deal architect

The History of the Office …and the Future of Work

Excerpts from my guest column for Unevenly Distributed, a publication from Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work.

“Through the last couple of decades, the TV show “The Office” (the US and the predecessor British show) has been surreal. You see cubicles, water coolers and fax machines and you wonder which real-life office remains so frozen in time. The reality, of course, is the workplace – where, when, how we work – has seen dramatic shifts. We outline below 10 ways the “office” has morphed.”

I then go into the 10 office “mutations” which are influencing how we are and will be working in the future:

• The time elastic office
• The place elastic office
• The office of “Things”
• The home as office
• The truck as office
• The commute as office
• The airport hotel as office
• The Green office
• The Toystore as office
• The great outdoors as office

Enjoy the full version of my column, and many other thought provoking perspectives on the Future of Work on the Unevenly Distributed site.

Recombinant business processes

My Gartner colleague Art Mesher (now CEO of Descartes) talked about postponement as a supply chain innovation in the 90s. It was interesting to hear him talk to clients about fragmenting steps in distribution and other processes at the peak of the ERP, integrated process hype cycle.

A few years later I was fascinated when I first saw a Hertz attendant with a mobile car check-in device. They had “place-shifted” that task, and moved customers and employees away from the crowded counters to outside check-in islands . Much more efficient, much more pleasant.

This week, it hit me again as I was at a Chick-Fil-A during their busy lunch hour. A rep at the head of the drive –through lane took my order on a mobile device, a few feet away another rep processed my credit card, and the pickup window merely delivered my order. It was impressive how quickly both lanes moved with the place and time shifting of tasks in the process. After lunch,  the process reverts to the previous one where the staff at the window process the order, the payment and the delivery.

Technology is allowing tasks in every process to be split, moved, re-sequenced or eliminated. The Delta Airlines Red Coat can now process a number of tasks with his Motorola at the boarding gate that previously required passengers to walk for miles to a ticket counter. The Home Depot associate can turn her Motorola into a scanner or checkout counter anywhere in the store. Cognizant’s annual budgeting process has become way more virtualized and efficient with Tandberg telepresence. HireVue allows candidates to be interviewed around the world, and for those sessions to be reviewed when and where convenient by the recruiter.

Given all this, I am always amazed to hear software vendors and outsourcers continue to pitch integrated, “wall to wall” processes and canned "best practices". All the jokes about  “we poured concrete around our feet” comments about early ERP projects have fallen on deaf ears.

We need processes with recombinant tasks we can move, eliminate, re-sequence. We need to continually tinker with place and timing of tasks.That's far more impressive than uber-elaborate solutions that claim to have thought up all the inter-galactic "best practices"

Breaking up is hard to do

Why do smart companies, those that make it easy to start relationships on-line force you to go through all kinds of manual processes to end the relationship?

a) I call Amex to cancel a card I do not use as much. The rep says their process calls for me to speak to a specialist who focuses on account closings - likely one who tries to save the account. I repeatedly insist I do not want to be "salvaged" but he tries to get the specialist on the line and next thing the cell phone line drops. He does not call back - I presume he has closed the account. Few days later, I decide to check. The account is still open. Go through the 2 step process again. The specialist wants to ask all kinds of questions. I have to be rude and say I do not want to be part of his survey. Still tries to get one question in before he gives up.

b) I try to cancel my Boingo account. They say cannot do it by email on-line because of "security restrictions". Come on you can check on security with a series of on-line questions. So I call customer service and am on hold for too long and give up.

I will dispute the Boingo charges on my Amex statement. Let their reps save each others souls :)

Business Process Angioplasty: Banking technology

May be I was too generous too soon writing about them on the New Florence innovation blog, but the last 5 out of 6 times the Bank of America ATMs have either not recognized the checks being deposited and just spit them back or they have not recognized the amount of the check and I have had to punch in the amount. And this is across 4 ATM machines in 3 branches – so not just an isolated machine. BTW – all the machines appear less than a year old.  When I went in to the teller inside to deposit the checks that the machine would not take, I zipped my ATM card in the pin pad opposite her, so she should have had all the account information on her screen – and she still had me fill out a manual deposit slip. One of BofA bragging points about the new ATMs – when they work – is they make deposit slips redundant.

Talking about adding labor to a process which should be way automated, my Chase credit card security group loves to call me every few weeks. After years and thousands of transactions most of which are with repeat vendors, their pattern recognition algorithms are either not tuned (recently they asked me to verify  4 transactions, the total of which was under $ 20 – can we talk materiality?)or their security is trigger happy.  Of course, the usual comment is “Sir, it’s for your security” Yeah, then how come Amex which we do even more business with has called us may be once in the last 5 years to check on something – and I tend to use that on my international trips which should trigger more alerts.

