Six years ago, Victor started a boutique medical practice. His practice is audited every three years and was previously cited for not having documented employee roles and responsibilities as well as an organization chart. Victor’s argument is that they provide excellent service and these “frivolous” things should not matter. However, with a constant influx of new patients and an office staff that is largely dependent on him, being able to prove quality control is critical to them passing their next audit and keeping the practice operable.

We observed the work flow of Victor and all his staff, asking questions along the way. We suspected that most of the staff that were documented as being Independent Contractors were in fact Employees. After conducting a thorough onsite brainstorming session with all critical staff, we were able to document a robust listing of all job tasks performed within the practice. Next, the CEO was able to group those tasks into departments and later identified all staff needed to execute the tasks.

Our Business Parts Analysis revealed that:

1. Victor is currently performing the work of four different positions— by re-allocating tasks and hiring the right people in the right order, he can free up 50% of his time to focus on business development;
2. Most of the staff are in fact Employees and NOT Independent Contractors—this saved Victor thousands in potential Department of Labor back taxes.
3. There was no uniformity in existing Job Descriptions and they all needed to be updated—now Victor has a much more complete listing of all roles and responsibilities per position. This will not only ensure a successful audit, but will also help him:
   • effectively disseminate the workload amongst existing staff
   • increase employee performance
   • recruit and retain well-qualified staff

With no defined reporting structure or chain of command in place, this was sure to raise yet another red flag on Victor’s medical practice’s upcoming audit (see Business Parts Analysis—Case Study). The lack of a documented structure proved that a formal plan did not exist which the auditors believe compromises the quality of service, indicating that work is performed willy nilly.

We carefully reviewed and analyzed Victor’s business plan to understand the growth strategy of his medical practice. We transcribed his verbal goals, coupled with the results of their Business Parts Analysis, and designed a reporting structure that clearly and visually communicates:

• what work needs to be performed
• how work is allocated amongst staff
• who needs to be hired
• relationships amongst all personnel resources

Victor’s Business Design Blueprint enabled him to:

• Pass his audit with zero citations
• Maximize his relationship with his I.T. Consultant as he could now better articulate his practice’s technology needs;
• Free up ~45% of his time for business development by hiring a new CPA, bookkeeper, and H.R. Coordinator to handle all payroll, invoicing, and other accounting related activities;
• Create conflict resolution buffers—with a defined chain of command in place, other managers can handle most client and staff issues

As the CEO of a successful 30-year-old non-profit organization, Geoffrey considers himself to be both business and technologically-savvy. He was especially excited about the new direction he was working toward—a paperless office. Geoffrey courted several I.T. companies in hopes of finding the optimal document imaging solution.

However, what Geoffrey did not realize was that he would have to first have a better structured e-file management system before any I.T. company would be able to develop a customized solution for them. With well over 5,000 electronic documents to sort through, the document imaging solution would be a costly one and without the full support and cooperation of his staff, the project was sure to be a failure.

The I.T. company that Geoffrey chose to develop his non-profit’s document imaging solution referred him to us. We were asked to help Geoffrey and his staff identify and put in place a structure for their electronic files that would make document retrieval easier and also give them the search and index info needed for the upcoming document imaging solution. After reviewing their organizational chart and conducting staff interviews we were able to:

• Take an inventory of all electronic document types
• Purge unnecessary and duplicate files
• Identify who should have access to which electronic documents
• Group electronic document types by organizational chart departments

As a result of the Electronic Records Management system we were able to implement, this non-profit:

• Reduced the number of main file folders on the network by 92%
• Saved $10,000 in preparing for the future document imaging software by hiring us as opposed to the selected I.T. company (this was outside of their core service)
• Automated a lot of their e-documents thereby eliminating the need to scan several boxes of paper files—this also saved them from having to hire a potential part-time scanning assistant with an hourly pay of $15.00/hr
• Assigned file administrators to each grouping of files and documented future file maintenance and protocol to ensure that all staff was on the same page
• Decreased amount of time to retrieve files; reduced file duplication by 65%!

Steve and Maegan have been partners in an estate planning law firm for four years. Although they have an assistant, Tracy, they recognize that they could benefit from hiring an Office Manager as combined they spend about 40% of their time on administrative tasks.

However, with no formal processes in place they knew it would be difficult to attract a well-qualified and competent Office Manager. There are four computers in their office suite and because there is no company network, client documents are often temporarily “saved” and transferred to other computers via flash drive, email, or CD. The lack of a company network has also caused them to miss important client meetings and even court appearances due to mishaps in calendar scheduling. And the lack of documented processes only compounds the problem in creating a consistent, high quality client experience.

Steve and Maegan have worked tirelessly to build their practice and worry that they will soon burnout if they are not able to effectively disseminate workload.

