With Claromentis 6.2 the ability to report graphically on the use of any business process in the company just got a lot more powerful.

The on demand, interactive and always up to date graphs provide summaries of :

User submissions into the business process

Provides information over time of the top 5 users of the process. See who is generating the most requests and provide additional assistance as needed.

The Status breakdowns of all current requests

Gives a snapshot of the current process loads by the status of each request in the process.

A status map as a snapshot

InfoCapture allows the creation of as many individual states as you need for any individual business process. The status map allows you to group these granular and precise states into meaningful sub groups that have a meaning when loking at reports – for example pending manager’ and ‘pending supervisor’ might be successive and important workflow steps, but for reoorting these can both be regarded as ‘In progress’ or ‘Awaiting Approval’

A Status breakdown over time

See the loads in the process by status groups over time. This allows you to allocate resources to make the mot impact to the efficiency of the process, especially where the InfoCapture service level agreements and business timers are engaged, and time on any state is critical.

Combined with the interactive flow charts that are already available from 6.1, these interactive graphs provide a visual representation of even the most complex of processes. They enable managers to predict loads, optimize resources and understand the requests of the users in the most proactive way so as to provide additional assistance wherever needed.

Prod-Process, Services BPM, Business Process Management

Starting a new job is generally considered a nerve shattering experience, and I am no different compared to the rest of the working population. The ability to complete every day, run-of-the-mill tasks smoothly and without any mishaps takes on a whole new importance when attempted in front of new colleagues. The first of many daunting tasks was tackling the coffee machine with the aim of getting through the whole process incident-free. The thought of causing a malfunction which would then trigger a coffee explosion, resulting in coffee stained walls becoming the new office décor seemed ever so likely. But the biggest shock of all would come later, when the team would discover that, actually, the latest edition of vogue did not declare coffee stained walls as the new “must-have” interior decor of the season.

Fortunately these thoughts and feelings were short lived, because Claromentis really made me feel at ease and part of the team from day one. There exists a great work ethic amongst the team, with ideas and opinions being shared in a positive and open atmosphere. This has resulted in the creation of outstanding software which provides exceptional value to our clients around the world. We listen to our clients and also to one another, and I believe this to be one of the contributing factors to the success of Claromentis today. I hope that I too can contribute to the continued evolution and future achievements of this team.

To show you what I mean , here’s a picture of Julian our senior developer taking time out of his busy schedule to hold a workshop – sharing his knowledge and experience with the team and acting as an all-round exemplary team member!

Intranet-Extranet

Claromentis would like to act as a network of support for all charities and non-profit organisations by offering a 50% discount off all software and applications.
We recognise the hard work and dedication carried out by charities and non-profits to fulfil their worthy objectives, we are therefore very happy to provide the following special offer:

• All registered charities and non-profit organisations will receive a 50% discount on all Claromentis software, including our intranet software and extranet portals

We are aware of how vital it is for charities and non- profit organisations to be extremely cost conscientious with regards to their overheads, this substantial discount of 50% will enable them to concentrate their financial resources on areas that are in dire need of funding.

• After the first year, non-profit organisations can elect to receive support services on a time-and-materials basis, and will still be entitled to upgrades

Charities are constantly working in an environment of uncertainty with regards to their funding. The ability to forecast future funding is often a very difficult task; Claromentis help to ease this uncertainty by removing the necessity for fixed-cost annual-support contracts. Non-profit organisations can therefore invest in quality intranet software, with the knowledge that their investment will be maintained over time with all the available upgrades.

• For non-profit organisations, all users of the extranet portal are completely free

This allows non-profit organisations to continually engage with an unlimited number of funders, interested parties and special interest groups, with no financial implications. Claromentis is therefore the ideal web based platform for non-profit communities to engage directly with all their communities, as well as internal staff.

Click Here to contact Claromentis about this special offer

Intranet-Extranet

Great effort from all 5 from team Claromentis!

Some serious pain was walked through by the team – raising over £2,000 for the charity.

Congratulations to all for going through the effort, showing up and enjoying the experience!

