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According to
World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
the Entertainment and Hospitality Industry is a $8 Trillion industry today and will grow to $12 Trillion by 2020. It is also a very accurate indicator of the global economy the canary in the coal mine. If global economy is down due to any reason, E&H falls steeper and deeper and almost real time a true barometer of the global economy. Its typically broken into 3 sub-segments:
Travel & Leisure
parks and resorts, cruise lines, car rentals, airlines and mediators in between
vacation clubs, hotel chains, etc.
Media & Entertainment
Content producers, Content aggregators, Digital right management companies, TV distributors, etc.
All of them are changing really fast with the onslaught of Social Media and a truly Digital Lifestyle, this industry is seeing some paradigm shifts. Every customer touch point is evolving so fast in this changing world. Lets look at some examples of this
You look at a poster of Bahamas. Right there is a QR reader for you to see the top 3 hotels, car services and sea excursions.
A website like
once your itinerary is up, they will send you emails 1 day before to checkin. If there is a volcanic eruption in Iceland, they will show you 2 hours before flight that it is cancelled. Options for another flight right there. No running to gates with 300 other passengers and trying to use your Elite status to get another seat home.
They offer Travel Diary or Traviary - for before, during and after pictures/comments
When you land after a certain flight Hertz sends you a message/ email that your car is in a certain lane.
No looking at online behavior itself, 80% business can be lost in less than 5-7 seconds. If your mobile or website waits more than 5 seconds, typically people hit BACK button. After 2 more attempts you have typically lost the business.
So all these customer touch points are dictated by only one word EXPERIENCE. That is what the process and technology platforms have to deliver and enable the human interacting with the customer. And that EXPERIENCE starts much BEFORE traveler walks into the property.
As an example take Cruise Lines customer touch points, looking at this from a customers glasses:
Segmenting the customers - Seniors, Boomers, Families, Couples, Singles, etc. is key and the unique experience they seek. E.g. Singles can find information on print media - men's magazines (GQ, Cosmo, etc.), Travel Mags (CondeNast, etc.). The consumer is
more knowledgeable
with internet and mobile accessibility, online
consumer-created content
social networks
. Everyone who books a vacation, looks at TripAdvisor, Expedia, etc. for ideas, feedback and reviews. Price and convenience are essential differentiators for most consumers.
more empowered
and demands unique requirements and they want more self-service and multi-channel options. You go online the moment your friend tells you something. This speed, volume, and transparency associated with internet travel distribution has put new pressure on most companies to re-calibrate their value chains.
more diverse
since there is a lot of global and local influence and the consumer is very individualistic and demanding more convenience. Everyone looks for specific personalization and destination flexibility - such data-driven is key for companies to compete.
Sentimental Customer Analyze This!
I was talking to an executive of a famous cruise ship company. He was flying from S. Florida to Seattle and was of course dreading the flight as it is. On top of that his flight was cancelled, and he got bumped down to a middle seat on to a much later flight. At that point he started tweeting some of his friends about his horrible experience. In some time the stewardess came up to him and apologized and offered a free ticket for another trip. He naturally appreciated this gesture and that set him thinking if it was his tweets that were being tracked. He is now doing a whole new CRM effort within his own company - he knows the cruise customer is there for 4-7 days and can offer more upselling opportunities if they can
At the core of any sales and marketing effort, there only really 3 pieces:
Customer acquisition - Increase revenue and market share
Customer Insight & Innovation - Create, improve and differentiate products and services
Customer Experience & Service - Improve customer loyalty and reduce or avoid costs
In todays world, with the advent of connected consumers, the
Customer Insight
discipline is so important, especially in a B2C world. This is done through focus groups, buzz monitoring, community tracking, sentiment analyses and market research or pure competitive intelligence.
The social media phenomenon has surely led to a new way of business engagement is
set of constituent interaction channels. This technology platform (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) gives everyone expanded voice of the customer ability to exercise influence on the interaction with companies and peers.
User-generated content is often triggered by emotion
This can be amplified via the viral effect
Impact cannot be stopped or undone
It can forces companies to act in shorter cycle times
The scale can be fast and truly global
Earlier this is what happened:
You talked to your customers, told them what to do
95% happy customers is good
You wanted them to come to you
Now this is what happens and companies need to adjust ASAP:
Consumer are talking among themselves, its time to listen
5% unhappy customers is bad
You go to where they hang out
Its like the sewing circle of colleagues or clique of friends that you tell about a good doctor or a great sale has expanded to be truly global with platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Companies need to be listening on platforms like Blogs, Open Micro-Blog (Twitter), Closed Micro-Blogs (Yammer), Open Social Network (MySpace, WhatsApp), Closed Social Network (Facebook), Commentable User Generated Content (YouTube), Discussion Forums (Ning, TripAdvisor), etc.
The listening part has many technologies like claraBridge, Attensity, Radian 6, Overtone, SAS, etc. Some companies are using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand syntax & context. As an example please see sentence below posted somewhere:
One can use advanced linguistics to understand topics and sentiment:
The EFTPS enrollment for my tax return was
but it took
to get the confirmation package
So the
Category Sentiment is:
= Positive for enrollment
= Negative for timeliness
One customer verbatim from the customer can result in multiple categories within
multiple taxonomies
After being a
retired Army General and a FSCO member for 38 years
, I am quite
service representative
would treat me so
over the
when I called in to complain about the fact that you guys
raised my
at the same time
is calling me offering me a major
Core Values > Service
Core Values > Loyalty
Core Competency > Deliver Exceptional Customer Experiences
Eligibility > Retiree
Rank > Officer > General
Service > Army
Tenure> Greater than 30 years
Premium Increase
Products > P&C > Auto-Insurance
Customer Experience-Related
Moments of Truth > Rate Increase Notification
P&C/Auto Insurance / Geico
The tough part of all this is to separate the signal from the noise and do something when its really important. The prioritization criteria for such an action is typically based on:
# of customers impacted
Severity of impact to customer experience (i.e. moment of truth)
Severity of potential impact (e.g. legal liability)
Level of control to resolve
Show me the Money - Business Value Realization
When it comes to Information Technology (IT) everyone knows the different questions the executives are interested in:
How can I better use IT to deliver shareholder value?
How can I use IT to deliver on our business strategy?
Am I spending the right amount on IT?
How can IT reduce the costs of operation?
Are there better ways to use technology to become more effective?
Where should I focus my attention for new capabilities?
How do we get a return on our invested IT capital?
How do I measure the value and results from IT?
What IT assets do I need to own?
The term
is used so much in business and never completely understood. What is value anyway. Value at the highest level has 3 components:
How much cash will the company generate? How much cash injection will it need?
How certain is the cash generation and realization of the investment ?
When will cash be generated? When will value be harvested??
Measuring and communicating the
business value of IT
remains one of the biggest challenges for CIOs. The major challenges in assessing business value of IT are:
Difficult to
separate value
achieved from other improvements (organizational, process redesign, etc.)
Measuring value is often
Practices for
and communicating value are seldom underappreciated
To really understand what a projects value is to the firm and then did it ever deliver that value, there is some focus needed on:
Value Identification - Identifies what the sources of value are from IT, that can be used to deliver business benefit
Value Capturing - Identifies to what extent new IT initiatives are explicitly tracked and benefit realization for the initiatives
Value Delivery - Formalizes the expectations set between the business and IT, both in terms of value and relationship
Value Measurement - This capability defines how the success of an IT organization will be measured
Value should be measured against
business capability
measures, those that can be directly quantified into financial measures. Measures should be developed jointly by the business and IT, then
with business capabilities. For business cases, benefits should be quantified and aligned with the capability measures for the impacted capabilities.
Value Management is a journey and becomes the generation of Change Management.
The components to do this are:
A business case framework to define and quantify benefits captured from investments (Templates/ Model)
A methodology to measure benefit realization against management expectations for investments and report performance (Process)
A sustainable discipline to enable better decisions in terms of future project prioritization and investments (Governance)
Some of the best practices:
Think of the
Shareholder Value Tree
for your project- always try to get a
helicopter view
of the situation
Value should be measured against business
, those that can be directly quantified into financial measures. For business cases, benefits should be quantified and aligned with the capability measures for the impacted capabilities
Benefits Realization
as a work stream. Include checkpoints in
project lifecycle
for monitoring value during implementation
Partner with the business to discuss value in the
language that stakeholders want
and then drive business results
Define the right metrics
you need to track for
Behavior Modifier
Aligns employees with the IT organizations goals and objectives in a manner that motivates employees and influences desired behaviors
Accountability for Results
Holds managers accountable for results and forces them to direct value to the business
Performance Orientation
Shows what the performance of the IT organization has been and where it is headed to and where to focus management attention. Shifts focus from reactive to proactive management`
Vision Connected
Quantifiable statement of the IT organizations to-be state or vision
Have you ever sold an old belonging - basics of Revenue Management
Have you ever sold anything? Old books, your bike car or even your house?? Whether you did that over a garage sale, on eBay or even more advanced technology like Zillow, etc. what did you feel right after the sale? - I could have raised the price another 10% and the dude would have still bought it. Dang! Why did I throw in my comics for free with the sale. Or oh my god I didnt sell this bike just because I didnt reduce my price by $10. Itd have been good riddance. Well, thats just the nature of sales and pricing. Now imagine the plethora of players in the value chain of any industry like Entertainment & Hospitality
like Kayak, Expedient, etc.
like Worldspan, Sabre, Amadeus
like Contiki, Pleasant Holidays, etc.
like Pegasus, Trust, etc.
The consumer is willing to pay only so much depending on the product, the season, her expectations, different bundling of products. But all these players lead to so many types of rates for the same room: Published, Negotiated, Packaged (Expedia), Opaque (e.g. LastMinute, PriceLine), and Restricted. Of course like any pricing strategy there is a stark dependency on so variables:
demand patterns, channels, competition, etc. Imagine a hotel or vacation club that offers rooms different destinations, different experiences (Jacuzzi, etc.); Services (jet ski tour thrown in), Security, additional room types, etc.
The basic problem is as depicted below:
The only options management has are:
reject demand
inventory excess demand (queueing)
modulate capacity (add facilities, scheduling, resource allocation)
modulate demand (pricing, yield management)
In the Hospitality industry there is a detailed science behind this pricing and demand fulfillment. This is to really be able to maximize the revenue. Its called
Revenue Management
Yield Management
. The idea is two-fold: Have a market segmentation strategy
(capture consumer surplus)
and match price to demand
(peak-load pricing).
So airlines sell First class, Business class, economy class etc. Hotels create suites, single rooms, double rooms, etc. and price the products differently. Intelligently allocate fixed capacity to products. Also then allocate more capacity to low price points if demand is weak; allocate more capacity to high price points if demand is strong. Ever wondered why flights are always over booked and over sold.
Hotels, travel agencies, airlines, vacation clubs, car rentals, theatres, sporting venues, and other industry players are even unlocking the power of Big Data to enhance revenue management. Thats why this is a cycle of these activities and combines a lot of science with the art of pricing. Providers recognize that data analytics are helpful in establishing the optimal price for their products
the right price to the right customer at the right time.
The basic algorithms are as below:
1. Segmentation/product design
discriminate (sort) customers based on their actual willingness-to-pay (reservation price). Since the willingness to pay is tough to find for all customers, they try to find a variable that is correlated with willingness-to-pay (a sorting mechanism). Advance Purchases are encouraged.
2. Forecasting
factor in seasonality, trends, truncation (reservations accepted vs. potential demand), special events, promotions, etc.
perfect forecasts (deterministic)
uncertain forecasts (stochastic)
3. Capacity Allocation
- evaluate the opportunity cost (displacement cost/bid prices) of using resources required to meet current demand. So accept current request if
is greater than
Displacement Cost
. Mostly companies have to rank demand from highest revenue to lowest
Try to control demand and prices by ad hoc negotiation, posting remaining availability (reservation system booking limits), open/closed status indicators, bid prices/hurdle rates, etc. Ultimately, it boils down to an accept/deny decision for each service request.
This is where statistical tools and big data help. An example of a tree function for marginal revenue analyses for overbooking a flight for example is as below:
C capacity of flight
p probability that the reservation shows up
r revenue from booking seat
s cost (free flight, goodwill) of denied boarding
In a nutshell the business can be described as:
Demand Creation is
Demand Capture is
Demand Management is
Revenue Management
CRM basics from Caribbean street performers
Happy New Year to all my readers!
As all northern folks who look to get a winter break in the warm waters of the Caribbean, we just returned after savoring our piece of heaven. There were hordes and hordes of tourists from cruise ships, flocking from airports, from all parts of the world, etc.
On one of the beaches they had street performers doing all sorts of things swallowing swords, eating fire, other pyrotechnics, etc. The way some of the performers conducted themselves to get the spectators to throw in money into their TIPS jar was nothing short of CRM basics 101.
One of the street performer a man juggling balling pins on a unicycle, also balance some pyrotechnic with his mouth was amazing. He focused on the Core CRM processes:
Generate demand
He stood adjacent to the arrival of cruise locations and had flames lit up in the sunset-laden beach area to get everyone to be curious enough to swing by
Engage Customer
When he started his juggling act with bowling pins, he invited a front row standing kid to come up and throw to him one by one the bowling pin while he balanced on a unicycle> he talked to the kid quite a bit and complemented him on his throws.
Acquire new customers
He would yell at oncoming folks and passersby. He chose a location which was conducive to folks stop by as they enjoyed their ice creams or lemonades.
Service customers
He brought stickers for kids and lulled them to watch his flame and juggling
Deal with Globalization
He spoke a few Mandarin words to the Chinese travelers Ni hao. Asked a kid and heard he was Italian and mentioned greetings in Italian.
Embrace the Viral Effect of Social CRM
He yelled at people making his video and taking pix to send to fried through Facebook or even YouTube.
As someone said,
Customer service is not a department, its an attitude.
The science behind it
the framework for such capabilities has three main components:
Insight-driven Marketing
Esther Dyson summed it up in the magazine
strategy+business (December 2009)
: People spend a lot of time online not looking for something, or at least not for something that can be bought or sold. Marketers need to understand that the Web is not about them; its about us. Marketers and media sites keep thinking, Well, if we can only tweak our banner ads right, we can get the same success rate as Google. But they cant, because a banner ad is usually shown to someone who is not looking for the item advertised.
Customer Segmentation and Targeting
This the ability to classify or cluster customers / prospects based on certain business rules or inherent customer data behaviors and buying patterns. This is made possible through customer insight, data mining, segmentation, and prognosis. The key to creating customer segmentation and to targeting the right customers is to have adequate insight and to drive interactions with customers as per that insight.
Customer Touch Point Transformation
These days customers interact with companies at many touch pointscall centers, online, mobile apps, point of sales in the case of the retail industry, etc. In order to offer a complete and holistic experience for the customer, the company should look at contact touch point transformation at every level and have a decent integrated contact-management system
With this basic framework in mind, one has to recognize that some of the recent world phenomenon makes this even a bigger mandate:
Exponential expansion of media options makes targeting consumers far more complex
Cash-rich, time-poor consumers are demanding more relevant offerings, experiences and communication
Consumers are far more technology-savvy and more active in controlling the consumption cycle
Demographic and social changes are creating a more diverse, fragmented consumer base and buyer values
Products/services, stores and messages are proliferating and becoming increasingly commoditized
Master Data Management
Master Data are the fundamental business data in the company, typically long-lived and used across multiple applications, inherently including the subset of Master Reference Data. Master Data, including Reference Data, is not to be considered Metadata. Metadata is data about data. It describes
data content
but it is NOT
the content
. There is no formal and universal definition of how deep to take the definition from a content perspective. Only those metadata whose management will bring more value to the enterprise than the cost of the labor needed to create and maintain it should be managed and integrated formally. For example, Master Data definitions (customers, suppliers, products, organization, etc.) which will be the most ever-present and shared data across an enterprise will be most critical.
Master Reference Data are used to understand, navigate and query information based on or related to the Core Master Data from various business level and/or user level perspectives.
Value Proposition of MDM:
360º view of the enterprise
and corporate performance management improvement.
competitive advantage
by enabling customer behavior insight & predictive modeling.
Improves the
forecast management
through more effective logistics and inventory control.
cost of manual master data reconciliation & alignment
efforts, error fixing, etc.
Reduces the
data redundancy cost
by consolidating & eliminating duplicate masters (DB/apps).
application development & maintenance costs
, by having clear master data interfaces.
Improves the
decision quality
by securing reliable, high quality master data just in time.
Improves the
availability of key data
speed of access, data timeliness, common (user) support.
prevents redundant & non-coordinated master data activities
within the company.
Executing components of the MDM Strategy
Data Governance
Key roles
Desire to roll-out data governance to other areas of the business
Data Quality
Incorporating DQ approach into EDW instance consolidation project
Process Improvement
Competitive Intelligence using Analytics
Having spent so much time in the Entertainment and Hospitality industry, I see everywhere the key systems being CRM and Revenue Management systems. Yield Management is a market segmentation strategy to capture the consumer surplus, widely used in the
Entertainment and Hospitality
industry. Airlines, hotels, theme parks, car rentals, cruise ships, broadcasting (TV, radio), and Utilities (telecom, electricity), etc. always used segmentation and peak-load pricing. But with the advent in computing power of systems this technique is now able to do excessive and data intensive calculations with linear programming to optimize revenue. Just like airlines realized long ago that a flight flying with an empty seat is forgone revenue, many companies use historical data to optimize differential revenue gains. American Airlines had added $1.4B additional revenue over three-year period in the early 1990s. Hertz added 1-5% revenue annually and so did companies like Marriott Hotels, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, etc. Computer algorithms can use variables like time of purchase/usage (advance/spot purchase, day-of-week/season), purchase restrictions (cancellation options, minimum term, Saturday night stay), purchase volume (individual vs. group), and duration of usage (single night/weekly rate) to get the right price to the right customer. Next time you are stuck an airport and an airlines mentioned over-booked flight, know that some computer algorithm was doing some marginal analysis based on capacity of flight, typical cancellation rate, revenue from booking seat and cost of denied boarding (these days with the pressure airline are also adding costs like loss of goodwill along with the free flights they give you). Other analytic systems within an organization depending upon what the goals of a business or its units are.
