SigmaWay Blog

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the last date for the third round of new applications for 2015 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The following five key decisions will help organizations before joining the MSSP program. They are:

•        Estimate the number of Medicare beneficiaries for whom the prospective ACO(Accountable Care Organizations) wants to be accountable.

•        Determine an appropriate contracting vehicle through which to operate the ACO.

•        Consider the types of health care professionals and facilities the prospective ACO should target as participants.   

•         Set expectations for prospective ACO participants in advance.

•        Gather the appropriate staff to address particular aspects of the MSSP Application early and set milestones in advance of submission deadlines where possible.

To read more about this aspect, please visit Stephanie D. Willis’s (Associate of Mintz Levin) article link as given below: http://www.natlawreview.com/article/five-key-decisions-acos-accountable-care-organization-looking-to-participate-2015-ms 

Companies do a lot of expenditure on resources to analyze big data. But surprisingly, in most cases they fail to address the question of why they are doing so. Many times they use different high end big data software unnecessarily when there is a simpler solution. Before starting the analysis of big data, a proper data thinking approach is necessary. This will not only save company’s time and money, but also optimize resources. So before mining big data, we have to think analytically with some small data. It is data thinking that can prove to be really big.

Robert D. Behn, lecturer at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, talks more about defining a proper question before analyzing Big Data here:http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2014/04/got-big-data-first-define-your-big-question/81661/?oref=river .   

In order to become premier international financial company in the next millennium, Citibank, a Citigroup company, implemented quality initiatives to provide quick customer service anywhere in the world. They took the challenge of implementing Six Sigma to improve customer satisfaction by using methodologies like cycle time reduction (CTR), coupled with detection of defects using Six Sigma methods which resulted in significant improvements in process timeline, cash management and customer loyalty and satisfaction. To read more about this aspect please visit Rochelle Rucker’s (a freelance writer and publicist for Motivators Inc) article link as given below.

http://www.qualitydigest.com/dec99/html/citibank.html

The benefits of cloud-based ERP systems are well known. These solutions involve far less upfront investment, can be implemented in weeks instead of months or years & can be treated as operating expenditure rather than capital expenditure. Scalability is another advantage of cloud based ERP systems. However, if cloud based ERP solutions had no snags, then premise-based solutions would have disappeared years ago. As this is not the case, it’s worth examining the drawbacks of the SaaS model in ERP, which translate to the strengths of the premise-based model.

For a detailed view on this debate, please visit Tracey Schelmetic’s article link as given below:

http://www.thomasnet.com/journals/techtrends/articles/enterprise-resource-planning-better-on-premise-or-cloud-based

Data complexity is a major challenge faced by the healthcare industry. Now healthcare industry is going through a transformation phase. So companies like General Electric, 3M CO, Siemens and Xerox Corporation are taking initiatives to gain insights for making healthcare processes more efficient by the use of predictive analytics.

Read more at: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/analytics-a-shot-in-the-arm-for-healthcare-analyst-blog-cm337055

Robust demand for continuous improvement talent remains concentrated on lean skill sets, but Six Sigma shows renewed strength in a new study. A survey conducted by the Avery Point Group on 7097 internet job postings revealed the changing demands landscape for lean and Six Sigma talent.

To read more, visit the following link:

http://www.industryweek.com/lean-six-sigma/demand-six-sigma-talent-staging-comeback

Organizations have implemented various software solutions to manage many processes, from ERP to power consumption to supply chain management. But when it comes to the most critical component of supply chain management – “Human Capital”, many companies are still playing catch-up. However, nowadays more organizations are turning to labour optimization solutions. These solutions not only keep track of operations, but also use predictive models and algorithms to determine future labour needs. Labour optimization software also analyze orders and resources to predict warehouse throughput. Then it automatically schedules the right balance of full-time, part-time, and temporary workers to meet demand. Managers receive alerts when labour levels don’t meet requirements. Optimization solutions have been used successfully for years in operations such as call centres, which needs to examine historical call patterns to predict future call volumes and ensure that they have the right people with the right skills in the right channels. Such intelligent technology has enormous potential in a manufacturing setting, helping companies do more with less.

To read more about this aspect, please visit Tracey Schelmetic’s article link as given below:

http://www.thomasnet.com/journals/techtrends/articles/labor-optimization-solutions-make-best-use-of-human-capital

Nowadays patients are demanding more and higher quality healthcare provisions. These have posed challenges to the healthcare facilities. Insurance companies in the healthcare sector are striving to keep claims at minimal. In most of the cases, these companies bear a negative perception in the minds of patients which forces them to leave hospitals prematurely. Also, they do not get critical treatments or medicines.

