Tag Archive: How to work virtually

  1. Consulting Services Delivered in Today’s Crazy World – Part 3 of 3

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    A frequent question with potential clients recently is the ability to deliver value in a virtual environment. While we are providing targeted value for all our current clients virtually today, we will explore some of the most demanded services with the current economic environment in the last part of our 3-part series.


    There are existing methods we use that make providing our services easily consumable and still provide huge value.  We highlighted this with the first of several examples in part 1 where we covered Assessments and in part 2 with Cash Management and Forecasting types of projects.  We show a few more relevant examples in this segment.

    Transformation initiatives – where companies are taking advantage of the current business climate by revamping how they operate their businesses and position for large growth as the economy comes back online.  These services are composed of linking the business strategy to organization change strategies, major initiative definition and prioritization and fanatic program management to drive to results.  This is all supported by effective change management strategies that communicate to the existing team members that are buried in their caves around the city working remote.

    These engagements are delivered via many methods previously discussed in Part 1 and they also draw on our Program and Project Management skills defined below.  The engagements also require more face to face or video enabled calls especially for the Change Management techniques employed.  In addition, there are typically layers of reporting/dashboards given the various audiences involved with these efforts.  It is not uncommon to have 3-4 different reporting documents since these types of initiatives can have Board of Director involvement down to line manager involvement.

    Some transformation initiatives are based on new business directions while some are based on the underlying technology required to enable massive change.  Other transformation efforts involve Mergers and Acquisitions that require integration of company culture and organizations.  Needless to say, the more complex these get, the more difficult it is to handle everything using only remote techniques.

    Program and project management services – usually underpinning most of our efforts discussed above and in Part 1 is a heavy dose of program and project management services (what we are known for).  This is sometimes not visible to the end client other than the final results.  In most cases however, there are easily observed artifacts that can be developed and shared in a remote environment.  Some examples include:

    • Project charter documents – typically MS word documents with embedded diagrams and tables
    • Project business cases – a combination of documents and spreadsheets
    • Project Plans – can be developed with various project management software tools based on client preferences
    • Risk management logs – typically MS Excel based
    • Project/Program status dashboards – can be built from various reporting tools and depends on client preferences
    • Status reports – standard report templates modified for client specific needs
    • Issue management logs – typically MS Excel based though in some cases can be enabled by a trouble ticketing software

    As we covered in our first segment, all of this is enabled by tools and work processes that have been put in place and perfected years ago.  Each of our consultants operates in world of ‘have laptop, will travel’ and is accustomed to working remotely or at the client site.  The common denominator is that our team is focused on the goals of the project regardless of how the work is delivered day to day.  Our reputation is built on successful delivery of projects and a high level of trust with our clients.  We take that trust extremely seriously.

    This demonstrates with examples how our consulting projects can be delivered in today’s changing business environment and we have many more success stories beyond these.  Please don’t just ask us though, ask our many clients for their views on the work our team does, how we do it and the business results we help to drive.

    Jim Wadella, Managing Member

  2. Consulting Services Delivered in Today’s Crazy World – Part 2 of 3

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    A frequent question with potential clients recently is the ability to deliver value in a virtual environment. While we are providing targeted value for all our current clients virtually today, we will explore some of the most demanded services with the current economic environment in this 3-part series.


    Cash management and forecasting services – These are services where we can provide cash flow forecasting along with other, deeper services such as inventory analysis, sales management assessments, market research, etc.  For example, sound cash flow forecasts require a deep dive into current expense outlays and a detailed analysis of the P&L.  These deep dives identify subtle areas of expenses that can be reduced that are not easy to see at first glance.

    These types of engagements use many of the techniques highlighted in the Assessment example discussed in our previous segment.  There are typically more interviews in these cases and more iterative type processes depending on how deep we go into the P&L for an area.  And we will typically ask for more information that spans Sales, Marketing, Legal, Operations, Human Resources, Finance/Accounting/Tax, Real Estate, etc.