Monte Carlo Simulation
This technique uses data to establish a pattern between a domain of possible inputs. The calculations generate inputs randomly from a probability distribution over the domain, perform computations on these and aggregate the results. This tries to minimize reinventing the wheel by reuse of research results. In the Pharmaceutical industry, for example, during the Discovery phase of their value chain, data mining is used to search contextual information based on secondary relationships,
Regression Analysis
This is a set of techniques used for modeling and analyzing several variables and establish a relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. It is widely used in Marketing and Sales part of a companys value chain since it can provide deep insight on customer behavior and provide an enhanced decision-making for future customer interactions. Companies are using industrialized analytics which uses closed-loop promotion and data mining to optimize marketing budget allocation (i.e. optimizes marketing channel and product mix). The closed-loop-promotion ensures feedback of mission-critical data to marketing and provides on-demand access to marketing decision-support. This helps creates an optimal marketing mix (as Jerome McCarthy called this the 4Ps product, price, place, and promotion). It started with improvements in systems for statistical analysis that helped understand why certain things were happening in the business environment. These were heavily used to do web traffic analyses during the emergence of eCommerce. Then these systems were extended to forecasting and extrapolation to see what would happen if the trends continued. Then the era of predictive modeling built systems what could try to predict what will happen next, based on empirical data and heuristics. Of course all these systems are used to help with optimization of spend and maximize the revenue. As an example, within the financial services industry, specifically Banks, such models are used to predict Retention & Loyalty, perform Portfolio Analytics, help with Fraud (Transaction/ Payment) and Anti Money Laundering efforts. They help answer questions like
Bank Servicing
- Which customers/ segments are at risk? Which ones are profitable? How do I retain them? How do I win back customers? They can also help with
Loyalty Programs
- What drives loyalty for my customer base? How do I design an effective loyalty program? They are used for
Cross Selling and Upselling
- Which deposit account holders would be interested in an auto loan? Can we sell insurance along with auto loan? Which products can be sold on credit card welcome call? Which Gold customers would increase their spend if we upgrade them to Platinum? Can I identify customer requiring short term loan? It helps with
Campaign Management
with segmentation modeling, profitability analysis, retention campaigns, win-back campaigns, etc.
Neural Network Analysis
Apart from the obvious impactions in the study of real biological neurons, this technique is used in areas like distribution & logistics, sociology, economics, etc. Any company that produces a product is chartered with getting that product to its customers (whether thats the final customer, retailer, wholesaler, etc.) in the least expensive manner. They are constantly trying to reduce total inventory while maintaining service levels of supply at each warehouse or distribution center location. Neural network models help with optimizing with the variables involved: number of warehouses to have, location of each warehouse, size of each warehouse, allocation of products to the different warehouses, allocation of customers to each warehouse, etc. The objective is to balance service level of supply against production/ purchasing costs, inventory carrying costs, facility costs (storage, handling and fixed costs), and transportation costs.
Data Visualization
Sure a picture is worth a thousand words. But didnt the dude in Matrix see numbers and know the stories behind this? Well, only in movies. According to research, Data visualization is so powerful because the human visual cortex converts objects into information quickly. As we continue the journey of Data Information Knowledge Wisdom, the feedback loop of models and visualization to see patterns is key.
As Big Data grows, its clear that the technology to gather and store data far
the ability to Analyze it. However, not all visualizations are actually that helpful. You may be all
too familiar with lifeless bar graphs, or line graphs
made with software defaults and couched in a slideshow presentation or lengthy document. The best data visualizations are ones that
expose something new about the underlying patterns and relationships
contained within the data. Understanding those relationships and being able to observe them is key to good decision making.
Pizza and Cola sell together more often than any other combo is there a cross-marketing opportunity?
Does Plant and Clay Pot sales IMPLY sales of Soil?
Milk sells well with everything people probably come here specifically to buy it. Should we raise prices since less price elasticity?
What is the one item you want to have in your store in case of a hurricane?
Does buying any kind of pepper also denote sales of banana?.
Does buying any kind of pepper also denote sales of banana?.
Which customers are most likely not to have an accident?
An important distinction lies between visualization for
and visualization for
. Exploring data is all about statistical acumen and understanding the nature of what the data represents in your enterprise. Visualization tools are an aid but they have been around for eons. Once you have explored, you will almost always find less than a handful of factors stand out and need explanation. Your presentation should not be about fancy graphs but the right power point / keynote /video storyline for your audience. It seldom needs voluptuous graphs ... if you are trying to describe more than this handful of points, then you are already lost in your quest.
The key is use the right Visualization for the right Data at the right Time. I found this chart very helpful to decide the decision tree for
which types of visualizations to use for different scenarios
There are so many tools to do this kind of analyzes:
Qlik, SAP, SAS, and Tableau Software deliver the latest table stakes in visual discovery: storyboard capabilities.
Google Fusion Tables
: Bust your data out of its silo and combine it with other data on the web. Collaborate, visualize and share
: An open source tool helping anyone to create simple, correct and embeddable charts in minutes
: Infogr.am is user-friendly interface to help develop creative, interactive infographics
: Piktochart is a simple WYSIWYG editor to help develop and design charts and infographics
Visualization for explaining is best when it is cleanest. Here, the ability to pare down the information to its simplest form to strip away the noise entirely will increase the efficiency with which a decision maker can understand it. As big data becomes bigger, and more companies deal with complex datasets with dozens of variables, data visualization will become even more important.
Techniques in Predictive Analytics
So last week when I wrote about Predictive Analytics, I got responses from folks saying, The value from such areas is clearly there. But the challenge is which technique to use and the ever-sliding sword of showing ROI so there is buy in for these analyses.
In framing the Analytics problem we need to balance data, SME knowledge, and performance. One of the things I have noticed in my work is when the analysts build models the real skill in creating effective analytic model is knowing which models and algorithms to use. They can use different techniques: neural networks, decision trees, linear regression, naïve Bayes, etc. But these days many analytic workbenches now automatically apply multiple models to a problem to find the combination that works best. One needs to explore different paths they look at the problem from different perspectives. When these algorithms are combined there is resulting synergy. Once the modeling data sets were finalized, the largest incremental gain was
not achieved by fine tuning
the training parameters of an individual algorithm, but by
combining predictions from multiple algorithms
So with the myriad tools and techniques that exist, the way to approach this is to ask the questions that are really important for what the company is trying to solve:
Who are the most/least profitable customers?
Who are the most/least satisfied customers?
What is fastest/slowest customer segment?
What are the reasons for customer attrition?
What are the costs of customer transactions?
What are our most/least profitable products?
What are our production costs & how can we lower them?
What is our cycle time & how can we lower it?
Who are the most productive salespeople, employee?
Which managers have the highest retention rates? What do they do?
What is the cost of turnover?
How accurate are the financial forecasts?
How much financial data is used to answer business decisions?
What impacts the demand of our product?
What items are affecting our margins the most?
Based on this one has to look at some of the following techniques:
predicting an item class, Decision Tree
what occurs together, Market Basket
Estimation and Time Series
predicting a continuous value
Web and Text Mining
extracting information from unstructured data
finding natural clusters or groups in data
Deviation Detection
finding changes or outliers
Link Analysis
finding relationships
Predictive Analytics
These days its tough to walk out of any meeting with Business or IT organizations without touching the topic of Big Data or Analytics. Lot of people struggle with what this is everyone BELIEVES that it can help if done rightly. But what is it?
The way as I look it: As organizations mature on their Business Intelligence capability,
the questions they ask
mature too. Its not about only looking at what the data tells about problems you need to solve. But can data tell you to THINK OF NEW PROBLEMS that you can solve. Things you didnt know.
THINK of something different.
Organizations are faced with ever increasing business challenges: Driving new sources of growth, Cost management and cash conservation, Increased business complexity and the need for operational excellence, or Business restructuring in an increasingly global business environment. Ubiquitous computing and technology capabilities have increased dramatically the volume of data at companies disposal, yet there remains little in the way of actionable insights (
Big Data
). Companies need timely, in-depth actionable insights if they are to remain competitive globally to effect a whole business approach to big data analytics to deliver business results. Analytics-driven optimization of key business processes
Staking out distinctive market strategy (
CRM Strategy and Loyalty programs
Finding the best customers, and charging them the right price (
Revenue Management
Minimizing inventory and maximizing availability in supply chains (
Inventory Optimization
Understanding and managing financial performance (
Business Intelligence technologies are
in nature validating the hypotheses of the business problems you want to solve. Examples:
Product shortage by market
Vendor spend by category
Brand health by market
Periodic trend analysis
Periodic P&L and Financial Reports
Predictive Analytics is
in nature - pull out meaningful relationships and patterns and tells you of different things that might be addressing the same or new problems. Example:
Business Mix Optimization (Product, Geography, etc.)
Price sensitivity by consumer segment
Customer Behavior Modeling
Performance/profitability analysis
As an example, NETFLIX, a US movie delivery company, asked engineers and scientists around the world to solve what might have seemed like a simple problem: improve Netflix's ability to predict what movies users would like by a modest 10%. From $5 million revenue in 1999 reached $4.3 billion revenue in 2013 as a result of becoming an analytics competitor. By analyzing customer behavior and buying patterns created a recommendation engine which optimizes both customer tastes and inventory condition.
As another example,
Analyzing Love: Data Mining on Match.com
Match.com, online dating service, tries to predict the likelihood of attractions between people. 95% of relationship can be predicted by analyzing as few as 10 characteristics in each profile. The find things like:
Members with accounts on Twitter, which only allows for messages of no more than 140 characters, have shorter relationships.
