Introduction

With over 2,000 different processes in his business operations, Adam Radulovic, CEO of XL.net, soon realized that being efficient in business was not about having too many processes. In the face of what he described as a “massive garage worth of processes,” it was difficult for employees to understand what was working and what was not working. Overwhelmed by it all, they could not even use most of the processes. The time, resources, and efforts spent in creating them were a waste. The need for an effective workflow management system was long overdue. Adam explains how the organization got rid of the clutter and streamlined their processes by using SweetProcess. Before we dive into it, let us have an overview of the organization.

Adam Radulovic CEO

About XL.net

XL.net is an IT company committed to helping businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones, succeed by leveraging technology.

An average organization understands the impact of technology in the modern business landscape, but it often lacks the technical know-how to make it happen. This is where XL.net comes in. With a team of expert IT personnel and years of experience under their belts, they create a practical approach in managing the technology needs of businesses from start to finish. Working closely with organizations, they investigate the problem, plan a resolution strategy, and maintain it through regular check-ins for optimal performance.

Based in the United States, the company currently has 30 full-time employees.

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The Moment of Truth

As a system-oriented tech company, XL.net had systems in its organization. In a bid to have a process for every task executed, they created 2,500 processes within their business. The result they expected from these were different from what they got. It was counterproductive. Rather than being efficient, employees were thrown into a state of confusion as they struggled to separate the useful processes from the fluff. Radulovic quickly realized they were in over their heads:

“For probably the last eight or nine years, we’ve been doing a decent job of documenting our processes, procedures which we called work instructions previously and policies. And over the years, we got to a point where we now have close to 2,500 different processes, procedures, and policies. And the management of them became extremely difficult.”

One thing was apparent: their goal of efficiency was futile. They had the motivation to do things right, but they lacked the right system to actualize it. They needed a system that could streamline their processes in the shortest way possible.

How a Client Introduced the Organization to SweetProcess

XL.net discovered SweetProcess in an unconventional way. Although they were aware of the operational gap in their business, they did not know of an effective system that could c...

Introduction

Working in the fast-paced industry of online marketing, General Manager and COO of New Media Retailer, Francesca Halberg, struggled with keeping up with the latest trends and communicating with all her employees. After spending several hours creating business procedures, the information would become obsolete in about a week, making their entire efforts a total waste. Tired of always playing catch up and the communication disconnect between employees, she and her team opted for a workflow management software solution. Read along as she shares her experience of how SweetProcess saved the day. First, let us know more about the organization.

Francesca Halberg General Manager and COO

About New Media Retailer

New Media Retailer is an online solutions company catering to small and medium-sized businesses. Using promotional tools for online marketing, they give these businesses exposure to their target audience, especially in the area of local search engine optimization (SEO). They also help businesses to manage their websites, social media, email marketing, and e-commerce stores, giving them a competitive edge.

For over 10 years New Media Retailer has had a grasp of the online business environment. By offering their expert services to businesses in their online marketing activities, these businesses get to focus on what they do best. It currently has an employee capacity of 25.

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The biggest challenges the organization battled with

Digital technology is ever-evolving. Online businesses scramble to keep up with new developments to stay relevant. After spending several hours documenting business processes and tagging them to a binder with print outs for every employee, New Media Retailer would realize that their efforts had become obsolete in a week or thereabouts due to new updates. This was always frustrating, states Halberg:

“It felt defeating, honestly. It took probably about 15 hours for us to get the binder to a point where we felt comfortable even rolling it out. And then, just how quickly things change in our industry, and all of a sudden, one week will go by, and we’d very quickly have several processes that were already out of date.”

There was also a huge knowledge gap between their in-office and remote employees. The employees at the office had access to certain information by virtue of being physically present—a luxury the remote employees did not have.

All these problems became more visible when the organization’s remote base grew bigger. It was clear that the problem needed to be fixed if they wanted to move forward.

How New Media Retailer resolved their business challenges with SweetProcess

Doing business today is highly competitive. Like going to battle without armor, many organizations set out with little or no preparation to beat the competition.

