Driven by Radical Candor, Root Cause and Building Independence, not dependence - People Focused Solutions & Products.

BELYONS OF ROWS!

Let’s talk about selection criteria for that AI\ML platform you’re considering. (ed: yes, I know, I said let’s stop calling it AI\ML, ships turn slow)

We’ve been seeing a lot more ads about different AI platforms out there and they’re typically along the lines of “…crunch through billions of rows of data in 9 seconds flat!” – or some such. While those are great metrics to consider, they really need to be second, or even third, on the list of what you’re thinking of.

Here’s how we approach ML platform selection with our customers.

First – you really want to consider how the platform ingests all the data you have. It used to be there was a lot (a LOT) of data normalization – and that shouldn’t be the case anymore. Make sure you understand what data formats you can export (or which and how you will allow connections into your sources) and the capabilities of the platform to ingest, understand and draw inferences from that data.

Second – what questions are you trying to answer? It’s great to just look forward to being delightfully surprised by unexpected pleasant surprise correlations – or causations – and be able to tell between the two. It’s even more important you set out with a list of questions you want optimal answers to and find those pertinent patterns in your data.

Third – accuracy! Even after training the model, is accuracy being actively, reiteratively measured and are you ensuring you keep training your model as you discover new, pertinent, patterns? This is critically important to ensure you’re tracking to reality and new emerging and changing old patterns. Data, business – the world – is never a static snapshot in time. This, by the way, is where a lot of ML projects come up short – the process of ensuring reiterative training doesn’t occur. ML is not a one shot.

A quick shout out to ClosedLoop.ai. No they didn’t sponsor this post, we just really like their current direction for healthcare!

Finally, keep in mind that most ML platforms today are focused on post-encounter or post-service transactions. If you have pre-encounter or pre-service questions or patterns you are looking for, consider something that’s more of a heuristic platform. We’re still researching and sorting through those now, and tinkering with one of our own making. We’ll make sure to update when we have something tangible.

Thanks for tuning in!

Why Aren’t You On the Cloud?

Why aren’t you on the cloud?

We’re getting tactical with you today. There are a few, and only a few, reasons for your enterprise not to get to the cloud. Stop hosting your own virtual machines (VMs) or hosting them on someone else’s infrastructure, pick a cloud provider and get “your mess, for less” on a cloud provider’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Then have a plan to incrementally move from IaaS to Software or Platform as a Service (SaaS/PaaS). The recent ransomware events area a clear indicator that even security vendors are having challenges, and will continue to do so.

Carve out those systems that cannot be moved – then pressure those vendors to get on the ball, connect the rest of it up to a cloud with connections back to those legacy systems as needed. The work involved is well worth the payoff both in short and medium term benefits. You’re getting a layer of unmatchable protection, resiliency and elasticity.

If you think you’re a carve out exception, or you want to know where to start, first three folks that contact us get an hour on us to discuss and sketch out viable ideas.

So …Why aren’t you on the cloud?

(EDIT: This posted right before a widespread Internet outage that same day. Irony perhaps, but the point stands!)

Case Study: Global Logistics Harmonization

We’ve got another case study up today.

One of our customers is a ecommerce fulfillment company based in South Asia. In 2015 our Client embarked on a global acquisition run, significantly expanding their ecommerce fulfillment operations globally. Their goal was to grow into a dominant global fulfilment arm – and they had the expertise and experience to do so.

Our Client ‘s IT leadership was tasked with bringing multiple logistics systems into harmony.

Multiple Systems, Multiple Cultures
Multiple Systems, Multiple Cultures

There were six different regional systems, each with their own unique local connections to other systems, such as transportation management, customer relationship management and payment systems. Our Client was not clearly aware that they were dealing with managing multiple, very disparate corporate cultures. Communications, and cultural differences, were significantly hampering progress and creating tension in staff. This was creating delays in an already complex harmonization project. Unfortunately, leadership was attributing this to technical complexity, not clashing corporate cultures.

1Focus pitched our people-centered approach around our technology & process capabilities. We created a strong scope covering logistics technology vertically and cultural harmonization horizontally. This included driving collaboration across international & cross-functional leaders & teams. Our Client decided to move forward with 1Focus and our 3+3 product.

Within two weeks of landing our team and presenting our findings, we clearly identified three very specific keystones that would be significant levers for people, process & technology. Our insight, candor, and firm commitment to stick to our 3+3 plan and scope, established a high level of trust & respect with our executive sponsors across functional areas.

On the technology front, we uncovered complex integrations that our Client believed called for whole-sale rip & replace – a very complicated and expensive effort. By relentlessly focusing on root cause, we traced these gaps back to a single, non-technical cause. The teams were marching to a global executive directive that had not been decomposed into a unified plan. There was a significant gap between the directives and the paths being pursued to accomplish them.