People identifying themselves as Republicans are more willing to connect with Democrats than the reverse
Global Sourcing
In this day and age there is an assumed maturity in the way initiatives within a business are sourced and out-sourced. When it comes to IT applications and their development and maintenance, there are 4 possible scenarios that companies deal with:
Insource -
Maintain control internally (usually for reasons of intellectual property, privacy, or strategic responsiveness)
Staff Augmentation -
Save money while maintaining responsibility for application support and maintenance activities
Leverage external cost structure benefits and expertise while maintaining an appropriate level of control
Outsource -
Delegate IT (or selected functions therein) to an external organization for which it is a core competency
With this industry evolved over the years, the rationale for IT outsourcing decisions has shifted from cost being the sole consideration to include a number of strategic factors. No doubt cost is still top of the mind, especially with this economy. But a lot of other considerations are in play:
Strategic Importance
Relative impact of a service area on the companys revenues and overall profitability
How strategic is the function to my organization today? How does it fit into our future plans?
Current Capability
Relative strength of a service area's technical & business know-how, processes, and tools
What are the capabilities of the function? How do those capabilities compare to our requirements, and to our peers?
Perceived Value / Cost
Perceived value of a service area relative to the costs incurred
What is the functions capacity to adapt and change?
Ownership Preference
Relative preference of management to own, share, or transfer out IT assets based on company beliefs, values, and sourcing experience
How easily can the function be transitioned to another sourcing strategy?
Business Quarterly
indicates 75% of US executives considered financial motivations as secondary to other strategic objectives when outsourcing. Business Week reports, The really smart business owners have figured out how to use outsourcing as a strategic tool instead of simply looking for savings. CIO magazine reveals strategic value rivals cost reductions for outsourcing motivations. Based on some reports by
The Outsourcing Institute
the top reasons for outsourcing look as below:
No matter what the goals, the key success factors of outsourcing are always:
Be clear about objectives-- cost, process improvement, and the ability to focus on the core business are the most common
Incorporate business outcomes as a performance measure from the outset of the arrangement
Look beyond price and promises of cost reductions for an outsourcing provider that brings a wide set of skills and strengths, and a long-term track record of delivering results
Give as much attention to performance measurement and the quality of your relationship with your provider as you do to the contract
Use active governance to manage the outsourcing relationship for maximum performance
Task talented executives with optimizing outsourcing arrangements
Business Cases Show me the Money !
Ever since
Jerry Maguire blurted this out
, people have been using this as a corporate euphemism for ROI/ Business case.
One of the critical roles for any organization is to manage the value achievement of the initiatives they pursue. They need to ensure sponsor and executive ownership of the business case. The business case allows the stakeholders in IT projects to jointly address their key concerns with project investments:
Business cases highlight the initiatives that create the greatest value, support decision- making, and help track program performance. It is good to define the business case early and plan on many iterations since it:
Demonstrates how a major investment creates value
Includes both quantitative and qualitative rationale
Supports business decisions by weighing choices or options
Creates a way to track performance and measure success after a decision has been made
Gains alignment and management consensus for a project
In some organizations, the term Business case may also be referred to as
Cost/benefit analysis
ROI analysis
Feasibility study
Capital funding request
Case for action
Once the team has understood the importance of having a business case to guide the investment decisions of the initiatives, there is debate on what level of detail should it have. There are many approaches to building out a business case and the main elements are
Benefit models
Cost models
Cash flow models
Assumptions (timing, dependencies)
Sensitivity Analysis
Qualitative Factors Analysis (non-financial benefits, risks)
The financial models can be
(more high level and helps form an initial hypothesis wider ranges to reflect uncertainty) or
(more quantitative and time spent on thorough data collection and analyses). But the key point is that you need to build the business case with ranges and confidence levels. Once the numbers were compelling, the ranges could change but they would not change the decision.
IT Service Management
At a BPM event recently in Orlando, I was chatting with a colleague about IT and the BPM responsibility. This guy is the SVP of IT operations and handles Infrastructure for his company. When someone asked him who from the business was responsible for the BPM aspects in his firm from the business side, his response was We in IT are actually responsible for the BPM aspects and optimization therein. Another guys goes, The only real applications the business is concerned about is e-mail That set me thinking about IT Service Management, etc. Having spent some time doing ITIL work, I am familiar with the concept of IT service management, which involves moving:
Multiple points of contact with the business
Service defined and measured in technical terms (if at all)
Work driven by technology
Organized to support systems
Managed relationships established with customers
Service defined, measured and reported on in business terms
Work driven by service requirement
Organized to deliver service
So ITSM is all about better service at lower cost. But the challenges with a full blown ITIL deployment is that ITIL is far too generic for an organization to implement at a fast pace, in totality. Process reengineering and change management are always required and are rarely considered. Some practitioners have said that it complements other IT management methodologies like CMMI, etc. But the way I look at this is that CMM focuses on improving and appraises the maturity of application development. ITIL is focused on best practices around IT Operations and Services. This kind of demarcation:
The ITIL v2 broke these Operations into
Service Support
(ensuring that the customer has access to appropriate services to support business functions) and
Service Delivery
(IT services are provided as agreed between the Service Provider and the Customer). But the key to achieving good IT service management even at a small scale is by using the following guiding principles:
Business Relationship Management:
Ongoing liaison and relationship building with Client community. Maintain an understanding of the business and IT requirements.
Service Delivery Management:
Understand the IT Services provided and the businesses reliance on these Services. Carry out the appropriate business liaison and escalation for Service issues.
Service Performance Review:
Formally review service performance against agreed upon SLAs. And good luck with that J
Service Level Agreement Management:
Maintain service definitions and assess implications of any changes
Service Enhancement Request:
Receive and shape requests for new/enhanced services
Supply Chain Excellence
Achieving supply chain excellence is complex and challenging, but success in achieving supply-chain driven competitive advantage enables superior customer service, profitable revenue for growth and significant increase in shareholder value. Inventory Management is the conductor of the symphony for Retail Supply Chain execution. It is critical for customer service since Inventory management is what initiates all merchandise movement and controls the timing within the supply chain
Supply chain assets and inventory usually comprise at least half of all non-store based assets
Supply chain activities typically account for as much as 40 70% of operating costs (including procurement and markdowns)
Some of the statements from retailers across all kinds of products:
Assisted Inventory Management (AIM) helped us exceed our inventory-turn goal, making us the leader among national drugstore chains in this important productivity measure. We achieved inventory turns of 5.0 times for the year, up from 4.6 times in earlier years. CVS
Positioned among the best in retail, our supply chain helps drive sales, reduce costs and ensure the availability of products our guests most want and need. Target
We completed the conversion of each of our operating divisions to a common technology platform with greatly enhanced inventory management tools, permitting more sophisticated inventory planning and more precise by-store inventory allocation. Saks
The three main components of the Inventory Optimization program address both the process and physical infrastructure of the supply chain.
Inventory Management Process -
this addresses end-to-end inventory management built on two core processes:
for continually replenished basic merchandise. Periodic automatic replenishment, long life, stable supply, short lead time to continually meet normal demand
Highly Variable
which is typical of merchandise with high demand spikes due to promotions, fashion, short life and seasonal demand
Network and Flow Strategy -
Network Optimization starts with establishing a vision of alternative flow paths and ends with a full evaluation of end-to-end physical supply chain and a recommended distribution network strategy. One has to assess merchandise flow paths to provide revenue growth, minimize supply chain costs and support overall inventory strategies.
one has to determine alternative distribution strategies including buildings size and location, transportation strategies, inventory deployment strategies, and benefit based business cases.
Store Operations
Design and implement a well-defined process for store operations related to receiving, shelf stocking, perpetual inventory accuracy and plan-o-gram maintenance.
Organization & Labor Planning
Life Cycle Management
Shelf Replenishment
Data Integrity Maintenance
The idea is to push operations from
Stores Ordering for basic merchandise to
Automatic Replenishment Approach
which is centrally maintained and helps with enhanced High Performance forecasting and allocation abilities
Store Reviews ( All replenishment orders to supplement simple forecasting & ordering logic) to
Exception Only Reviews
. No store review for standard items and examples of exception reviews: items with high inventories, poor service levels etc.
Limited Standards & Policies (In-stock policies and Service levels) to
Standard Policies Across the Supply Chain
. This is through reliable & repeatable inventory management processes and uniform service standards based on merchandise goals and category/SKU profitability
RFID in the age of Mobility
Having done a lot of work in the supply chain industry, I am so intrigued by RFID and its potential once the costs go further down. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify individual items. RFID technology is not new or complex; it has been around since the early radar systems in the 1940s. What is new is how manufacturing advancements have reduced costs of implementing RFID systems (particularly tags). These silicon-based electronic identification tags, consisting of a tiny processor, memory, antenna and can be read and written wirelessly and can be made cheap, without a battery. The main components of this technology are:
Device made up of an electronic circuit and an integrated antenna
Radio frequency used to transfer data between the tag and the antenna
Read-only or read / write
Receives and transmits the electromagnetic waves
Wireless data transfer
Receives commands from application software
Interprets radio waves into digital information
Provides power supply to passive tags
IT Infrastructure
Reads / writes data from / to the tags through the reader
Stores and evaluates obtained data
Links the transceiver to an applications, e.g. ERP
Of course there has been a major drag in the adoption of this technology. The key challenges have been:
Not only costs of tags and readers, but the costs of integration of the RFID technology into the IT technology stack - e.g. ERP, etc.
Lack of worldwide data standards
Country-specific frequencies allocation
Vendors are very fragmented
Tag and data overload How do we handle the data?
