^The APQC Blog

IBM CEO and APQC Board Member Ginni Rometty recently declared the death of traditional marketing as we know it. New marketers MUST focus directly to the customer, not to the segment. Retailers are definitely feeling this pressure as consumers are pressuring them to lower prices, provide better service, and do it all at the time and place of the customer’s choosing.

In June 2013, TechTarget featured an  article by APQC's Mary Driscoll about organizations turning to Software as a Service (SaaS) for several finance operations, including processing for general accounting, disbursements, and payroll.

APQC recently remodeled our Houston, Texas office space! Much of the remodeling focused on updating the current space to ensure employees were comfortable in their work environment so they could do their best work.

Last month, APQC hosted a webinar on managing the risk of supply chain disruption. APQC'S Mary Driscoll, Experis' Eric Gerner and John Hejka, and Baker Hughes' Mike Miedema looked at how organizations identify and mitigate supply chain risk while maintaining efforts to control costs of materials and services. According to Eric Gerner of Experis, “supplier risk has been identified as one of the most strategic, highest level, and most critical risks out there.”

APQC is putting the finishing touches on a study that examined which tools (software and hardware) our members are using to be more productive at home and in the workplace.  We found that laptops and smartphones are the tools that are used most often (see chart below).  This comes on the heels of a recent article in USA Today by Jon Swartz that says most of us have more than one device. 

Work force planning is the process of ensuring that an organization has the talent it needs to accomplish strategic business goals when the organization needs it. Spending time on work force planning can drive the competitive advantage of an organization. A successful work force planning exercise identifies talent supply gaps for critical positions and generates strategies to develop and/or recruit talent to fill those gaps.

What are the unique challenges to filling positions in supply chain? A recent article in Supply Chain Digest emphasizes the demand for supply chain professionals and the benefits afforded those who choose the profession. The article notes that the demand for supply chain talent outpaces available supply. How are organizations recruiting and managing quality supply chain management professionals?

Obviously one of the highlights of APQC’s knowledge management (KM) conference is hearing our CEO, Carla O’Dell, give her views on where KM is headed.

It’s a sad truth that sometimes projects fail. This article written by Duncan Haughey, courtesy of the Process Excellence Network (PEX), examines five common reasons for project failure and suggests how to overcome them.

Successful Project Management is Not Rocket Science

Do you have questions regarding how the human resources shared services industry performs on key metrics related to: