Latest Includes: You can’t manage what you can’t measure (or can you?)

The weekly update on the BP Group LinkedIn has some interesting perspectives:

Group Metrics:
Members: 2,356 (up 370 from last month)
Discussions: 220 (Each Month)
Subgroups: 4

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Articles/Discussions underway this week – more than 224 underway!

Dick Lee – You can’t manage what you can’t measure (or can you?)
http://bit.ly/1JhU53

Steve Towers – BP GROUP SOAPBOX 2: Six Sigma caused the Financial crash
http://bit.ly/5DZ21

Thomas Olbrich – Barriers to Outside-In (Outside-In subgroup)
http://bit.ly/jIPF8

Janne Ohtonen – The Gap Between IT & the Business (Research & Study subgroup)
http://bit.ly/ETOXE

Fast links to key BPM resourceshttp://bit.ly/Hd1pB

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Subgroups:
Steve Towers – Group Controller and the Business Process Professional subgroup
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2056203
Also on twitter – http://www.twitter.com/stowers
Connect directly – http://bit.ly/11txOl and if you need an email use steve.towers@bpgroup.org

Dick Lee (US) – Group Manager and the Outside-In Process subgroup (100+ members)
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2057992

Janne Ohtonen (Finland) – Group Manager and the Research & Study subgroup
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2060282

John Corr (UK) – Group Manager and the Advanced Process Management subgroup
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2056169

Stéphane Haelterman (Belgium) – Group Manager
David Mottershead (Australia) – Group Manager
Erika Westbay (US) – Group Manager

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Do you need Business Process Management, Certification (7,000 in 4 years), or Coaching Support?
Visit http://www.bp2009.com for the program or learn more at http://www.businessprocessprofessional.com

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Webinars:
Quick Update on the mid year series underway. All Registrants will receive a copy of the webinars when the series completes

The sessions so far are producing lots of feedback and we’ll make available a review of these soon.
If you would like to join in then this week features FIVE Free webinars.
+++ For CPP people these webinars add 2 credits for certifcation renewal in 2009 +++

Review and register at http://www.bpgroup.org

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Recommended Conference (This week) – http://bit.ly/3bb8mZ
Recommended Conference (January 2010) – http://bit.ly/w2JWW
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North American Airlines customer satisfaction falls to a 4-year low


J D Powers latest survey (issued June 30, 2009) ranks the Customer Experience of 13 Airlines.

An indicator of the trend to ‘Outside-In’ business models is the performance of companies delivering consumer oriented products and services (B2C) and no less so than the airline sector.

The survey, which queried nearly 13,000 travelers, measured airlines in seven categories: cost and fees; flight crew; in-flight services; aircraft; boarding/deplaning/baggage; check-in; and reservation.

“Any improvements in customer satisfaction are being offset by passenger displeasure with cutbacks on in-flight amenities, increases in fees and attitudes of flight crews,” says Dale Haines, senior director of the travel practice at J.D. Power and Associates, in a statement.

We have taken J D Powers data and with additional commentary combined results from the latest survey to present a complete picture of airline performance across the sector, ranked in terms of the customers importance.


Observations

J D Powers separates the report into two – traditional carriers and low cost airlines. We think that distinction is no longer as relevant to the customer experience as, for instance ‘low cost carrier’ Jet Blue offer a fully and complete range of services, on a par if not better than most regarded as ‘traditional’.

In fact ‘traditional’ service is a poor cousin of much of the ‘low cost carriers’. Also the distinction of traditional carriers having multicabin is lost on the vast majority of travelers, as for instance several carriers only additional facility in a higher class is to offer a ‘free’ drink and newspaper. Much has been said about the failure of tradtional carriers to effectively manage the customer expectation with feedback such as this experience is not unusual (thanks to Vicky Cartwright, e2e Technologies Ltd; Broadcast Media Consultant).

It is reassuring to see the data represented as the customer experience, rather than a set of activities. This distinction should be applied to all consumer surveys, measuring as it does the customers view of the process.

Additional steps could be taken to extend the scope of the actual survey to include the total customer experience, for instance the airport services and facilities, the transportation systems, the ease of access and egress from the airports. That actual customer experience is a big part of the consumer decision making process of which airline to fly.

