The Challenge

Scale and intuition will only get you so far. When online higher education student growth at the Colorado State University School of Business hit 25%-30% YoY, while also introducing new products and classes, making the grade was teetering on chaos.

Expenses were scattered and potentially running rampant. The introduction of the CIS and Accounting programs were added to the MBA programs, visibility and accountability were scarce at best. In aggregate there was clarity, but course by course there existed a mirage. What did it take to produce a class online? Pre-production, production, post-production could each dramatically impact profitability.

A/V online education has an infinite number of opportunities for error. Think broadcast TV quality (lighting, sound, picture quality), a classroom full of rustling students, connectivity, the internet itself, a lead generation and a payment system and instructors that might often drop the wrong word-bomb and gee, what could possibly go wrong?

The school needed real numbers, true accountability and genuine chance at meeting the needs of the school and the students.

The Solution

A “throwing bodies at it” approach was a one way ticket to disaster. What were true break even cost? Where could efficiencies be gained? What are the bottlenecks? What were the tools, processes and people that would enable the online school to grow exponentially? The goal had to be the migration from intuitive management to systemic operations.

Alignment of teams and the formal organization of functional groups were the first steps that allowed for accurate personnel and expense measurement. To reduce errors, improve quality a number of processes were introduced:

• Pre-production checklist – Working with Faculty to deliver great content and start precisely on time.
• Tracked Errors – Did something fail in production? If so it went into the checklist.
• Formal Change Management – A/V processes would not change without due process.

Objectifying time, tools and processes rendered a clearer and clear picture of wins, losses and a sustainable path for progress.

The Result

The MBA program initially consisted 4 classes, 3 hours long with a 35 seat classroom. The online MBA program grew from 140 students to to 1500 students between 2001 and 2014. GSSE, Global Social And Sustainable Enterprise, CIS, and other specialized offerings such as BBI and Finance were added to the program.

Efficiency was increased significantly:

• 25% overall operation cost in IT
• 15% reduction in audio-video production
• Non-recurring “accidents” in production delivery quality
• Consistent 12pm posting and 12am availability for online content consumption

Today the online education program is a vital revenue source for the CSU School of Business. The organizational transformation, combined with a continued decrease in technology costs,  and a steady stream of students seeing an MBA online, provide a positive outlook for continued increases in online education revenue.

The Challenge

A healthcare accounting software project, that was to become the market leader in it’s industry segment, was spiraling out of control. Originally estimated as a two year development effort, was already a year behind schedule with no evidence that the existing estimates had any reliability..

It’s a classic software story whereas the longer the project had run, the farther from completion it got. As the project delivery date was repeatedly extended, the total cost of the project continued to skyrocket. The business needed help with the goals, roadmap, people and processes. No small task.

The goal, bring the a healthcare provider accounting software Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to completion and release a tested, stable version market asap.

The Solution

The Strategy: Accomplish the MVP by . . .

1. Leveraging the Organization Ontology
2. Crashing the critical path
3. Unleashing qualified resources

We initiated “O2”, a unique combination of scalable industry best practices; Organizational Ontology, defining organizational practices, and Software Engineerings Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (SEI CMM) defining the development processes.

The first step, a management plan for the organization consisting of the roles, responsibilities and authority allocated to each of the individuals who make up the project team. Authority is mission critical as it allows individuals to complete their work.

Second, the production and implementation of a resource loaded timeline of sequenced engineering deliverables. (Aka, and achievable Roadmap to success.)

Finally, performance metrics against the strategies were defined. The reporting system was consequently used to drive decision making at a management level.

The Result

The results are the financials. The implementation cut almost two calendar years off the estimated project duration and despite increasing the staff count by a factor of more than three, a recent estimate of actual costs to the completion date are $13.2 million for a total savings of $2.9 million in direct labor costs.

But by far the most significant cost savings was associated with lost opportunity. This number is somewhat more difficult to estimate. The approach taken here is that a delay in the delivery of the system leads to a delay in the sale of the product and the lost earnings that compound throughout the life span of the business plan. The opportunity cost associated with the original start date and and estimated earnings of 12% of gross revenue is in the neighborhood of $30 million in earnings on $250 million in lost sales.

Overall, the success of the project was “textbook”. Ultimately the result was a total change in organizational culture with an outstanding improvement in engineering productivity. It is seldom that the software industry has such an overwhelming success turning around failing leadership projects.

The Challenge

DEWALT was long overdue for a website redesign but was struggling with the information architecture and nomenclature. The existing site was based on divisions of the company that created products and whatever terminology the development team would garner the most SEO. Thus, products weren’t well categorized, and people were viewing everything based on long form terminology. EX: “1/2″ VSR Pistol Grip Drill with E-Clutch Anti-Lock Control“.

The Solution

Talking with the folks who actually use their hands to build hospitals, banks, houses, restaurants, offices spaces, etc., it was obvious that nobody on the job site would say, “Hey, can you hand me the 1/2″ VSR Pistol Grip Drill with E-Clutch Anti-Lock Control?” They’d say, “Can you grab the DWD220?” Additionally it was revealed that the number one reason they went to the site to “see what’s new.” They like their toys . . . I mean tools.

Another insight came from the frustration of tool owners who needed replacement parts. Parts were in a different navigation system. Completely unintuitive for folks who know the model and came to DEWALT.com to get parts.

The Result

DEWALT was long overdue for a website redesign but was struggling with the information architecture and nomenclature. The existing site was based on divisions of the company that created products and whatever terminology the development team would garner the most SEO. Thus, products weren’t well categorized, and people were viewing everything based on long form terminology. EX: 1/2″ VSR Pistol Grip Drill with E-Clutch Anti-Lock Control”.