Read-rate accuracy
Tag and reader collision Signals can interfere with each other
Privacy fears from the tracking provided by this technology
But more and more this technology is coming into mainstream. Especially after Walmart
mandating the use of RFIDs
in their supply chain management. Walmart believes that they can cut out costs and make their supply chain even more lean with this deployment.
The uses of this technology are of course endless. I was recently reading about the
from Pirelli Tire Systems that transmits information on road conditions and friction coefficients to the car's computer. Already some
are using RFIDs to tag patients with wristbands to scan by hospital staff using PDAs or tablet PCs connecting to patients' data using a WLAN.
And as this become more prevalent there are other uses that are surely ridden with privacy issues. There is much
where people are looking at ways to monitor
real time
health in individuals. There is a
RFID implanted in the human wrist
that send signals to the health insurance company at all times. When you wake up in the morning and go for a jog; you arrive at work and an email from the company (always monitoring your vital stats) sits in you inbox, proclaiming a reduced premium for the day. You have breakfast at McDonalds over the weekend. Lo and behold, your premium just went up.
IT Spend Analyses
A few days ago I was in a
CIO roundtable in Atlanta
and one of the CIOs mentioned that despite the state of the economy their IT Organization was thinking of spending some if their budget on some innovative initiatives so that when we get to the bottom of the J-curve in the economy, theyd be ready to win over strategic goals. Really set me thinking how are companies dividing their IT spend on keep-the-lights-on
and strategic or
innovative investment
. Top executive management these days has two main questions:
How can the IT organization be transformed to be an enabler of creating business value rather than just being a cost of doing business?
How can we achieve better results at a lower cost?
I guess its always important for the IT organization to evaluate internally how ITs value contribution to the business should be planned, managed, and assessed. Unfortunately, the link between business value and IT is often not understood by executives and especially in times like these IT spending levels are overly-squeezed. The common issues that we have seen:
Typically, IT spending level is based on historical or competitive benchmark levels
Lack of recognition for IT contribution on business side
Short term, simple IT cost cutting drives down value adding and innovative IT initiatives first
As a result, IT capabilities deteriorate and mid-term IT operating costs rise
Eventually, higher IT operating costs eat away funds for innovations and this furthers the overall IT budget explosion. A big vicious circle!
Of course a companys position on its spending is dependent upon many macro factors:
Number and size of competitors
Industry growth rate and rate of change
Industry margins/pricing
Product differentiation factors physical products or knowledge assets
Mandatory or non-discretionary IT investments
are for keep-the-lights-on functions - IT Operations, regulatory, etc. Things like technical support, IT infrastructure management, technical upgrades to infrastructure components, required maintenance, enterprise-wide project support fall in this category.
Discretionary spending
, which is about IT investments that are Strategic, Enabling, and Sustaining, are on things like R&D (focus on future technologies), etc. These investments should create a strategic or economic advantage in the market, create barriers to entry, etc. As written by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema in their classic book,
Discipline of Market Leaders
, there are three basic "
value disciplines
" for a company to pursue operational excellence, customer intimacy, and /or product leadership. If the direction of the company is clear, well-communicated, and well-understood, then some strategic IT investments are driven from the same:
If there is a
product/service innovation
focus, then the company needs to focus on increasing value to existing customers, developing new markets and channels, etc. Examples of initiatives are eInnovation, eDesign Collaboration, PLM, etc.
If the company is focusing on
Customer Intimacy
, then the company needs to improve understanding of its customer needs, increase customer insight, etc. The initiatives fall in realms like Customer Insight (Inbound Marketing), Integrated View of Customer (DW, Analytics), etc.
If the company is trying to create
new scales and reduce interaction costs
between partners and customers, it needs to invest in increasing service levels at lower costs, concepts like Super Distributor, Supplier Collaboration, etc.
Fleet Management
Fleet Management, of which Strategic Sourcing is a core part, is an integrated set of actions, which occur in a rational and logical manner, with the overall objective of attaining lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Key issues in fleet management involve capital commitments and management, as well as operating effectiveness and cost. Fleet asset utilization is not typically tracked or measured, which leads to unwanted outcomes, such as having more vehicles than necessary, additional operating and maintenance costs and not always having the right vehicles for the jobs they are needed to do. Additionally, fleet costs are usually fragmented and a rarely captured in total, which leads to problems in trying to adequately and accurately assess operating efficiency and evaluate out-sourcing opportunities. The first step for true optimization is getting a good handle on the existing fleet in terms of its make-up, utilization and operating cost, reviewing the administrative and operating practices related to procurement, operations, maintenance and disposition, as well as determining replacement scheduling. The foundation is based upon the following three areas:
Strategy (replacement scheduling, outsourcing/insourcing and fleet organization)
Operations (vehicle pooling, maintenance & repair, inventory management, fuel management)
Administration (Standards & specifications, fleet utilization, budget & cost reporting)
The areas to explore the fleet management practices:
Fleet inventory (including but not limited to manufacturer and model year, type, location, VIN #, GVWR, acquisition price, options purchased, lease payment, annual operating and maintenance costs, sale price if retired, auction fees and class how its used)
Equipment Utilization Miles, hours or both on equipment where there may be two measures of utilization
Fleet spend at invoice level and at options level if available.
Current agreements and in progress negotiations
Current leases, short term rentals, and ownership models
Fleet Rationalization, Utilization and Fleet Mix
Once the standards and specifications process has taken place, putting rigor and focus in the area of rationalization and utilization brings value and savings to the company and fleet. The goal of this component of the process is multi-dimensional:
Ensuring that the proper utilization targets by class and location (e.g.,: metro v. rural) are set and used to reduce the number of low-use vehicles in the field
Rationalizing the fleet based on job function and job assignment.
Developing a fleet policy that optimizes the use of pooling vehicles, how and when to use short-term rentals and take home vehicles.
Identify fleet operating needs that may include needs for surplus vehicles including seasonal work requirements, construction projects, regulatory mandates, etc.
Focus on the 80/20 rule when it comes to prioritizing fleet opportunities. Develop standards and specifications for the portion of the fleet that can be standardized and will provide the highest value/impact, such as passenger vehicles, SUVs, LD and MD trucks aerial and digger derricks. Utility and construction equipment is often overlooked
In most cases, not incorporating the sourcing of bulk fuel (v. fuel management services) as a part of any fleet sourcing engagement. Past experience has shown that this exercise returns almost no incremental value and usually devolves into an exercise around sourcing transportation from supplier fuel racks to client bulk tank facilities.
Maintenance & Repair
Achieving the lowest TCO for fleet, maintenance and repair is an integral component of the equation. Inherently maintenance and repair costs will decrease as an output of developing the standards and specifications and replacement schedule process. Other areas should also be evaluated, such as opportunities for network consolidations of maintenance and repair shops, etc.
Determining a Levelized Replacement Schedule
- Developing a Levelized Replacement Schedule is a key concept in improving fleet management and obtaining benefits from strategic sourcing. Sharing the information with both internal finance and external vendors and suppliers is instrumental in planning for future fleet acquisitions and capital needs as well as structuring multi-year deals.
In summary, maximizing fleet effectiveness depends on managing it like a business, in an integrated and holistic fashion, across two major dimensions.
Operating revenue, Operating costs, Contribution margin, Productivity metrics and measures, Performance metrics and measures
Fleet sizing, Standards and specs, Strategic sourcing, Life-cycle management, Maintenance and repair, Disposition management
Supply Chain Excellence
Achieving supply chain excellence is complex and challenging, but success in achieving supply-chain driven competitive advantage enables superior customer service, profitable revenue for growth and significant increase in shareholder value:
Supply chain assets and inventory usually comprise at least half of all non-store based assets
Supply chain activities typically account for as much as 40 70% of operating costs (including procurement and markdowns)
Scientific Retailing:
Overview of the High Performance Retailing framework, demand and supply value drivers
Inventory Management:
Inventory Management is the conductor of the symphony for Retail Supply Chain execution. It is critical for customer service since Inventory management is what initiates all merchandise movement and controls the timing within the supply chain
Some of the statements from retailers across all kinds of products:
Assisted Inventory Management (AIM) helped us exceed our inventory-turn goal, making us the leader among national drugstore chains in this important productivity measure. We achieved inventory turns of 5.0 times for the year, up from 4.6 times in earlier years. CVS
Positioned among the best in retail, our supply chain helps drive sales, reduce costs and ensure the availability of products our guests most want and need. - Target
We completed the conversion of each of our operating divisions to a common technology platform with greatly enhanced inventory management tools, permitting more sophisticated inventory planning and more precise by-store inventory allocation. Saks
The three main components of the Inventory Optimization program address both the process and physical infrastructure of the supply chain.
IM Process:
Addresses end-to-end inventory management built on two core processes:
for continually replenished basic merchandise: Periodic automatic replenishment, long life, stable supply, short lead time to continually meet normal demand
Highly Variable
typical of merchandise with high demand spikes or problematic supply: Demand characteristics are promotions, fashion, short life and seasonal while supply is typically private imports and private label
Network and Flow Strategy
Network Optimization starts with establishing a vision of alternative flow paths and ends with a full evaluation of end-to-end physical supply chain and a recommended distribution network strategy.
Assesses merchandise flow paths to provide revenue growth, minimize supply chain costs and support overall inventory strategies.
Determines alternative distribution strategies including buildings size and location, transportation strategies, inventory deployment strategies, and benefit based business cases.