Infact more progressive airlines now consider that complete customer experience as their process, and while they can’t own every aspect of it they can partner and control it. For instance Southwest’s partnering with various hotel chains to provide a unified check-out/check-in service is an improvement to customer service while at the same time reducing Southwests costs and growing future revenues.

As consumers it is the smart thing for airlines to do and changes the customer expectation of others. This lifting of the bar places further pressure on the inside-out carriers who continue to see a drift of passengers to a complete offering.

These aspects of travel are making their customers lives easier, simpler and more successful.

Here’s the consolidated table combining the results produced by J D Power.

In summary Alaska Airlines ranked highest for a second consecutive year. JetBlue once again performed well, topping the low cost carriers followed closely by Southwest.

It is worth noting that all top five performers are ‘outside-in’** companies.

More on this theme soon!

See the complete J D Power report here.

**New to the distinction of ‘inside-out’ to ‘outside-in’?
Here’s a quick summary provided by BP Group LI Manager, David Mottershead

An outside in process is one which has been created to successfully deliver a customer outcome and has been designed from the customer’s perspective. ��This process is likely to reduce the number of moments of truth or interactions with the organisation and is “doing the right things”, in terms of delivering the process as part of an overall customer success strategy. ��

An inside out process may be thought of as one which also provides the goods or services to the customer, but the process to provide these are viewed from the organisation’s perspective. It may be “doing things right” but not necessarily “doing the right things”. ��It may seek to improve the customer’s experience, but not necessarily aligned with delivering a successful customer outcome, or what the customer really wants.

>David Mottershead, CPP (Certified Process Professional) – Creative Digital Technology (Australia)

Fundamentally flawed thinking (for the 21C) is why companies like British Airways and the Detroit car industry are going bust.

This example tells you much about the demise of many – see http://bit.ly/drVHa – with the quote from CIO Update “A process is a process is a process, whether it is the manufacturing floor or airline passenger check-in. And what worked for manufacturing in Detroit years ago is also working for British Airways.”
(as a matter of fact it isn’t)

This typifies the inside-out thinking which does not acknowledge anywhere near sufficiently the Successful Customer Outcome. It might have worked in the 70’s and 80’s but it just isn’t sufficient anymore.

There’s an active discussion underway on the BP Group LinkedIn community – join it here http://bit.ly/eHSEz

Architecture World 2009


iCMG Architecture World conference is focused on IT architecture as a specialty. The key focus areas include understanding of EAF(Enterprise Architecture Frameworks), Model Driven Architecture (MDA), Component based product line, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), Business Process Management (BPM), ITSM etc. which are key for the End-User Companies for reducing IT costs, ensuring system longevity and enhancing productivity.

IT Architecture is getting recognized as a critical element for realizing practical vision of the IT system for Fortune 2000 companies. With the rapid pace of change today… iCMG Architecture World ’09 – Architecture for Business Innovation & Risk Mitigation http://bit.ly/R0imJ

4th Wave BPM – Outside-in – does it win?

The article about American Airlines late arrival and subsequent conversion to Outside-In BPM raised many questions, not least is how ‘others’ are doing. What about those established BPM companies and their standing? Hence this piece of research which compares brand value with business model maturity.

The more mature the business model the more it is outside-in with increasing alignment to achieving successful customer outcomes.

So we went to an authoritative reference for a respected breakdown of performance. That source Millward Brown Optimor produces an annual survey and this is the latest one.

We have combined the BP Group Outside-in analysis and the results suggest a clear trend.

Fundamentally flawed thinking (for the 21C) is why companies like British Airways and the Detroit car industry are going bust.

I have lifted this from the BP Group Linked-In as it seems very appropriate in terms of Successful Customer Outcomes.

This example tells you much about the demise of many – see http://bit.ly/drVHa – with the quote from CIO Update “A process is a process is a process, whether it is the manufacturing floor or airline passenger check-in. And what worked for manufacturing in Detroit years ago is also working for British Airways.”
(as a matter of fact it isn’t)

This typifies the inside-out thinking which does not acknowledge anywhere near sufficiently the Successful Customer Outcome. It might have worked in the 70’s and 80’s but it just isn’t adequate anymore.

The BP Group and iCMG have a FREE webinar on this theme on Tuesday 2nd June – ‘BPM, Evolving beyond Lean & Six Sigma’ – click this link to join: http://bit.ly/krEnR

We will demonstrate precisely why companies like BA have it wrong, and what you can do immediately to ‘do it right’

A few hours later after this initial post I received a rather terse reply regarding BA in my private mail… which allowed me to follow up as follows:

Oh dear. Given the private comment I have just received it looks like someone is a tad upset and everything is really OK with BA. We are sticking to our guns as the ultimate judge of that is the customer who by buying (more) product and service endorses the business model.

