^The APQC Blog

Some companies’ accounts payable (AP) functions spend 30 percent more than necessary on labor costs. That’s because they are drowning in paper invoices that must be processed by hand. Typically, documents have to be fed into a scanner that feeds into a software program that recognizes and sorts data. Short of that, information must be manually keyed into a system.

When I talk to our members about their knowledge management challenges, change management is always near the top of the list. It’s one thing to create a KM strategy and select knowledge-sharing and collaboration approaches you want to implement, but it’s another to actually roll out the new processes and get employees to embrace them.

APQC's Process Classification Framework (PCF) is a taxonomy of business processes that allows organizations to objectively track and compare their performance with the performance of other internal or external organizations, regardless of functional discipline or industry classification. During the first quarter of 2013, APQC conducted interviews with organizations that are leading users of the PCF.

Shared services refer to a separate organization or entity that manages service delivery through service level agreements. Tasks that shared services centers are responsible for are largely transactional in nature including HR administration, payroll, purchasing, accounting, and legal issues/compliance.

Do you think that global supply chains are at greater risk of physical disruption today? APQC is currently conducting a survey to learn whether or not business executives believe this to be true and what their organizations are doing to address that risk.

A recent survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) found that 61 percent of organizations experienced actual or attempted payments fraud in 2012.  One example of payments fraud: a criminal manages to print what appear to be legitimate paper checks and then finds clever ways to get them cashed.

APQC loves to look at thriving knowledge management programs and analyze the secrets behind their success. I recently had the pleasure of doing this at audit, tax, and advisory services firm Grant Thornton LLP. Grant Thornton formalized its KM function in 2007 as part of an effort to improve firm-wide access to knowledge and enhance sharing across geographical locations. Despite the global economic downturn that ensued, the organization was able to grow its capabilities quickly and embed knowledge sharing and reuse in key business processes.

APQC has launched its latest business excellence Best Practices Report Effective Project Management Offices.

In this latest research, there are 14 best practices that emerged with regard to project management offices (PMOs). They range from:

Compiled for those considering APQC membership, this collection offers a sampling of the human capital management (HCM) content that is available in APQC’s Knowledge Base. This content represents a small percentage of our Knowledge Base, but it is a good representation of the kind of information located on our site.

Supply chain planning can often be extremely difficult to manage across enterprise and functional areas within an organization. Functional area expectations, priorities, and preferences can often differ when looking at supply chain planning activities; however, cost effectiveness, process efficiency, and cycle time are common considerations.