We created a customized Case Management Operations Manual for Steve and Maegan (over the course of 90 days) by doing the following::

• Observe the workflow of every one in the office;
• Collect all data used for each type of law practiced including checklists, template letters, and software;
• Develop case file nomenclature that included color-coding, acronyms and identification of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs);
• Provided information for I.T. vendor to properly set up a shared calendar and new network based on the departments identified in their Business Design Blueprint.

Maegan and Steve now have a Case Management Operations Manual that houses the detailed processes for handling each type of case. Each process was accompanied with a flowchart (see page 4) as well as record-keeping procedures and passwords needed to access specialty software.

We made sure to train everyone on how to update and maintain their Business Process Manual and showed them how to store it on their new computer network. With this Business Process Manual, Maegan and Steve were able to:

• Hire and train a new Office manager 60 days after the Business Process Manual implementation,
• Eliminate time conflicts with scheduling client appointments
• Evaluate and monitor staff performance through well-defined and communicated KPIs,
• Leverage their documented case knowledge as assets by having some of their more proprietary processes valuated and included as an intellectual property asset on their balance sheet,
• Hired a new attorney a year later and opened a satellite office six months after that bringing in another $350,000 in revenue,
• Take a month-long joint European family vacation without a single call from the office to handle an issue.

Chandra was proud of her four-year old mortgage company—they experienced double-digit growth over the past two years mostly as a result of a proprietary process that she innovated.

This success meant that Chandra had to start hiring even more field representatives, but with no documented protocol in place, work output was highly inconsistent and things were quickly starting to unravel.

Worse, they were starting to lose some important clients. Unless she got everyone on the same page soon, Chandra risked losing the company she worked so hard to build.

Chandra walked us through her process as we meticulously documented all steps and any operational tools used along the way.

Being neutral to the process, we were able to fill in process gaps by asking very detailed questions making sure we captured all aspects of the process.

Further, we segmented the overall process into stages, worked with an I.T. company to automate many of their paper-based forms, identified all process bottlenecks and produced blueprints that could be shared with staff and clients.

Within 90 days, Chandra’s team was able to grow sales by 25% largely because of their newly documented Service Delivery Blueprint:

• the average sales cycle decreased by 45% due to better informed clients and process automation
• all new and current staff could follow the blueprint with minimal training

Janet had recently been appointed to a top position for a specialty local government office which was first formed in 2000. Under Janet’s leadership the office was growing and needed larger space.

As she and her staff of four began packing up paper files, they all realized that there was a lot of valuable information that they inherited from the previous administration. These records were never formally documented as a system and therefore were not properly transitioned to Janet and her staff.

Knowing how critical access to information is, Janet did not want to move into their new office space without a solid system in place.

The office relocation date was fast approaching. Within 30 days, we worked with Janet and her team and:

• Inventoried all existing paper files in boxes as well as old file cabinets,
• Identified those documents that needed to be purged and later determining whether those documents needed to be shredded vs. recycled,
• Determined which files were for public use vs. private
• Matched all existing files from Janet’s administration as well as the previous administration to the agreed-upon organizational chart,
• Developed a color-coded paper file outline that included main and sub-categorization as well as protocol for creating, naming, checking in/checking out and scanning,
• Created a schedule for quarterly purging and annual file archiving,
• Took measurements of new office space and drafted a plan for file placement,
• Recommended optimal storage solutions for various paper files based on expected use and level of security required.

As a result of the work that we did for Janet and her team, they were able to:

• Create an easy-to-follow and maintain Paper Records Management system that encompassed all information critical to their daily operational success,
• Decrease the amount of time spent in asking Vicky, the assistant, to locate information—Vicky increased her productivity by 40% and is now able to work on more projects
• Save $35,000.00—this would have been the new assistant’s starting salary whose job was to primarily maintain records
• Use their customized Work Space Logistics plan to properly pack and unpack all paper records and start working at 100% capacity in less than a week.

Eric has successfully built a civil engineering firm with a team of 5 that largely operates virtually. As such, Eric mostly works from a home satellite office. Lately, he’s been at the end of his rope - no matter how hard he tried he seemed to be losing traction on some important projects. With a desk that did not stay clutter-free for longer than a day, his growing concern of losing clients due to habitually missed project deadlines led him to give us a call.

Working with Eric, we:

• Studied his Service Delivery Blueprint to understand how information flows throughout his office physically and virtually; Measured all furniture and equipment in his office & recommended additional products;
• Measured all furniture and equipment in his office & recommended additional products;
• Created a floor plan that conceptually illustrated how furniture and equipment re-arrangement would allow information to flow smoothly.

With his new Work Space Logistics plan, Eric was able to:

• Develop an assembly-line system for permanently eliminating paper piles through intelligent furniture and equipment configuration;
• Better track project progress;
• Work in a space conducive to productivity based on his firm’s business infrastructure;
• Improve his efficiency and within 60 days was able to increase his workload by 34% which translated to a revenue increase of $160,000.