Business Process Reengineering: A Strategy in Tough Economic Times December 31, 2008
Posted by jimintriglia in Business Process Improvement, Management Strategies.Tags: BPM, Management, Process Analysis, Process Improvement
2 comments
During tough economic times, some organizations will invest more time in evaluating how efficiently and effectively work is performed across the enterprise. This is driven by the need to reduce costs and maximize efficiency across the organization.
While the discipline of Business Process Management (BPM) can offer significant benefit relative to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of key operational and management processes, adopting a BPM methodologies with it’s associated application software and systems can represent a daunting task for many organizations.
A “baby steps” approach that I’ve seen successfully employed involves beginning a process improvement project by first analyzing and documenting an organization’s key business processes. Deliverables from such an initiative include cross-functional diagrams (“swimlane”, business process diagrams), cause and effect (Fishbone”) diagrams, policy, procedure and practices manuals, and in some cases, data dictionaries.
Once managers and staff have representative models of how work is performed in the organization, they can then begin to discuss how work can be conducted more efficiently, which typically leads to reducing the cost of providing a service, developing a product, or managing the organization as a whole.
Business analysts are often engaged to analyze an organization’s business processes. Using nothing more that a visual presentation tool like Microsoft’s Visio, business analysts can work with managers and staff to develop visual depictions of key business processes. Visual process diagrams can often uncover where inefficiencies exist and cost savings can be realized through better use of existing resources.
Hopefully more executives will focus on business process improvement and re-engineering as a pro-active strategy to managing tough economic conditions. Reactive tactics, such as across-the-board staff reductions, often preserve inefficiencies of the organization and can actually increase costs for the organization.
FIRST Competition Kickoff Day: January 3 December 30, 2008
Posted by jimintriglia in Computer Science, Education, Personal Interest, Robotics, Volunteer Opportunities.add a comment
Local FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics teams nationwide will be participating the the season kickoff event scheduled for this Saturday morning, January 3rd.
The event will be webcast by NASA (a FIRST sponsor) and broadcast to select locations where participating middle and high school students will meet with their team leaders to discuss winning strategies and begin to brainstorm robotic design ideas. Volunteer mentors will be on-hand to advise student team leaders and members on everything from project management to robotics engineering.
Conifer’s award winning team, Team Blitz, will be meeting at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Other Colorado FIRST teams are expected to attend the kickoff event at museum.
If you are interested in serving as a FIRST volunteer or local team volunteer mentor, there is still time to get involved, at the national or Colorado local robotics team level.
Parental Controls for the Home Network December 28, 2008
Posted by jimintriglia in Home Networking, Internet/Web Services, Learning through Fun, PC Security, Personal Computing.add a comment
Santa brought my son a Wii to replace his aging Playstation game console. The latest generation of the Wii gaming console is designed to connect to the Internet to enable updates to the Wii console and allow multi-user play with gamers all over the world. The Wii also enables users to surf the Net right on their TV.
Having a gaming console that is Net-aware presents an all new dimension in the gaming and simulation experience. It also presents a challenge for parents respective of securing their home network and protecting their children from inappropriate Web content and applications.
To continue the level of parental controls that I had established on my son’s
laptop, I now needed a home network solution that would enable me to apply parental controls to Net-enabled gaming consoles like the Nintendo Wii and DS portable gaming platforms. Enter the iBoss Internet Parental Control router from Phantom Technologies.
The iBoss is a wireless G router designed to enable parents to assert parental control over their home Internet connection. The product manages both wired and wireless Internet access by personal computers, gaming consoles, anything that can connect to the Internet via the home network.
The iBoss won the 2008 iParenting Media Best Product Awards from family organizations and was received accolades in an online parental control forum. As Phantom Technologies was running a holiday special for the iBoss at $99.95 and offered a 30-day free trial, I decided to give it a go and placed my order.
From the reviews that I have read, the iBoss looks like a terrific solution. In addition to providing parental controls for the Wii, it will also provide an additional layer of protection for my sons laptop, which also has NetNanny parental control software installed.
2009: Year of the MacBook Pro December 27, 2008
Posted by jimintriglia in Apple Mac, Personal Computing.Tags: Apple, MacBook, Personal Computing
3 comments
2009 will be the year that I purchase my first Apple computer. My transition from a Microsoft Windows personal computing platform to a Mac platform was as relatively easy decision to make.
From my perspective, business and technology professionals have not adopted Microsoft’s Vista operating system, opting to hang on to the relatively stable Windows XP o/s and their current hardware. Once Windows 7 was announced by Microsoft, that pretty much sealed my decision to switch my personal computing platform.
When the Apple MacBook Pro laptop was released earlier this year, I was impressed with the design and the advanced Leopard operating system. I reviewed Apple’s peripherals such as the iPhone 3G and iTouch. I liked what I saw respective of the hardware and software design. My wife loves her Apple iTouch; my musician son uses his iPod Nano 4G daily. He would trade his brand new Dell laptop for a MacBook in a heartbeat.
The MacBook Pro can run all of my Microsoft Windows application efficiently via VM Fusion, so my considerable investment in Microsoft application software is preserved. I’ve noticed that Apple distributors are selling Mac hardware and software for considerably less than the Apple retail store or online.
By smoothing the migration path from MS Windows to Apple Mac while also addressing the price point of Mac hardware and software, Apple has set the stage to significantly increase their marketshare in multiple categories.
I believe other career IT professionals will be migrating their personal computing systems over to the Apple platform, especially if they have teenagers and technology adverse spouses. In the enterprise, we will use whatever platform makes sense for the business application at-hand that is also in compliance with the overall enterprise architecture.
2009 can be the year that Apple significantly increases it’s personal computer market share beyond the current 9 percent share. Time will tell.
December 26, 2008
Posted by jimintriglia in Internet/Web Services, PC Security.Tags: internet content filtering, network security, parental control
add a comment
Many high school teenagers likely received their first WiFi-enabled laptop computer for Christmas this holiday season. While enabling a teenager more latitude to work where they choose to work in the house (thanks to Wifi), how does a parent keep their kids safe while accessing the Internet?
I’ve successfully used NetNanny parental control software on my home PCs for several years now, with excellent results. NetNanny is fully configurable, allowing administrators to set Internet access and web content filtering at a fairly granular level.
NetNanny offers a free 14-day trial, runs on Microsoft Windows or Apple PCs, offers multiple PC licensing and was a PC Magazine Editors Choice for 2008/2009.
