Actions| Workforce Management Sustainment Services |
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| Product Manager | David Monroe |
| Product Demo | |
| Product Description |
Dedicated Support
Post go-live support and management to ensure your solution runs smoothly: -Application troubleshooting -Basic daily monitoring tasks -Fixpack applications to application environments -Managing software vendor support requests -Design and development of minor system enhancements -Recommendations on maintenance-focused database and/or operating system administration tasks Upgrade Preparation & Execution Services For clients that are considering moving to a newer version of the application but require assistance with the analysis, planning and execution of the upgrade. Axsium’s upgrade methodology includes three key phases: 1.Fine tune existing solution – review and analyze opportunities for imporvements to application performance and usability 2.Upgrade impact analysis – detailed planning to manage upgrade risks 3.Upgrade Execution – Deploy, test and cutover Software Add-on & Extension Services A variety of factors may require your organization to expand and/or modify the scope of its WFM application after the initial roll-out is complete. The simple fact is, as your business evolves, so too will the means and tools needed to effectively manage the workforce. From acquisitions and divestitures, to changes in economic conditions, collective bargaining agreements and labor and wage laws, the list of external and internal factors that can affect your WFM solution is virtually endless. For that reason, Axsium Group has developed a stable of post-implementation consulting services designed to help organizations maintain and enhance the effectiveness of their WFM systems. Our consultants help organizations take a disciplined, business case-focused approach to assessing software add-on's and enhancements. Whether the focus is adding automated scheduling or absence management capabilities to an existing time and attendance system, or incorporating new populations of employees into the solution scope, the goal is always the same: ensure the organization realizes benefits that outweigh the cost of implementation. For this reason, many of our clients turn to us to help them create an environment of continuous WFM improvement. Business Intelligence Implementations WORKFORCE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE How do you measure up? Company Efficiency, Industry Standard Benchmarking, Competitor Benchmarking Visibility into enterprise WFM effectiveness requires an enterprise WFM Business Intelligence (BI) solution, with the ability to drill-down into details at the division, department and/or employee level. While many companies understand the need to consolidate stand alone systems and processes into an enterprise solution, very few take the final step to implement an analytics solution which takes advantage of the resulting data. Without the ability to measure and analyze trends, or to measure actual WFM performance against industry and competitive benchmarks, it is impossible to objectively assess the success or final ROI of the solution investment. At Axsium, our unique approach to WFM BI begins early in the solution deployment lifecycle, starting with the development of a data-driven business case based on key, client-specific WFM performance indicators. The analytical framework developed to support the business case is then extended post-implementation through manager and executive dashboards connected to the WFM solution, enabling the organization to track the performance of their workforce management processes on a real time basis. With this WFM-specific data available real-time, managers are able to make decisions that directly improve the bottom line, while identifying issues and trends before they become full-fledged problems. Implementing the BI infrastructure "pre-solution" results in a number of important advantages: -Dramatic reduction of the timeline during the ‘diagnosis’ phase of the project. The areas of opportunity are identified immediately and can be given special attention. -Captures an accurate ‘Before’ picture of the company that can be used as the baseline for ROI Analysis ‘After’ the project has been completed. -Allows the client to capture incremental, quantitative measurements of the company at various times throughout the project to gain an accurate causal relationship between implemented initiatives and the bottom line. Using our proprietary approach to WFM performance measurement, Axsium is able to deliver a complete end-to-end Analytics solution which drives a culture of continuous improvement resulting in tremendous organizational value. ROI ANALYSIS How did we do? Continuous improvement through measuring ROI At Axsium, we know that the key to successful ROI Analysis is in the data. Numbers talk; anecdotes and subjective analysis do not instill a culture of continuous improvement. For many companies, completion of the initial WFM solution deployment is only the first step in realizing the return on investment initially envisioned. Continuous improvement of the solution, through analysis of the data now available at the enterprise level, enables the realization of a constant stream of cost savings. Axsium's proprietary approach to post-solution ROI analysis focuses on extracting the data needed to identify where incremental opportunities for improvement exist, such as: -Software usability enhancement -Expansion of solution footprint both functionally (e.g. new modules) and organizationally (e.g. additional employees/ divisions/ etc.) -Market analysis to identify best-of-breed and niche vendors -Increased standardization of pay practices and policies -Enhanced reporting and analytics Identification of incremental opportunities for improvement results in incremental improvements to the WFM solution. Each iteration of the solution, post "Go-Live", builds on the previous iterations and improves the overall functionality and usability of the solution. Done properly, these incremental improvements of the initial solution pay for themselves in increasingly shorter periods of time, which increases the rate of return on the overall investment. For those clients who undertake a data-driven ROI exercise, the end result is a detailed analysis of where expectations are being met, where opportunities for improvement still exist and finally a roadmap on how to achieve substantial, self-funding cost savings. http://www.axsiumgroup.com/WhatWeDo-Stage3.html |
