Service objectives


The following list represents the Key Service Objectives (KSO) for the Appleton Greene Transitional Optimization service.Focus
The company’s focus on transitional optimization service objectives provides measurable change in the state of a company’s lifecycle. Overall the service will provide increased value to itself and its customers leading to increased profitability. Whether the organization competes in an aggressive market, a market in decline or a stagnate market it must find ways to increase quality of product/service while also reducing costs. Companies are constantly changing which has a significant impact on how the business, service providers, and their personnel work together. The economy, the industry and the strategic plan of the company will guide the service objectives. The change process may be of one or more new business development activities for existing products/services, mergers and acquisitions, product re-engineering, research & development leading to new entrepreneurial start-ups are just a few opportunities and outcomes in transitional optimization service. The service looks to the future in respect to the potentially highly-effective performance of their people, process and technology. It includes understanding, analyzing, and seeing things in a different perspective and building a way forward to align and maximize company value. In any one of the strategic plan executed directions the goal will be to use cross functional collaboration to deliver potent financial planning and analysis insights that boast profitability and performance. The optimization service will develop on-time execution in line with embedded financial key performance indicators to continually monitor the plan/project. Each phase builds on the next solidifying strategy, identifying the key deliverables, monitoring the efforts and leaving time to pivot and improve procedures along the way. The service would narrow in on essential opportunities and relevant risks that will affect the organization’s strategic plan. All predictive analytics to develop, leverage and enhance decision making will maximize effectiveness could be used. This could be in the form of rolling forecasting and innovative talent management and techniques. Cost cutting VS growth is a balancing act. Good ideas plus effective action equal positive growth.

Plan
After the focus and definition phase, regardless of the actionable opportunities identified an executable plan is developed that can have multiple identifiable directions and outcomes to align with the discovery during the focus stage. Planning would ensure that goals resonate with all stakeholders. The plan focus will be interdepartmental and emphasize collaboration. Details developed would be to create strategic goals and objectives including measuring, action plans, project leads, stakeholder reporting and funding requirements. The plan would clone what’s working, script the critical moves and identify a clear destination. Once the intended trajectory is clear a strategic change agenda would be developed identifying existing well-functioning and silo systems that lack effective interaction with existing systems, systems, systems needing enhancement/upgraded and new systems with deliverable timelines. Of note, often what is perceived as a people problem is really a situational/system problem. During the planning process the goal will be to develop innovating thinking and engagement for the plan. The plan will also address workplace productivity with new processes, combining ideas that work together to make new, innovative productive process/systems, showcase unique qualities and be creative in better ways to showcase productive/service, connect with customers, market the business. In the plan, using simple analytics, connecting the dots to multiple data streams to identify patterns that can drive a company’s growth and highlight areas of revenue and revenue leakage and cumbersome costly delivery systems are examples. With Collaboration across the company’s lifecycle the plan can develop a synergistic and integrated platform for the infrastructure, tools, methods and best practices.

Align
Good plans will engage all business units and keep senior managers informed to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities and their department’s deliverables. The transaction optimization plan(s) will cascade to managers throughout the organization. This will prevent improper or unclear delegation of duties and responsibilities. An internal communications program will be developed to pave the way for greater alignment and more effective reporting. The reporting will include a pre-launch and ongoing communications throughout the year to keep teams aligned. Communication activities can include town hall progress meetings, newsletters, banners, email blasts etc. Open forums for suggestions will be implemented with review, feasibility and project timing activities. Throughout the engagement there will be a clear path toward on time direction of the plan, motivation and shaping the environment for the new plan. In today’s uncontrollable external uncertainties can have an impact on businesses There are also internal factors to consider whether it be new product/service development, merger/acquisition or realignment of existing product/service. These factors can lead to a wide range of business outcomes which must are accounted for in the planning but also must be accounted for in the alignment in executing the plan. As the plan’s execution becomes a reality with the proper alignment the business is in a prime position to both minimize the negative impacts and efficiently capitalize on the new opportunities. As the plan progresses it is important to create business sustainability and agility in the face of complexity. The business model of the plan will have operational dexterity and the ability to change the business model and alignment as necessitated by market forces, competition and stakeholders. Lastly, the plan objectives are the domain of senior executives but they must be used in a way to align the entire organizations team.

Resources
The cost for development of the key component(s) of the transitional optimization within the strategic plan will be identified. The costs of execution – capital, labor and non-labor will be identified and placed in the budget cycle identifying their placement to align with the strategic plan time line. In addition, the growth and performance improvement objectives will have identified increased revenue and cost –saving opportunities which will be quantified and incorporated into the financial plan. In assembling the resources deep dives will be made to analyze and reduce the time collecting data so more time analyzing and understanding what that data is telling them. Cutting down on the time it takes to develop and re-develop reports, budgets, and forecasts by automating data collection as much as possible. KPIs, dashboards and scorecards can, and should, be automated so you can update plans with real-time information to allow focus on transactions and metrics evaluating the strategic plan that will drive the business forward. A review of the resources allocated and needed is ongoing and dynamic. Resources that allow for employee resources to access, update and analyze their data with minimal training will take the strain off of the Finance and IT teams, while achieve a level of fast-paced execution, reporting and on-going forecasting required in today’s business environment. In identifying resources for the team, training may be instituted and is available during transitional optimization to enhance skills that may be necessary. Depending on the plan there may be rapid prototype concepts, maximize success in early stage enterprise, transfer ideas to market, understand how ideas are created and launched, debug, alignment and integration during mergers/acquisitions to name a few.

Execute Monitor
As the plan is executed a formal real-time monitor phase starts. Objectives are monitored and course corrections are made. The focus will be on timely implementation with reporting to ensure the proper tools and resources are in place for accountability and success. We will focus on monitoring the short-term goals with immediate results while keeping aligned with the long-term project goals. There will be continuing emphasis on management reporting, developing key performance indicators and reporting dashboards. Frequent forecasting and plan re-assessment with internal and external factors for impact will be ongoing to identify new realities. This will eliminate driving toward a plan goal that is based on a previous reality. In today’s highest-performing businesses a rolling forecast is used to create dynamic plans that give the needed information to take advantage of new opportunities. Current information can give the company the agility to take advantage of opportunities ahead of the competition increasing their profitability. Profitability will continue to be a business issue, but the path to profitability may change in the ebb and flow of transitional optimization and come from some combination of increased revenue and decreased cost. Thus it is expected to simultaneously formulate and execute both revenue and cost strategies. Companies are entering a new age of economic uncertainties and limited resources dispersed within the company. Optimized companies must ensure that the resources are leveraged to their best potential to create the unique capabilities, effectiveness and utilization. Defined in the plan, aligned and resource developed, key triggers will be monitored as optimization is achieved. Key triggers such as globalization, pace of change, profitability through cost and growth, focus on capabilities, complex regulatory environment, mergers and acquisitions, rapid technological evolution and higher customer expectations will be monitored.