

TSI led the process of prioritization of the identified requirements to ensure appropriate infrastructure and planning was established for a smooth implementation.

Role

TSI served as a project manager, transformation leader, change agent, and facilitator throughout this project. Additionally, TSI collaborated and worked closely with the Workday software team to deliver requirements, demos, build user stories and personas, and meet the needs of the University client.

Results

Throughout the engagement both the University and TSI gathered data to support progress toward goals, effective implementation of methods, measure outcomes, and evidence a return on investment. Some of this data included:

• 350 processes were mapped for the current state and analyzed collaboratively with TSI and the University
• 46 Constituent Experience sessions were held across the four campuses
• 145 unique requirements were gathered from the Constituent Experience sessions
• 1119 unique student lifecycle requirements were gathered throughout the duration of this project across the four institutions
• Metric tracking was established to monitor total numbers of: pain points, opportunities for improvement, participating stakeholders, processes, and sessions held.
• 20 University staff received training in BPI, Lean principles, Project Management, and Organizational Change Management
• Methods for tracking business processes and desired metrics that were developed with TSI for this project continued to be used for the PMO internal work within the PMO after completion of the project

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Transforming Solutions, Inc. (TSI) was engaged by a top 10 public research university with a medical center to assist with technology transformation efforts for University Advancement to develop a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the technology infrastructure and use this information as a basis to inform the evaluation and selection of a new CRM system. As a foundation for this work, TSI was asked to spearhead a CRM software selection effort. These efforts were managed by the Assistant Vice President for Strategy and Operations for the Foundation. TSI has served as a transformation partner throughout the project lifecycle, including the execution of an IT needs assessment, change readiness assessment, business case development, organizational change management, requirements gathering, development of an RFP, system identification and selection, and business processes improvement training and execution.

TSI has frequently engaged in similar software evaluation and selection projects, and we aim to gather data to capture answers to the following questions:

• What technology is in place and used (and by whom) to perform various activities?
• How effective is this technology? 
• What gaps or opportunities exist to streamline processes and increase ROI? 
• Are there areas where the existing applications or resources can provide more value by being upgraded or by investing additional resources in training efforts?
• Are there risks that are apparent in the current inventory of technology?
• What is the “customer experience” or “constituent experience” as a function of the current processes? 
• What future state options should be considered moving forward?
• What platforms may be feasible alternatives to meet the defined functional and technical requirements?

TSI’s Approach and Role

Approach

Process Improvement Sessions

The software selection project provided a relevant platform for which to conduct business process improvement sessions with the cohort of practitioners. This cohort of documentors and facilitators conducted business process improvement sessions in functional areas related to Advancement including Gift Processing, Prospect Management and Research, Annual Giving and Membership, Finance and Accounting, Donor Relations, among many others. The facilitation teams actively engaged with stakeholders by asking reflective questions, identifying opportunities for improvement and areas of risk, and developing recommended action plans based on current and future state maps.  

An integral part of any software evaluation and selection project is the identification of functional requirements for a new CRM system. BPI sessions provide a platform to collect requirements.

Constituent Experience and Voice of the Customer Sessions

The University requested that TSI conduct a series of constituent experience sessions to assess change readiness and capture the unique needs of the employees and stakeholders to inform the evaluation and selection of a new CRM system. In order to assess readiness for change and capture the unique needs of the constituents and their needs and desires for a new CRM system, TSI team members partnered with the stakeholders to document and facilitate Constituent Experience and Voice of the Customer Sessions. The cohort of practitioners were trained in the facilitation and documentation of these sessions, whereby they collected points of pride, pain points, areas of opportunity, envisioned the future state, and gathered requirements for a new software system. 

Requirements Gathering

TSI facilitated and documented requirements gathering sessions as a part of the Constituent Experience and Voice of the Customer sessions by answering the following prompt: “In the desired future state, I need the ability to…”. Throughout the requirements gathering process, it became clear that while functional areas had requirements that were unique to their job responsibilities, there were also requirements that transcended throughout all areas. Some of these included flexible reporting functionality, customizable homepage dashboards, and in-system notifications. These requirements gathering sessions resulted in 1,215 unique requirements for desired functionality that were then divided amongst the project’s eight Lots:

• Lot 1 Core CRM
• Lot 2 Integrations
• Lot 3 Communities & Portals
• Lot 4 Online Giving
• Lot 5 Event Management
• Lot 6 Digital Marketing
• Lot 7 Data Catalog
• Lot 8 Implementation Services

Role

TSI facilitated all sessions during this engagement, including requirements gathering sessions, constituent experience, business process mapping, vendor demonstrations and training sessions, stakeholder training, reference checking calls, among many others. TSI also led the analysis of various scoring and evaluation factors, including:

• Functional and User Experience Scoring
• Technical Scoring
• Vendor Viability
• Reference Checking
• Total Cost of Ownership, Transition, and Support
• Cultural fit

At the end of the selection process, TSI developed a set of pre-final recommendations and analysis in collaboration with the project team. This iterative process culminated in a comprehensive final report that incorporated stakeholder feedback and data from the entire project. 