| Marquee Clients | |
| Features |
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| Client Feedback | |
| When I think about this product I love |
Hard to say Axsium really understands its client's industry, and how workforce management can contribute to the bottom line. |
| When I think about this product I wish they would improve |
Lot of talk, little results |
| Workforce Management Strategy Services |
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| Product Manager | David Monroe |
| Product Demo | |
| Product Description |
Business Case Development
What does this all mean? Looking into the future Surprisingly few companies make use of formal, disciplined business cases to assist in determining the feasibility of investing in a Workforce Management initiative. Even fewer companies keep the business case alive subsequent to vendor selection to guide decision-making throughout the solution deployment. Axsium’s approach to developing WFM-focused business cases ensures all of the possible drivers of ROI and value capture are identified, including: -Process improvements -Payroll error reductions -Elimination of overpayments -Elimination of paid non-work time -Overtime reductions -Cycle time reductions -Headcount reductions Not only does the business case provide the direction and justification for the project but it is the most successful tool to promote buy-in from all areas of the enterprise. A skillfully tuned case will: -Demonstrate the Return on Investment to the executive decision-makers -Identify "day-in-the-life" improvements for supervisors, managers and administrative staff -Dispel unproductive rumors that the initiative is a headcount reduction exercise -Instill accountability and improve decision-making across all levels of the solution implementation team Solution Strategy and Roadmap Development Axsium performs extensive one to two day workshops with key stakeholders aimed at answering key questions around: scope, implementation timeline and approach, project staffing, and risks to success. The final deliverable is a comprehensive WFM Solution Strategy Report, which defines how the organization can achieve its short, medium and long-term WFM goals. Policy and Practice Optimization How can WFM help your organization succeed? Industry Experience, Technology Experience, Best Practice Experience Our consultants' experience, coupled with Axsium's proven, top-down approach to problem-solving serves as the basis for all client engagements. Experience is the key to helping clients understand the most efficient ways to solve their WFM challenges. Through Axsium, our clients gain access to an unparalleled level of experience, helping them avoid the common mistakes which can compromise solution success and overall return on investment. Operational Assessments are the first step in quantifying the magnitude of cost savings that can be realized through an enterprise WFM solution. Axsium's Operational Assessment service is built with a three step approach: 1.Outline the problem – All too often great recommendations are marginalized because the initial problem was incorrectly identified. As a result, companies undertake expensive and time consuming projects which fail to deliver the anticipated results. Consider: Company A is experiencing unsustainable levels of payroll errors resulting in hundreds of off-cycle checks and generally dissatisfied employees. A cursory examination of the issue concludes the problem is caused by an antiquated time and attendance system. Implementation of the new system, however, fails to adequately resolve the problem. Had company A performed a more thorough analysis of the problem, it would have identified inadequate scheduling processes as an equally important contributor. 2.Identify the Barriers to Success – Utilizing Axsium’s proprietary methodology, internal tools and network of professionals, our consultants are able to pinpoint exact areas of opportunity. By delving deep into a client's relevant processes and practices, our consultants are able to paint a picture of the issues and solution options in quantifiable financial terms. Consider: A Fortune 100 retailer undertakes the implementation of a WFM solution, including automated time and attendance and manager/ employee self service without first considering how to standardize its pay policies and practices at the enterprise level. As a result, the initiative becomes mired in a constant state of requirements analysis as the project team struggles to develop a design for each different regional and departmental process. Had the company spent the time during the operational assessment to define process and policy standardization criteria the project team would have been empowered to drive the change needed to keep the project on track 3.Recommend Solutions – Upon successful issue identification, our consultants will present creative solutions to realize the value of the recommended changes. All options are presented with detailed insight into the advantages and disadvantages of each. Consider: A large financial services company, on the advice of its consultants, choose a time and attendance solution which meets their existing requirements based on cost considerations. Seven months after the solution was implemented a major acquisition destroyed the return on investment due to technological constraints. Had the company’s advisors taken future business impacts into account in the Operational Assessment, this risk would have been included in the decision-making process and a solution with a more flexible architecture selected. Vendor Selection Which product best meets your needs? Axsium’s position as an objective, third party consulting firm - and not a software reseller - ensures objectivity when helping organizations determine which technology will best meet their needs. This gives Axsium’s clients a unique advantage when it comes to vendor selection and management. Engagements to select an appropriate vendor can include one or a combination of the following services: -RFI development to guide the selection of vendor candidates -RFP development to guide final vendor selection -Market analysis to identify best-of-breed and niche vendors -Software and hardware analysis to validate vendor claims -Guidance with software module selection -Contract negotiation support http://www.axsiumgroup.com/WhatWeDo-Stage1.html |
