Interesting article by Rick Lemieux at itSM Solutions on self-service automation

…when was the last time you dealt with a live person to perform a financial transaction, book a flight or schedule a service call – or even pay for your groceries at the supermarket? Automation of self-service has become pervasive and is even making inroads into IT Request Fulfillment and Access Management…

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What does “healthcare enterprise” really mean? The healthcare enterprise will vary from one organization to the next, but a common characteristic is that it is all-inclusive. It extends beyond the scope of the revenue cycle (registration/ admitting, service delivery, medical records, patient accounting) into corporate administration (human resources, capital planning, marketing, accounting/ audit, corporate council) as well as materials management and accounts payable. The key benefit of enterprise technology is that a single functionality can be used by various departments in different ways for improved outcomes.

HCDI technology is one of the finest examples in the healthcare marketplace. Take secure, web-based access functionality as an example. Within the HCDI environment, this functionality makes stored data files available to authorized users from virtually anywhere there is an internet connection. From a clinical perspective, physicians can access patient records quickly and more efficiently. From a pre-service…

When we started Transcepta, my co-founder Ray Parsons and I talked alot about the “name-space problem” and how much it has set back our attempts around the world to move to paperless B2B eCommerce. This problem goes something like this:

• The accounting system of a buyer has a purchase order, ready to send to one of their suppliers. Unless they have pre-established EDI relationships with that supplier, they probably mail or fax the PO. Larger buyers almost always have the ability to send the PO to the supplier in electronic form (i.e. XML), but if they did, the supplier couldn’t read it. Why? You guessed it: the namespace problem. The buyer orders part number AD7823, but the supplier knows it as something else. Note that name-space problems aren’t just for part numbers; they also apply to simple fields like company name, address, PO number etc.
• Now the supplier receives this PO,

…

Just following up from Will’s excellent post here, I came across a story from ioma, which speaks briefly about the importance of senior management buy-in for successfull EIPP project execution. Anyone who ever ran a project knows that people are the key in terms of successful delivery. Buy-in at the highest level is vital. A real killer for any project is movement of key people, especially the project champion. Give any project, you can always find a champion. Move the champion and you will see the emotional drive disappearing - ever heard of the term “pet project”. One of the key problems with large long projects are promotions. Obviously you want to promote good people to retain their continuous loyalty, but by doing this you end up moving them away from the project, thereby loosing the Champion. How do you manage such conflicting human resource issues?

According to Michelle…

“If you can’t measure if, you can’t manage it.” This statement seems to have been around forever, but it still rings as true as ever. Six Sigma and other similar continuous-improvement methodologies have been applied successfully to process-oriented business functions, such as manufacturing. And that success has led to Six Sigma projects in other areas of business, including Purchasing and AP.

The foundation of Six Sigma, of course, is data. Data for measuring cycle times, defects (or in AP, discrepancies), and more. Even if your organization hasn’t embraced a formal methodology for continuous improvement, data remains the key to unlocking greater efficiency and lower costs in Purchasing and AP.

Do you have a consistent set of key metrics used to measure performance in Purchasing and AP? Do you compare these metrics against standard industry benchmarks? No? Don’t worry — outside of the Fortune 500, Purchasing & AP departments are highly inconsistent in…

We talk a lot about Business and Financial Process Optimization at PayStream. To quote Austin Powers, “It’s our bag.” But these two terms are fuzzy and often used in the industry without really drilling down into what exactly they do and/or mean.

I personally believe the novelty and uniqueness of our approach lies in the methods and goals we advocate for. Specifically, we underscore the Payment Tsar and the Payment Quotient as the primary goals of process optimization, as they provide strategic visibility, risk mitigation, and encourage entire culture shifts towards financial automation and efficiency.

A Payment Tsar/Tsarina is unique as he or she holds a C-Level position and is personally in charge of maintaining strategic visibility over the entirety of the financial supply and payment chain. This individual, properly endowed with effective tools and authority, is capable of informing his or her entire company on strategic process efficiency initiatives, up…

If you need consolidated evidence that there are tremendous advantages that electronic collections and/or payment networks promise to collectors, look no further than Bank Technology News‘ recent article, “The Innovators 2007.”

I call attention to two impressive details having to do with customer enrollment:

• Bank of America reported that online customers are 27% more profitable than traditional customers, with deposit balances 15 percent higher and loan balances 28 percent higher.
• SunTrust Banks found that customers who receive at least three e-bills per month have a 78 percent lower attrition rate and were 86 percent more profitable than offline customers. The implementation of the Web RXP version prompted a strong initial boost in the number of customers signing up for ebills, says Sarah Overcash, SunTrust avp and online bill-pay product manager, with nearly 30 percent of the bank’s active online base currently receiving at least one e-bill.

Consider this in relation to the…

In the two years since we first did an in depth study of Credit and Collection Technology, I have been extremely impressed by the strides the vendors have made in filling out their solutions. B2B credit and collections is a much more complicated process than most people think, and I am including C-level executives in that assessment. With multiple points of interaction between buyer and vendor, any number of things can affect the order-to-cash process. Moreover, if something goes wrong it is bound to turn up during settlement - no wonder collectors sometimes feel all they ever do is clean up after the party. The point is, the Receivables and Collections Management (RCM) vendors have now gotten a very good handle on all the little details and exceptions that impact cash flow.

Two years ago, the RCM vendors were still working on filling out their…

The digital factory has been stalled by cost, culture, complexity, and an inability to close the loop between product design and factory floor control. But that’s about to change. An interesting story from Managing Automation about GM’s new electronic engineering workflow tool.

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As you can imagine, I get to know quite a number of start up and early stage EIPP (and related) vendors, both here and across the pond. At the same time, I have also attracted a number of potential investors and acquirers seeking startup and early stage EIPP vendors.

While you may think that only start up and early stage companies require funding, I am aware of mature companies who have been in discussions with investment community in order to seek funding for growth. In these cases, funding is generally needed for geographical expansion. It is much easier for mature companies to raise funding than startups or early stage companies. While this is the general acceptance, courting potential investors for 8 to 12 months without closing the deal quickly, do put a significant strain on the business.

Given that EIPP is a…