The Business Agility Blog

The final type of solution left to be discussed in the Telecom Channel Portals 2.0 series of posts is the commission automation app. This type of application, like the marketing portal and order entry portal, saves telecommunications organizations a significant amount of time and money.

Commission and bill processing, however, is an enormously difficult task for telecommunication organizations. It also provides an opportunity for these organizations to differentiate themselves in a very competitive market. On the business agility blog, we’ve talked about automating manual processes before, but here we have an application with the potential to increase the bottom line for literally every stakeholder involved.

A Respectable ROI

Online portals can be automated and customized for recurring commission structures based on the type of partner and product/services being sold. Commission management and execution is a key business driver in the industry, so optimizing the partner sales channel should be a top priority for most telecom organizations. As more providers jump-start technology initiatives in channel management, these online services will inevitably become the norm.

Resellers are more likely to work with organizations that keep them informed about commission. After spending valuable resources winning business, being able to log into an application to check financial position, time-line of payment, and other stats is a real game changer. Resellers are also more likely to continue business with a provider that values transparency, which fosters trust in the relationship.

Channel Manager Approved

Having spoken with channel managers who have seen the before and after effects of implementing this type of application, its results are readily verified. While the Mendix platform is primarily responsible for achieving new levels of business agility, the immediate business value in automating commission is definitely there. The difference is that Mendix allows development teams to be more flexible than off-the-shelf apps, and much faster than custom development – which amplifies your return.

The moral of this story is that online portals can go much further than displaying and collecting information. By including logic into an application, the functionality and time saving capabilities become nearly endless. All too often, we see gigantic excel spreadsheets used for finance-based processes such as tracking commission payments. By automating this process, time is saved, errors are avoided, and transparency is increased.

This concludes the final post in the Telecom Channel Portals 2.0 series. For more information about how telecommunications companies can increase their business agility, check out our Telecom Factsheet.

In part two of this series of blog posts, let’s discuss another way for telecommunications organizations to improve business agility. Online quoting and order entry is an area of interest for channel managers at telecommunications organizations for good reason. These processes reflect the transfer of data and knowledge between sales stakeholders. In effect, online quoting and order entry modules offer fast return on investments.

Speaking of fast, what would a post on the business agility blog be without mentioning agile software development? In this industry, processes like online quoting and order entry are where ‘Agile’ truly shines. You need to be able to implement these solutions quickly, and they need to be adaptable to dynamic business environments in order to capture the greatest return.

Ian Evans, of British Telecom, writes in his article titled Agile Delivery at British Telecom:

“Reinforcement of current waterfall-based practices was not really the answer however. Many of the delivery problems experienced at BT, and no doubt other large organisations, stem from the nature of the waterfall lifecycle itself. Some examples of these problems are given here…”

In addition to the obvious prerequisite of business and IT alignment, Evans goes on to list the following issues that their 8,000 person IT army have learned to deal with over the years:

Waterfall:

• Poor requirements capture
• Disconnected design
• Development squeeze
• The integration headache
• The deployment nightmare

Many of the issues that Evans writes about regarding “re-orienting a large IT organization from pursuing well-established waterfall-based delivery approach to being a truly agile delivery unit” are solved or avoided by the Mendix Business Agility Suite – but I’ll leave that for another post. The point is: telecommunications organizations (and their IT departments) need to be agile in order to compete.

In these circumstances, a provider can differentiate themselves by making it quick and simple for resellers, sales managers, and clients to get the data they need to win business. What’s more important than providing your potential client with an accurate quote? This may sound simple, but for many telecommunication organizations, [multi-locational] quoting is a highly complex task that is often managed and processed manually in spreadsheets. Imagine migrating all of these quoting spreadsheets that circulate through an organization and through the reseller channel into one integrated rich web-based quoting solution.

The benefits that come with an agile online quoting and order entry module are as follows:

• You’re providing 24/7 quoting and improving the accuracy of those quotes simultaneously.
• By providing self-service quoting, you’re giving both resellers and direct customers instant gratification, which leads to higher conversion rates.
• You can manage quoting for multiple locations simultaneously, and you can add new services, locations, discounts, and other variables to the quoting application easily.
• All of the above allow your staff to focus on more valuable and complex sales processes.

Stay tuned for the third part of my Telecom Channel Portals 2.0 series of blog posts. In the next post, we look into automating commission – another complex task, often undercut by legacy technology.

Mendix’s longstanding partnerships with Universities have always provided welcome opportunities to participate in interesting projects, courses and seminars.  This fall we are proud to have a group of highly talented students working on the CEMS International Consultancy Assignment in cooperation with Mendix. The topic under investigation is a very challenging one: Advise Mendix on optimal entry strategies.

The title for the consultancy project couldn’t be more fitting for the times: “Determine an entry strategy into a market by investigating an existing software eco-system.” The students set out to analyze the market, as well as the current vendor eco-system.

