B2B Data Integration and Transformation Blog

Thinkronization Newsletter - March 2011

This month's edition of “THINKRONIZATION”, a REMEDI semi-monthly eNewsletter, examines what has transpired so far in 2011 and what is on the horizon for the reminder of the year.  Integration and supply chain professionals are used to being confronted with change, particularly where their internal organization and business network is concerned.

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Columbus, OH (PRWEB) February 24, 2011  — Remedi Electronic Commerce Group, a Business and Data Integration organization providing consulting, software, training, managed services, and recruiting & placement solutions, announced today that it bested prior performance for the second consecutive year on a variety of key metrics for which the company measures. Contributing to its success was a broadening of focus from B2Bi, EDI, and EAI, to include ETL, data integration & warehouse, and business intelligence technologies. Other growth factors include the expansion of sales, marketing, and sourcing staff, strengthening of key partnerships, increased delivery of managed services, and ongoing integration thought leadership initiatives.

“2010 was a bounce back year for most given challenges of the Great Recession. To combat challenges and prepare for a return to growth, Remedi partnered with clients on a wide spectrum of initiatives. For many, assistance included EDI managed services to accommodate growing integration requirements without growing staff.  Other projects involved gaining leverage against competitors through upgrades to integration environments and efficiency enhancements through automation. Our work with clients allowed for flexibility in an ever changing environment providing variable staff through consulting, staff supplementation, and managed services. Assistance on the recruiting front also proved valuable to clients as they sought to expand full-time staff when needs trended long term” according to President Brad Loetz.  “By serving clients interested in utilizing business and data integration tools, training, and technologists, we have been able to help clients get a jump on the recovery and continue doing more with less resulting in various operational, financial, and performance related successes in 2010”.

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In my previous post, I listed the first five tips you can following when trying to choose an EDI/EAI consultant. Here are the remaining 5 tips for this process. Following these 10 tips will guide you through the process of selecting a good, qualified EDI consultant.

6.  Communicate the Consultants Role to Employees – It is important that your staff has cleared their calendars to give the consultant their focus and attention.  Your staff’s time with a consultant can yield knowledge transfer that will assist with project efficiency and increase the likelihood of remaining within budget.  A staff member who is feeling threatened or defensive will often avoid spending the required time with the consultant.  A confident staff member understands that there is much knowledge to be gained from the consultant’s wide array of engagement experience.  While good consultants will try to put staff fears to rest (unless they are the problem), it is up to you to make it clear to the staff that the consultant is there to identify and support solutions, not to threaten or find fault.

7.  Conduct Weekly Updates – Regularly schedule status reports with the consultant during the life of the project. These reports should cover unresolved issues, period accomplishments, next period objectives, etc.  Also, ask for regular reports on effort expended to date and projected effort to complete. You don’t want to discover that the consultant has been waiting for key data to validate critical observations or situations weeks after the fact!  Important information should not wait till the next scheduled update.  Continual communications provides the best format for success.

8. Schedule A Midpoint Review Session - Review what’s been completed to date and ensure that the deliverables and supporting data are consistent with expectations.  Identify and define any change in scope that may require different or additional time, resources or expenses.  Communicate to all stakeholders the status of the project including any scope changes.  Does the project require alternatives that have not been considered?  Make sure that deliverables are not being built upon incomplete data or operational anomalies and they have not been unduly influenced by the bias of a particular corporate segment.

9. Float Preliminary Conclusions – Share tentative conclusions, and preliminary deliverables with senior management and staff alike.  Do the project outcomes meet the intended requirements?  If not why?  And state what needs to happen to correct the situation? Have any changes in scope been clearly communicated and considered within the preliminary deliverables?  Ensure that the level of detail in the acceptance phase is sufficient to support the conclusions on accuracy of the final deliverable.

10. Conduct the Final Deliverable Review as an Integrated Team – The success of communicating project deliverables to the senior management is only as good as the quality of the data presented and the support demonstrated by participating staff. Every person on the project team should be involved in presenting the project outcome.  Use your team to validate points with detailed, company specific examples, in order to provide a substantive view of the success of the project.  Include within the presentation, what could be handled better or differently next time.  Every project, like life, is a learning process.  Be willing to embrace the lessons and continually improve.

Finally, select your consultant carefully.  A good consultant is not someone who is between jobs or unemployable. A good consultant possesses the subject matter expertise you need.  A good consultant has successfully done for other organizations the same things they will be doing for you. A good consultant has good people, communications and presentation skills.  A good consultant understands the big picture and how the details fit into the big picture.  And, a good consultant knows that an important part of their role is to help you succeed.

A good consultant is a problem finder and fixer that can generate many times their fees in additional revenue provided that they are utilized effectively.

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Who says that candidates can’t turn the tables and interview a potential recruiter?  Since interviews and even short phone screens should be a two-way street, here are four key questions to ask any recruiter with whom you are considering a partnership.

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Since its recent acquisitions of companies with B2B solutions, I have been curious to see how IBM will package all of these new solutions and offerings and align it with its own WebSphere line of products.  Some of this became more apparent yesterday.  At the National Retail Federation conference in New York City, IBM announced how it is bringing all of these solutions to market in a newly named Consumer Products Industry Framework.  By offering and adding this new framework solution to its existing Retail Industry Framework solution, IBM accounts for all of its software portfolio and offers their clients the ability to build an integrated platform for all of their operations based on industry standards.  Let me know if you have any other revelations or interesting information from the National Retail Federation conference by writing me at shulme@remedi.com.  I have included a link to the press release below.  Read More