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| Features |
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| Client Feedback | |
| When I think about this product I love | |
| When I think about this product I wish they would improve |
| Workforce Management Implementation Services |
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| Product Manager | David Monroe |
| Product Demo | |
| Product Description |
Full Lifecycle Implementations
How will your organization deliver the solution? Axsium’s Axselerate implementation methodology is used during all Axsium-led implementations . This structured and disciplined implementation methodology is based on the Rational Unified Process™. Axselerate focuses on iterative modeling of the solution early in the project lifecycle which serves to identify potential design flaws and requirements gaps much earlier than more traditional methodologies. Our methodology, which has been proven successful with dozens of companies, ensures Axsium-led implementation projects are delivered on-time and on-budget with no surprises. Discover and Design: Axsium’s Discovery process is designed to encourage discussion and uncover detail normally overlooked in the early stages of a project. Axsium consultants utilize their detailed industry and workforce management experience to capture the majority of requirements prior to the discovery sessions. Workshops are then used for validation and capturing detail on the more complex aspects of the client’s requirements. Detailed, granular requirements are evaluated and an accurate configuration and coding effort is created in order to build a precise plan for the remainder of the project. All requirements are then filtered through Axsium’s EVI (Effort, Value, Impact) Scoping Model to finalize the footprint of the end solution and permit tracking the completion of system elements and features from analysis through design, build and ultimately, test. Axsium subscribes to the premise that changes in the design of any enterprise software application are much easier and less costly to make the earlier they are identified in the system deployment lifecycle. Iterative modeling (through use case analysis) of pay rule, interface, workflow and other system behavior allows the identification of potential design issues before the code is written, which makes addressing them as cost effective as possible. Code and Configure: With the emphasis on surfacing the detailed requirements and design via modeling prior to build, the code and configuration process is extremely efficient, reducing the amount of custom code and streamlining application configurations. Utilizing a disciplined approach to code and data changes and other modifications to the system (both configurations and custom extension) is a critical discipline during the code and configuration phase. Axselerate follows a very structured approach to version control and code/data migration, designed to eliminate uncontrolled and potentially harmful system changes. This is achieved through clear documentation, restricted access to only accountable project personnel and effective tracking of configuration and code through shared files and version control software. Test: Axsium employs various types of testing throughout the implementation of a workforce management solution. Unit and system integration testing rely on the test cases/models developed during design, ensuring the behavior of the system conforms to the business requirements. Our modeling approach greatly reduce the number of surprises that typically arise during user acceptance testing as end users’ detailed expectations have already been captured and built. Deploy: Axsium consultants will develop and execute a Transition Strategy which includes clearly defined and prioritized tasks outlining how to prepare the production environment and how to migrate data and code prior to the go-live date. This meticulous preparation and planning eliminates the system surprises that can frustrate end users and undermine their trust in the new software. Knowledge Transfer: From years of implementation experience, Axsium has compiled best practices into a comprehensive and detailed knowledge transfer methodology with the objective of making clients self-sufficient in deploying and maintaining their WFM solution. This knowledge transfer methodology begins with defining the key skills the client’s personnel must possess to support their particular system in production. With this list of skills a combination of on-the-job training and scheduled formal learning sessions delivered throughout the course of the implementation are employed to ensure the client’s personnel are sufficiently experienced to maintain the system in production. Change Management & Training: The training and communications strategy is developed during design and executed throughout the workforce management implementation. Clearly defined lines of production support are also established and communicated to system administration and end user personnel. Upon deployment there is constant follow-up by the change management/communications support group during the first few weeks of production to proactively address user issues and maintain strong user adoption rates. Internal (Client-Side) Staff Augmentation Axsium offers staff augmentation services to assist your organization during your WFM implementation. All of Axsium’s consultants have an industry focus honed through years spent working in and consulting to a specific industry vertical. Add this industry experience to an average of 4+ years of WFM consulting experience, and you get a team of trusted business and technical advisors who consistently exceed expectations. Organizational Readiness, Change