The problem

The client required advice in a number of areas:

• IT test strategy and methodology advice
• Vendor recommendations for supporting software
• Risk management advice
• Help to support a mixture of complex software and bespoke tests
• Advice on which aspects to outsource or keep in-house

The solution

Juniper Innovations provided advice and recommendations based on:

• Vendor and product knowledge
• Industry experience
• Proven methodology

The benefits

The client received:

• Methodology advice
• Test strategy and plans
• Risk management advice that could be applied now and in the future
• Vendor, product and service level recommendations
• Delivery support leading in-house and third party teams

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The problem

The client required advice in a number of key areas:

• Business and systems analysis to design operational systems
• Vendor recommendations
• Management of in-house and out sourced software development
• Immediate problem solving and fixes for IT related problems
• Advice on system design, delivery and testing

The solution

Juniper Innovations provided advice and recommendations based on:

• Vendor and product knowledge
• Industry experience
• Proven methodology

The benefits

The client received:

• Software and website designs
• Immediate fixes to a number of problems that slowed down and frustrated both IT and operational teams
• Methodology advice to support an agile delivery environment
• Risk management advice that could be applied now and in the future
• Vendor and due diligence recommendations

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If Juniper Innovations can help your company profit from IT please contact us.

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The problem

The client required advice in a number of key areas:

• IT delivery methodology recommendations to support the multiple site solution delivery
• Vendor recommendations and products to improve operational work force control and customer service
• Improved IT service levels across the organisation
• Vendor selection and implementation for commercial off the shelf products
• Management of bespoke software solutions
• Advice on which aspects of IT to outsource or keep in-house

The solution

Juniper Innovations provided advice and recommendations based on:

• Vendor and product knowledge
• Industry experience
• Proven methodology

The benefits

The client received:

• IT platform advice to support their own business and improve customer service levels
• Methodology recommendations for vendor selection and delivery
• Risk management advice that could be applied now and in the future
• Business case support to improve return on investment
• Project management and communication

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The problem

The client required advice in a number of key areas:

• An IT strategy to support a number of UK sites
• Vendor recommendations for work force & inventory control software and supporting hardware
• Ho to improve IT service levels across the organisation
• How to integrate with existing and future business processes
• Integration with other business systems
• Advice on which aspects of IT to outsource or keep in-house

The solution

Juniper Innovations provided advice and recommendations based on:

• Vendor and product knowledge
• Industry experience
• Proven methodology

The benefits

The client received:

• Strategy advice to support the business over the next few years
• IT platform recommendations to support their business
• Vendor, product and service level recommendations
• Risk management advice that could be applied now and in the future
• Bench marked implementation and delivery plans

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Principle drivers

The benefits of using this type of equipment isn’t just about reducing mileage.  It is about cutting down on energy costs.  This also applies to a wider range of vehicles than HGVs, vans, cars, police and emergency services vehicles that largely use and are typically associated with GPS tracking.  The Wall Street Journal cites excavators, dump trucks, bulldozers and other construction and mining equipment. This extension of vehicle use is due to rising costs, however is also because company management want to understand and control more of their business. When tracking technology is deployed and new data is collected, it can be a sudden awakening for managers to understand exactly what is going on their organisation.

What examples of reducing fuel and energy have been found?

The article gives a number of cases that we also concur with, having found similar in the UK:

• Fuel wastage through vehicle idling – one example being 48% of the time the vehicle is in use
• Machinery operating outside assigned areas (and as we’ve found outside working hours)
• Burning fuel by driving at excessive speeds
• Running the heating and air conditioning when the vehicle is not in use e.g. during breaks or to heat up cabs first thing in the morning
• Understanding when vehicles aren’t being used so they can be redeployed
• Using large and expensive machines for minor tasks such as clearing small debris

What can you save?

One case quotes $50,000 to $100,000 a year saving on idle time alone.  Although individual cases will vary between companies depending on the type of work, number of vehicles, driver usage etc.

