Most organizations, e.g., businesses or government entities, that are seeking to drive substantive improvement in their organizational outcomes—such as improved customer experience, accelerated product time to market, strategic cost reduction, etc.—without impacting productivity, mission effectiveness, and end-to-end outcomes of the organizations. However, most all organizations struggle to make those substantive improvements—that is, when trying to diagnose performance, the organizations do so in the way that the organization is organized, and not in the way that the organization operates.
For example, to improve any metric of the organization (e.g., productivity, end-to-end tangible outcomes, performance enhancement, etc.), the way organizations typically address this is by looking at operating modules, people, structures, business unit components, how many different processes—that is, problems that give single narrow slices in that affect outcomes. However, attributes such as systems, technologies, data, human capital, and human skills also affect outcomes—including performance.
Thus, to try to improve performance by only looking at one function or one process at a time, and try to optimize/improve that one function/process, fails to provide visibility into how those changes affect other downstream systems and/or capabilities. Further, there are additional challenges when trying to improve end-to-end outcomes—i.e., providing access to data and providing collaboration in an organization of the data. Historically, such access was provided on a single computing device; however, doing so provides hinders or prevents collaboration.
Implementations of the present disclosure are generally directed to a Prime Value Chain (PVC) platform that provides data ingestion, analysis, and a suite of tools to identify critical value chains and causes of systemic issues that traverse functions related to strategic outcomes of one or more processes. The PVC platform collects, organizes, and identifies qualitative, and quantitative opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness across complex business ecosystems. Other implementations include corresponding methods, systems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer-readable storage devices.
Innovative aspects of the subject matter described in this specification may be embodied in methods that include the actions of obtaining data from a plurality of differing enterprise data sources; formatting the data to generate an integrated model having a hierarchy of activity levels related to enterprise operations; defining a critical path across each activity level of the hierarchy of activity levels, the critical path linking a subset of the activities; identifying a change to the integrated model that adjusts a parameter of one of the activities linked by the critical path; and in response to the adjusted parameter, updating a value of one or more metrics of the enterprise operations that is related to the critical path.
The present disclosure also provides a computer-readable storage medium coupled to one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations in accordance with implementations of the methods provided herein.
The present disclosure further provides a system for implementing the methods provided herein. The system includes one or more processors, and a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations in accordance with implementations of the methods provided herein.
These and other embodiments may each optionally include one or more of the following features. For instance, the one or metrics include full-time equivalent metrics and operating expense metrics. Updating the value of the one or more metrics includes updating a value of full-time equivalent metrics and a value of operating expense metrics. Providing, for display, the integrated model as a world on a page (WoaP) landscape. In response to updating the value of the one or more metrics, performing a simulation of the integrated model with the updated values of the one or more metrics. Defining an additional critical path across each activity level of the hierarchy of activity levels, the additional critical path linking a differing subset of the activities; and identifying the change to the integrated model that adjusts an additional parameter of an activity linked by the additional critical path. Providing, for display, a visualization of the critical path and the additional critical path at substantially the same time.
It is appreciated that methods in accordance with the present disclosure can include any combination of the aspects and features described herein. That is, methods in accordance with the present disclosure are not limited to the combinations of aspects and features specifically described herein, but also include any combination of the aspects and features provided.
The details of one or more implementations of the present disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
This application is related to cloud-based management of enterprise ecosystems that provide visibility into impacts of changes and that simplify management of transformational efforts. More particularly, implementations of the present disclosure are directed to a Prime Value Chain (PVC) platform that can capture information from an enterprise ecosystem, including activities that in any way can impact experience—e.g., a client experience. In at least one implementation, the PVC platform of the present disclosure enables enterprises to efficiently, and effectively implement improvements across all processes along a critical path.
As introduced above, organizations seek to drive substantive improvement in their organizational outcomes without impacting productivity, mission effectiveness, end-to-end outcomes of the organizations, etc. However, most organizations struggle to make those substantive improvements. For example, to improve any metric of the organization (e.g., productivity, end-to-end tangible outcomes, performance enhancement, etc.), organizations typically look at operating modules, people, structures, business unit components, how many different processes—that is, problems that give single narrow slices that affect outcomes. However, attributes, such as systems, technologies, data, human capital, and human skills, also affect outcomes—including performance.
However, in looking at one function or one process at a time, and trying to optimize/improve that one function/process, there is no visibility into how those changes affect other downstream systems and/or capabilities. Further, there are additional challenges in management to improve end-to-end outcomes—i.e., providing access to data and providing collaboration in an organization of the data.
