tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2095543285808336942024-03-13T01:56:05.041-07:00New TechnologyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11042586751193550231noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-209554328580833694.post-78964003575716094422014-06-16T21:42:00.000-07:002014-06-16T21:42:19.603-07:00Implementing New Technology<div id="article-content">
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There are amusing and horrific stories of the trials and
tribulations associated with the transfer of technology, and the
implementation of new systems and architecture. There are lessons that
we can learn from those who have blazed the trails before us, and those
who have been burned by the blaze. Get your fingers ready to count the
five fundamental considerations for implementing new technology.<br />
What we learned from Oracle<br />
"The
original plan was to transition the existing IT infrastructure to
Oracle over a period of three months. It is three years later, and we
think that we are almost done with our Oracle implementation." Does this
sound familiar? if so, you have plenty of good company. Oracle is a
powerful engine. It is high octane, scalable, and has flexible object
oriented architecture to allow continuous growth and integration. So,
what went wrong?<br />
Quite often, in the eager anticipation to install
the latest and greatest engine, the other parts of the car were
forgotten or overlooked. Sure you have a powerful new engine, but your
steering wheel is gone. It was replaced by a series of point and click
drop down boxes to precisely instruct the car to turn at a specific
angle. Do you want to make a 30 degree turn, a forty degree turn, or a
90 degree turn, right or left? Simply choose the appropriate item from
the drop down menu and you will have the exact turn that you desire.
Gone is that old fashioned and inaccurate steering wheel that required
manual intervention and guidance to gradually adjust the turn in
process, and installed is the precision turning device that is managed
by your mouse. The problem is, nobody mentioned that the new steering
mechanism was sold separately, and would take another six months to
program. Nobody mentioned that everyone responsible for driving the car
would have to learn a new steering methodology, lose the ability to make
manual adjustments along the way, and need to learn to be more
predictive and accurate in the selection of the accurate turn.
Adjustments can be made along the way to correct a turn, with more point
and click menu selections, if necessary. The extra time, design and
development costs, and employee training are sold separately. You see,
Oracles sells that powerful engine, not the steering wheel.<br />
Does
that sound funny or familiar? If it sounds familiar, then the humor is
bitter-sweet. If it sounds ridiculous, then you have not experienced it
yet. The steering wheel is only one example. Once the steering mechanism
is programmed and put into place, then the other discoveries begin.
That powerful engine comes with a speedometer and tachometer, so you can
see your performance and the RPM of the engine. Isn't is exciting to
see that you have only partially tapped into the incredible power of
this magnificent Oracle engine? Unfortunately, if you rely on other
dashboard devices like signals for turns, air conditioning, or a radio,
then you have to build these things yourself. After all, the engineers
of the engine realize that you turn on different roads than everyone
else, you have personal preferences for your climate controls, and you
have personal preferences for terrestrial or Sirius satellite radio
stations. Therefore, you need to build the point and click objects,
menus, and radio buttons to accommodate your personal preferences, and
all the possible variations thereof. Someone forgot to mention that all
of these functions and amenities need to be custom designed for each
driver.<br />
Once the common dashboard and control devices are
designed, developed, and implemented, then the next wave of discovery
begins. The old buttons, knobs, and dials are gone. Everything has been
replaced with the convenient control of a single device, your mouse.
That seemed like a wonderful convenience when it was first described to
you. All of the controls are at two fingers on one hand. Once you are
past the pain of installing all of the other controls at additional
cost, it occurs to you that it might be a little complicated to switch
between steering the car, sending a command to roll up the windows,
turning on the air conditioner, selecting a radio station, and signaling
your turn, all at the same time with one device. All of these things
require a different set of menus, so you need to choose your work stream
very carefully. Otherwise, you may run into the back of a truck while
trying to turn off the heater, and turn on Howard Stern. Just then, it
begins to rain, and you realize that the windshield wipers have not been
coded yet.<br />
Dear Larry Ellison, please forgive me if my sense of
irony has inadvertently presented what could be perceived as an
unflattering commentary. It is merely intended to make a point about
proper planning for transition of technology. After all, you do build a
beautiful engine.<br />
So, what should we do?<br />
1) Be Aggressive<br />
It
is appropriate to be aggressive when implementing new technology that
provides a competitive edge. The competitive edge may be related to
overall system performance that empowers employees to become more
productive. A competitive edge may be a utility that empowers clients
and customers to become more self-sufficient, like installing the ATM
machine outside the bank for customer self-sufficient convenience. The
competitive advantage may integrate multiple functions, partners, or
streams of data that allow for more intelligent decisions or effective
business. If the implementation, integration, or transfer to new
technology is going to have a substantial and measured competitive
advantage, then be aggressive about the pursuit of technology.<br />
2) Be Cautious<br />
If
the transfer of technology touches upon the core competency or revenue
of your business, then be cautious about making any significant changes.