Solutions charity, Claromentis

This evening I was listening to an HBR interview about Net Promoter : www.netpromoter.com : and it really made me sit up and take note – because just an hour ago I had got off the phone from a potential customer who was looking for a reference for us as an extranet supplier, so they made a call to one of our customers – and that customer said ”hey Claromentis is great – but Hannah is just awesome”

And listening to that HBR podcast I thought that was so relevant – a real example of  ‘remarkable customer experience’ – and how one of our team had created that from her own personal passion. In Net Promoter terms Hannah had earned us a 10

Customer Loyalty – ‘The ultimate question’ – but how rarely we close that loop – formally we ourselves as a company don’t do that Net Promoter process – we only got this feedback this evening because a potential new customer called our client, and was so excited that they then gave us back the story of how one particular person had scored a 10 for us.

­

Then I thought that just in the last two days we had more great performance from staff stepping up to things that make a difference to our company and to our customers – effort that is way outside their ‘job description’ but where they had the skills to contribute :

• Julian and Andy – help with the NW demo today for implementing a great BPM process – a developer and a designer don’t have to do this – it is not their job – but they did. And they did it really well. Thank you.

• Will and Hannah from support – giving a demo for sales – it is not their job, but they did it, and they did it really well. Short notice, after 5pm on a Friday. Thank you.

• Sweta – attending an all day technical demo for us that took her out of her normal responsibilities as a testing manager. Thank you.

In the Net Promoter system these guys all created ‘promoters’ today. According to that HBR podcast a leader needs to give the ability for people to get a 10 from customers.

It’s that Seth Godin purple cow – that ‘remarkable experience’.

But – remarkably – in Claromentis the leaders are not directly, formally driving this through any process like Net Promoter – the Claromentis team are just working passionately, caring about results – helping each other and putting in  long hours. They really care about what we do.

To me it is inspiring.

It is remarkable.

Thank you.

Intranet-Extranet, Services, Solutions

Organisations around the globe are discovering the benefits of having corporate social media technology on their intranet; employment engagement, increased productivity and a collaborating corporate community to name a few.  Those organisations who haven’t adopted social media technology into their intranet systems are simply being left behind.

So why are so many businesses opting for two way communication on their intranet system? The reason being is that communication is one of the biggest challenges faced by businesses today.  Gone are the days when an email marked “send to all” hovered in your inbox, hoping to be of some relevance. In a battle between emailing and micro blogging, micro blogging comes up trumps every time when knowledge needs to be shared in an efficient and effective manner.

Therefore Claromentis set out on a mission to create a simple solution in response to the increasing number of businesses requesting a two way communication approach, and as a result developed an innovative Corporate Social Media application.  This innovative application enables the employees of an organisation to collaborate productively in an online corporate community.

Internet information, files and links can be referenced or simply uploaded onto a feed that can be shared by the whole company or, better yet, certain subdivided groups within the company. Using this application to discuss information marks an end to circulating oversized files around the company, and dealing with a number of different versions on your hard drive.

Users can also discuss and generate new ideas and suggestions for particular tasks and projects; this eliminates the need for regular formal meetings to be held, which frankly eats up valuable time and resources (with a particular strain placed upon the tea and coffee supplies).

Therefore sit back and relax while a fluid communication flow brings forth new and innovative ideas to your organisation while increasing productivity.

Intranet-Extranet

In a previous post I committed to creating a series of articles about how in my experience a web platform like Claromentis might contribute to discrete value chain components in your business.

In this second post in this series I take a quick look at Research and Development.

The significance of R&D

New products, and specifically their design and development – is important to the growth and even survival of a company. Competitive pressures or the natural evolution of buyer preferences will ensure that innovation is highly placed on the agenda of many senior level meetings.

Leveraging a web platform can greatly assist the innovation agenda. This is true both for

1. Larger corporations with significant information stores and internal resources that need to be encouraged to share diverse expertise

2. Organizations of any size that need to reach out to partners for collaborative R&D efforts.

Fundamental characteristics of R&D in a business context

Although R&D is a general phrase, the included activities for any company will often have the following characteristics :

1. The outcome is of course unknown.

If we knew what we would get as direct benefits – this would be an investment stream with well quantified budgets and predictable return on investment – rather than R&D

2. The required resources are similarly uncertain

Similarly as the project starts and evolves, the findings and progress will require resources – both human, time and material – that were not recognized at the outset. Flexibility and locating those resources are therefore significant.