Multiple Transaction Translations
Multiple Transaction Translations

We showed significant time and monetary savings could be achieved by focusing on a series of off-the-shelf cloud-based message hubs & busses that would provide translation, out of the box, on 78% of the transactions. Being cloud based would also address the needs for a global system at a fraction of the cost. Of the remaining 22%, 12% were deemed localized, leaving 10% that would require any sort of custom development

On the process front, our Client was in the middle of evolving to more modern, Agile, processes. In fact, each of their acquisitions was at a different point of the maturity model on the Agile roadmap. They were using the same tool around the world – Atlassian’s software development management suite – but differently in each of the six regions.

There simply were not enough resources to go around to focus on multiple major projects, post-acquisition, with the busy season mere months away. Harmonizing the different installations of Atlassian was left for another effort, the following year.

While this remained an on-going thread through the project, working with our Client we were able to create a more unified team and a training program within 45 days, with the clearest outcome being more consistent, clear insight into where components of global projects stood, especially the logistics harmonization project.

On the people front – leaders and teams were starting to fall into crunch mode. This was especially concerning as the busy season for fulfillment (November through February) was three months away. During this period, systems were typically locked down and teams focused all efforts on ensuring the orderly flow of all types of transactions. No progress for four months was not palatable.

1Focus had experience working with creating and managing global development teams, with the largest having spanned 12 time zones. Fortunately, we had already established a foundational set of tools, methods & products for global collaboration, and this was one step further on that path. We continued to encourage safe, candid conversations, nudging the teams together and focusing on incremental, achievable progress.

The final landscape, including process & tools, went from being an ad hoc approach to a consistently, clearly communicated and agreed upon set of outputs and measurable progress. The teams could now more easily identify hurdles and gaps and address them.

In each case, we drove a tandem path. Focusing on root causes of people, process and technology issues and teaching, showing, and doing alongside leaders and contributors. In creating this momentum, Our client, like all our customers, quickly latched onto this new modality and was able to increase their momentum, going from peak to peak.

Over the next three months, right in time for their busy season, our Client was able to harmonize all but a few transactions. The teams, globally, expressed confidence that they would be able to finalize those last few transactions before busy season got in full swing – by the end of November.  Too, they were able to instill confidence and clarity in their leadership chain.

Our Client had spent nearly a billion dollars on its various acquisitions.  The estimated price tag, just for logistics harmonization, was close to $25M and expected to take two years. That was, widely acknowledge, an optimistic estimate given the current state of our Client even before we landed. 1Focus would, in working with our Client, ensure that the groundwork and foundation would be laid to ensure that project was more realistic and reasonable – and that it would complete.

We continued to track with Client and their final tally for such a complex project was 26

Accelerating Robotics
Accelerating Robotics

months, just short of two years. Their final all-up cost came out to $27M. The cost savings brought about by our improvements were realized across the board, allowing our Client to get a jump start on their investment into warehouse robotics and automation. They expected to make that additional investment back in two years, just on cost-savings for order fulfillment alone.

This is just one example of the success our customers have with 1Focus. We’re sure there’s a familiar sounding project where we could collaborate on at your company, addressing process and technology challenges, with people, your people, firmly at the center of any effort.

You can access the full case study as a PDF here.

Case Study: Mobile App Launch

I’m going to share a case study with you.

One of our Clients was struggling with releasing a pair of mobile apps for their service providers and customers. This app was focused on driving a higher level of engagement between the service provider and their customer. For example, enabling scheduling of services and sharing service outcomes with their customers.

Our Client is a highly successful, $12B a year North American organization that has a history that goes back 132 years. They have robust leadership, capable technology teams and proficient global technology solutions partners. Yet they had missed six releases and were at risk of missing a seventh. What had started out as an innovative effort was causing no small amount of heartburn and risking confidence in their leaders, teams, and partner.

A Project At Risk
A Project At Risk

Within two weeks of landing our team and presenting our findings, we clearly identified three very specific keystones that would be significant levers for people, process & technology. Our insight, candor and firm commitment to stick to our 3+3 plan and strong scope established a high level of trust & respect with our executive sponsors across functional areas.

45 days in from the start of our relationship, our Client soft-launched the first version of their mobile app to great celebration and fanfare. They proceeded to release three incremental versions over the next six months, building confidence and demonstrating the necessary capability to make this repeatable. Each release also brought additional capabilities as a bonus to implementing our methods and product – rather than leaving them on the roadmap for weeks or months out

In each case, we drove a tandem path. Focusing on root causes of people, process and technology issues and teaching, showing, and doing alongside leaders and contributors. Our Client, like all of our customers, quickly latched onto this new modality and was able to increase their velocity, going from peak to peak and showing measurable ability to deal with dips and surprises.

A Successful Launch
A Successful Launch

Our Client saved $3M USD in additional costs over the those six months – resources they were able to redeploy into productive outcomes. Their delivery went from zero success rate to an 85% success rate over the next 12 months.

This is just one example of the success our customers have with 1Focus. We’re sure there’s a familiar sounding project where we could collaborate on at your company, addressing process and technology challenges, with people, your people, firmly at the center of any effort.

You can access the full case study as a PDF here.