However, a shift is taking place with Lean Six Sigma’s holistic approach. Insurance companies are now looking for effective ways to bring their costs down while at the same time providing medical cover for improved healthcare provisions.

CIGNA, a health insurance company describes how it is using Six Sigma to bring down medical costs while simultaneously improving the outcomes. To know about it, please click here: http://ciaranmay.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/focusing-power-of-ss-in-healthcare-insurance-industry.pdf

Eric Siegel, Ph.D., founder of Predictive Analytics World and Text Analytics World and Executive Editor of the Predictive Analytics Times, talks about how businesses can incorporate predictive analytics to upgrade their process.  A predictive model will help to know which new customers are likely to return and which are probably one-timers. He also mentioned about various benefits of retaining new customers. Moreover, by adopting this model, the first time customer can become a loyal customer.

For more information follow  http://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/customer_retention.php

Data analysis is an important part of BFSI organisations. It helps to manage huge customer database of the organisations. It also automates the day-to-day transaction process. An article by Mohan Jayaraman, Managing Director of Experian Credit Information Company of India Pvt. Ltd. and Country Manager of Experian India describes that it is necessary to bridge the gap between information and its effective usage. For this, data analytics solution requires ability to manage and draw interferences from large amounts of data.

 For more information, please go through: http://www.informationweek.in/informationweek/perspective/287791/indian-banks-improve-customer-lifecycle-analytics?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-indian-banks-can-improve-the-customer-lifecycle-by-using-data-analytics

Many marketers find themselves faced with overwhelming amount of data and organizational complexity, rapidly changing customer behaviors, and increased competitive pressure. Data or information has always been the USP, but now people are not using that USP in their advantage. If an investment is made in big data, one can extract only the relevant information and analyze it to transform the business decisions for the future.

Please go through the link for more details:http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/24321/marketers-and-big-data-in-2014-barriers-budgets-and-opportunities

A survey conducted by Cerulli Associates, a global analytics firm, reveals that 93% of the asset managers rely heavily on secondary market intelligence. This study was based on government agencies, trade organizations and research firms.

For more information: http://www.opalesque.com/650204/Majority_of_asset_managers_rely_on_secondary_market020.html          

Analytics can help businesses greatly to increase their online sales. Surprisingly, the potential of analytics is not yet fully uncovered. In most of the cases, either the business owners or the managers do not take the full advantage of it or they don’t know how to use it.

So, how should businesses use Analytics and interpret them to decrease attrition rates and increase sales on their website? See the tips here: http://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/business-analytics/8-ways-to-use-web-analytics-to-increase-online-sales/32728371

Research firm Gartner has predicted that half of the large organizations will have internal Facebook-like social networks by 2016, and that 30 percent of these will be considered as essential as email and telephones are today. It also noted that 80 percent of social business efforts will not achieve the intended benefits due to inadequate leadership. A report on “unified communication and collaboration” (UCC), by another research firm, Frost & Sullivan, pointed out that employees have become accustomed in recent years to simple and user-friendly interfaces of free online communications tools, such as Gmail and Facebook, which allow them to collaborate in only a few clicks.

To know more about this talk-of-the-town topic, read Author Al Bredenberg’s article by visiting the following link:

http://www.thomasnet.com/journals/techtrends/articles/companies-want-to-get-social-in-their-enterprise-collaboration

Inventory optimization (IO) solutions are meant to help managers match supply volume to customer demand over a large number of stock keeping units or SKUs. One significant drawback of single-echelon solution is that safety stock can only be managed at the individual facility level, which can result in excessive inventory if a company operates in multiple functions. Multi-echelon solutions allow safety stock to be managed and optimized over the entire network & are required for complex situations in which facilities are considered as parts of a network. With the time, business houses had realized the value of inventory optimization for improving gross margin. The potential benefits are substantial, albeit many managers had conveyed that cutting back too much on inventory can cause delays in order fulfilment and hence, there is a high chance of increased customer attrition. However, a recent survey revealed that best-in-class firms actually improve service levels and financial performance through their use of inventory optimization solutions. Hence, balancing inventory and service levels doesn’t have to be a win/lose exercise.

