Experience Works: Bordering on excellence
Your customers, your clients, your users are experienced and savvy. Does it make sense to hire inexperienced and unseasoned workers to interact with them? I think not. Nevertheless, it appears that many businesses such as Circuit City have attempted in the past to do just that. Why? The inexperienced can appear to be cheaper but in actuality most often are not. I believe that true excellence cannot be achieved without experience. Getting the job done right the first time is always going to be the least expensive alternative.
Borders Books is an organization that understands the power of matching customer characteristics to workforce demographics. The Borders people are currently hiring the applicants they think will do the best, most dependable job of servicing their customers. You can find the full article here.
“What we’ve found regardless of age or race or gender, is that if the employees in our stores match reflect the consumer demographics that are of customers shopping those stores in our stores, our sales results are better,” Smith states. “For example, if we have a store in Pico Rivera, California, and 90 percent of the customers coming into that store are is Latino customers, we will see better performance sales-wise if our employee base demographically matches that particular customer base.. If we have an employee base that matches up to that well, our results are better.”
Are you currently seeking a person or group to implement a new project? Do you believe the least expensive alternative is acquiring talent based primarily on hourly rate? If so, think twice. Think thrice. Your risk may be a lot larger than you think. Failure can come in many ways and take many forms. Of course, one of the failures may be your own. Your job or career could end up being placed in jeopardy.
Look honestly at your clients. Are they savvy? Are they experienced? If so, find and hire seasoned people. These veterans may require higher hourly rates but they will also be able to work best with your clients. Cheaper resources likely will not. Can you really afford that risk?
PeopleSoft 9.1: Practical Improvements #4 – Making your people more productive
We all know there is a lot that’s new in PeopleSoft 9.1. What is not readily known, however, is how these new features and functions can be translated into practical improvements to your operations. This posting is the fourth in a series entitled: PeopleSoft 9.1: Practical Improvements.
In the “new normal” it is all about performance. Survivability can depend on your organization’s ability to produce more with less. What is the true key to productivity? It is not fancy machines, elaborate marketing schemes, or expensive motivational speakers. Even though those items are important. The real key is ensuring that the day-to-day efforts of your employees align completely and utterly with your organization’s goals.
In most businesses balanced scorecard objectives are set with much deliberation at the higher levels of management. However, seldom will an understandable and achievable version of a key scorecard item find its way onto an individual employee’s performance appraisal. It is tough to expect your employees to contribute efficiently when their individual objectives do not align closely with your organization’s objectives.
The new PS 9.1 ePerformance module will now enable these goals and objectives to be driven downward in the organization. The Business Objectives Chart is a new interactive graphical tool that allows higher level objectives to be cascaded downward through the organization. Upper level managers can straightforwardly enter objectives and lower level managers can easily tailor those objectives to individual departments and employees. All ePerformance users will be able to navigate (subject to security) up and down the hierarchy of objectives. This new capability should make upper management very happy, your department managers happier, and your employees more productive.
Take it from one who has done several ePerformance projects. PS 9.1 ePerf is definitely worth closer scutiny. If you are looking for a good way to get your PS 9.1 upgrade justification out of the starting gate ePerformance may be a really good bet.
Please stay tuned for the next posting in my series – PeopleSoft 9.1: Practical Improvements.
Oracle OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights (Final Wrap-up)
This is the final wrap-up (really!) Oracle OpenWorld 2009 is now truly one for the history books. Several quite good OOW09 summaries became available over the weekend and they were such gems that they just had to be included in this collection:
Oracle OpenWorld 2009 – HIghlights and Impressions - “…So I changed my approach to more of a highlights summary…hopefully, ya’all will get more out of this angle. So, here are my highlights and impressions from OOW09…”
Reporter’s Notebook: Oracle OpenWorld 2009 – “The buzz of the entire Oracle OpenWorld 2009 conference surrounded CEO Larry Ellison’s closing keynote on Fusion Applications. And while the packed auditorium at the Moscone Center heard more information than ever before …”
Oracle OpenWorld update #3, Fusion Apps “After several years of anticipation the curtain has finally been lifted on Oracle Fusion Apps…”
Photos: Inside Oracle OpenWorld – Maybe you will see yourself!
Scenes From Oracle OpenWorld — The Serious And The Silly – “Damn The Economy! Oracle OpenWorld Sails On…”
Global CIO: In Oracle Vs. SAP, IBM Could Tip Balance To SAP – “The big IT players are realigning and while Oracle’s love-fest with Salesforce.com is nice, Oracle will need a whole lot more friends than that to compete against not just SAP but also IBM.
…”
View all the posting in this series – OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights.
Oracle OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights (Wrap-up)
It is all over! Oracle OpenWorld 2009 is now in the history books. This week I would have liked to be in San Francisco despite the cold and rainy weather. However, it is fortunate that many others did attend OOW09 and better yet that they wrote about it.
Oracle OpenWorld Day 3- “The week’s best bit of news came in Larry Ellison’s keynote today. Larry said that although Fusion will arrive sometime next year, Oracle will keep developing PeopleSoft…”
Reporter’s Notebook: Oracle OpenWorld 2009 – “The buzz of the entire Oracle OpenWorld 2009 conference surrounded CEO Larry Ellison’s closing keynote on Fusion Applications. And while the packed auditorium at the Moscone Center heard more information than ever before …”
Oracle OpenWorld 2009 Keynote Highlights: Larry Ellison ” – See and hear it for yourself!
Watch OOW live streaming ” – You can make comments on twitter, too!