Store Operations
Determines store level inventory processes that maximize the customer perceived in-stock (several studies show 40-70% of outs occur due to store defects).
Design and implement a well-defined process for store operations related to receiving, shelf stocking, perpetual inventory accuracy and plan-o-gram maintenance.
Organization & Labor Planning
Life Cycle Management
Shelf Replenishment
Data Integrity Maintenance
The idea is to push operations from
Stores Ordering for basic merchandise to
Automatic Replenishment Approach
which is centrally maintained and helps with enhanced High Performance forecasting and allocation abilities
Store Reviews ( All replenishment orders to supplement simple forecasting & ordering logic) to
Exception Only Reviews
. No store review for standard items and examples of exception reviews: items with high inventories, poor service levels etc.
Limited Standards & Policies (In-stock policies and Service levels) to
Standard Policies Across the Supply Chain
. This is through reliable & repeatable inventory management processes and uniform service standards based on merchandise goals and category/SKU profitability
Lean and Six Sigma
Recently I was on the panel of a CXO discussion around how to optimize costs and increases business productivity, when someone from the audience asked about Lean Six Sigma and its relevance, especially in todays economy. They asked is it Six Sigma that has been more effective or have Lean principles helped more? And how exactly do they differ? That set of dialog encouraged me to write this post. There is always debate about Lean and Six Sigma being so close that practitioners love to dichotomize in their thinking.
So what is Six Sigma?
A Metric? -
Less than 3.4 defects per million opportunities of product produced/ service rendered
A Vision? -
Six Sigma is an overall strategy to accelerate improvements in processes, products, and services
A Value? -
Strive for continuous improvement in all activities
A philosophy? -
A proven pursuit of perfection business initiative that creates breakthroughs in profitability, quality, and productivity
Six Sigma practitioners follow these tenets as a business philosophy:
If something cannot be measured, we really do not know much about it.
If we don't know much about it, we cannot control it.
If we cannot control it, we are at the mercy of chance.
Six Sigma started in the manufacturing industry with emphasis on management of efficient processes, efficient management of people, dedication to measurement systems, etc mostly
Operational Excellence
. But it became apparent that business success was more than the absence of negatives (defects, delays, cost overruns). Six Sigma then began to encompass positives like customer loyalty and delighters in new products. From operational excellence, Six Sigma has moved towards
Customer Intimacy
Product Leadership
value disciplines through its
/ DMADV tools. There is always debate that Six Sigma does not go that well with a
focus. But all said and done the tools offered are used everywhere in different flavors and different terms:
- A top level process mapping tool to document a process in the context of suppliers who provide inputs which are transformed into outputs for the customer.
Cause & Effect Matrix
- A process of identifying problems, finding their causes, and creating the best solutions to keep them from happening again (fishbone diagram).
Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA)
- A tool used to identify ways the process can fail, estimate the risk of the failure, identify causes of failure, prioritize actions to reduce failure risks, develop control plans to prevent failures
- The Voice of the Customer; the customer specifications/ requirements that dictate acceptable and unacceptable outcomes and drive actions.
- The Voice of the Process ; the companies processes doing what they need to produce products/ services.
- Critical to Quality; characteristics that significantly influence one or more of the customer requirements.
Of course, recently Six Sigma has begun to be used in the IT industry as
Six Sigma for Software
And what is Lean?
A philosophy that shortens the time line between the customer order and the shipment by eliminating waste (non-value-adding activities). This philosophy is based on the following principles:
what the customer buys
Value stream
how value is delivered
putting value added steps in sequence. The flow or value-stream perspective represents a shift from vertical to horizontal thinking. Flow is enabled when materials and processes are standardized across the supply chain to reduce complexity.
triggering flow from the customer needs. E.g. have only projects in IT that the pipeline can take i.e. Demand Management.
continuous improvement
Value Added
Any activity that increases the market form or function of the product or service. (These are things the customer is willing to pay for.) For .e.g in the Airline industry actual flying time or in the Healthcare industry diagnosis/treatment.
Non-Value Added = Waste
Any activity that does not add market form or function or is not necessary. (These activities should be eliminated, simplified, reduced or integrated.). For e.g. in the airline industry lining up to check in or in the Healthcare industry sitting in the waiting room waiting for an appointment. There are specific categories of waste that Lean targets:
Excess (or early) production - Overproduction
Inventory - documents, forms, supplies
Waiting - e.g. delay in obtaining an appointment or test results
Transportation (to/from processes)/ Motion for e.g. leaving exam rooms for equipment, chart forms
Extra Processing like inspection
Underutilized people / resources
The way I look at it is the Lean is the management philosophy and Six Sigma is a great set of tools that help you chart your path. You have got to use the
Six Sigma
to first reduce variation and then deploy
Lean management
to take your processes to a newer level altogether. Some thoughts to leave you with what I always do :-)
SIX SIGMA is about supporting different situations with different and specific tools:
And LEAN is about looking for efficient solutions and reducing waste:
Payment and Transaction Processing economics
Ever since I worked at American Express and I still hear from folks that oh these credit card companies make 4% of the transaction dollars, I feel like documenting the whole flow of this industry and see the economics behind this. The way the transactions work are very well explained on this virtual school link:
The mix of payment instruments evolves from the dynamics between customers, retailers and issuers cash, checks, credit cards, debit cards, fleet cards, mobile payments, biometric payments, etc. From the retailers perspective, the range of instruments that retailers choose to endorse depend on the costs and benefits of each with
remaining transaction values
as below:
For credit card transaction processing industry in particular, the value chain of this industry is as below:
But the current trends in this industry are as below:
, like
, have expanded pre-paid and store-card operations with payment processors, bypassing high cost clearing/ settlement networks
A consortium of major banks, such as BofA, Chase and Citigroup, have started or purchased a rival clearing / settlement network
mobile and internet initiatives
, like
and Paypal
, have expanded into the traditional payments marketplace and captured a small but growing market share
New lower cost alternatives, such as
, have successfully attracted merchants in direct competition with traditional providers and established a low cost credit card alternative
Core banking providers have developed integrated payment solutions embedded in their core banking applications
is the fee Processors pay to the issuing banks via VISA/MasterCard and these rates are set by VISA/MasterCard through their associations. Typically interchange rates are based on a % of volume for credit cards & a rate per item for debit cards. This is evolving as new players are jumping in.
Plus add to this the mobile payments with companies like
Google Wallet
jumping into the fray. The mobile ecosystems consists of the usual players- retailers/merchants and financial institutions but also adds handset manufacturers and network operators.
Due to these platforms that needed built, the adoption varies in geographic areas. Currently the percentage of people that currently use a mobile phone for Banking Transactions at least once a month (according to
EDC-GSMA Mobile Financial Services Survey):
Business Intelligence
IT Strategy
Social Media
Social Media
© 2012 Ashu Bhatia
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Youth Hostel Villa Marija
Hostel | Lucije Rudan 7, Hvar, Croatia 21450
233 out of 245 customers would recommend this property
Recent review (28/09/2015)
"The hostel has a really nice terrace, which is good for relaxing and getting in contact with other guests. The guys at the reception are really nice and they also have a facility manager, who is always availible."Read all Youth Hostel Villa Marija reviews
- Air Conditioning
- Bar
- Car Parking
- Self-catering Facilities
- No curfew
- Currency Exchange
- Free city tour
- Games room
- Secure lockers
- Lounge area
- Internet / Wi-Fi
- Safety deposit
- 24 hour hot showers
- Swimming Pool
- Tours/Travel Desk
- Washing machines
- Fax
- Bicycle hire
- Late check-out
- Laundry service
- Reception (limited hours)
- Bar(s)
- BBQ area
- Café
- Common area / room
- Communal kitchen
- Outside area
- Television room
Purchasable Extras
- Towel USD 1.39
What's Included
- Luggage Room
- Linen
Cancellation Policy
Customers can cancel their reservation free of charge up to 1 day before arrival (local time). Payments made to HostelBookers are non-refundable.
Check-In/Out Details
Earliest check-in: 13:00
Latest Check-out: 10:00
Group booking?
Group of 15 or more traveling to Hvar?Contact us directly
See other properties in Hvar
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Apartment Mladen
Villa Vera
Casa Di Lavanda
Villa Marija Hostel features a luxurious and stylishly decorated sea view outdoor terrace with swimming pool and cocktail bar, providing the perfect place to meet like-minded international travellers.
Hostel is located on a small hill, within 15minutes walking distance from the historical centre of Hvar town, giving hostel guests excellent access to all major attractions and hot spots of the city. The best pebble beach in Hvar is 400 meters away. Read more
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About Youth Hostel Villa Marija
To catch-up with friends and family or to plan your next trip, Villa Marija has high-speed free wireless internet available in all guest rooms and throughout the entire hostel.
Book your boats, scooters, day trips or any activity at our reception. 24hours available local staff will ensure you have the best possible stay on this party island. To help you get around, we've got a book exchange, free maps and advice and free access to guide books from all around the world. There's also free luggage storage.
Choose between air-conditioned high-standard dorms with en-suite bathrooms or modern bright colourful private room with balcony overlooking the sea.
Each dorm has pin protected entrance and safety individual locker - these are free of charge to use.
To make you feel completely safe, our hostel is equipped with security cameras, night security guard and wristband policy which all the guest must be wearing during the stay in our hostel.
