Much of the business our organisation conducts is focussed on the product generation aspects of our clients business. For a manufacturer this means the shop floor activities where parts are assembled in a sequence to produce a saleable product. When we speak to a potential client concerning improvement programs or processes the client immediately assumes we are talking of improvement within the manufacturing area, and that improvement – we are told – needs to be centred on a workforce concerns are centred on pay and benefits!

This is in no sense an overstatement of the way company managers view their employees.

While improvements are clearly possible inside such an environment, it’s also true that a significant percentage of the staff isn’t directly involved with producing saleable products, but with administrative service support. These employees are frequently seen in a different light to the manufacturing group, and it is apparent to us that any improvement process that bypasses administrative functions also misses the opportunity to achieve significant efficiency savings for the employer. However, an improvement program has to capture the imagination of the participants, while providing a mechanism for individuals and work groups to participate and be successful. It is also necessary for managers to encourage individual contributions and contribute their managerial ‘weight’ to the achievement of any improvement. All of this while not attempting to take the credit for any performance improvement.

While considering the differences of work pattern and culture that is the norm for the administrative and support functions in these businesses, the similarity of work to staff working in service industries became apparent, where much of the activity is clerical and administrative. Whatever solution could be found to enable us to engage with these people would probably work regardless of the nature of the business. We were clear in our minds that long term improvement programs typical of manufacturing facilities would not be appropriate for administrative functions.

For many years we were attracted by the pragmatic teachings of the late Philip Crosby, author of Quality is Free and many similar books. The program defined in that book has been adapted world-wide to the benefit of countless organisations and individuals. Less well know within the same tome is a program he chose to call ‘Make Certain.’ With some effort we adapted Make Certain to a 21st century European culture and sought an opportunity to trial the outcome.

An existing client gave us the opportunity to demonstrate its worth within an administrative workforce of 120 staff. Working with groups of around 20 individuals, each with a mixture of skills and department affiliation, we spent time explaining the process and encouraging their involvement and contribution to improve both overall and specific efficiencies and effectiveness. We too learned from this experience and were able to develop the program further.

For our client’s organisation the trial run was a success because for possibly the first time each person understood the nature of their own individual work process, and how this related to – and effected, all of the surrounding processes. This understanding led to a desire to improve, and because local managers and supervisors were participants measurable performance improvements were achived. This first trial of the ‘Make Certain’ program was a spectacular success. An estimated 10% increase in efficiency, as measured by the ‘work units’ produced by the staff involved, only 9 months from program implementation.

The up-front cost to the organisation – for training – was equivalent to a loss of 360 hours employed time – probably somewhat less working time! This along with a support expense estimated to be around 20 man-days of management time.

Overall it cost the organisation 65 days of lost time to achieve a saving in the first year of 2700 hours ( 10% of 27000 hours, based on 120 staff and 230 working days per year.) What to do with 10% additional work capacity is a problem that would delight any business manager.

The entire process was initiated with minimum investment, employed no high profile specialists or techniques, and succeeded because the participants had the freedom to believe in themselves and test their own solutions.

Truly, as Phil Crosby said, Quality is Free.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ed_Bones

This is an era where specialized jobs have become the norm of the day. Data entry is one of these jobs, which includes providing and recording all kinds of data for a specific purpose. There are companies as well as individuals who provide various kinds of data entry services. Apart from data entry, they also do data processing.This processing may be needed for successful insurance claims processing and the like. If you are thinking about the cost, you need not worry much as you can take advantage of the vast outsourcing market.

The outsourcing market has many companies and many individual professionals who work as data entry specialists and can also provide data processing services. You can choose a vendor who addresses your particular requirements and promises to deliver on time. As it is oft repeated by various market analysts and others, outsourcing saves your time and money.

There are many people and organizations that do these data entry jobs at a reasonable rate. So, these services will not pinch your pocket too much. At the same time, you and your employees can concentrate on more important jobs, leaving the mundane data entry jobs to be done by specialists who know how to do the job in an efficient manner. In case you want to forward your medical insurance claims and do not have the time to fill up the numeric details of billing and coding, you need not fret and fume for data entry service providers are there to help you.

These service providers will diligently go through your records and fill in all the necessary details. It is important to keep an eye on such detail. Otherwise, there will be a risk of your claims getting rejected. This is a fact that has been witnessed many times, especially in cases of medical claims processing.