Management and Training Services If the new solution was ready to be implemented today, would your organization be prepared? Axsium's Organizational Readiness approach puts change management at the core of the WFM solution deployment. Too often, change management is overlooked or ignored early in the implementation as a "nice-to-have" component of the project. Then, as system and process adoption rates suffer, support and deployment costs increase. The final result is a vicious cycle of unsatisfied end users and overworked production support staff. In workforce management, most change management needs derive from the inevitable process of standardizing and re-engineering the organization's WFM practices (pay rules, leave policies, scheduling processes, etc.). While standardization will greatly increase overall return on investment, it also creates significant change which must be addressed proactively. To ensure the changes which will drive the majority of the organization's ROI do not become roadblocks to success, effective change management must focus on: Communications: Frequent and effective communications which focus on education and eliminating rumor Establishing Up-Front Criteria for Change: Not all change is good change. As such, Axsium advocates defining and communicating a predefined set of criteria that must exist in order to consider changing a specific WFM practice . "Socialization" of these criteria early in the solution deployment lifecycle can eliminate a number of end-user concerns that might otherwise become roadblocks to success. Standardization Targets: A pre-implementation list of those solution areas that might be candidates for standardization (i.e. scheduling processes, grace and rounding rules, etc.) ensures executive buy-in at the highest levels. Prior to the creation of any strategic plan, Axsium consultants work with the project team and executive management to identify and empower strategically positioned Change Agents, whose task it will be to champion the impending solution and dispel obstacles to overall success. Armed with an effective communications strategy and a collaborative process for identifying the greatest sources of disruptive change, this approach facilitates the creation of a highly effective and minimally invasive Change Management Strategy. Training At Axsium Group, the education needs of each client are addressed by designing an education program that ensures the organization has the skills required to successfully deploy, utilize, and manage the solution once deployed to production. Each implementation of an enterprise workforce management solution requires the training of three key audiences: 1.Internal project team. Requires education on how to effectively implement the selected workforce management solution, focusing on providing the customer with the skills to effectively participate in the implementation. This training is designed to teach participants the basic, conceptual skills needed to understand why the various tasks involved in the implementation are necessary and how to carry them out in a timely and cost effective manner. 2.End users. The various groups of end users will require different training content via a number of possible channels, including: business process documents, test scripts, instructor and user training manuals, web-based materials that include overviews, practice simulations and assessment exercises, in-application support, and job aids. 3.System administration and support personnel. Those supporting the solution will require training on how to maintain the system in production and how to troubleshoot issues and support end users. Axsium’s formal knowledge transfer methodology was designed to achieve one objective; make the client self-sufficient in managing its WFM Solution. To meet this objective, Axsium takes a detailed and gradual approach starting with the fundamentals of troubleshooting and system maintenance, then progressing into more complex skills. Each phase of the knowledge transfer contains both fundamental knowledge and Axsium best practices, delivered through a combination of classroom instruction and self-study exercises. http://www.axsiumgroup.com/WhatWeDo-Stage2.html |
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| Features |
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| Client Feedback | |
| When I think about this product I love | |
| When I think about this product I wish they would improve |
| Perfect Paycheck |
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| Product Manager | David Monroe |
| Product Demo | |
| Product Description |
Are you Producing the Perfect Paycheck?
Axsium can help. Did you know that the average cost of fixing a payroll error by cutting a manual check is $17 for each occurrence? Not to mention the amount of staff time, productivity and employee confidence that is lost resolving the matter. Employee satisfaction is directly impacted. Lack of confidence in the payroll process creates frustration and stress for everyone involved and puts unneeded burden on the payroll department. Why the Perfect Paycheck? You’ve made a significant investment in your Kronos® time and attendance system. Axsium’s expertise can protect your investment and ensure that you produce perfect paychecks every pay period. Axsium's one-day "Perfect PayCheck Assessment" will evaluate your current processes and outline the path to producing the perfect paycheck every time. There's no risk and no obligation for our free one-day assessment. Visit Axsium @ Kronosworks in booth #305 and let us show you how easy producing the perfect paycheck can be. Pick up an Axsium “Perfect Chef” apron and get registered to win a $500 Sur La Table gift certificate. Be seen on the show floor wearing the Axsium “Perfect Chef” apron for a random chance to win $50 American Express Gift Card – multiple winners each day! Are you interested in a producing a perfect paycheck now? Then call Axsium today – 888.AXSIUM1 x2009 or email info@axsiumgroup.com. |
| Marquee Clients | |
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| Client Feedback | |
| When I think about this product I love | |
| When I think about this product I wish they would improve |