    For example, let us say that the IT spend has been growing quite dramatically over the last several months and the Amazon Web Services and/or MS Azure spend levels in the cloud are the highest spend areas.  This will require digging into the recent invoices for the services combined with a review of the current contracts and interviews with the IT team to understand the major drivers of the spend. Again, most of this effort can happen through secure document sharing and phone/video calls.

    Based on the cash management review, serious turnaround techniques may need to be deployed. Things like cutting up the corporate credit cards, discontinuing third party services, renegotiating major contracts, etc. are easy to accomplish remotely. These can be put into ‘checklists’ that have accountability and due dates assigned.

    The more difficult items such as organizational changes, reduction of property, plant and equipment can be identified using remote techniques. These will also require a fair amount of video conference calls to drive prioritization and decision making.

    Hopefully this demonstrates with examples how our consulting projects can be delivered in today’s changing business environment.  Please don’t just ask us though, ask our many clients for their views on the work our team does, how we do it and the business results we help to drive.

    Visit us tomorrow as we explore Transformation Initiatives in Part 3 of this series.

    Jim Wadella, Managing Member

  3. Consulting Services Delivered in Today’s Crazy World – Part 1 of 3

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    Consulting services delivered virtually

    A frequent question with potential clients recently is the ability to deliver value in a virtual environment. While we are providing targeted value for all our current clients virtually today, we will explore some of the most demanded services with the current economic environment in this 3-part series.


    Assessments are typically quick hitting engagements where we are asked to provide an assessment of a business or business process and develop recommendations for improvements that can be effectively implemented.

     

    In these cases, we have a well-defined process we use to execute the project that is typically composed of:

    1. Information requests – we identify the information we need to come up to speed quickly for the engagement. This information is transmitted via email and we set up a secure server where documents can be provided by client team members in an effective way. We request different information types that can be provided in various formats such as MS Word, MS Excel, PDF, Visio, MS Project and the like.
    2. Interviews of key stakeholders – this can be accomplished via secure phone and video calls using Teams, Webex and other methods. The agenda for the call is sent prior so that that client team members can efficiently use their time.
    3. Site surveys – where it is helpful to walk around and observe an operation – we can use pictures and videos provide by the client. Or we can use our “consultant cam” – trained dogs with Go Pro cameras attached.  Well maybe not trained dogs…
    4. Application demonstrations – we use secure video and screen share technology to watch an application to understand a workflow process.
    5. Research and comparison to leading practices –this us where we review our past client files and experiences, review applicable third-party data sources and other techniques depending on the engagement scope. We develop our recommendations via internal team reviews that can be accomplished via conference calls and information sharing techniques.  These actions are typically completed off site from our clients anyway.
    6. Presentation of results – presentations to stakeholders via secure video conference calls that typically includes document sharing technology as well.
    7. Prioritization of recommendations – after the results are presented, the next step is to prioritize the recommendations for improvements in lite of the current business situation. These are typically facilitated sessions with the stakeholders that uses a standard way of coming up with the top priorities.  These can be conducted by secure conferencing as required and can be more effective since there is a mute button that can be employed by the facilitator!

    All of this is enabled by tools and work processes that have been put in place and perfected years ago.  Each of our consultants operates in world of ‘have laptop, will travel’ and is accustomed to working remotely or at the client site.  The common denominator is that our team is focused on the goals of the project regardless of how the work is delivered day to day.  Our reputation is built on successful delivery of projects and a high level of trust with our clients.  We take that trust extremely seriously.

    Hopefully this demonstrates with examples how our consulting projects can be delivered in today’s changing business environment.  Please don’t just ask us though, ask our many clients for their views on the work our team does, how we do it and the business results we help to drive.

    Stay tuned for Cash Management & Forecasting Services segment in Part 2 with other examples of providing remote Consulting Services.

    Jim Wadella, Managing Member