For those looking for some extra pleasure, there is the option of a relaxing massage provided by our professional masseur.
Our guest love staying at our hostel, and it's easy to see why. We are independent, locally owned and for years, we have stayed ahead of the crowd by offering top quality accommodation for the best rates. The hostel is designed by young travelers, in order to create truly memorable experiences. Enjoy a friendly, relaxed and fun atmosphere for young travelers from all over the world.
We also have a strict rule that after 10:30pm is quiet time (required by Croatian Law) even though most guest are warming up for the party at that hour. So in order to continue the fun, Villa Marija Hostel organise nights out where everybody is welcome to join us for some free shots at the famous Kiva Bar.
Important things:
- Age limit: You must be under 45 years old
- Quiet Hours: 10:30pm - 07:00am. During the quiet hours, all common rooms are closed and any activities are prohibited. Be aware that this policy will be strictly enforced.
- Payment is on arrival: Cash only(Euro or Kuna). Credit cards are not accepted.
- If you would like to cancel your booking, let us know by e-mail at least 24 hours before your arrival. After this, 1st night will be charged.
- Earliest Check in: 1pm
Accommodation Information
Villa Marija has two separate building with couple of Sea View private apartments (twin,triple and double) and four dorm types available: 4 beds, 6 beds, 8 beds & 10 beds, and can sleep a total of 100 people.
Click on ''View room details'' to check more information on selected room type.
Location Information
* 15 minutes' walk from the old town, Main Square, bus station, restaurants, night clubs and all tourist attractions.
* 10 minutes' walk from the most beautiful beach in Hvar!
* 5 minutes' walk from the big supermarket!
*Please remember to always mention your booking reference when sending us an e-mail.
Other languages
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In pictures: the BCIA judges visit the finalists
The AJ can reveal an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek at the judging of this year's BCIA Awards
In recent weeks the jury has been crossing the country viewing all 41 of the finalists vying to win accolades in seven different categories - ranging from the Small Building Project prize for those schemes under £3 million, to the Major Civil Engineering Project award for projects over £50 million (click here to see the all the shortlists).
Judges include AJ editorial director Paul Finch and features editor Rory Olcayto.
Their travels have already taken them to the North Yorkshire Dales, East Anglia, the East Midlands, Wales and the South West of England.
Martin Baggs - Chairman of the Judges; Chief Executive Officer, Thames Water
Peter Hansford - Deputy Chairman; President, Institution of Civil Engineers
Simon Allford - Partner, AHMM
Keith Bradley - Feilden Clegg Bradley
Philip Dilley - Group Chairman, Arup
Katrina Dowding - Business Development Director, Skanska, and Chair, NAWIC
Hugh Ferguson - Formerly Deputy Director General, Institution of Civil Engineers
Paul Finch - Chairman, Design Council CABE
Alan Kay - Managing Director Environment, Costain
Michelle McDowell - Chair, Civil & Structural Engineering, BDP
Rory Olcayto - Features Editor, Architects' Journal
Antony Oliver - Editor, NCE
Graham Reid - Regional MD, Hyder
Philip Singleton - Director, Facilitate Urban
David Tonkin - UK MD, Atkins
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Yesterday we were on the road at 8:30 a.m., picking up the two Linda's in the city and heading out to the big Friday market day at Ocotlan, the village of artist Rudolfo Morales, about 45 minutes by car from Oaxaca along a busy two lane road. For a while, we followed a truck loaded with cattle bound for market. The hills we climbed were grassy and dry, the color of wheat, like southern California in the summertime. The prickly pear cactus, agave and mesquite dot the horizon. It is high desert country, warm now, nearly 80 degrees in the midday sun. Barbara spots the studio of ceramic artist Josefina Aguilar. We make a quick u-turn, park and go in. The family lives and works there. On one side of the patio is the living area, open kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, and on the other is the low fire kiln, display and sales area. There are stylized primitive figures of Frida in every variety and color of floral headdress imaginable, ample bosom and prominent brow accentuated. A happy couple stand side by side dressed in preparation for a wedding, never mind that they are skeletons to honor Dia del Muertos (Day of the Dead). I buy a lovely made by hand and glazed skeletal lady paddling a flower covered boat destined for the River Styx for 100 pesos (about $10 mas or menos). After all have made their purchases, we're off to park and head to the big market. Our first stop is inside the food stalls where we find the tamale vendor I remembered from the last visit. We sit down to a lunch of fresh tamales with chicken and mole, 4 for 10 pesos ($1), fresh squeezed orange and carrot juice @ 20 pesos ($2), and then split up to wander. At the edge of the Ocotlan zocalo is the government offices. In one room are the bold, colorful, moving murals created by Rudolfo Morales murals of farmers and villagers — much like those created by Diego Rivera, almost cubist in execution. To me, they represent the fortitude and creativity of the Mexican people who have worked the earth and made it bountiful. The murals are filled with images of flowers, vegetables, fruit, an homage to the men and women who labor to give us food. Across the zocalo is the Morales museum which is contiguous to the church whose restoration he supported. The market is is cacaphony of vendors, food, live animals, inanimate objects all for sale. Chili peppers, dried fish from the coast, gladiolas, Christmas decorations, cooking utensils, shoes, spices, cinnamon sticks so big they look like giant straws, embroidery thread, tea towels, baby clothes, shoes, copal incense, chapulines (spiced, dried grasshoppers) are piled on tables row after row. Canaries sing in their cages awaiting their next home. Ocotlan is famous for its woven "Panama" hats and an entire area of the market is devoted to their display. The latest pirated songs blare from the stall selling CDs for 15 pesos. In the center of the Zocalo, between the pairs of fountains are the vendors selling tapetes (rugs) from Teotitlan, alebrijes (carved animalitos) from Arrazola or San Martin Tilcajete, painted gourds from Guerrero, table cloths and dresses from Mitla, and woven baskets from Tlacalula (where the spectacular Sunday market is an easy competitor to Ocotlan). Milk goats are tied to the lamp posts. Across the street, basket vendors compete for space with the piles of cow hides waiting to be tanned. On the way back to the car, we pass 10 turkeys are tied together, bundled and waiting to be carried off for Christmas dinner, an organic food store, money changer, and feed store. The aroma of chocolate being ground for mole permeates the air.Next stop, San Martin Tilcajete. This is intended to be a quick stop! Yeah. San Martin is about 10 minutes from Ocotlan on the way back to Oaxaca City. Jacobo Angeles, the famous woodcarver, has just built a beautiful restaurant and gallery at the crucero (crossroads). Someone wants to stop at Ephraim Fuentes workshop, which is on the main street. There is not much on display and we leave disappointed, wondering, perhaps, if the drop in tourism has had an effect on production necessitating other types of work. Next, we stop at the workshop of Lucila Mendez Sosa and her husband. Eric remembers where she lives because of the turquoise door. The last time we saw her she was very pregnant; now she holds a babe in arms who is about 12 months of age. When we visited her last the display table was filled with about 30 carvings. Now there are three. She says her husband is working construction with his father and won't have time to carve until January. Our next stop is to the master carver Jacobo Angeles, who is on every "must see" list, and I believe, rightfully so. He remembers us, welcomes us, takes us through the educational process of carving the copal wood, mixing the natural dyes in the Zapotec tradition, introduces us to family members who sit around the workshop tables caring and painting, and then gives us an astrological explanation of personality type based on age, birthday, and birth year. There are few finished pieces on the gallery shelves. Prices range from 150 pesos for small painted hummingbirds to 12,000 pesos for a large carved and painted bear. A piece 18″ high and 12″ wide averages about $400-600 USD. Jacobo's pieces are very collectable. I recently saw them in the Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, and he goes to the U.S. at least once a year for a major exhibition at a museum or gallery. He and his family are warm, welcoming, engaging and his desire is to educate collectors about the process of carving, the use of natural pigments, and the meaning of the symbols and designs used to paint the animalitos. Whether one purchases anything or not, this is a great experience not to be missed, even though the tour buses and private guides beat a path to this door, too! Susanna Harp at the Zocalo. After dinner at La Olla (tlayudas, sopa de flor de calabasas, jugo de sandia) we walk to the Zocalo for a free Susanna Harp concert. It is packed and she is already singing as we arrive. In the last year, during what the locals call "the troubles," few people other than political activists and curious tourists (of which there were less than a handful) congregated in the zocalo. Tonight there was a feeling of exhuberance, life, energy, future. The Zocalo is the heartbeat of every Mexican village and city. In Oaxaca last night, I was aware that the purity and soul of Susanna's voice as she expressed the hopes and dreams of her people resonated throughout the crowd. Her personal warmth conveyed to me a sense of calm, peace and hope that Oaxaca is recovering and healing from the psychological and physical violence of the last year and that all responsible are ready to restore peace and find other ways to resolve differences. Here were were, the gringos from North Carolina, California, and Ohio, me, sister Barbara, the two Linda's, Sam and Tom, arm in arm with the Zapotec Chavez family from Teotitlan del Valle, Dolores, Federico, Eric, Janet and Omar, and Elsa Sanchez Diaz, the descendant of Porfirio Diaz, strolling Alacala Macedonia, content, filled with happiness, belonging together. Felicidades.
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Comments Thread For: Yordenis Ugas Enters Final Training Stage For Almaraz
Cuban light welterweight prospect Yordenis Ugas (10-0, 5 KOs) is trains hard for his next fight, against Esteban Almaraz at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV.