PS – I should have mentioned most of the checks I have tried to deposit were written on other BofA branches. Maybe the ATMs are actually pretty smart and trying to tell me something about BofA. I should try a Chase check next :)

Absolutely Mind-Boggling!

This will shine as an extreme example of  a “process needing angioplasty”

Four years ago, we canceled our account with Blizzard for World of Warcraft as I described here – we could not make it work even with a new computer, new modem and hundreds of dollars in network diagnostics. Every quarter since they have billed my credit card and the card company has disputed it with them and credited my account.

For four years!!

I sarcastically blogged about it again a year later hoping a marketing person would notice. No action.

I even sent a snail-mail letter to President Mike Morhaime begging for some executive attention.  Check – there has been no activity on the account. Stop the insane cycle. No response from him or his staff.

I finally get an email:

“Access to the World of Warcraft account XXXXXXXXX, has been temporarily disabled due to a dispute filed against the account's past payments. This dispute was filed by the bank, credit card company, or financial institution associated with the payment on the account.

As a result of this dispute, funds paid on the account were withdrawn from Blizzard Entertainment in direct violation of the account's terms. This is known as a "chargeback."

The total withdrawn by this chargeback(s) was: $XXX.XX

If your charge is returned to Blizzard Entertainment for any reason, Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or terminate your access and your Account, as well as terminating this Agreement and all of Blizzard Entertainment's obligations hereunder.

The account is now considered by Blizzard to have a negative balance, and will be unavailable for play until any and ALL outstanding balances have been repaid to Blizzard. These funds can only be repaid via a United States money order for the full and EXACT amount of the disputed funds: $XXX.XX

This money order must be made out to "Blizzard Entertainment" and MUST clearly list the World of Warcraft account name in question:

XXXXXXXX

It should be mailed to this address:

ATTN: Billing & Account Services
Blizzard Entertainment
P. O. Box 18979
Irvine, CA 92623

We strongly suggest you use some form of tracking to make sure your mail gets to Blizzard Entertainment; we are not able to assist with lost inquiries. If we do not receive your package, we will not be able process your request. Once the money order is received and processed, Blizzard will unlock the account for play again, provided these instructions have been followed. Upon payment, Blizzard will also credit the account with play time equivalent to any paid subscription time that the account was locked out for (up to a maximum of 180 days).

This process to unlock the account is offered with this email is considered as a final warning: ***ANY subsequent payment disputes will result in a permanent closure of the account for repeated breach of the Terms of Use.***

Unless the above process is followed to get the money order to Blizzard, the World of Warcraft account in question will remain unplayable until said funds are received. Please do not reply to this email, as you will receive no further response. Be aware that Blizzard Billing representatives will NOT be able to provide any alternatives or expedite this process in any way.

Regards,

Billing & Account Services
www.blizzard.com”

All I can say is hooray – some body there finally noticed!

RIP: Dr. Michael Hammer

I have been remiss to not blog about the passing of "Mr. Reengineering" two weeks ago.

My vivid memory is him presenting in a large auditorium and his booming voice reminded me of Neil Diamond's Brother Love "And when he lets go half the valley shakes".

The next time I saw him was in a much smaller room, he was much more subdued and seemed very aware that many mass layoffs in the 90s had been justified using his book. As he told the WSJ, "I was reflecting my engineering background and was insufficiently appreciative of the human dimension"

There is one nugget I picked up from his writings and speeches. Look at any business process from a customer POV. If the customer does not see value in a process step, obliterate the step. Screw what the accountants or attorneys or engineers say about the step being critical. Look at the process coldly from the customer's eyes. That nugget inspired me to have a category on this blog "Business Process Angioplasty" .

I rededicate that portion of the blog, to you, Dr. Hammer.

Banks: New tech, old processes

a) "Immediate Credit for Cash Deposits" says a big sign in red at the new Bank of America ATMs.

Huh - what's the big deal? Well, I guess there is the risk of counterfeit notes so immediate credit is a step forward. But it also draws attention to the fact that other 99% of deposits - checks - do not get immediate credit. In fact, the bank can put holds for up to 2 weeks. So they can make money on what they call "Interest on Uncollected Balances". And even more punitive in-bound wire charges if you get an electronic payment to your account.