This does not mean that you avoid improving technology. It merely
implies that it is appropriate to be more cautious in studying the
ramifications and ancillary applications which may be impacted by even a
subtle change to the code. There are horror stories from companies that
implemented seemingly innocuous changes to billing, and then failed to
produce invoices or statements for the clients. During this period of
the transfer of technology, revenue was suddenly reduced. The result
created financial hardship for the billing company, and for the
disgruntled customers who suddenly received several months worth of
accumulated billing once the invoicing system issues were resolved. Not
only was this an impact on cash flow during the interruption in billing,
but it impacted the relationship with the clients as well. Be
aggressive about competitive opportunities to grow your profit and
performance, but be cautious when it comes to implementing changes that
may impact your core business offerings, clients, or billing.<br />
3) Be Quick<br />
Be
quick to implement minor changes, and carefully monitor the impact.
When it come to performance enhancement, internal suggestions for
simplifying routines, or improving the customer experience, do not
delay. Design the small changes, test the changes thoroughly, and create
a schedule to consistently roll out enhancements. Quite often, the
little enhancements have the biggest impact to business performance.<br />
4) Be Slow<br />
When
it comes to major changes in the architecture or systems that sustain
your business, be slow in implementing change. Frequently, the core
architecture and functions of the business are the most efficient and
streamlined. The processes that get the most use are the ones that get
the most attention, and are often the most highly evolved.
Unfortunately, these are also the processes that typically are selected
for the first priority when it comes to implementing a transfer in
technology. On the contrary, avoid the allure of focusing on familiar
ground, and preserve the primary processes until the transition has been
tested on some of the more complex, and less often utilized, utilities.
By focusing development on the most complex and least used functions,
there is tremendous knowledge to be gained by the experience, and the
least amount of impact to the business. There are too many horror
stories of companies that eagerly transferred the main processes, and
then spent months or years working out the bugs that could have been
identified by developing a much less needed or impactful part of the
process.<br />
5) Be Safe<br />
There is no better time to address the
vast array of potential security needs than during the design,
development, and implementation of new technology. What personal data to
you manage, process, forward, or store? This is not limited to credit
card transactions or bank account numbers for wire transfers. Somewhere
in the enormous archives of data, you are probably holding precious
private information on every one of your own employees. Employee records
contain social security numbers, bank accounts for direct deposit,
names and addresses, and possibly even reference to medical coverage.
Quite often we think about the pipeline to our customers, and forget
about the goldmine of private information inside our own facilities.
Don't we owe the same protection to our own employees?<br />
Privacy
data can include medical records, financial records, and personal
information. Driver's license numbers, credit card numbers, or even
matching email address with telephone numbers, are all potential risk to
privacy. The threat is not limited to how people access the information
from the outside, or the number of firewalls that you put into place.