One of the features of ‘inside-out’ companies is the way people blame others for their ills – even though they were the ones responsible for the mess.

If you need more evidence read this interview from last months Information Age http://bit.ly/rKs6O which featured their CIO blaming the British Airport Authority (BAA) for the Terminal 5 debacle. All those lost bags, disastrous service, hopeless communications, pitiful systems etc.had nothing to do with the new lean technology (apparently – honestly). No I suppose it was the tooth fairy again eh?

Now don’t get me wrong I would love BA to become hugely successful (as I need to fly their routes often) but the first stage of that is sorting out the mindset within. A good start is truly understanding the only reason you have a job is because of the customer. Get that and then make sure everything you do makes the customers lives easier, somper and more successful.

If BA don’t get it together soon then extinction is their final destination.

References:
BP Group – Global not for profit business club with 32,000 members – FREE membership, join at

LinkedIn – BP Group discussions, presentations, toolkits, video, downloads

BP Community blog– Articles

Customer Expectation Management Method (CEMMethodtm)

Business Process Professional – Certified BPM Training

Summer Webinar Series (free to BP Group members)

Contact the author – Steve Towers
web – www.stevetowers.com
linkedin – www.linkedin.com/in/stevetowers
twitter – http://twitter.com/stowers
email – steve.towers @ bpgroup.org


BPM Weekly Update from the BP Group

BPGroup weekly LinkedIn update (152 discussions, 1815 LI Members)

Video keynote from Gartner conference – http://bit.ly/gW4zi
What are the top Outsider-Inners doing – http://bit.ly/R4RiA
Top Discussion – http://bit.ly/O7WUH
Are “Bolt-On” BPM Systems Running Out of Market Space? http://bit.ly/VT4Je
The Best Way to pitch BPM (summary) – http://bit.ly/JfWkl
and….
FIVE Webinars in progress – http://bit.ly/kG4WI
Business Process Professional training – http://www.bp2009.com
Newsletter for May (last week) – http://bit.ly/12Lcop

All the Best, Steve

PS. Monthly newsletter next week – new ICMG webinars also

Learn more about business process management – and get certified!

If you’re like most other professionals, the economic downturn has you looking critically at business processes. Want to learn more about that?

In mid-June we are conducting the Business Process Professional course – via the BP Groups Certified Process Professional programme.

Developed over ten years and with more than 7,000 Certified Professionals since 2005 it features the latest case studies, best practices and a complete method for implementing advanced BPM as featured recently on radio and TV.

The course is very well regarded by attendees and takes place in central London. You can get more information here.

BPM Quick Presentation links

For those looking for an handy quicklink to downloads and slides – here you go!
The Summer Webinar series will create several more and update these – details at www.bpgroup.org

BPM CEM method http://bit.ly/xxiEM
Here is the website with some
additional background http://www.cemmethod.com

BPM 1 developing the Skill
http://tinyurl.com/c553nj
– see update in webinar on July 14

BPM 2 bridging the gap
http://tinyurl.com/csvvv2
Quite out of date – see webinar on July 28

BPM 3 Succeeding w/BPM in the age of the customer
http://tinyurl.com/ddu59h

BPM 4 Building BPM Scorecard
http://tinyurl.com/cumsxt
Quite out of date – see webinar on July 21

Choosing the Right Supplier
http://bit.ly/TdfKz

BPM & Complexity
http://tinyurl.com/dx8tv8

Any queries please let us know news @ bpgroup.org

Alan Trefler – The wonderful Wizard of Oz? – Gartner, San Diego


At the recent annual Gartner BPM conference in San Diego, diehard BPM veteran Alan Trefler of Pegasystems (founder and CEO) gave his keynote presentation. Trefler began by reminding the audience that in today’s turbulent economy we are all “not in Kansas anymore” and may just need some fancy slippers to find our way back home to success and profitability.

Get yourself a coffee and revisit the Wizard of Oz for quarter of an hour with Alan Trefler – Video (you will need to register with Pega but that just takes two minutes) Event here

Whatever next “Stargate BPM”? 🙂