The CRM/CEM and Business Process worlds share several common traits—foremost among them, lots of loose talk. Seems like everyone has an opinion about everything, and “best way” formulas ambush you at every turn. And we admit, we do our share of speaking and writing. But we differ from most of “ pundits” in two respects.

1. We practice what we preach—in the real world
2. We produce real outcomes, not theories,

And rather than practice with a “verbal toolkit,” we use real-world tools to help clients get from point A to point X, Y, Z or wherever, including:

Hence, Hyper-planning. We took our formal, customer-centric planning approach and shrunk it down to two, intense days (with all available inputs, including customer input, collected beforehand). And despite our long-standing reluctance to condense the planning time-frame, the two-day cycle not only works, but the cycle compression actually aids discovery of new, win-win, customer/company opportunities we might miss in a more relaxed time frame. So now we don’t even lobby for more planning time from management. We go straight to hyper-planning.

For more information about Hyper-Planning, please tab to CRM/CEM or download our free white paper.

In order to function in variable environments—which encompass not only sales marketing and service but virtually the entire back office, except for line manufacturing and assembly—we built VW around several “structural” elements not found in manufacturing-based process approaches:

1. A “process MRI” scanning tool that allows us to quickly find defects and change opportunities in workflow & information flow
2. A cross-functional team-based work approach, practical because VW requires no special training and bans process-speak and formal process symbology
3. Uncoupling workflow, where most defects occur in variable environments, from individual work process, where manufacturing methods typically focus
4. Coupling work flow and information flow, which are inseparable in variable environments, whereas manufacturing approaches ignore information flow
5. Mapping workflow using “pictographs,” which everyone from janitorial staff to CEOs can understand at a glance
6. Incorporating integrated “Visual Change” and “Objective Software Selection” elements (see below), also missing from manufacturing programs

Now you can understand why VW delivers a completely different (and superior) set of outcomes in variable settings than manufacturing approaches.

For more information about VISUAL WORKFLOW, please tab to process design or download our free white paper.

To see this picture before we get there, HYM has enhanced a basic, Balanced Scorecard tool (strategy mapping) to drill down deeper into organizational change and be more predictive. Our Visual Change exercise very quickly and cost-effectively goes below the surface to ferret out unintended and unanticipated consequences of change, so we can deal with them in advance—when we can still apply fire retardant rather than running around with fire hoses after the fact.

However, neither our Visual Change tool nor any other works in a vacuum. Predicting the impact of change requires carefully explicating both “as-is” and “to-be” process environments to define a migration path. AndREDUCING OFFICE COST | DESIGNING OFFICE PROCESS | VISUAL WORKFLOW | CRM | FREE DOWNLOADS | PARTNERS | BLOG | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | HOMEprovides a wider, deeper and clearer process base to work from than any other process methodology.

Unfortunately, and we don’t hesitate to say this, many “independent” software selection firms, especially larger consulting firms, come to the table with inherent conflicts of interest, either because of hidden sales commissions from software companies, “rebates” from resellers or other inappropriate incentives. So do all firms that recommend software, then turn around and sell it and/or install it, a raging conflict.

HYM is strictly software agnostic. We have no financial interest or other self-interests in recommending one application or reseller over another—just client interests, previous experience and an unwavering commitment to get clients into the best software for their situation.

Software vendors that have participated in our OSS program rate it the most challenging and comprehensive they’ve experienced—but also the fairest. We cut through the snow jobs, song and dance routines, and end-runs around meeting functional requirements to deliver real comparisons among vendors and systems so clients can make extremely informed decisions.

But like Visual Change outcomes, successful OSS outcomes require substantial spade work prior to the selection process to fully define technology support requirements for “to-be” workflow, information flow and individual work process—spade work thatREDUCING OFFICE COST | DESIGNING OFFICE PROCESS | VISUAL WORKFLOW | CRM | FREE DOWNLOADS | PARTNERS | BLOG | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | HOMEprovides without requiring an expensive, separate initiative. Without the proper process set-up, technology selection becomes a risky, expensive game of throwing darts blindfolded.

Numerous software companies and resellers have expressed to us that our VW-produced technology requirements set a benchmark that other firms fall short of, usually far short. And the level of detail we provide mitigates the need for costly software vendor discovery processes, while all but eliminating chances that clients will discover major mismatches between software capabilities and their requirements after purchase.