Banks spend 3-4 times more on technology than the average manufacturer or retailer. In this day and age of 24x7 electronic banking, you think we would be able to do better. With all the data mining available they can see patterns of accounts where deposited checks are more vulnerable to problems.

b) Like most, I toss the countless credit card applications we get in the mail. But I do scan for what I call 0/0/0 offers - 0 annual fee, 0% interest on cash transfer, 0 transfer fee and will take advantage of those. Recently I got one from Capital One. Even better it has an invitation reference number and a web site where you apply. Great so far, except the web interface just will not accept data in certain fields. Reluctantly I call the toll free number. The agent wants all kinds of information - you know what I mean by all kinds. 2 weeks later I get a letter in the mail. No card, they want my address. Well, duh - you just sent me that form at my address. Curious beyond belief now, I sent the form back.

I just want to see just how convoluted they have made the application process - so far they have made me use the web, the phone, the post. Guess SMS is next? Next an in-person visit?

c) Wells Fargo just introduced vSafe - a "personal online safe that lets you safeguard, organize, and access electronic copies of the things that matter to you most - from wills and trusts to insurance policies and immunization records." Ok, you got my attention. Then you start to lose my attention when you remind me "For certain kinds of signed paper documents - such as wills, deeds, trusts, stock certificates, passports and powers of attorney, for example - an electronic copy often does not have the same legal effect as the paper original.". You also have physical safes to offer - how about something innovative which scans, take pictures, and otherwise digitizes what I put into the safety box and then store those digits in the vSafe.

If not, tell me why exactly, I would pay you $ 4.95 a gb a month when a number of cloud providers offer storage at 25c a gb a month, and services like Google at zero cost? Oh, for the 256 bit encryption?

Rebates: Ruining an almost perfect experience

Rebates are a major angioplasty candidate as I have written before here and here

So, I thought AT&T Wireless had it nailed. I mailed in a rebate form on Feb 5. They SMS me confirmation of receipt on Feb 22.  On Mar 18, they text me again saying it had been mailed. I still do not have the rebate. So I go to their site and it is well documented and even has an internal tracking number. It is rare to see a rebate workflow so digitized and so transparent.

Here's where the process breaks down. I enter a form to initiate a query. They already have the trail documented but the form makes you enter all the gory details again including the 15 digit IMEI serial number. Strikingly, no place for their tracking number. And when you press enter - "We are unable to process your request at this time. Please try again later." 3 times over an hour get the same error.

So I try the toll free number. Voice confirms details and tells me payment mailed, and hangs up. No human being to talk to to say the payment has not been received.

So, I try the 611 - customer service on my PDA...call centers are all closed! I have nothing against Sunday closures like Chick-fil-a does for spiritual reasons. But AT&T is happy to sell you stuff in their stores on Sundays - but with over 60 million customers, it is mind-boggling they do not have a single customer service rep available today.

Then I happen to check with my wife if she got two rebates last Fall and had used them. No clue what I am talking about. I go check on those and the AT&T site shows mailed in August and September.

AT&T usually sends out debit cards as its rebates. So there should be an electronic trail if they were abused. 3 rebates supposedly mailed but not received.

What a way to ruin what looked like - finally - a streamlined rebate process.

Update: 4/21 - after 4 handoffs over an hour, I finally got to a supervisor in their rebate processing center in Milwaukee. They are going to reissue 2 out of the 3 cards and assured me there were no mailing issues at their end. We will see in a couple of weeks.

Update 4/22 - Guess what? The query form I entered on-line must have gone through, not rejected as the error message said. This morning I get an email back - it has yet another tracking number and is even signed by a Katherine. Sadly, all it does is tell me to call the toll free number which I did yesterday.

Process Angioplasty - Medication Error

Medication error is awfully high - as high as 1 in 10 patients, often with fatal consequences.

Readers may find interesting how an old concept from accounts payable - three way matching, along with new technology is helping reduce errors in healthcare

- on the New Florence blog

Weekend stuff: Utilities and payment UI

Funny that Jeff Nolan experienced problems this afternoon trying to set up credit card auto-pay on his PG&E account. I did with Verizon.

The legacy GTE part of Verizon which provides local phone service, till 6 months ago, did not allow credit card payments on-line. You had to go into one of their stores to pay by card. Then they only allowed you to pay one month on-line at a time. Today, I notice they allow recurring pays. So 3 tries later I finally get in and it takes about 6 screens (including your agreement to forego paper bills) to get to the card set up. Finally it takes, but message reads - may take up 60 days, so keep paying as usual. The email confirmation contradicts that and says it may take 30-45 days. This is a technology company?

In meantime, my electric utility Tampa Electric, wants you to pay $ 4.95 each time you use a credit card.

You think with their bulk, they could negotiate their credit card fees down to be cheaper than the paper and labor and real estate cost of receiving checks in mail or at a payment location. And when they do start accepting cards on-line, there is a whole ecosystem of charge processors and payment software and SaaS they could leverage. So the user experience could be better.

Can you imagine how much worse it likely is, when they have to pay you?