There are some hidden benefits too:

• Accurate delivery data
• On-site reporting times
• Driver timesheet and working hours information
• I/O information such as scoop and bucket, mower blade or hydraulic usage
• Reminding and re-training drivers to operate safely
• Theft protection using GPS
• Locating nearest assets and vehicles to jobs
• Reviewing data to understand working patterns and operational equipment usage i.e. to help become more productive

The use of tracking devices and GPS hardware and software is seen by some as little more than surveillance.  This however belittles the benefits that GPS tracking can bring.  Doesn’t this make sense for your organisation?

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China’s coastal waters and inland waterways (graded above 4) have been covered by an Automatic Identification System (AIS).  This is according to the Maritime Safety Administration of China.

Ships are equipped with AIS devices that link up to a shore based network.  This enables the AIS to identify position, course and speed.  The benefit is to move from traditional to “smart” navigation, with 134,000 ships having AIS by July 2012.

The aims of AIS are to improve safety, security, protection and navigation.  So for example, ships not equipped with AIS can be stopped from entering rivers and ports and requested to change their courses.

Information can also be shared using AIS.  The AIS data exchange service provided via the Internet will have a capacity for storage of AIS data for statistical purposes.

Whilst not stated on their website, it is conceivable the Internet of Things could also be used to help track cargo with this data being shared.  This could potentially give location, ship, date/time, cargo and navigation data to help manage supply chain activities.  Wouldn’t this be useful?

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What do you need?

Google Wallet will support both Citi & MasterCard plus a Google Prepaid Card, which apparently you’ll be able to fund with almost any payment card.

To use Google Wallet however you need 3 other things:

• Google Wallet app on your (Android only) mobile phone
• A phone that is NFC ready i.e. this can be an NFC phone or a non-NFC phone that has a Google sticker, enabling mobile payments to be made via the Cloud
• Stores that accept Google Wallet.  In the U.S. this includes American Eagle, Subway and Macy’s

Some of the major benefits of Google Wallet include:

• Consumers can make store payments without credit cards and cash
• Vendors can entice consumers to purchase using coupons i.e. the coupon is automatically applied when consumers make a purchase
• Consumer’s phones can help manage budgets e.g. with spending and budget status reminders at point of purchase

So what does the future hold?

Currently, only Android phones can use Google Wallet.  If you compare this to Google maps which at one time was also platform restrictive, popularity drove Google to make the service more widely available and this could also be the case with Google Wallet.

Of course vendor take up is another issue as they require NFC readers.  Platform and phone independent devices however will encourage vendor participation.

So what is holding back a roll out?

Fraud risk – Malicious entrepreneurs could intercept data, mimic phones ID’s, produce false phones, or think up a number of other creative ways to take advantage of Google Wallet.  Unless banks can underwrite or insure the funds to protect against fraud, in a cost-effective manner for merchants,  then it is unlikely that retailers will switch to the technology any time soon.

Privacy – will Google be sharing data?  Is this an issue to slow down or stop adoption?  If Google are not expected to benefit from transaction payment sharing, where will they generate revenue?

Banks – as in Orange’s link up with Barclaycard in the UK will there be similar provider restrictions with Google?

..And the controversy?

Google is being pursued by eBay and its online payment unit PayPal which said Google and two executives stole its trade secrets for turning smartphones into digital wallets.

Let’s see what happens.  For certain, we’ve been blogging about NFC for months seeing it is a technology that is growing in popularity by plenty of businesses wanting to take advantage of it.

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Fancy a working lunch?

Once upon a time you’d arrange to physically see colleagues in a meeting room, pass around photocopied agendas and minutes, have someone take notes to be typed up later and maybe have a few sandwiches and pots of tea & coffee.  These days however with online software such as Skype, AOL Instant Messenger, Campfire, Convore, IRC, Eqo, Zoho Chat, or other online chat software, meetings are remote, last all day and the need to gather around in a single location is nearly a thing of the past.

With these applications, text chat is at the core however document sharing, video conferencing and voice chat is only a click away.

For us, this speeds up project implementations, system designs, data analysis, sales demonstrations and process consultancy.  It reduces travel time, expenses, elapsed project time, makes better use of people’s working time and enables better round the clock support where required.

