Enterprise planning, once established, becomes an ongoing process. A drawback for most organisations is that it typically takes some 18 to 24 months before a workable plan is in place; in many cases, changing market conditions render the initial plan invalid and an endless loop of analysis and revision ensues. Using the Enterprise Solutions Workshop as a starting point, timescales to benefits realisation can be dramatically reduced by focusing on those areas which will deliver the maximum impact in the shortest time.

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Ultimately, the success of a business is determined by how effectively and efficiently your day-to-day operations deliver your business strategy.

The Enterprise Solutions Workshop results in a detailed analysis of your organisation and recommends a clear strategy for change which will enable you to introduce sustained improvements in the areas which most directly contribute to your success. It is based on a series of workshops which can be delivered within a 2 week period.

The workshops identify and prioritise the business strategies that differentiate you from your competition. In every enterprise, business strategies are realised via a range of initiatives, each of which requires related competencies. The workshops identify the nature of these competencies (process, technology or human capabilities), whether they exist or are needed, and using proven, quality-based techniques, we assess your current capability to deliver these strategies and recommend the changes you should make to increase your success rate. The process is well-defined, very intensive and will involve many disciplines from within your organisation.

Comparable initiatives typically involve many months of effort, often at a prohibitive cost. Our approach, backed by automated analysis tools, streamlines the process and allows costs to be contained.

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The relationships between these three layers are complex. The primary aim of the workshops is to identify those competencies which will have the most impact on business strategies and, where it is needed, produce a plan to bring them up to the level of industry best practice. A considerable amount of data is collected during the workshops, analysis of which is supported by the weighting algorithms of a quality methodology, Quality Function Deployment (QFD).

Whilst we focus on improving Software Development strategy and process, other significant targets for change will also be identified.

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• Capture and prioritise the business strategies which differentiate you from your competition
• Clarify and prioritise the relevant business initiatives (internally facing projects) that are needed to support your business strategies
• Clarify and prioritise the relevant Core Competencies (process, technology, and human factor -related) that are needed to deliver the objectives of the identified business initiatives
• Clarify and prioritise the relevant Core Competencies (process, technology, and human factor -related) that are needed to deliver the objectives of the identified business initiatives
• Agree a strategy, based on the above, which will enable you to make progress in the desired direction

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Results from the Enterprise Solutions Workshop are provided in a report with the following contents:-

• Business Matrices
• Competency Gap Analysis
• Options for Change
• Outline Implementation Plan

The following sections describe each of these in more detail.

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Detailed schedules of the most significant Strategies, current and planned Initiatives, existing or required critical Competencies and the relationships between them. Each item is ranked according to importance based on QFD weighting algorithms applied to the data collected during the workshop sessions.

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An assessment of areas for competency improvement which will have the most impact on the successful delivery of key business strategies. Frequently, the results point to the need to implement less obvious improvements to competence because of the collective impact they have on a wide range of initiatives and hence strategies. Each item for improvement is ranked in terms of impact and the scale of potential improvement (current achievement against optimum performance).

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Methods of addressing the top-ranked competencies which can benefit from improvement are itemised. These are not confined to areas in which Improvix specialises; the report is an objective appraisal which can potentially influence many areas, whether or not we participate in the implementation of the proposed changes.

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A strategy for implementing competency improvements will be outlined. This will take into account practical issues such as resource or budgetary constraints and should be managed within a Business Change programme. A key aspect of the programme will be the methods used to quantify expected benefits and monitor their realisation. Where relevant and appropriate, high level project plans and resource/cost estimates will be included.

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