In view of the above context, implementations of the present disclosure provide a PVC platform that can capture an enterprise ecosystem, including every process, and underlying activities that can impact a critical path. That is, the PVC platform provides a holistic view of all variables of an enterprise, and all inputs of an enterprise that affect an end-to-end outcome regardless of the origin of those inputs, e.g., inputs from third-party providers. Further, the PVC platform combines all activities—e.g., full-time equivalent (FTE) metrics and operating expense (OpEx) metrics, into an integrated model.
In the depicted example, the back-end system 108 includes at least one server system 112, and data store 114 (e.g., database). In some implementations, the at least one server system 112 hosts one or more computer-implemented services that users can interact with using computing devices. For example, the server system 112 can host a computer-implemented PVC platform in accordance with implementations of the present disclosure. In some implementations, back-end system 108 represents computer systems utilizing clustered computers and components to act as a single pool of seamless resources when accessed through a network. For example, such implementations may be used in data center, cloud computing, storage area network (SAN), and network attached storage (NAS) applications. In some implementations, back-end system 108 represents a virtual machine.
In some implementations, the computing devices 102, 104, 106 can each include any appropriate type of computing device such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a network appliance, a camera, a smart phone, an enhanced general packet radio service (EGPRS) mobile phone, a media player, a navigation device, an email device, a game console, or an appropriate combination of any two or more of these devices or other data processing devices.
In accordance with implementations of the present disclosure, the computing devices 102, 104, 106 can interact with the back-end system 108 to interact with the PVC platform in accordance with implementations of the present disclosure. For example, and as described in further detail herein with reference to
In further detail, the PVC platform of the present disclosure enables enterprises to move from functional optimization and silo management to holistic, end-to-end value chain management tied to enterprise outcomes. Further, the PVC platform enables enterprises to move from incremental, benefit-driven and disparate improvement projects to a prioritized portfolio of inter-related actions moving the “big needles” of performance. As described in further detail herein, the PVC platform enables improvement efforts to be driven top-down and bottom-up, to realize rapid, substantive and sustained improvement.
In general, the PVC platform enables identification of PVCs, provides process management, and execution of improvement efforts. Using complexity analytics, the PVC addresses issues that span a complex landscape, to establish value top-down from an enterprise customer's perspective, and identifies insights needed to enable strategic outcomes. Process management establishes end-to-end value stream governance, and process strategy to determine prioritization and targeted standardization, linking processes to strategy. In execution, the PVC platform provides an engine to manage and execute an inter-related portfolio of improvement opportunities addressed by continuous improvement, speed, agility, simplicity, and discipline.
In further detail, the PVC platform provides an analytical framework for enterprise outcomes and processes, establishes a value creation view, and identifies related activities and capabilities within the enterprise. The PVC platform links relationships, graphically depicts the critical path of enterprise transactions, and provides a dynamic view into the way work is performed within the enterprise, magnifying the activities that directly create the outcomes, and defining inter-related projects and actions to drive strategic objectives. In short, the PVC platform begins with enterprise outcomes, and top-down value creation, and depicts how work actually gets done through related activities regardless of functions, processes and their origins to provide an integrated view on how value is created helping move away from fragmented optimization.
In some examples, the PVC platform further provides hyperlink capability (e.g., to a sharepoint site) to all of the processes of an end-to-end business process such that one integrated blueprint of the process is provided. In some examples, the PVC platform can query FTE data and OpEx data, and align such back to individual activities. In some examples, the PVC platform facilitates generating models regarding automation of the activities of the WoaP landscape, including financial impact. In some examples, the PVC platform can provide functionality to create custom attributes and depict them visually across activities. In some examples, the PVC platform can provide chart creation—e.g., how many people provide value added work vs. non-value added work visually depicted as pie chart. In some examples, the PVC platform can provide information indicating the distribution of how many activities each technology system is used in. In some examples, the PVC platform provides collaboration of building quantitative components associated with activities, including multiple people adding activities, updating attributes in real time, and providing user access privileges to give access to client to the PVC platform. In some examples, the PVC platform provides the ability to do versioning overtime, e.g., over a particular WoaP landscape over time. That is, as new types of work are being, the PVC platform provides comparing of current state versus previous states.
The PVC platform ingests enterprise-related data from various systems. For example, the PVC platform can ingest data directly from enterprise data sources, and/or third-party data sources (e.g., suppliers that service the enterprise). Further, the PVC platform can ingest process models, or data describing process models, that are implemented by the enterprise to achieve its outcomes. In some examples, a process model can be provided as a data model that models activities and workflows performed by the enterprise. Data can be captured in interviews with enterprise agents (employees), and can be captured in various forms. For example, data recorded in disparate file types (e.g., MS Word, Excel) can be ingested.
The PVC platform, in an example implementation, provides a landscape view, e.g., a World on a Page (WoaP) landscape, based on the ingested enterprise data.