Let me type that up and get it over to you

Following your meeting you’d ask someone to type up the minutes, actions, other notes and documents before printing and sending them to colleagues to review, make amendments and pass them back. Only for you to review and agree the changes.  Whilst emailing and office software on laptops and PCs has sped this up, there can still be longer than necessary elapsed time between agreeing and approving changes.  These days collaborative real time document sharing enables online sharing of documents for real time editing, locking down of document sections under change control and enabling online agreement in real time.  With online editing software such as Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 & Salesforce.com’s Chatter, editing is no longer back and forth.  It can be achieved and shared immediately.

Sorry I missed your call, when you get this message please call me back..

When you’re trying to meet or get in contact with colleagues, meetings used to be pre-arranged either in office sites or pre-agreed off-site locations.  If your colleagues turned up on time then great, if not you’d have to wait.  Then came mobile phones, texts and push emails allowing you to keep in contact, however you suffer from restrictions such as one to one conversing and relying on colleagues to reply to your messages.  So making ad hoc arrangements with a group of colleagues is still a challenge.  With mobile apps however such as Beluga or GroupMe you can send a message to a whole group instantly, reduce and eliminate phone tag by opening the app to see everyone’s location and arrange to meet in a central location.

The systems a bit slow today, but after we’ve rebuilt the server things will improve

When networks ran slow, server usage was being pushed to the limits at peak times and co-workers productivity suffered, the solutions were to add more or rebuild servers.  Then outsource server solutions came to the rescue when your business used third party hosting to improve network and server performance at a lower cost.  Now Cloud solutions are available, allowing increased server performance and storage at the click of an online button, with pay as you go options for businesses to only pay for what they use and flex up and down as they see fit.

Productivity will improve when one of the trainers visits and completes the course with the employees

Training used to be limited to trainers scheduling a site visit or your employees going to a training centre.  Trainees used to come back to the office armed with folders full of print outs, many of which would be put in storage cupboards and never read.  Then came electronic documents being emailed to to trainees however these still suffered from not being kept up to date and shared with employees as business processes changed.  Large training documents also suffered from being stored on a PC or server and like their printed versions before them, never opened.

Nowadays we use realtime online help notes with our solutions that allow collaborative editing, alignment to business processes and can be found easily within the software solution you are using. This can be supplemented with video tutorials specific to parts of the system that actually show you buttons to press, folders to use and how to successfully overcome technical and business problems. Approaches like this can improve productivity quickly since they are being used to solve specific problems on demand.

So how much are you embracing modern technology?  Or do you find yourself 10, 20 or 30 years behind?

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1. What do you do on the road?

One of the benefits of GPS tracking is that it monitors driving behaviour.  This is so whether you are in an HGV, van or car.  So by using GPS systems to feedback driving behaviour to your sales team to help them drive more efficiently will save you money in fuel expenses.  Wait a minute, you might be thinking that you want your sales team to drive quickly between customer meetings to pack more of them in during the day?  Well if this is the case, maybe you need to understand how effective your sales team is, if meetings are over running, prequalification has not determined how serious and therefore punctual the customer is, or how well your sales team has planned for the meeting and even the day’s journeys?  GPS gives you data that will enable you to better ask questions so business and individual sales performance is raised.

2. What’s the best route?

Time equals money and this is particularly true in the sales industry.  So do you really have a handle on how much time your sales team spends on the road compared to the time spent at a customer site or office?  GPS will give you times for journeys, engine idling,  start/stop data and using geofences will more accurately also tell you how much time was spent in a particular location.  You maybe surprised to learn:

• How many genuine customer visits were made in a day, week or month
• The reasons for shorter than expected, missed or cancelled appointments
• Time spent being caught in traffic
• Inefficient or uneffective journey planning decisions
• Unscheduled or unexpected appointments and stops

Meeting sales quotas based on the number of customer visits do not tell the entire story.  There is always the possibility of working more effectively.  Remember too this isn’t all about finger pointing.  Rather it gives you the opportunity to support your sales team.  After all the whole point is to enable your organisation to make more sales.

3. Something for the weekend

Being responsible is all part of the sale persons job.  This includes taking responsibility for themselves, their car and looking after company property.  Journey reports include those completed at weekends and outside working hours.  If your comapny is picking up the tab for insurance claims, mileage expenses and more frequent servicing bills due to irresponsible driving or use of company property outside working hours, then GPS will give you information helping you to manage this situation as you see fit.  Plus as a driver, if you know GPS devices are fitted, then psychologically your behaviour will change…at least to start with, as you know you might be being tracked.

