April 2000

 

A Note on Business Management

Business Affairs

In our series on business management we would like to pay some attention to project management and the use of information systems. To stay competitive, companies are forced to develop new products which in the best situation are wanted and needed. To organise, manage and conclude those new developments, focused teams should be placed at the helm. The project team should use as many information systems as possible because it would be very beneficial as they collect, store and process information, run simulations, control the activities of the project team and improve the communication between the team members.

Project teams

New products, ventures, need to be developed, introduced and delivered. The most succesful approach would be the use of a project team. A project team is a group of people with several skills and abilities which are specifically brought together to realise an objective. The project team is a purpose aimed group which should, firstly, built something new but which should afterwards form the core of a new department, division, with the deletion of some old and addition of new members. Some members of the original team, the more enterpreneurial and research kind of people, are to be put in new teams and managing kind of skills are to be added. In short more accounting and managing in exchange for some research. Some reasearch activities have to be maintained to improve the product and keep it attractive.

The team members should ideally come from different departments, like accounting, research, sales, marketing and production, and a led, guided, by a rather multi-talented kind of person which is able to coordinate the activities, to keep the team on track, avoid diversions, stimulate the team and which is driven to achieve, deliver the product.

The research and development input should ofcourse be the most dominant but sales, marketing and production should have an important input to avoid that the new project would loose contact, the connection, with the outside world. Research and development might be sometimes tempted to design something technological very advanced but forget about the market and the produce-ability of the product. Sales, marketing and production should avoid this mistake. Sales and marketing should know about the demands and wishes from the customers and the society. And production should deliver their knowledge to make the product effective and efficient to produce. The project team should create a synergy to create superior products and services. The project team should be the balance between the genius of the research and development department on one side and the reality of the street on the other side.

The promote the activities and success, the project team should be supported by adequate equipment. The abilities of information systems should therefore be used as much as possible. Modern information systems would deliver better products through superior data-management, control, communication and simulations.

A note on R + D

The performance of the company can further be improved by using the synergetic powers of the research and development department. New ventures are more or less created and executed by project teams with a considerable support from R + D which have their people on board of the project. The R + D part of the project team should remain in close contact and should regularly be exchanged for other people out of the R + D department. This to keep them up to date and to stimulate the inventing spirit. As the research and development department which is responsible for research, inventing, and development of new exiting products should be groomed and given enough space, freedom, to promote the invention drive. R + D are the roots of any new venture in the company.

Research and development can be divided in to two groups. They work directed towards a potential product or commit research to something what might become a product. The directed work is the applied research with a clear goal and mostly done in a project team where as all other research is done in the department. This distinction is important as the project team has to generate tangible results where as the research and development department has to do general research, trial and error kind of things, generate ideas and support the invention ambitions and skills of the company.

Information systems

The capabilities of information systems are very often not optimally used. Only the most general and obvious options of information systems are used, like data storage and some basic information exchanges. And this is done without to much structure and method. The consequences are a large and difficult to use database, people exchanging all to often unuseful information or to the wrong people leading to additional lengthy meetings to keep the project on track. The team members will get frustrated by this process leading to below average performance. The synergies which could have been achieved by multi-skill project teams can be undermined/undone by faulty methods and unnecessary delays.

The information systems should be used to the advantage of a project, to support the team. This demands a clear structure, methods and a common understanding of the procedures. The information systems should be available for the following tasks: Control, Communication, Data Management and Simulations. The optimal use of these four factors will improve the work of a project team. The four factors are however interdependent and rely on eachother to reach the maximum benefit.

Control

The control application has two functions. First the team leader will be able to monitor the work and performance of the team members and second the team will use the control application as a central score/information table to report about the project. The table should contain the summarized information about the goal and timeline of the project, the progress, the problems and the assigned workload to each team member.

The first function is a management tool for the team leader to observe the team members. Each team member can only enter his own file and is obliged to report working hours, what he is busy with and if he met some problems. The team leader is the only person to view all files and can make some changes in the work plan, stimulate/support each member personally and keep the project on track.

The second function is available to all members and will keep all members informed about the project, e.g. progress and problems, and will deliver the synergy we were looking for.

The information entered in this application will be according a pre-determined format to avoid duplication, to keep the information controllable/observable and to remain focused on the goal of the project.

Communication

Information systems deliver the opportunity through the use of a local area network, intranet, to improve the communication within the team. Information can be added and reviewed in the control and data management applications and the team can exchange information with eachother.

Meetings can be avoided, kept to the absolute minimum, as intensive pre-meeting communication and virtual meetings can keep the actual meetings limited to the absolute necessary. Problems can be discussed in the control and data management applications and directly to the people concerned. Thus avoiding the waste of time.

The majority of communication has to be handled by a communication protocol which put limits to the amount of the information exchanged but improves the quality of the exchanged information. The controlled and limited transmission quantity is to avoid duplication, inconsistencies and to keep the project focused and understandable to all team members.

Data management

The core of each team are the data management capabilities. The proper use of data management will make the project run faster, smoother and with greater results than without or inappropriate use of information systems.

Data management can be divided into three areas of capabilities: data collection, data storage and retrieval and data procession. Each area has it own qualities and rules but all have a couple of superior demands: uniformity, accessability and applicability.

Data collection includes data, voice and pictures. The data collection application has to be accessable for every researcher and will need a common addition method with translation tools to allow all kind of information to be stored in one system. To achieve a common data collection, storage and retrieval system every entry has to be added by a standard format. The standard format will have space for the content, description, who entered the content with e-mail adress and a specific code to link to content with other files of the same subject.

The data storage and retrieval system has to be twin tracked. One summarized version and a full scale version which is linked to the summary. This will limit search time and will make any use of the data base faster and more productive.

The data storage and retrieval application will be highly structured in design and will use standard formats for every new entry which will be instantly checked if the same content is already stored. The storage system, by category and subject specific codes, will allow for fast search tools which will make the information very quickly available including cross references. The use of this kind of system will avoid duplication, make the user aware of who has knowledge about a subject and will increase the operations tempo.

Data procession has become much simpler and better by the use of a standard format. As all stored data is in the same language it can be processed by a number of ratio programmes and evaluated by programmes looking for time lines, systematic developments and references.

The data procession application will be very useful in any research project as it allows the researcher find, evaluate and use information stored in very large data storage sytems. Research can become more accurate and succesful as information can be better reviewed, processed and put to work in new ventures.

Simulations

Information systems have a very big advantage, simulations, it allows prototypes to be tested on behavior, efficacy and even costs during the development phase. Even in the first phases of development a new product can be tested in virtual reality about how it would be, how it would behave and what it is able to achieve.

Simulations will not only decrease research costs but it will deliver better products as the products are better and more tested. The products will experience more changes in design and even in production methods during the development phase and this will eventually deliver a better product to the customer.

Conclusion

The development of new products is a very important activity of a company. The products are invented in the research and development department where after the further development into an actual product can be best done in a project team.

The project team is a product focused group of people which come from different departments in a company. The aim of the project team is to develop a good idea into a product the customer desires. To achieve that goal it is important that people with different skills and trades work together to built the right product. The research people deliver technical knowledge, the sales and marketing people deliver customer knowledge, the accounting department keep the cost-benefit ratio acceptable and the production department assures that the product is produceable. If all factors can brought in balance it will lead to a superior product which will improve the market position and profits of a company.

Information systems will support the project team as it will improve the efficacy and efficiency of the development process while keeping the development costs at acceptable levels. Information systems can not do miracles but if used correctly it will improve control, communications and data management of all projects and it will deliver simulations of any new product leading to better products and services and ultimately to a better company.