Thoughts and ideas on how to build tools, automate workflows and speed-up the workplace.
Deciding whether to build vs buy software solutions is one of the central challenges for IT procurement teams. Each time we encounter a need for a new tool, capability, or other software asset, we鈥檙e faced with this decision. The trouble is, there are a lot of moving parts at play here. You see, on one level, this simply comes down to maximizing return on investment. However, so many different factors influence cost-effectiveness that it can be hard to know where to start.
Ronan McQuillan
Feb 13, 2023
Internal processes are the basic building blocks of pretty much everything your business does. Every company has thousands of internal processes, whether they know it or not. These could be anything from how employees book time off to how your engineering department develops and ships new product features. No matter what kind of process we鈥檙e talking about, however, it pays to get things right. Ineffective, inconsistent, or undocumented processes are the enemy of efficiency.
Ronan McQuillan
Feb 9, 2023
It would be easy to write IT transformation as just another buzz phrase - but it鈥檇 be a big mistake too. You see, the IT department is the core of your operations, right across the rest of your organization. We talk a lot these days about digital transformation, but you won鈥檛 get far without the right tools, people, expertise, capabilities, and capacity. IT transformation helps you to achieve exactly that.
Ronan McQuillan
Feb 9, 2023
When it comes to building efficient internal operations, understanding the logic that governs common tasks is crucial. However, this is nearly impossible if we don鈥檛 have a firm grasp of the core types of workflow. That鈥檚 just what we鈥檙e covering today. You see, workflow is an incredibly broad term. We could be talking about just about anything - from simple vacation approvals to highly complex automated replenishment tasks. This presents us with a few major challenges.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 3, 2023
An effective workflow model is the foundation of all sorts of change, transformation, and optimization projects. Therefore, you鈥檇 expect this to be something that鈥檚 widely understood. The reality is that many businesses don鈥檛 have such a clear idea of what workflow modeling is, what it achieves, or how to go about it in the real world. In turn, this undermines their efforts to improve their workflows - since they鈥檙e missing a crucial first step.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 3, 2023
Workflow management is an essential part of building an efficient, modern business. In fact, defining, implementing, and maintaining robust workflows is one of the most fundamental, far-reaching aspects of how your business operates. And yet, it鈥檚 widely underutilized. So, huge numbers of organizations either don鈥檛 meet their goals through workflow management, or else they fail to achieve any real coordination and oversight at all. Today, we鈥檙e diving deep into everything you need to know.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 3, 2023
Workflow management tools are a key part of any digitization effort. To regularize and streamline repeated tasks, we need appropriate technology. If you want to be competitive nowadays, this is basically non-optional. The trouble is that this can mean so many different things in different contexts. For example, managing your ecommerce sales won鈥檛 have much in common with managing internal HR tasks. This means that workflow management software also has a wide scope, in terms of potential use cases and functionality.
Ronan McQuillan
Jan 3, 2023
Business process management is the cornerstone of any successful organization. From early-stage startups to massive enterprises, BPM is the key to efficient, robust, and consistent operations. However, process management is also widely misunderstood. Part of the problem here is that BPM is so ubiquitous. In fact, it touches on just about every aspect of your business, including ops, IT, HR, finances, marketing, sales, legal, and much, much more. Because of this, there鈥檚 a huge market for products that want to bill themselves as one-stop-shop BPM platforms.
Ronan McQuillan
Nov 29, 2022