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He needs a boxing trainer not a kickboxer, Castaño was a very good kickboxer and probably one of the best at his weight, but he ain't a boxing trainer and there's a difference, I hope he understand that and find a new trainer, Cuellar. Diaz, Salas all are very good Cuban trainers and he will not have a problem with the language...
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I am planning an AT thru-hike in March of 2009, and I am trying to put together a clothing list. I am thinking that I will take GoLite Reed Pants, and the GoLite Virga jacket for rain protection. I am at a loss for how much insulation I need to take for those cold months at the beginning and end of the trail. Would you suggest a down insulating layer, or would lighter layers work underneath the Virga? Even if it is cold, I think I will stay fairly warm while I'm moving, but I am concerned about staying warm at night. Any one have any suggestions? I am afraid to take too little, but I also don't want to end up taking too much.
A great deal depends on which month you will begin. A February start will mean LOTS of insulation. Even an April start will require more than you might think. The Smokies, owing to sheer elevation above 5000 feet, have a climate akin to the Vermont coast. So, consider down for camp use in February and March, especially if you intend to use shelters more than your tent/tarp. However, remember that LOTS of moisture is common, so it would also be worth considering a high-loft synthetic such as Primaloft for a jacket. BPL's Cocoon series is an excellent ultralight option for such clothing and others exist from a number of manufacturers.Also consider posting this question on Whiteblaze.net. Don't be surprized if the answers eventually have nothing to do with your post, but the first dozen or so post will likely hold good info. I would also recommend posting early on a weekday morning. Otherwise your post gets lost in the sheer volume of other posts and nobody sees it.Best of luck.
This is the clothing list I used on my aborted thru-hike of the AT this past March-April;-Frogg Toggs Pro Action Rain Suit -200 wt Fleece (I was too poor at the time to buy a down or synthic jacket, but looking at it now I really recommend it. As too which type, do some research to find what works for you.-Capaline 2 and a Capaline 3 LS shirt-Capaline 3 pantsExOffico Amphib pantsThings I would do differently;I would obvisouly change the fleece to a snythic (my preference) jacket. I would probly ditch the capaline 3 LS until the NOC (although not sure), and replace the capline 3 pants to capaline 2 pant. Also I would take a pair of zipp off pants (a little heavier, but best of both worlds) and a really light weight t-shirt. Something similar to coolmax. YMMV
Another thing you might consider is carring a bivy or a DIY cover for you sleeping bag. When I was in NC and TN in early April, there were days that the clouds were rolling right through the mountians. It had me conserned about my down quilts, that next time Ill make a weather shield out of Momentum90 to help protect it (if in ground setup, I am primarily a hammocker, so a hammock sock is deffiantly in order).
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National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive
Oregon Food Bank and Wells Fargo Bank are happy to sponsor the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive on May 14th. Look for your degradeable plastic bag in your mailbox the week of May 9th, then fill it with non-perishable food and set it by your mailbox on Saturday May 14th.
Letter carriers and volunteers will pick up the bags and the Oregon Food Bank will distribute it to those in need.
For more information, check out this website.
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Melanie Amaro X Factor Auditionby Hilton Hater at . Updated at . Comments
i love her sing and i wish i can sing with her one sing we be togethzer
She can sing, but she is not original. Caitlin made the song into a newer, more interesting version. May the best person win.
I have watched the video of Melanie several times. She is not just a great singer on the X factor but one of the best you'll see anywhere. It just makes me smile to see such a nice young lady get up and sing with confidence and blow everyone away. She is destined for fame whether she wins the XFactor or not. I'll bet there are people in the music industry lining up to talk with her. I am a fan and can't wait for her next performance.
Wow!...what an amazing voice...I can't wait to see what she sings next...Good luck Melanie...
I totally agree. She is amazing...she can saaaannnnggg. Game over.
The show has been a joke after Melanie Amaro...competition OVER!
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What does the moon have in common with brunch?!?
of course!!!
I was up early [as usual] and saw dawn slowly reaching the city
as the moon was making its exit.
A crescent moon!!
Possibly my inspiration
as I was meeting some friends for brunch later on this morning.
We met at Regine on Beaubien street.
There was a line-up
but we got there early so it was not a problem.
Since I already had a whole coffee pot [and a half] at home,
I ordered a glass of cider instead while others had tea...
I also ordered "Le Chic Croissant",
so it obviously included a croissant with scrambled eggs, old Cheddar and pulled ham,
and a spinach sauce over it all.
A side of fruits and beans as well.
I disposed of the beans and kept the fruits for last.
The croissant was nice even if the ham was a bit over cooked,
making it a little tough and dry at times.
A detail that annoyed me,
and it is a detail only [but NOT for me...],
presentation was a little sloppy to my taste.
When you sprinkle or pour something on my dish,
I still expect the edges of the plate to be clean.
I had to clean it with Photoshop....
The friend next to me had the "Mish Mash".
I also had to "clean it up a bit"...
It looked delicious and my friend ate it all,
so it must be a good sign.
My two other friends seemed also happy with their selection.
I'm not complaining about mine that much
but since we went out of our way to go there,
was it worth it?
It did the job [of feeding me] but I was not that impressed either.
It was fine!!
Service was courteous and attentive,
I'll give them that much,
and the ambiance is quite convivial.
One word of advice though,
don't sit next to the washrooms like we were...
Never a good place to sit as there's a continuous flow of people
and they stand next to you while they wait...
So if you happen to be in that neighborhood,
sure, go ahead!!
But only if you happen to be nearby...
Perhaps I should sample a couple more things before making a final opinion of the place,
and sit elsewhere...
but since I'm never in THAT neighborhood...


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Works by Andrew ArcherIllustration // Thursday, 11 Jul 2013
Andrew Archer is an illustrator based in Auckland, New Zealand. 'I use a healthy mix of both traditional and digital techniques with no real preference of medium. I didn't take art through my younger years, but I did eat crayons which quite possibly is where my off-beat colour palettes come from. I'm greatly inspired by surrealism, juxtapositions and sublime narratives but more specifically wood block prints, edo period art, cartoons, ideograms, characterization, travel and Asia.'


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the best reviews
their picks
what to buy
The 6.2-cubic-foot Whirlpool WFE540H0A is a freestanding, smooth-top range that heats quickly and maintains even, consistent temperatures in the convection oven. It also has a self-cleaning mode but owners say it doesn't work very well. The range is available in black, black ice, white and white ice. A stainless-steel option is available for about $50 more.
Excels at all cooking functions. The Whirlpool WFE540H0A gets excellent performance ratings from owners who say it does everything well -- from consistent temperatures and even heat in the convection oven to quick heating on the stovetop. The convection features are singled out as being especially convenient, with reviewers saying they save time in the kitchen. Even those who live at higher altitudes say everything they bake turns out perfectly.
Lots of space and a window big enough to see it all. Users are especially appreciative of the extra-large 6.2-cubic-foot capacity of the Whirlpool WFE540H0A -- the largest residential single oven in the industry, according to Whirlpool. One user at HomeDepot.com says it has "… enough room to cook anything I want to!" In addition to its large capacity, the WFE540H0A has seven rack guides and a maximum capacity recessed rack that allows users to cook a large item on the bottom -- like a turkey -- and a smaller dish on the top. It also comes with a storage drawer, but most reviewers say it's severely undersized. It's also hard to open and close because there's no track to align it on.
The most important convenience features. The Whirlpool WFE540H0A has five burners -- one of which is a six-inch warm zone that keeps prepared dishes warm while the remainder of the meal is cooking. There are also dual radiant elements that can be adjusted to fit either small or large pots. In the oven there is a hidden baking element that makes for easy cleanup. The range is equipped with a steam-cleaning mode, but reviewers say it doesn't work very well and requires additional scrubbing. It has delay bake/delay start, keep warm and Sabbath cooking modes. Other features include a clock, oven light, timer and control lockout.
Our Sources
1. HomeDepot.com
About 500 HomeDepot.com users weigh in on the Whirlpool WFE540H0A, giving it a high overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. While several complain that the included storage drawer is too small and flimsy, most say it doesn't affect the excellent overall performance of the range.
Review: Whirlpool 6.2 cu. ft. Electric Range with Self-Cleaning Convection Oven in Stainless Steel, Contributors to HomeDepot.com, As of May 2014
2. Lowes.com
More than 500 users at Lowes.com give the Whirlpool WFE540H0A an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Reviewers here praise the stylish design of the range and say it's easy to use, but several say the oven's steam-cleaning mode doesn't work as advertised.
Review: Whirlpool 30-in Smooth Surface Freestanding 5-Element 6.2-cu ft Self-Cleaning Convection Electric Range (Stainless Steel), Contributors to Lowes.com, As of May 2014
3. AJMadison.com
The Whirlpool WFE540H0A gets high marks from more than 480 contributors at AJMadison.com, who give it an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Comments here are similar to those at other consumer-review sites. Users say the range works well, looks great and has good convenience features.
Review: Whirlpool WFE540H0A, Contributors to AJMadison.com, As of May 2014
4. Sears.com
The Whirlpool WFE540H0A is one of the top-rated ranges at Sears.com, where it earns an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars from more than 430 users. Owners here are impressed with its performance and convenient features.
Review: Whirlpool 6.2 cu. ft. Electric Range w/ AquaLift Self-Cleaning Technology -- Stainless Steel, Contributors to Sears.com, As of May 2014
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