Results

The project team and TSI were intentional about collecting metrics to track progress toward goals in learning, process, and strategy. Some of this data included:

• 13 practitioners received in-depth training on business requirements and requirements gathering methods
• 56 processes were mapped and analyzed (current state, analysis, and future state) with TSI, practitioners, and stakeholders
• 176 total processes have been mapped as a result of BPI training efforts
• 40 current state, analysis, and future state process sessions held to capture existing and forward thinking processes and define requirements
• 20 requirements gathering, constituent experience, and voice of the customer sessions with functional area stakeholders
• 1,215 requirements were gathered as a result of BPI and Constituent Experience sessions, which will inform the selection of a new CRM system
• Metric tracking was established to monitor total numbers of: pain points, opportunities for improvement, technical and functional requirements, participating stakeholders, processes, and sessions held

The post Software Evaluation and Selection for Top 10 Public Research University appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Internet of things or IoT is massive. And businesses are making the most use of it. Business data operations are being recorded around the world and its making the storage of data quite easy. Anyone can use one of the best electronic design services or any other form of service and track it without every losing even a single MB of the data stored.

For anyone who is not sure what IoT is, essentially, the Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity—that enables these objects to collect and exchange data.

Imagine, how doctors can better understand the impact of their treatments if wearable technologies (when authorized) can take real time information of a patient and monitors the patient’s health and activity. What if a workplace tool like a work glove or a chair that report a user’s weight/temp/activity level and possibly heart rate to personal fitness software, or for HR personnel to monitor employee well-being. But at the same time, a little mistake in the programming can make life-saving equipments go bonkers, which would in turn endanger the patient’s life. The same can be said just about any software there is, because errors are inevitable. An example is when Cutepdf is throwing a 216; this shows how the most simplest of the softwares like one mentioned exhibit and are made up of errors.

An interesting example I read about recently involved the possibility of your car communicating with a smart traffic grid, which in turn helps identify the best routes for your trip and maximizes traffic patterns for everyone else. Personally, this is an example of a use of IoT that I would be very interested in utilizing to maximize my commute and my trips into downtown Chicago.  However, the flipside of this is the concern of whether the smart grid or other device is recording personal data as they travel through the city, raising significant privacy concerns.

Below are what I feel are The Three Fundamentals Every Technology Leader Should Know regarding this growing technology trend, specific to the IoT:

     1. Connected devices can walk into your organization, and you will not know what data they are collecting. Google Glass was one of the first examples of what IoT can be, as well as the privacy and security concerns this technology brings.  Some organizations have already banned Google Glass from their facilities, and for good reason.  Hospitals, Schools, Theaters, Banks and other public and private organizations have legitimate concerns about the privacy of data and protection of copyrighted material from being recorded/analyzed by someone using this technology.  However, this is such new technology, that laws have not yet caught up and it is still to be determined if there is a legal basis for banning this technology in public areas, and what criminal charges can people face for using this in specific places, although the use of criminal attorneys from www.criminalattorneylongislandny.com/areas-served/long-island/legal-services/ could also help with this. I believe that someday we may see similar placards in public institutions similar to the Concealed Carry placards you see around for devices like Google Glass.

In the meantime, what can you do? Review your organization’s “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) policy to ensure it is up to date and considerate of connected devices.  The BYOD policy for your organization should define the acceptable use of personal technology, what available support will be available for personal devices, any reimbursement for the devices resulting in business use, the necessary security requirements and finally a statement of the person’s risks, liabilities and disclaimers for the use of personal technology. You can find several examples and templates online.  In fact, if you believe your staff needs some trainings on cyber security, schedule them for cyber security training for beginners.

     2. There is no “silver bullet” solution to manage privacy and data security with IOT devices. While a BYOD policy is a great start, it is very difficult for organizations to manage and enforce the policy without smart solutions that IT Leaders may be able to implement today. Technology leaders need to be aware of this ever-increasing security and privacy risk that employees are bringing into their organization. While there is not a single solution right now for a comprehensive IoT security application, there are steps organizations can take to protect the data and privacy of the organization and the people within it.