Introduction

Coming on board as the practice manager at 3rd Arm Admin, Candice Burgess’s role was to enhance the organization’s operations by fine-tuning its payroll and business administration services. Staff members grappled with running payrolls successfully by the due dates as a result of clogs in the manual processes they were working with. The need to improve these processes was visible to everyone. So, when they found a system that met that need, there was no hesitation to grab it. Burgess gives us insights into the before and after in regard to using SweetProcess in their organization. First, let us take a look at the organization for better understanding.

Candice Burgess Practice Manager

About 3rd Arm Admin

3rd Arm Admin offers business administration services such as bookkeeping, payroll, and virtual administration solutions to businesses in New Zealand. It simplifies complex administrative tasks, giving organizations clarity and control over their financial activities.

Working with seasoned professionals, the company takes care of all the cumbersome bookkeeping and payroll activities, enabling businesses to focus on their core duties and goals without distractions from these areas.

With a current staff capacity of seven, the organization’s values include client commitment, respect, excellence, integrity, and fun.

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The Struggle to be Efficient on All Fronts

Fulfilling payroll orders requires accuracy and timeliness to get payments across to receiving parties. It is important that the transactions are successful at the right time regardless of any circumstances. Using manual tools like Microsoft Word and Excel sheets to document processes made it difficult for the company to keep up with the demands of the job, including unforeseen circumstances. Take absentee employees, for instance: there was not much that could be done when persons in charge of running certain payrolls were indisposed. How do you explain that to customers?

Burgess told us that “All the processes that were put in place were just all written up by each person who was doing them. And we just used Microsoft Word or Excel to write up all our processes, and things would just get on a server or on a hard drive for people to access…. And just keeping things up to date wasn’t always easy.”

Signing up for SweetProcess out of Necessity

According to Candice, signing up for SweetProcess was born out of a need to implement a better system in their organization. They found SweetProcess from a Google search about systems and processes. Intrigued by its uses and features, they signed up for a free trial, and that was all the convincing they needed.

Burgess stated that “There wasn’t much convincing. We liked the ease of how it was easily used. It was just an easy step-by-step thing. As soon as we started testing it,

Introduction

Taking a new position at Mudd Advertising six years ago, Senior Advisor of Digital Technology and Performance Dave Meindl did not have any system on the ground to work with—not even paperwork documentation. He had no idea how procedures were executed within the organization. Left to his fate, he was determined to make things work. With existing knowledge of the importance of standard operating procedures in a business, one of the first items on his list was to create a system in order to make his team more efficient. In search of an effective workflow management software, he discovered SweetProcess. He speaks to us about the positive strides made by using the system. Before going further, let us have an overview of the organization.

Dave Meindl Senior Advisor of Digital Technology and Performance.

About Mudd Advertising

Mudd Advertising is a top advertising agency in the United States, specializing in the automotive industry. For over 30 years, the company has worked directly with dealers across the country, servicing no fewer than 3,000 accounts annually.

With an array of experts on its team, the organization offers full marketing services in the areas of direct mail marketing, digital marketing, production services, and database management. Thriving on the “gung-ho” philosophy, Mudd Advertising takes pride in its work, aiming for excellence and celebrating its wins.

Headquartered in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the company has earned a reputation as a leading automotive advertising provider in the country, with over 150 employees on its payroll.

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Discovering the Biggest Pain Point

Coming into the organization to head its digital activities, Dave had a big responsibility to fulfill. But with no existing system in place, their business processes were far from organized. Allowing things to continue on that path, according to him, would be chaotic. First, he needed to understand how things were done and why they were done that way. Dave would spend a lot of time putting the pieces together to figure this out:

“They had no system for keeping track of how things were done. I’m assuming it just sort of happened by word of mouth or something. As soon as I got there and saw that there was no way to keep track of these processes, I immediately said we needed to solve this problem otherwise there’s going to be complete chaos.”

Systems help to lay a solid foundation for success. When built strongly, they make an organization easily adapt to change, be it in the hiring of new employees or withstanding unprecedented situations.  

Signing Up for SweetProcess with Optimism

As much as Dave recognized the need for a system to be in place, he was also aware of the financial implications. With a fairly small budget at his disposal, cost was a major factor to consider in getting a solution without compr...

