Our services include both Process Assessment and Improvement Implementation. PPI professionals have both audit and operational expertise. Our process expertise extends throughout the key functional areas that make-up your business.
We help clients implement improvements on both a small scale in specific functional areas, and on a large-scale enterprise-wide basis. Typical criteria incorporated into our analyses include evaluations of:
- Cycle times and throughput
- Value-add vs. non-value added activities
- Dependency and utilization of information
technology - Process complexity
- Service effectiveness
- Economies of scale
- Business risks
- Performance metric effectiveness
- Resource allocations
- Best Practices employed
- IT Implementation Plans
Several examples will help give a perspective on how our expertise can help you. Click on the titles to view the complete case studies:
Strategic Business Unit RestructuringThe division was growing rapidly and foresaw the need to prospectively reengineer core processes and systems to accommodate accelerated growth. PPI helped convert strategic objectives into operational initiatives and functional area plans. Detailed assessments identified operating and IT strengths and shortcomings, which lead to focused reengineering success. The SBU also restructured their workforce in tandem with outsourcing selected functions. IT Integration
The client wanted to implement a consistent IT platform for administrative functions across numerous diverse product lines. While assisting in many aspects of this major initiative, PPI provided critical support to the central IT integration component, including:
- Documenting business requirements
- Capturing business rules
- Developing systematic approaches to account for customer and participant data across multiple systems
- Identifying control and process opportunities
- Designing data rules and validation enhancements
The existing implementation process for core products was highly segmented between functional areas, which resulted in rework, timing delays and communication/accountability issues, as well as extremely long cycle times.
PPI helped the service unit restructure various functional groups and the end-to-end implementation processes. "Implementation Specialists" were created to ensure that issues are identified and resolved at an early stage and that implementations are performed in an efficient and consistent manner. A considerable number of back-office activities were outsourced and existing processes were restructured. As a result cycle time decreased 80%, rework in the form of plan changes dropped by 85%, and significant savings have been realized on the tasks outsourced.
Risk Evaluation
A breakdown in operational controls for the processing of client transactions led to a material financial impact and a qualified audit report. PPI assisted the client team to repair the damage and reduce future risks by assessing operating and financial controls and designing an automated transaction process based on an automated business rules engine. The approach was leveraged to other client accounts to increase compliance and decrease risks.