At the end of October the group will visit the Mendix Headquarters to give a presentation of their final results and conclusion in from of the Management team. The results are likely going to form the basis for Mendix’s entry strategies in 2011.

Stay tuned!

About the CEMS International Consultancy Assignment

The CEMS International Consultancy Assignment is a highly reputed project completed by CEMS students in cooperation with young & emerging companies as well as with large multinationals.  International New Ventures and Multinational Firms are confronted with decisions about how to (further) internationalize, in what way to do this, and how to organize to maintain competitive in the global market place. Key issues for entrepreneurs and managers in this respect are market selection, entry strategies, strategic positioning, organizing to compete internationally, and international alliance management. Young CEMS consultants look into the needs, assets and ambitions of small(er) and larger firms and help them to manage their growth and international expansion more effectively.

About CEMS

CEMS is a strategic alliance of leading business schools and multinational companies. Its first mission is to set a global standard of excellence for pre-experience Master’s in management.

CEMS is the global league of leaders on the pre-experience Master’s market and it cannot be equaled in terms of reputation of its members: 27 world-class academic institutions (25 full members and 2 associate members) collaborate together with more than 62 corporate partners to offer international, postgraduate students a unique blend of high quality education and professional experience.

In a previous post regarding the emergence of the Business Engineer, I discussed the Who, What and Why of this new type of human capital. At Mendix, we see them growing in numbers, most likely due to the nature of our software. If you’re going to give business analysts the ability to develop software, or developers the ability to communicate business – you’re going to see doors open and walls collapse on either side of the business-IT equation.

The BA

In order to figure out exactly where BE’s come from, so that we can harness their powers for the greater good of business agility, we’ll have to know more about their closest relative – the BA. According to The International Institute of Business Analysis, the role of a business analyst involves: “the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization and to recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.”

Well isn’t that something. All of those tasks and techniques are funneled down into a recommended solution and passed along to the technical wizards who turn requirements into reality. I’ve always wondered whether the less-than-technical BAs wish they could, perhaps just once, finish the job and deploy an application. Perhaps they’d hate to deal with code, I’m not sure. What I am sure of, however, is that business engineers dream about models (business-models, pervert!) and how great it would be if they could get requirements and deliver solutions, on their own.

The BE

Call it selfish; call it futuristic; you can even call it a pie in the sky. With the emergence of the business engineer, demand for agile software development, visual modeling tools and a revamped SDLC is truly explosive. Based on the definition above, the BE is not really related at all to who we now know as the business analyst. Though I mean not to offend nor aggravate business analysts or software developers, I must assume that they see the astronomies of their value propositions colliding.

So then, if the business analyst recommends a solution, it must be the business engineer who implements it. And if the business analyst plans the solution, the business engineer deploys it. I may even go as far as to say that business analysts identify the problem, where business engineers solve it. This fine, yet drastic and seemingly impossible, line – is growing in organizations everywhere.

What’s Next

As I mentioned in part one of this series of posts, the ambiguity of the business engineer is becoming more believable with every Mendix user. What was once called impossible by technologists is now championed as magic by audiences of our ‘proof’ of concepts, and we’re betting will one day be considered the norm in enterprise software development. In the meantime, collaboration between business and IT may remain segregated by occupational obstacles inherent to aging technologies and ancient practices.

The current generation of business and technology students is likely to pave the way for career paths in business engineering. Courses in business engineering will be taught by today’s business engineers, and until then, these heroes of enterprise software can only enlighten their organizations with a glimpse into the future of business agility.

A new employee shares her experience joining the Mendix team…

The switch from an IT Analyst position at a global financial services firm with over 60,000 employees to a Sales Architect role at an IT start-up company almost 100 people strong has been nothing short of exhilarating.

My introduction to our Dutch roots in August was a most welcoming reception.  Although IT Analysts at a large financial institution are valued, there is an extremely slim chance of spending quality time with managing directors and an even smaller chance of meeting the CEO.  In contrast, sharing thoughts and ideas in an informal setting is considered the norm here at Mendix; your words and actions are appreciated by your colleagues.  Our CEO makes it a point to share his ideas about the future of our company, and truly respects and provokes our opinions.

Most importantly, the shift of priorities is noticeable, wherein Mendix focuses on our customers first, with no political agenda or conflict to slow us down.  The change management process requiring business unit and project stakeholder sign-offs before even thinking about a prototype is simply not necessary.  Extensive SDLC hiccups like the scoping and requirements gathering process disappear.  Our agile platform allows us to leverage clients’ knowledge about their business processes, often coming up with custom solutions in just days versus years spent writing Java code and using Savvion to design a workflow system.

Such instant gratification coupled with lightning-fast turnaround on projects (in comparison to my experience in the corporate world) is very exciting!  The motivation factor here at Mendix is undeniable, a complete reversal of the unreachable ROI and disappointing project status reports often faced in my old world.  In my 6 years of experience at a large financial institution I noticed people tended to drag their feet and claim “that is not their job” for fear of being responsible for some negative outcome.  Life at Mendix is a pleasurable experience given the community feel, liberating environment, and the high tech, user-friendly product we are all so happy to be a part of.