The threat is also from the inside, and what kind of information is
available to employees and associates. How easy it is to look up client
records and download the information to a thumb drive? How easy is it to
copy the entire company database of customer information, account
information, or intellectual property? What would it be worth to a
disgruntled employee to take valuable client information to a
competitor?<br />
There is no better time than the present to have a
security expert evaluate the potential breaches of privacy in your
organization. If you have customers, credits cards, customer accounts,
client information, intellectual property, financial information,
medical information, or employee information stored electronically,
accessible on a network, or printed in files, then it is time to
consider security.<br />
If you are in the midst of preparing for a
technology transformation, design, development, integration, or
implementation, then it is the perfect time to review all of the related
documents with a security and privacy expert. If you are organizing all
of this information, then why not take advantage of your efforts to
protect your customers, your employees, and your business? Executives
and management are increasingly being held responsible for ignoring or
overlooking the potential security breaches in their respective
organizations, both from protecting customers from external threats, and
for controlling the actions of disgruntled employees. Mitigate risk to
the company, and the executives of the company, by taking appropriate
and reasonable precautions for expert analysis, controls, and privacy.<br />
Words of Wisdom<br />
"Technology
is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do
not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand."<br />
- Putt's Law<br />
"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three."<br />
- Alice Kahn<br />
"There is an evil tendency underlying all our technology - the tendency to do what is reasonable even when it isn't any good."<br />
- Robert Pirsig<br />
"Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons."<br />
- R. Buckminster Fuller<br />
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<div id="article-resource">
John Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate
Success with Authenticity and Integrity, the fundamental guide to
achieving extraordinary sales and sustaining loyal customers. This
revolutionary book applies peak management techniques and leadership
skills, with common sense and practical applications to grow business,
sustain loyal customers, and use personal talents for personal success.<br />
John
Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with
Authenticity and Integrity. The book that is changing everything by
reawakening personal values in business as a competitive edge<br />
</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11042586751193550231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-209554328580833694.post-47589488538434351702014-06-16T21:40:00.001-07:002014-06-16T21:40:49.432-07:00Implementing New Technology at Your Site<div id="article-content">
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My primary care physician, the last time I was in for a checkup,
had not adopted ePrescribing or started using an electronic health
record (EHR). My understanding is that the medical group to which he
belongs had not rolled out these capabilities to him yet but was
planning to do so. Hopefully, this summer when I see him again he will
be plugged into the electronic health record that the group is adopting.
Although he may not be happy about having to adapt to this new way of
working, I will be happy because it provides another layer of safety for
me as a patient. For instance, the risks of miscommunication between
my doctor and my pharmacy will be greatly reduced. From my experience
as a quality and productivity expert, I know that there will be many
benefits for his practice group. As the American Medical Association
has shown in a white paper my physician may not be spending much less
time handling prescriptions, but his office staff surely will. Overall,
there will be a significant gain in productivity and safety for the
office.<br />
After examining this example of the adoption of technology
at my physician's office group I recognize several challenges that the
group faces, many of which are common to any enterprise adopting new
technology faces, including not just healthcare providers but also small
businesses and nonprofit organizations:<br />
· Will the new technology increase productivity?<br />
· Will there be a positive return on investment?<br />
· Will the new technology improve patient safety?<br />
· If the technology is adopted, how should it be rolled out or implemented?<br />
These
challenges and questions should not be faced by just one person.
Rather, a team with effective leadership should undertake the
responsibility. The team should use a formal problem solving approach
such as Plan-Do-Check-Act to insure success. One of the first things
that the team should do is determine why the technology should be
adopted. That is, it should clearly state the goals for the adoption.
Perhaps the technology is mandated by an accrediting body or government
body. This is the case for ePrescribing as CMS has mandated its
adoption by the beginning of this year or physicians will be penalized.
Another example is the case of my auto mechanic, Arie Nol Auto Center;
his business is adopting new technological tools so that he can repair
newer autoes that have many complex computer-based electronic
components, thus remaining competitive.<br />
The technology should not
be adopted if a good case cannot be made for doing so. This is the
approach of Toyota Motor Systems, which first maximizes the
effectiveness of any of its manufacturing processes that use human labor
before adopting any robotic machinery on the floor. Using this
approach it has stayed atop of quality when compared to other auto
manufacturers. This year <em>Consumers Reports </em>placed Toyota first in 6 or 10 of categories of autoes.<br />
If
a team decides to adopt a piece of technology or software it should
next set up a detailed plan for adoption. One of the elements of the
plan is the identification of measures of success. In the opening
illustration I identified two measures: will the technology increase
productivity and will it increase patient safety? The AMA stated that
it would but each site should go beyond the research reports and measure
its own success in implementation. Another measure that a team may
want to examine is patient or customer satisfaction. Physicians
implementing an EHR should see how it affects patient satisfaction.<br />
Next
the team should create a detailed plan for implementing the technology.
The plan should include collecting baseline data for the measures of
success that it has identified, a detailed listing of steps in the
implementation and the identification of a leader of the implementation.