3. The returns are hard to quantify

Since we do not know the results it is impossible to estimate the returns.

4. Alliances are becoming increasingly significant

The extended enterprise includes a range of interested parties, and often an agreed alliance can offer predictability and efficiencies

5. Processes and reportability are important

From the initial submission and approval of research ideas, through to quantification of outcomes – processes and reportability are extremely important.

6. Information Centric

Clearly research and development is centered on capturing, assessing and then generating new information – often comprising relevant papers, temporary project stores and of course the publication and re-use of results.

7. Team based collaboration is central to the project

By their very nature R&D projects need the timely contribution of different resources and subject matter experts, working effectively as a team as the project evolves.

What do companies spend on R&D?

Although it is immensely variable companies in general might look to spend 2- 5% of their revenue on R&D. Sectors of course vary considerably – pharmaceutical companies might expect to spend 15-20% of their prescription sales on research and development.

What Claromentis technologies are appropriate to Research and Development?

The core intranet platform, with the included extranet permissions, form the central deployment for R&D centric portals. Business Process Manager is used to implement processes, for example internal to the project or for the approval and funding of R&D efforts at the outset.

Graphing and presentations of dashboards, status and results are also important, although these can be implemented of course within the application files if this is preferred.

How can Intranets, Extranets and Process Management in a Web Platform  Contribute to R&D?

There are many ways that a web platform can contribute to R&D, I have just suggested 6 that seem to me to be particularly important.

1. Encouraging Innovation

Corporate social networking, often reaching out to staff in partner organizations, forms a powerful way to seek out and leverage relevant experience.  Informal collaboration networks encourage contributions from people who initially may not have been identified as a valuable resource based on more conventional criteria.

These weak ties can then be explored further, strengthened and leveraged as the project team matures.

Applications such as FAQ and more formal discussion boards are also important, allowing the posting of questions and voting on answers to rapidly move information forwards.

2. Extending out through Extranets to partners

Research and Development is often an effort that needs collaboration between companies – even those companies that in other projects might be competitive. The powerful permission systems of web platforms allow such sensitive collaboration to take place securely.

3. Version control of information

The natural version control of information, such as documents, lends itself to the evolution of information as a research and development project proceeds.

4. Free collaboration on information

In contrast to formal version control and ratification systems, direct and informal collaboration can speed up team based contribution to information. Historically such technical scratch pads were the natural domain of Wikis, recently we have seen Google docs as a natural evolution in this area. This is mainly because they do not require any understanding of unusual syntax and are a more natural evolution for those staff who are used to using application files like word and excel to store information.

5. Project Planning

As research projects start and evolve they need of course an element of planning and control, web based project management tools provide access to all parties, wherever they are located, to the appropriate task and project status.

6. Research Project Approval

For many organizations processing project applications for research and development is extremely important – they need to be seen to be clear and transparent in which projects are approved, or receive funding.

For example the Nottingham University Hospitals Research and Innovation Extranet www.nuhrise.org describes a very clear process for the submission and governance approval for any research project impacting their patients, staff or facilities.

Claromentis are currently working with a national Innovation Agency for their own approval of projects. The organisation was established by the government and is responsible for the National Innovation agenda. In line with one of its core functions, it is required to ensure that government investment capital in innovation is efficiently allocated. Business Process Management starting from a public facing Extranet for project submission, and with internal approval processes and proactive notification systems, is ideal for such a process.

Summary

Web based platforms are ideal for research and development projects. Permission systems allow the collaboration of various stakeholders in a secure way, and business process management allows for clarity and transparency as decisions are made.

Modern corporate social networking implementations within web platforms are also significant – allowing companies to draw in talent that might not initially have been formally identified as relevant to a particular project.

Intranet-Extranet, Prod-Document, Prod-Intranet, Prod-Process, Prod-Project, Solutions business centric portals, extranets, R&D, research, web platforms