The WoaP landscape drills down to specific, concrete activities (PVC Level 4). For simplicity of illustration, only three activities, 202a, 202b, 202c are referenced, and include Generate Invoices, Apply Cash, and Manage A/R, respectively, of the Accounts Receivable activity. To that end, data that is currently stored in databases can be imported into the PVC platform. That is, notes can be obtained at an activity level within the PVC platform—including data related to description, attributes, points of contact, links, and feedback. The PVC platform further provides an activity feed that logs changes made and feedback provided—e.g., which contacts provided which activity within the PVC platform.
In general, the WoaP landscape includes activities based on all of the work associated with the WoaP landscape. That is, the PVC platform facilitates multiple users to add activities, description to activities, activity grouping, drag and drop around activity map, etc., that is auto formatted to the WoaP structure (described in further detail herein with reference to
In short, the PVC platforms allows the ability to connect disparate function and processes in an end-to-end enterprise process, e.g., inventory of all capabilities, systems, data, and processes that are on available to the PVC for an end-to-end outcome. In an example, the PVC platform obtains a set of data (e.g., from another data source—a relational database), and formats the data into a plurality of activities, e.g., the activities 202a, 202b, 202c of the WoaP landscape, as shown in
The PVC platform provides one or more lenses to be applied to a WoaP landscape based on respective overlays. Example lenses can include outcome creation, outcome impedance, customer impact, OpEx consumption, FTE consumption, and cycle time injection. Example overlays are described in further detail herein with reference to
As noted above, implementations of the present disclosure enable multiple overlays to be concurrently applied. For example, a heat map overlay, a data map overlay, and an activity flow overlay can be applied individually, or in various combinations.
Furthermore, the client-specific instance 2306 can be associated with processes as described further above that include solutions in creation of the WoaP landscape. Specifically, the processes can include the activity information mapping 2316, system generated overlay 2350, send maps/activities for review to key users 2352, system aggregation and calculation of activity attributes and overlays 2354, system enabled scenario modeling 2324, system generated visuals/charts 2356, and system data export/logically orientated 2358. In some examples, the process steps 2310-2358 can occur in any order, including two or more of the processes steps occurring simultaneously. The client-specific instance 2306 is generated by the PVC tool by stepping through any portion of the process steps 2310-2358 in any order as desired (e.g., as determined by client-specific parameters). The process steps 2310-2358 can be performed by any systems of
Implementations and all of the functional operations described in this specification may be realized in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them. Implementations may be realized as one or more computer program products, i.e., one or more modules of computer program instructions encoded on a computer readable medium for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus. The computer readable medium may be a machine-readable storage device, a machine-readable storage substrate, a memory device, a composition of matter effecting a machine-readable propagated signal, or a combination of one or more of them. The term “computing system” encompasses all apparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple processors or computers. The apparatus may include, in addition to hardware, code that creates an execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g., code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a database management system, an operating system, or a combination of one or more of them. A propagated signal is an artificially generated signal, e.g., a machine-generated electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal that is generated to encode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus.
A computer program (also known as a program, software, software application, script, or code) may be written in any appropriate form of programming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, and it may be deployed in any appropriate form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program does not necessarily correspond to a file in a file system. A program may be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, sub programs, or portions of code). A computer program may be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.
The processes and logic flows described in this specification may be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more computer programs to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output. The processes and logic flows may also be performed by, and apparatus may also be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit).
Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any appropriate kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read only memory or a random access memory or both. Elements of a computer can include a processor for performing instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, e.g., magnetic, magneto optical disks, or optical disks. However, a computer need not have such devices. Moreover, a computer may be embedded in another device, e.g., a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile audio player, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, to name just a few. Computer readable media suitable for storing computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks; magneto optical disks; and CD ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory may be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.
To provide for interaction with a user, implementations may be realized on a computer having a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by which the user may provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices may be used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example, feedback provided to the user may be any appropriate form of sensory feedback, e.g., visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user may be received in any appropriate form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile input.
Implementations may be realized in a computing system that includes a back end component, e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g., an application server, or that includes a front end component, e.g., a client computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browser through which a user may interact with an implementation, or any appropriate combination of one or more such back end, middleware, or front end components. The components of the system may be interconnected by any appropriate form or medium of digital data communication (e.g., a communication network). Examples of communication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and a wide area network (“WAN”), e.g., the Internet.
The computing system may include clients and servers. A client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client-server relationship to each other.
While this specification contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the disclosure or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular implementations. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate implementations may also be implemented in combination in a single implementation. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single implementation may also be implemented in multiple implementations separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination may in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.
Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the implementations described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all implementations, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems may generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products.
A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. For example, various forms of the flows shown above may be used, with steps re-ordered, added, or removed. Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/522,341 filed on Jun. 20, 2017, entitled “Prime Value Chain Platform,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62522341 | Jun 2017 | US |