Sirius Solutions Blog
When speaking with business professionals, most would say that the hardest part of a big software implementation is the “go-live.” Some might tell you that it’s the design sessions or the integration testing. It’s likely that none will tell you that the hardest part of a software implementation is the software selection.
With so much money spent on software each year it is more important than ever to choose the right software tool that fits the business. The cost of the software license itself, the hardware to run it, the people to implement it, and the maintenance of it can add up to a fairly significant percentage of annual revenue. Surprisingly, you will find that companies that use a process for picking the decor and fixtures for their conference rooms seldom use a process for picking the software that runs the company. Imagine using a process that creates assets on the accounting side but doesn’t integrate with the corresponding equipment on the operations side. Disconnected data? Sure. But it is also a sign of a process that doesn’t involve all the stakeholders.
Software selection is an opportunity to highlight many of those areas and address them. It is also an opportunity to find areas where the processes do work together, but where the data is segregated. Segregated data causes the departments to duplicate effort, often with incorrect results and at great expense. And data will be at the core of any software process.
The next time you think about choosing a piece of software—whether to run the whole company or just a part of it—ask yourself these questions:
- Does the software work with my processes, or do my processes have to change?
- Do all of the stakeholders affected have a say in the software decision?
- Will the software investment pay off before the software becomes obsolete?
Last, but not least, evaluate the software and processes on a regular basis. Technology changes quickly and so does your business. If you rely on software to run any or all of your business, make sure the software can keep up.
Is your business Disaster Recovery Plan ready to cope with a real emergency? A good way for you to find out is to perform a complete evaluation. At a recent gathering of the Association of Contingency Planners, South Texas Chapter, we met with workplace contingency planning professionals and shared our thoughts on things to consider when developing and reviewing Disaster Recovery Plans. A summary of our discussion follows.
A good Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) consists of three key elements: people, processes and technology. All too often people are left out of the equation - yet one of the most important steps to ensure recovery is getting others involved in the planning process. Many companies will spend significant time developing a DRP that is ineffective because process owners were not involved in the planning.
There are several reasons for performing an evaluation. One important reason is to communicate to management or insurance providers that all of the elements of a good DRP are included in your plan and that the plan has been tested. Other reasons for regular evaluations are to identify control gaps, comply with government regulations and ensure business process owners are held accountable.
Lastly, a third party evaluation of the DRP, whether internal or external, provides added value to an organization. Similar to having a co-worker proofread an important document, a third party evaluation brings more objectivity and validity to the findings.
categorized under: Business Processes, Compliance, Contingency Planning, Controls and Processes, Disaster Recovery PlanThe Licensing Executive Society (LES) Chemicals, Energy, Environmental and Materials Sector (CEEM), in coordination with the LES International CEEM Sector recently released its first “LES CEEM Royalty Rates and Deal Terms Survey.”
This survey provides a unique industry sector perspective on licensing royalty rates and deal terms not found in other licensing or royalty rate publications. For example, the report illustrates the impact that other financial components and the stage of technology development can have on a negotiated royalty rate. In addition, the report illustrates differences in royalty rates when an academic institution is involved in the deal or when the deal is for an exclusive versus a non-exclusive license.
LES also recently released the “LES Global BioPharma Royalty Rates and Deal Terms Survey.” Survey participants were members of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and their responses provide a detailed analysis of fixed royalties, tiered royalties, deal terms and valuation methods. This survey includes data based on stage of development, therapeutic area types and peak annual sales.
The LES press release announcing these surveys can be found here
As chairman of the CEEM Survey committee I encourage all in the licensing community to join LES and obtain a copy of the survey findings.
categorized under: Biotechnology, Chemical, Compliance, Deal Terms, Energy, Environmental, LES, Licensing, Materials, Royalty RatesLEAN is an approach for process flow improvements that is directed at eliminating those activities that do not add value. As such, waste is removed, systems are better organized and customer value is maximized. Companies that apply LEAN to their business processes have better information for decision making, and will be able to execute reports in a timely and efficient manner.
LEAN began as a technique to reduce waste, primarily on the factory floor. Before long it was being used to streamline transactional office and service processes, and now has developed into a means for improving more demanding aspects of knowledge work including engineering, product development and accounting and finance. The LEAN principles are below:
- Specify value in the eyes of the customer
- Identify the value stream, then eliminate waste and variation
- Make value flow from the pull of the customer
- Involve, align and empower employees
- Continuously improve knowledge in pursuit of perfection
From an organizational standpoint, traditional approaches lead to siloed groups formed by functional areas. These groups often work only on their own duties, unaware of the total value stream. The attitude of “every one for themselves” leads to disruption in flow, bottlenecks and inefficiencies. When the focus turns to the value stream instead, these same groups take a product flow perspective and can avoid delays and satisfy customer requirements.
The tools of LEAN focus on the process and the results are impressive. LEAN principles result in improvements to on-time delivery, labor productivity, throughput, work-in-process inventory, internal scrap and time-to-market, in many cases by 50% or more! This allows companies to improve delivery and response times, leading to increased customer satisfaction and bottom line growth.
In today's age of interconnected electronic information, securing information and monitoring the IT security environment is of increasing importance to a growing number of constituents – individuals, corporations and the government. Cybersecurity affects you across all three.
Individuals are impacted by cybersecurity in ways which include identity theft, compromised personal information, personal computer infestations and account and password complexities. Businesses may suffer from corporate espionage, intellectual property theft, service interruptions and fines from regulatory non-compliance. The federal government must deal with possible compromise of military secrets and critical infrastructure damage.
While cybersecurity is a growing concern, IT audit can be used to play a role in improving protection programs. While there remains some traditional disconnects between IT and internal audit groups, including a lack of funds in IT budgets for additional audit programs and limited corporate sponsorship in enforcing security policies, common ground does exist. Audits provide IT with visibility into potential problem areas, assistance on compliance efforts, policy reinforcement and prioritization for remediation efforts.
Best practices for ensuring successful cybersecurity audits include the following:
- Defining purpose and scope
- Developing an audit checklist
- Performing the security assessment
- Mitigating flaws and weaknesses
- Implementing on-going protection measures
Organizations such as Infragard, the SANS Institute and US-CERT are excellent sources for the latest in security information and intelligence, so be sure to stay alert and involved!
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