4. Dedicated to administration

The GPS system is dedicated to producing timesheet reports and journey data automatically.  This means your sales people do not have to manually record and remember trips and visits, or spend a few hours each week recording their timesheet information.  They can just get on with the job of selling.

5. Focus on winning

Having software that allows a simple comparison of client trips, journeys made, mileage completed, time spent and all in a format that allows a comparison with actual sales achieved, makes it easier for you to understand how much effort is going into sales trips per customer in order to get a sale.  With this type of information at your fingertips you can start to understand the most productive journeys, as well as the least productive ones, then put an action plan in place to improve the situation.

GPS tracking is not all just about seeing an HGV vehicle on a map.  It has wider business implications and remember that other businesses are using GPS for sales purposes, so if you’re not, look at what you’re missing.

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1. How many tasks do you manually plan and control?

Are you even aware of the number of manual tasks and the time it takes to complete these in order to manage and control your operation? These tasks can be varied, even when you have a warehouse system in place. Taking goods receipt on its own these can include:

• Inbound receipt timeslot planning and operational management of these manually developed plans
• Planning and controlling work order transfers from manufacturing operations
• Physical counting and logging of goods receipts e.g. where your operation has no system based process, or managing unexpected deliveries or exceptions, or being unable to match inbound receipts with ERP delivery numbers, or handling delivery non-conformity, or prioritising deliveries based on real time demand and supply, etc.
• Pallet label application processes
• Deciding where best to move goods receipted stock e.g. straight to picking locations, reserves or deep reserves, special storage areas such as hazardous or temperature controlled areas, block stacking or just-in-time marshalling or sortation areas etc.
• Timing of when to move goods receipt stock e.g. to clear receiving docks, to help picking, stock movement and despatch productivity, to balance workload within a warehouse, etc
• Managing the best use of resources e.g. from labour to trucks
• Re-palletising stock e.g. moving stock from broken to sturdy pallets or other containers, or re-palletising when inbound pallet sizes differ from those used in warehouse racking, etc
• Knowing when, where and how to move goods receipt stock when it is not normal stock e.g. for new lines that are not set up on the warehouse system with the correct weights, measures and other material master details, or knowing what to do with returned items, damages or “less than perfect” stock
• Understanding effects on the warehouse layout when new lines arrive?

Even if you were to make a list of all the manual tasks in your warehouse, how easy is it for you to account for the extra planning and execution time caused by all the work a good warehouse system can automate for you?

2. Penny wise and pound poor

Cutting budgets every year to save on labour, whilst hoping productivity improves is one thing. To then justify spending extra money on additional storage due to lack of warehouse space, or increasing distribution spending due to lower than required vehicle fill, is another issue entirely. Why does all this matter? Because if your warehouse systems cannot help you plan space effectively either within the warehouse or to fill vehicles you will be penny wise and pound poor. If you are reliant on manual processes alone to do this work for you, then as we have seen in many cases you could be spending far more money than you need to be. Taking this a stage further, looking at all the manual processes you do outside of your warehouse systems, how much extra planning and execution time do you use? How much extra budget do you require in your operation as a result?

This can be a difficult question to answer particularly if you’re starting this analysis for the first time. Listing all these processes and tasks however is a very good exercise to undertake because by doing so, you’ll identify many quick wins that will save time and money immediately. In some cases you may also improve customer service as a result too.

3. Listen, I don’t trust computer systems and believe there is always an element of manual work

Warehouse systems are there as an aid, to help improve business control. The trick is to have a system that:

• Eliminates as many manual planning and control processes whilst still adding value to your organisation, rather than removing or restricting added value
• Enabling your people to make the right manual decisions and take control to override the system e.g. from vehicle fill planning to requesting stock replenishment moves in line with real time picking
• Allows you to more easily understand where non-added value processes exist and gives you options to make productive changes

By looking at your manual tasks and analysing where you think a system could help, you’ll begin to build up a picture of where ROI can be in your organisation. If you also consider the money you spend on additional warehousing, vehicle fill and say overtime, as examples you might find ROI payback using a more flexible warehouse management system is faster than you think.

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