People often think that anything that is low cost is bound to be shoddy. It is not like that with cost effective data entry and data processing services. In fact, outsourcing guarantees you best services at a lower cost than what you would have spent to get the job done by in-house employees. This is the beauty of outsourcing where you need not compromise on efficiency or the end result, and yet save some precious dollars and time.

Low cost data entry and data processing services also take care of your efficiency. You virtually bring a more systematic mode of work without spending a fortune or wasting your own time. It is not always possible for everybody to learn everything. That is why these specialists who have the requisite technical knowledge can come handy.

The success of any business lies in the fact that it benefits all the participants. By hiring low cost data entry service providers, you as the client and the company – both can reap the advantages.

Rely Services is one such company that has many specialists on its pay role, who can get your data entry and data processing jobs completed in quick time.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_McRoy

“300 Lithuanian sites hacked by Russian hackers”

“In September, Google mail accounts of key government officials were tampered with and earlier, passwords and login names of the National Defence Academy and key Indian embassies were splashed by a hacker on this website”

“India’s External Affairs Servers Hacked By China”

How often we get to hear such news….

…

many times… huh!!! Despite many such incidents that take place, only few see the lime light. Reason being most of the companies don’t prefer to reveal them, fearing there is chance of loosing customer’s faith. Incidents as these happen quite often and we react only when such incidents takes place. Most of the times we are reactive than being proactive! All such incidents raise a concern on how security is compromised and there is a great concern to curb such activities. The importance of information security and growing market for security consulting in India is driving me to write this article.

Don’t care for security – This is what we normally hear from most of the start ups of India and few Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). Reason could be that they don’t have enough time for security, since they are busy getting their product out. But fact is, start up companies should take utmost care in protecting their intellectual property lest they might loose their competitive advantage.

Security is the way to go!!! Security is not a product, which you can just install and keep yourself safe. Security is not just a technology alone, it includes process and people who should follow the process with out fail. Most SMBs do not have dedicated security teams due to the smaller size of their operation, contrary to this few companies have dedicated security teams, but they lack certified security professionals. It is estimated that in India less than 2,500 professionals have specific Information Security skills, which represents only 0.5% of the IT workforce. Almost 50% (12 out of 25) of the companies do not employ certified professionals to manage their security. But reality is that for security implementation you need experienced certified people who are specialized and trained in core areas of security domain. Now how can you get such people? In India there are quite a few security consulting firms who can provide experienced certified external security consultants for hire.

As per the “The Forrester Wave”:Security Consulting, Q3 2007″ Over the past two years, some security service providers have registered growth rates in excess of 40%. The major driving factors for the security consulting market in India to grow are high rise in the complexity of IT implementations, Rise in the usage of on-line trading and on-line transactions, rise in the requirements of banking and financial services, BPO etc.

Consulting is projected to grow till $1.1 billion by 2012 in Asia pacific. Information security and services companies in India are now moving up the value chain to focus on information security consultancy, managed services, training and patch management. The information security (IS) market in India is growing at a rate of 50 per cent exceeding that of the software industry and presents a huge untapped opportunity to software companies. There are already quite a few good players like Deloitte, Wipro, Accenture, Ernst&Young who proved their mark with their consulting services in the area of information security, but there is a growing need and vacuum available for other companies to pitch into this market.

conclusion:

Gone are those days when security was thought of as setting up IT infrastructure alone, it is now more than that, it has expanded to information storage, distribution, application level security, perimeter security and defining policy procedures for different kinds of information. Today’s security consulting firms have trained people with specialized skill sets on standards like BS-7799, ITSM (IT Service Management), COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) and the ISO-17799, ISO 27001. Companies who are working in an off shore model may take services from security consulting firms to keep themselves compliant to regulations that are followed by their foreign counterparts.

Companies working in an offshore model can get an added advantage in hiring external consultants. These consultants look at organization’s security set up from outsider’s perspective and are in a better position in identifying the loop-holes.

Companies should enhance their security perception by involving the top management in drafting and reviewing security policies and creating a provision for security in their budgets.

Its quite evident that security consulting in India is going at a rapid pace. India has a right blend of technology and skills to provide top notch services and grow as a top class security consulting service provider.

Finally, as the meaning of Tantra goes – any service that is concerned with ritual acts of body, mind and speech is called as Tantra. That’s why I say, When Security is Mantra then the Security consulting is Tantra!!!

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karun_Chennuri