Introduction

As director of operations at Network Doctor, Joel Mizrahi’s topmost priority was crystal clear: to give their customers peace of mind. However, achieving that was a tall order. He and his team had trouble accessing vital information needed to resolve customer support issues. So much time was wasted looking for information on how to fix the problems, which elongated the resolution time, often to the customer’s detriment. In order to improve the impact of customer satisfaction on their business, Joel sought a centralized system to document and streamline their business processes. He tells us about the transformation in this case study. He is joined by the company’s director of service delivery, Cenon Hipolito. First, let us give you a brief overview of their organization to better understand their journey.

Joel Mizrahi Director of Operations.

Cenon Hipolito Director of Service Delivery

About Network Doctor

Network Doctor is a support service company that offers technology solutions to both small and medium businesses, helping them to leverage technology to fine-tune their operations and maximize productivity. Its services include rapid-response support and advanced IT consulting executed by an expert team of IT personnel.

Working closely with businesses, the organization caters to their technology needs, giving them adequate time to focus on their business operations. It adopts a proactive strategy in tackling tech-related issues heads on, leaving no blind-spots unattended to. With 57 employees currently under its belt, Network Doctor offers its services in various capacities, including full-time and project-based engagements.

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Fulfilling an Uphill Task

Due to the nature of their business, Network Doctor deals with its customers on a highly-priced virtue—trust. Their customers entrust their technology operations in Network Doctor’ hands so they can focus on the frontlines of their businesses. Joel explains this, saying:

“Our company basically gives our customers peace of mind. We are handling their technology, ensuring that their business runs. By handling their technology and making sure their tech is running smoothly, we are basically allowing them to run their business which is what they want to focus on. They don’t want to focus on technology.” 

However, when dealing with a diverse group of clients, a one-size-fits-all approach did not cut it. They had to create different procedures to suit the particular needs of each client. Due to ineffective documentation, the best processes they could come up with were complicated, no thanks to the Word documents and ticketing system they were using.

“The biggest challenge that I feel that we had was because we have a wide array of clients, there are different procedures, there are different things that some of our clients prefer us to do. It’s a matter of getting those procedures correct ...

On this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast, the guest speaker David Finkel, an ex-Olympic–level athlete turned multi-million dollar coaching guru, speaks on the mistakes to avoid and gems to use when scaling up, and also on how to effectively streamline your business processes using the Pareto (80/20) principle. He shares how he has used it to provide high value for his company and the companies he works with. 

He also explains how a business can scale up, the mistakes to avoid, and how to implement functioning systems in place by using his proven concept called ultimate business systems (UBS), a concept that saved a financial service company from losing their quarter-million and half a million-dollar clients. 

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Key Resource List:

* The Freedom Formula: How to Succeed in Business Without Sacrificing Your Family, Health, or Life* The Freedom Toolkit 

Show Notes: 

0:10 – Intro.

0:41 – Introducing guest speaker, the CEO of one of the world’s premier business coaching companies, Maui Mastermind and also a Wall Street Journal best-selling author of 11 books.

1:30 – John Corcoran shares the best solution for documenting standard operating procedures (SOPs), making it easy and efficient.

4:10 – The guest speaks on the important business lessons he learned from sports as an ex-Olympic–level athlete.

6:20 – The biggest mistakes companies/businesses make when they are struggling to scale up.

8:30 – The guest speaker talks concisely on how businesses can pick the ideas/tasks to focus on and the ones to streamline by using the Pareto principle, popularly known as the 80/20 principle.

12:55 – An example of how a company can focus on low-value tasks thinking it will generate more revenue; which is false.

13:45 – Where companies fail when trying to implement systems and how to increase productivity by using their tested and proven concept, ultimate business system. 

15:52 – An example of how the guest implemented his systems concept with a real-time company.

17:20 – Lastly, the guest shares how he effectively leverages design and uses systems, procedures, and processes to operationalize his workflow.

23:23 – Outro.

Guest profile:

David Finkel is the CEO and founder of one of the world’s premier business coaching companies, Maui Mastermind, a company that has helped businesses in the $1 million to $50 mill...