As a Sales Architect I am able to leverage my IT background but not required to sit in a cubicle writing code all day, avoiding interaction with others.  As an IT Analyst at a major investment bank, distraction from my Eclipse IDE meant I would have to explain to my manager why we need to modify the project plan yet again.  Here at Mendix, working hand-in-hand with clients and team members means we are able to produce custom solutions at a more rapid pace, with input from those involved throughout the process.  Everyone is so supportive, friendly and happy to be here.

Stay tuned for my upcoming blogs.  Next up … discussions on efficiencies the Mendix Business Modeler creates for developers, and the headaches it would have saved me in my previous role!

Best Regards,

Justine Bailey | Sales Architect Mendix

Boston, October 7th – Mendix, a leading provider of agile business solutions, has awarded implementation partner Magnus Technology Solutions the Mendix Agile Partner Award for their project with Sanoma Publishers. The annual contest recognizes a Mendix partner responsible for developing and implementing an outstanding solution built using the Mendix platform. The Magazine Production Portal created by Magnus Technology Solutions is used internationally to facilitate the configuration and manufacturing of Sanoma magazines.

Regarded as an integral system by Sanoma, the Magazine Production Portal replaces extensive manual processes with a fully automated online application. The portal minimizes waste, provides superior service, and offers additional services online. The project was completed and released within only six months; additional functionality has been added since the first release.

The award ceremony was held during Mendix Partner World Conference last week, an annual event that brings Mendix partners together from around the world to share experiences and discuss the future of Mendix. Derek Roos, CEO of Mendix, announced the winning project; “Magnus did a great job in building this advanced solution. The jury selected this project because of its true agile implementation, the complexity of the project, usability, and the astounding ROI that it achieved.”

The solution integrates seamlessly with Sanoma’s SAP system, making Mendix their first choice for all new applications in the future. The Mendix Business Agility Suite allowed Magnus to conceptualize and develop the system efficiently, assuring stakeholders that all requirements could be attained within the predetermined scope.

Andre Damsteegt, Director at Magnus Technology Solutions accepted the award. “Mendix really listened, and proved their product based on our feedback. The platform allowed us to deliver a completely automated and standardized environment for Sanoma brands, with an ROI in less than one year.”

About Magnus

Magnus is a leading IT service provider based in the Netherlands, that specializes in implementing, developing and managing IT solutions. Magnus helps companies realize their strategy by designing, building and implementing innovative solutions that contribute to better business results.

Magnus has expertise in areas such as SAP, Microsoft, Mendix, E-business and E-Commerce, SOA and Integration, customization and SharePoint solutions. Keywords for the service that Magnus offers its customers are: shoulder to shoulder, pragmatic, focused and results oriented. More information is available at www.magnus.nl.

At Mendix, we find that our customers appoint a particular kind of person to work with our products. Sometimes they’re from IT, sometimes they’re a business analyst or project manager – in any case, they practice the skills of both fields. Times are changing, departmental lines are blurring, and a new breed of business superhero has risen: the BE.

The ‘Business Engineer’ – who are they, what do they do, and why you want to know them.

Who

Until now, these men and women of myth have appeared under the guise of your organizational boundaries – half business and half IT. As champions of business modeling, they dance between the ranks of geeks and suits in companies everywhere, aptly increasing business agility at every collaborative junction. With a flash drive dangling from their sports car keychain and first place positions in both Online Poker and Fantasy Baseball, they are what we believe to be the future of the modern business analyst. In this series of blog posts, we attempt to uncover the true nature of this evolved employee…

What

The title of ‘business engineer’ is not completely novel, as it has been used in the past to describe a role similar to that of a business development manager. Under a new light of enterprise software modeling, this term refers to the business analyst on technical steroids – or the IT whiz with a knack for client relations. These skills, once segregated at a basic level of undergraduate education, have merged into a hybrid force of human capital with more creative power than either part could ever fathom.

These collaborative powers can push companies into uncharted profits, as they attribute to the resiliency of a company’s technology. Agility, as readers of this blog know, affords an organization the ability to change with its business environment. The more easily technological change can occur, the faster and more decisive an organization becomes. Charles Darwin says it best: “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

The business engineer is not a mythical entity – they may even be sitting in the room as you read this post. Finding them and harnessing their abilities should be a primary goal of any manager. In terms of organizational behavior, they are the ‘central connector.’ In terms of organizational culture, they are the ‘go-to guy.’ And in terms of business agility, they are the binding force between business users and technical experts that have never been able to see eye to eye.

Why

The reasons why you’d want business engineers in your company are significant. They make the technology that your company uses easier to use, more intuitive, and they do so faster and with minimal adversity. With the adoption of visual business modeling, and agile development methodologies, these unsung heroes of the enterprise era are here to stay. Do you know the business engineer at your organization? If not, it just might be you.