Here are five guidelines I have collected from several industry experts to help protect your organization that you can do today:

1. Create several points of unique user identification, authentication along with log off timers
2. Encrypt all of your data during any data transfer activities
3. Assess and control who has access to the data, including access to physical data storage devices
4. Implement a process of reviewing system activity logs
5. Rigorously evaluate the security capabilities/gaps with any new cloud solution being considered for your organization

     3. Finally, be aware of what technology developers are working toward when building IoT enabled devices. Edith Ramirez, Chairwoman of the FTC had the following recommendations regarding security in IoT devices her opening remarks at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Nevada on January 6, 2015.

“Companies should prioritize security and build security into their devices from the outset. Specifically, companies should:

• Conduct a privacy or security risk assessment as part of the design process;
• Test security measures before products launch;
• Use smart defaults – such as requiring consumers to change default passwords in the set-up process;
• Consider encryption, particularly for the storage and transmission of sensitive information, such as health data; and
• Monitor products throughout their life cycle and, to the extent possible, patch known vulnerabilities.

In addition, companies should implement technical and administrative measures to ensure reasonable security, including designating people responsible for security in the organization, conducting security training for employees, and taking steps to ensure service providers protect consumer data.”

Chairwoman Ramirez made additional recommendations in her opening remarks to minimize the amount of data collected to only what is necessary and communicate to consumers any data collection changes along with the ability for consumers to choose what they want to have collected.  By collaborating with IOT device developers or reading the newest developments in this space, you can better understand what the risks and benefits are for implementing IOT devices in your organization.

The Internet of Things services are only going to expand and the potential benefits of this trend in technology may be immense and have tremendous benefit to society. However, security concerns need to be at the forefront of every IT and Technology leaders mind especially during this nascent time of experimentation, growth, and maturation within business and society. TSI has proven experience helping IT/Technology Leaders assessing their technology and defining an IT strategy while answering the questions “How prepared is our organization for upcoming technology trends, and what is our next step? Contact TSI today to discuss your technology strategy and assessment needs.

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7 Questions to Keep your Organization Relevant

Graduation is in the air – hopefully you can feel it too.  I’m guessing if we try really hard, we can remember all the way back to when we graduated.  Like you, I was filled with excitement and had so many questions after I graduated, ranging from what my first projects would entail to how soon I might be able to be promoted.  While everything was new, naturally, all of us were filled beyond capacity with questions about nearly every aspect of that first “real” job.

However, sadly, over time, for many of us, this natural curiosity dissipates.  In fact, within many organizations we are encouraged to “shut up and do our job” versus slowing activity down to ask clarifying questions.  This is unfortunate since that exact sense of wonder is exactly what so many organizations need to innovate, reinvent, remain relevant to customer and employees, and just stay ahead of the competition.

Over years of consulting and being involved in a number of diverse industries, I believe one of the best tools we have as business leaders, organizational change leaders and business analysts is the asking a well-crafted question (and of course carefully listening to the response).  Based on the response given, or the response you do NOT get, both verbally and non-verbally, this well-crafted question is one of the most valuable tools you have at your disposal, and should be used on a daily basis.

At TSI, we’ve crafted a handful of questions that we use both internally and with our clients.  While some of these may seem basic, these questions have yielded insightful, poignant responses time and time again.  And based on this information, we’ve made remarkable progress in refining our clients’ strategic direction and even more so, in implementing key changes that make a difference for these organizations.

Here are 7 questions that we use with regularity. Some of these are intended for discussion with small groups and others are more appropriate for individuals.  Regardless of the audience, feel free to leverage these for your own transformation needs and ask these questions with regularity, ranging from daily to monthly:

1. What specific organizational goals related to growth, quality, customer service, efficiency and profitability do you have that shape the context of how the organization, or parts of it, should improve?
2. What specific targets or metrics do you have for each of these goals?
3. What is your personal “brand” and what evidence do you provide that makes your brand apparent to those around you? How is this brand working for you?
4. What threats exist that you must address to be competitive and grow in the manner you are expecting?
5. What area in your organization operates in largely the same way as it has for the past 5 years or more? Does that hold it or other areas back?
6. What do your customers say your organization’s key overall strengths are? Relative to any differences in price, how “bullet proof” are your key customer relationships?  How differentiated is your product or offering?  How about your business model overall?
7. What is going well at your organization that you can possibly replicate in other areas?

On a different level, another tool that organizations find useful when they need to take a step back and see the forest through the trees is the Business Model Canvas.  The Business Model Canvas was proposed by Alexander Osterwalder based on his book: Business Model Ontology.    Here is a link where you can create one for your organization.

This way of thinking, leveraging well thought out questions, has served TSI well over the years.  Hopefully these questions will elicit valuable responses for you as well.  Feel free to send us your favorite to: tsi@transforming.com or post a comment.

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