For larger businesses or medical groups the steps of implementation
should focus on first having a limited rollout of the technology to a
group that is eager to try it; this way, if the rollout cannot reach the
goals that it has set the failure will be much less costly. Imagine
the cost to a business if it does not experiment first and the supplier
of the technology mislead the group on the capacity of the technology!<br />
During
the implementation of the technology the leader should continuously
collect data on the measures that the team has identified. This way
adjustments can be made to the implementation if necessary or the
project can be terminated if it can be seen that it will end poorly.<br />
If
the implementation goes well, the team should celebrate its success and
then plan how it can make better use of the technology that it has
adopted while it rolls it out to the rest of the business or site. Most
new technology is complex and fully implementing its features takes
time. In fact, a business or healthcare provider may never use all of
the capabilities of a product. For example, I purchased an iPad2
several months ago and I am still learning about some of it capabilities
for my business. I anticipate learning much more so as to increase my
own productivity.<br />
Before I close, I would like to mention a couple
of sites that review medical apps for physicians, not for patients.
One that I recently found and recommend is imedicalapps.com. It reviews
apps not just for Apple products but also for Android systems and
Blackberry. One feature that I found at this site was that the newest
iPad will record dictation and add it to documents. This may be very
handy for physicians who do not want to enter data into an EHR during a
patient encounter. Apple in its App Store for iPad and iPhone has
identified what it considers the top 50 apps for medical professionals.
You can find out more about it at http://mobihealthnews.com/13638/.<br />
In
conclusion, the adoption of new technology can be daunting. However
with effective teams and leadership along with good problem solving
techniques the adoption and implementation is quite manageable.
Identifying goals and measures and creating a detailed plan of adoption
will make the process much smoother, especially to those who are being
asked to use the new technology.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11042586751193550231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-209554328580833694.post-51495658358686138012014-06-16T21:39:00.001-07:002014-06-16T21:39:14.576-07:00Are You Struggling With New Technology?<div id="article-content">
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I got an ipod for Christmas this year. And at first my reaction was,<br />
"Me? An ipod for ME?"<br />
You
see, I never really thought that I could figure out an ipod. It's small
and I wouldn't know how to put music onto it, let alone be able to make
that music play. I've always thought that they were really neat and
cool but would I be able to use it and enjoy it??<br />
My realization
was that YES, I could figure out this ipod. I just needed to stop
procrastinating and actually try it out. At first I found it a bit
difficult but after getting some help and instruction on how to use it, I
really like having it. I've actually been skating around my community
lake listening to some of my favorite artists.<br />
Are You Struggling With Technical Self- Doubt?<br />
When
I think about my experience with my ipod, I know that a lot of you can
relate. There is a lot of new technology out in the world that is
supposed to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. But the thought of
using some of this technology leads to self doubt and excuses.<br />
Am I tech savvy enough to be able to use this thing?
<br />Will they laugh at me if call customer support and ask a question?
<br />It'll take too long for me to learn this.
<br />I'm too busy to figure this out right now.<br />
Sound familiar?<br />
I Love To Hate It<br />
I
think a lot of us have a love/hate relationship with technology. We
love it because it does make life easier, but we hate how complicated
learning new technology can be and we get frustrated easily.<br />
When you're considering incorporating new technology into your company the scariest question you ask yourself is,<br />
"How am I going to show other people how to use this?"<br />
When there's A Will, There's a Way<br />
That's
why I really think that customer support and training is so important
when introducing new technology into a company. Technology can be
frustrating but it's soooo much easier to sort out when you can ask
questions and experiment.<br />
Pilots are an excellent opportunity to
experiment and test out new technology before you completely commit to
it. A pilot gives you the opportunity to get a feel for the equipment
and the software that you will be using and learn at your own pace
rather than feeling like everything is depending on you understanding
this new technology right away.<br />
</div>
<div id="article-resource">
Jane's Tech Advice<br />
I suggest that the next time you're
interested in taking on a new piece of technology that you create your
own personal pilot program. Whatever the technology, I advise you to
jump in and really sort things out. Give it a try and seek the help you
need along the way. You'll be thrilled with the result!<br />
Yours in Technology,<br />
Jane Glendon</div>
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