Introduction

Having grown his business mostly through the acquisition of similar businesses, Zac Cullen, chief executive officer at Cullen Insurance Agency suffered huge bottlenecks due to inconsistency in operations. The employees from the acquired companies were stuck on their old ineffective processes and did not see the need for a change. The different branches of the organization were operating on different processes, making it hard to achieve a common goal.

As one who understood the importance of having the same processes across the entire business, it was evident to Zac that until the problem was resolved, they would not make headway. He tried a few systems, but none did it for him. There was something missing until he found SweetProcess.

Zac shares his experience on how SweetProcess helped his organization to become a top player in its industry. First, let us get a picture of the organization for a better understanding of their progress.

About Cullen Insurance Agency

Cullen Insurance Agency offers various insurance packages to meet the peculiar needs of private individuals and businesses. A pioneering agency in Southern California with over twenty years’ experience in business, the company has expertise in car insurance, life insurance, motorcycle insurance, business insurance, homeowner’s insurance, etc. Its seasoned staff handles each case with the utmost professionalism in their clients’ best interests. This has earned Cullen Insurance Agency a good reputation in the industry, making it the go-to agency for persons and businesses looking to secure their assets. The agency currently boasts 40 employees.

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The Breaking Point

“The thousandth time you’ve said something when you are just sick and tired of explaining is the first time most people get it,”

Zac says this was a common joke made by managers in his establishment.

Having employees perform their jobs without explanations was a tall order. He and the managers had to go through the painstaking task of explaining things over and over again before making sense. Though tedious, they tried to manage it initially. But as they acquired more businesses and began to operate from multiple locations, they could no longer cope with it.

Everyone was doing things their own way. In their defense, they were operating based on how things had always been done in their various organizations before the acquisition. But that excuse did not hold water. If the acquired businesses were doing so well with their own processes, they would not have been sold off in the first place.

“Most of our growth was through acquisition. We had other agencies we bought that had their own processes. But obviously they weren’t working that well; otherwise, they wouldn’t have sold their agencies.”

One thing was clear to Zac: leaving his employees to continue ...

Introduction

On a mission to build a household clothing brand, Jonathan Harvey, chief operating officer at Neon Buddha, realized that their success was threatened by the inadequacy of their archaic business process documentation. Rather than focusing on channeling the high-level creativity needed to excel in such a competitive industry, employees were struggling with the complex processes in the organization.

Determined to set things right, he embarked on a search for a better business process documentation system, and then he found SweetProcess. Jonathan takes us through their journey to efficiency. Before we proceed, let us have an overview of the company for context.

About Neon Buddha

Neon Buddha is an original work-to-weekend female clothing brand. Established about twenty years ago by Sébastien Sirois, the proudly Canadian company creates a synergy between travel, adventure, and fashion. Travelers can be stylish aboard long flights or train rides en route their destinations. When they are not in transit, they can go about their daily engagements in an array of designs suitable for different occasions.

Offering an inclusive fashion experience to women, Neon Buddha caters to all sizes and shapes. It further empowers women by having an all-female design team in Montreal, Canada. Mirroring its tagline “Express Your Zen,” it is a juxtaposition of expressiveness and calmness. At the moment, it has an employee capacity of 15.

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Missing the Mark

As a fashion brand, Neon Buddha’s workflow involves several processes from idea conception to production and marketing. To service these different aspects, they created a myriad of standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“We are always looking to have as many SOPs as possible. If you want your business to be efficient, having many SOPs for every part is important,”

Jonathan explains.

While the company had a need for many SOPs, it lacked the capacity to manage them effectively. Created in Word documents and Excel sheets, the SOPs were all over the place, making employees scamper around to get the information needed for work.

“Everything was on Excel sheets and Word documents—that’s how we started…We have always been trying to look for a way to put all our SOPs in one place. One day, I started Googling to find a program that is easy to use to put all our SOPs in one place.”

When documented business processes are ineffective, they become liabilities, elongating the workflow, wasting time, and resources. Ultimately, Neon Buddha turned to SweetProcess to solve this problem.