Oracle’s Ellison: Fusion Will Dawn in 2010 – “Pledging that Oracle’s long-awaited software lineup will make its debut soon, CEO Larry Ellison assured customers they won’t be forced to switch…”
Ellison: Oracle Won’t Be Seventh In Services – ““We are really brilliant or we’re idiots,” Ellison said of his company’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, a deal that is currently being held up by European antitrust regulators.Services are a lower-margin business than selling software…”
Oracle’s Ellison: Fusion finally coming to fruition- “I was at Oracle OpenWorld in rain-drenched San Francisco this week, but the clouds parted when it came time for CEO Larry Ellison’s finale keynote, in which he outlined the company’s Fusion Application strategy…”
View all the posting in this series – OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights.
Oracle OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights (Tuesday)
It is unfortunate that my heart cannot be two places at once. This week I would really have liked to be in San Francisco, despite the cold and rainy weather, attending Oracle OpenWorld 2009. However, it is fortunate that many others are attending OOW and better yet that they are writing about it. So if I can’t be there I can at least provide a consolidated list of what others are saying. I plan to post these discoveries each day during the conference.
OOW09 Tuesday – “It was a rainy Tuesday here at OOW, but it was definitely worth making it to the sessions. The sessions I attended today were more “what’s new in Tools 8.5” focused, and I spent a little more time with the Integration Broker component specifically…”
Watch OOW live streaming ” – You can make comments on twitter, too!
Tuesday at OOW – “Interesting and very entertaining keynote this morning from Thomas Kurian (Executive VP of Product Development)…”
Tuesday, October 13 agenda – “Hardware and software technologies are converging, creating new opportunities for Oracle to deliver fundamental and integrated innovations across its database, middleware, and business applications. Welcome to Oracle’s vision for its enterprise-leading software products…”
OpenWorld 09 PeopleTools 8.5 Customer Perspective - “I really liked this session, as it allowed 4 beta customers of PeopleTools 8.5 discuss their experiences with the release….
Please stay tuned for the next posting in this series – OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights.
Oracle OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights (Monday)
It is unfortunate that my heart cannot be two places at once. This week I would really have liked to be in San Francisco, despite the cold and rainy weather, attending Oracle OpenWorld 2009. However, it is fortunate that many others are attending OOW and better yet that they are writing about it. So if I can’t be there I can at least provide a consolidated list of what others are saying. I plan to post these discoveries each day during the conference.
Monday Afternoon at Oracle OpenWorld – “What a full day. There’s a real buzz about this conference..…”
Watch OOW live streaming ” – You can make comments on twitter, too!
Day 2 – “Impressions from Oracle’s annual get-together: Ellison disses IBM; Where are Fusion Apps?; …”
Ellison takes aim at IBM – “Oracle chief Larry Ellison has taken several potshots at his company’s rival IBM, denigrating the power efficiency of IBM’s hardware…”
OOW09 Monday - Today had a decidedly more PeopleSoft theme. It was quite different from last year when everything was still slideware – the demos today were of functionality that is now available or will be shortly….
HCM Sessions at Oracle OpenWorld, Day 1 – “…many focused on what is new with the latest releases of PeopleSoft HCM 9.1…”
Take an Early Plunge Into the Applications Stream – “In our feature article, you’ll find out how City University of New York implemented PeopleSoft software with a minimal budget—while achieving maximum results. …”
Getting Down to business – “At Oracle OpenWorld, company co-presidents Charles Phillips and Safra Catz kicked off the day’s events with a keynote speech that got right down to business about, well, doing business.…”
Oracle OpenWorld: Monday Keynote – “The Monday morning keynotes are from Charles Phillips of Oracle, Safra Catz of Oracle, and Ann Livermore of HP..…”
Please stay tuned for the next posting in this series – OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights.
Oracle OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights (Sunday)
It is unfortunate that my heart cannot be two places at once. This week I would really have liked to be in San Francisco, despite the cold and rainy weather, attending Oracle OpenWorld 2009. However, it is fortunate that many others are attending OOW and better yet that they are writing about it. So if I can’t be there I can at least provide a consolidated list of what others are saying. I plan to post these discoveries each day during the conference.
Watch OOW live streaming ” – You can make comments on twitter, too!
Opening Keynote – “The keynote began with Scott McNealy reminiscing about Sun technologies…”
Ellison takes aim at IBM – “Oracle chief Larry Ellison has taken several potshots at his company’s rival IBM, denigrating the power efficiency of IBM’s hardware…”
Oracle unveils new hoops for partners to jump through - Oracle is overhauling its partner programs, forcing resellers to fit into one of four new levels from the beginning of December….
Ellison takes aim at IBM – “Oracle chief Larry Ellison has taken several potshots at his company’s rival IBM, denigrating the power efficiency of IBM’s hardware…”
Getting Down to business – “At Oracle OpenWorld, company co-presidents Charles Phillips and Safra Catz kicked off the day’s events with a keynote speech that got right down to business about, well, doing business.…”
Please stay tuned for the next posting in this series – OpenWorld 2009: PeopleSoft highlights and insights.
PeopleSoft 9.1: Where to find what you need to know
In late September Oracle announced the availability of its latest PeopleSoft Enterprise 8.50 peopletools and 9.1 application releases. For those of you on My Oracle Support the new documentation can be found by performing these searches:
“9.1 Upgrade” – PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS 9.1 Upgrade Home Page (Note: Currently, only a small amount of information is posted here.)
“9.1 Documentation Home” – HCM & ELM 9.1 Documentation Home Page
“8.50 Documentation Home” – PeopleTools 8.50 Documentation Home Page
HCM and ELM 9.1 PeopleBooks can be downloaded at the Oracle technology PeopleSoft Enterprise site:
Please stay tuned for the next posting in my series – PeopleSoft 9.1: Practical Improvements.