Author Al Bredenberg had given a detailed view on this aspect in his recent article. To read, visit the following link:

http://www.thomasnet.com/journals/techtrends/articles/inventory-optimization-helps-straddle-the-line-between-shortage-and-excess

Whether it is elections in India, or a service delivery model of a market leader in any sector, the incumbent is always at a disadvantage. Be it their government, their services like banking or healthcare, or their retail experience, the consumer wants them to continuously evolve in a direction which they perceive as beneficial to them. As time bound service contracts become passé, disruptive technology becomes available at affordable prices (think 3D printers, e-books, digital content, Google fiber, multi-core smart phones) today’s consumers and clients are exposed to a plethora of choices. With lowered exit cost barriers it is becoming imperative that a business does all it can to retain their customers.

Organizations realize that they not only have to ward off direct competitors but also cope up with tangential attacks from substitutes powered by disruptive technology. The choice between a successful well proven business model and a new idea is never easy. In the first case the organization risks its immediate client base by diverting significant funds and effort for turning an innovative idea into a winning product. This strategy has a high probability of failure which might cost them a significant market share. HTC lost a large portion of its small-medium priced phone market share in its bid to create a premium flagship smartphone model. In the second case, it believes in its business model and tries to take incremental steps to make it more robust till it is too late for them. Blockbuster, Blackberry and Borders are examples of organizations which could not counter the threat of new market players like Netflix, Android (Samsung, LG etc.) and Amazon. There is also a third case of the likes of Barnes & Noble and Nokia where the incumbent tries to play it safe by not going all out for the new technology but yet has a back-up plan to survive. So what’s the magic mantra? To me it remains the quintessential quest.

Though one thing I firmly believe in, is that the fickle consumer / client has become even more choice aware and will try out the new flavor of the month if they feel that their implicit or explicit objectives are not being met in the vendor-client relationship. Thus it is essential that organizations know the pulse of their clients and consumers and be geared towards meeting their changing demands. Analytics can play a key role here. Predictive analytics can help organizations preempt attrition by taking mitigating measures while social media and web analytics can help them know what some of their consumers are thinking and provide insights into their future behavior.

While the objective of analytics i.e. to provide actionable insight, remains the same, the demands of the information consumer have drastically changed. They want a lot more data crunched in much shorter time frames and yet presented with all the bells and whistles. With today’s scalable cloud computing infrastructure like AWS available and tons of reporting packages which play well with them it’s almost possible. It is also possible for the security conscious to invest and manage the requisite infrastructure in-house. The JIT (Just in time) lean principle applies here as well. An organization should only generate information and insights at the speed which it can take action on. Anything more could be a waste of resources.

Thus at the end of day, know the customer’s pulse, make an informed choice between evolutionary and revolutionary changes to your business model and be prepared to be blind-sided by someone your organization may have never heard of. To be or not be is an incumbent’s curse but making an informed choice and being prepared for change must never be a dilemma.

In this era of advanced analytics, there are many new challenges involving privacy and security of individuals, as computing power allows nonprofits, businesses, and researchers to gather ever-larger troves of information. Though it can be observed that there is a colossal increment in the amount of available data, we still only have two eyeballs and one brain! How a traditional library will look without a librarian, or an encyclopedia without an index? Scale that prospect up to the realms of web analytics, astronomy, high-speed finance, or even basketball statistics, and the problem becomes clear.

Research scientist Fernando Pérezof, University of California, Berkeley, recently spoke about it at a symposium titled “Weathering the Data Storm: The Promise and Challenges of Data Science,” hosted by the Institute for Applied Computational Science (IACS) at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

To read more, Please visit Harvard university article link given below:

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/01/the-promise-of-big-data/

By engaging more people in conversations/discussions related to company offerings via social media, organizations are creating brand awareness among mass. Today, creating hype for a soon to be launched product is easy & convenient with the help of social media, as it saves promotional cost as well as it helps in understanding consumer sentiment beforehand. By indulging in various social media conversations, people are actually acting like brand ambassadors & reviewers. Though chances of negative publicity cannot be ruled out entirely, still with a good structured online marketing strategy, immense benefits can be achieved. Few notable real time online advertising strategies deserve to be mentioned, such as following conversations and then joining them, saying no to discipline, getting legal permissions to use material, ensuring that the brand is never silent on social media, moving on when content gets stale, never ignoring negative feedback etc.

To read more, visit wall street journal article link given below:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303801304579407284034257414?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303801304579407284034257414.html