How Neon Buddha Attained Its Turning Point with SweetProcess

Having been in business for about twenty years, Neon Buddha obviously understands the ropes of the fashion business. However,

Introduction

With more than 20 employees working offshore, Lisa Phillips, Group General Manager at Aizer Group, understood the pitfalls of not having standard operating procedures to guide operations. Despite their zeal, there was only so much the employees could do without documents to reference. Without having Lisa around when they needed to ask questions, they risked making grievous mistakes or spending too much time on tasks at the company’s expense. Leveraging technology, Lisa sought out a system that would enable her to guide her employees without necessarily being physically present with them. She explains how SweetProcess was the game-changer and more in this case study. First, let us learn a little bit about Aizer Group to give you an idea of how a similarly sized company can use SweetProcess to improve their remote work and processes.

About Aizer Group

Aizer Group is the product of a merger involving different businesses in the construction and building industry in Australia. Consisting of top players, it is a leading name in recurring and one-off services in the areas of commercial property and facility management.

The company operates in several independent trades including electrical, plumbing, carpentry, air conditioning, painting, plastering, roofing, and cabinetmaking. Each trade boasts of individual sector divisions spearheaded by a manager working closely with a dedicated team. These divisions include insurance rectification, general building, preventive and reactive maintenance, and facility services. It currently has about 110 employees, with more than 20 of them working remotely.

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The Breaking Point

Like many modern businesses, Aizer Group understood the importance of documenting their processes. However, the company used a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach by creating documents with tons of pages to assist their employees in being efficient. Recounting the documentation process, Lisa says:

“It’s just pretty much relying on us mapping out general procedures and policies in black and white writing…20-page documents that really don’t get the behavioral effects that you need for people to do their jobs.”

It was not until they wanted to expand their offshoring staff that they discovered a large hole existed in their business processes all these years. Faced with the challenge of building an effective offshore team for its backend administration, the multiple pages of documents they created over the years did not help. They needed something more.

“We were looking at, what is the best way to actually get all the processes mapped out and used as a training tool as well? That was the driver for us to look at: okay, how are we going to do this so the guys know what they need to do and do it right?”

The fact that a problem is not glaring does not mean that it does not exist – and that it’s not important enough to deal with.

In this episode of the Process Breakdown Podcast, our guest speaker is expert problem-solving and decision-making facilitator Elisabeth Swan. She talks comprehensively about streamlining business processes, a method to reduce waste, and eliminate unnecessary work-related tasks to improve efficiency in the workplace, using her proven DMAIC method. This strategy saved UC San Diego Medical Center four million dollars and is being used in various sectors today.

She explains the process, how to implement it, and shares her all-time favorite process-related and non-process-related books.

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Key Resource List:

* Case Study: “How Lean Six Sigma saved four million at UC San Diego Medical Center,” featuring Lily Angelucci* GoLeanSixSigma.com Resources (blogs, Lean Six Sigma tools, project templates, downloadable guides, webinars and many more )* How to get started with GoLeanSixSigma.com* How Lean Six Sigma Could Make a Huge Difference for Your Business

Show Notes: 

0:10 -> Podcast introduction.

1:00 -> Dr. Weisz shares the best software to use for documenting standard operating procedures (SOPs), making it easy and efficient.

2:03 -> Introduction of guest speaker Elisabeth Swan, the best person to talk to if you want to have a streamlined company and be successful.

3:00 ->The guest speaker talks about two effective problem-solving methods used by Toyota and Motorola that break down a system to reduce deficient and wasteful processes in an organization.

5:10 -> How the company uses belt levels to determine where to start streamlining from. 

6:24 -> Elizabeth talks about her streamlining methodology, DMAIC: A Process that Helped King County Improve Suppliers Record Setup by 52%, Reduced travel expenses approval time by 96%, and saved UC San Diego Medical Center four million dollars. The following time markers cover each part of the DMAIC method:          

8:32 -> D

11:56 ->M

13:12 -> A

17:30 -> I

24:30 -> C

22:10 -> No methodology is perfect and exists without issues. Elizabeth Swan discusses the objection about Six Sigma and how to deal with it. 

26:32 -> Companies that have used the DMAIC method and their results.

*       A pothole repair company*     ...