So, how many people didn’t even look at their end of year 401K statements? Unfortunately, I had to because we are in the process of applying for financial aid for my daughter as she gets ready to choose a college. The FAFSA form requires all of that information. I do believe there was a line on there wanting to know on average, how many quarters do we find in the couch cushions each year? Too bad for them, I’m not telling.The world’s kind of turned upside down right now and companies need to make sure they are doing everything can so they get their products and services to market faster and in the most cost effective way possible. But, what is the corporate version of finding quarters in the couch?
One of the best ways is to take unnecessary cost out of your company so that you are not forced to take necessary costs out (e.g., people). A relatively simple review of business processes can reveal inefficiencies, extra steps, steps that lead to dead ends or overly bureaucratic procedures. Now this can get a little tricky when you are trying to take steps out of a regulated environment but in many cases, business process optimization can also have benefits in improved regulatory compliance by having more efficient and automated audit trails.
Best practices are usually a good place to start and developing an IT quality audit ready toolkit for your IT processes can be done best with an ITIL foundation. The focus can be in two areas, one in qualification to keep those QA types happy and the other in ongoing operations so the IT people can take off the firefighting hats. It’s repeatable, efficient and most of all, compliant. Not only does that find more of those quarters but it keeps them from falling out of your pocket in the first place. (A side note for all the women out there, have you noticed in the age of cellphones that you start to look for more pants with pockets when shopping?)
I’m going to begin writing a book this month; we just got approval from the publisher. The title will be The Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry Guide to ITIL V3. We’ve got a great authoring team including players from some of the best names in pharma and biotech and various experts in other areas within the industry. I’ll blog more about it later. I can’t tell you how many quarters it will cost yet and because the publisher is British, it will all depend on the exchange rate and
whatever financial crisis the media can scare up at the time. But we’re not writing it to so that I can become the JK Rowling of the IT/QA world. We’re writing it because we think it’s an important concept to share. Yeah, if I make a few quarters on it, the couch will be more comfortable. Just don’t tell the folks at FAFSA.The Marketing Maven
(C)Copyright 2009
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