CRE8 Center For Realizing Excellence

What is ECM? ECM typically allows for the scan, electronic capture, recognition, auto-classification, index, storage, search, view, workflow, management, security, intergration to data systems, and retention/disposition of unstructured content (email, word-processing, spreadsheets, presentations, PDF, TIFF, voice, photos, video, sound, and other formats).  It also can include electronic forms and digital signatures.  If properly planned for ECM can provide organizational improvements from 20% to 5x in efficiency, quality, and service, and significantly reduce the risk associated with IG/records management.  Today, most organizations have 5 to 20 different ECM systems (email, email archive, collaboration, content management, shared drives, different data systems, records management, and paper).  If ECM is not planned for correctly, sprawl and increased risk to the organization will occur.  Unfortunately this is the case for most organizations....

Our studies find that email and shared drives can cost an organization: - valuable funds.  If employees spend 8% of their time sorting, viewing, duplicating, saving, deleting, and finding documents (and attachments) this can cost an organization with 1,000 employees 24 million dollars over 5 years,  and an organization with 10,000 employees 240 million dollars over 5 years. - customer service.   The time spend in above tasks wastes valuable customer service (internal and external) time. - efficiency . As email and shared drives lack integration to e-forms, e-signature, workflow, and data systems. - risk and liability .  Due to over or under retention/disposition of documents and content; and many organizations have not updated and/or are following their electronic records management program policies, procedures, and schedules.  Since 1995 , we at CRE8 Independent Consultants have assisted clients with assessment and improvement of email, share...

Why is Continuous Process Improvement Important? Many process improvement initiatives lack long term results. Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) focuses an ongoing “never-ending” effort to improve people, processes, and systems. Unlike methods like Re-engineering, CPI focuses on incremental improvements over time, where processes are constantly evaluated and improved versus a single large improvement event. CPI teaches organizations how to work  together from senior management to workers to identify how to improve the process instead of placing blame.  W. Edwards Deming , a pioneer of the field, saw CPI as part of the 'system' whereby feedback from the process and customer are constantly evaluated against organizational goal, and improvement is ongoing. Some CPI projects use a Kaizen event (improvement), which is a method made famous by the book of Masaaki Imai “Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success.” Kaizen teaches people how to perform expe...

Re-engineering  according to experts Michael Hammer and James Champy is the "fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed. Re-engineering asks the question "why are we doing this at all" and encourages leaps forward, not incremental change. Re-engineering assumes the majority of process steps and structure are non-value added and encourages an organization to toss out everything and start over with a brand-new picture. Reengineering starts with a high-level assessment of the organization's mission, strategic goals, and customer needs. Basic questions are asked, such as: Does our mission need to be redefined? Are our strategic goals aligned with our mission? Who are our customers? In this assessment, an organization may find that it is operating on questionable assumptions, particularly regarding the wants and needs o...

A Digital Workflow Consultant can smash paradigms and innovate your organization.   However to be successful this consultant needs to be skilled in workflow technology and process improvement (LEAN, Six Sigma, BPM, TQM) so they are able to clean up processes before automation, look for ways to reduce re-work, improve quality, and innovate processe. A skilled Digital Workflow consultant can:  - interview internal groups (and customers/vendors) to determine the level of improvement each process requires (efficiency, quality, service, frictionless, governance) and incorporate these factors into the workflow/application design,  - identify how related technologies such as capture, recognition, machine learning, electronic content management, workflow, robotic process automation, and artificial intelligence need to interact with workflow technology to improve processes, and - develop project plans to identify timelines, project dependencies and risks, requirem...

Today, organizations are asking how to properly set up records management in M365 for modules such as Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint, PowerAutomate, and Compliance Center (Purview).   In a recent poll we conducted the type of planning stated as required to ensure successful deployment of M365 is Governance/Compliance.  Unfortunately, our surveys and studies find that less than 50% of organizations have fully developed their enterprise and department ECM requirements (indexing, search. workflow, integration) before M365 implementation and only 13% have  fully set up compliance center (Purview). In addition, we find a significant number of organizations do not have (and follow) an up-to-date records management program for electronic records. The result?  If an organization's records management program is not correctly updated and implemented in their content management systems organizations can experience sprawl, regulatory non-compliance, and increased ri...

⁸Digital Workflow allows for the automation of processes that are manual and/or partly automated (email, multiple data systems).  Typically, Workflow can be developed using point and click development tools; and provides for automated decisions (if-then-else),  parallel and sequential routing, and integraration to electronic forms (that can be filled out using a portal, cell phone, or email). Workflow can be initiated by a customer, employee, automated task, or an event. Studies find that  digital workflow  technology can significantly reduce organizational costs; and improve efficiency, quality, and service. Improvements can be from 20% to 10x. Challanges with Workflow include the lack of a well thought out enterprise plan and roadmap,  not cleaning up (improving) processes before automation,  improper automation (to detailed or not detailed enough), lack of integration to e-forms, portals, and data systems, and selecting the wrong Digital Wo...