Understanding operations management consulting

Although much attention lately has been given to accounting practices and IT consulting, operations management has always been one of the most important efficiency issues of any company. Ensuring your communication, transportation, and production all work at maximum efficiency and with good integration can have a massive impact on your bottom line.

Today, its not just about looking at your employees and your management; its also about using GPS technology to maximize transportation efficiency; about leveraging information about production and ordering to maximize use of just-in-time business practices; about using IT to make assembly-line practices as efficient as possible. Operations management consultants need to be expert in people motivation and in the use of IT to get the most out of your production and delivery lines.

Finding operations management consultants

Before seeking out an operations management consultant, you should examine your own processes and determine what your real needs are. Do you need to streamline your transportation and delivery system? Or are your problems more with a bottleneck in production? Once youve identified your real problems, one of the best ways to find an operations management consultant who specialized in that area is to read industry magazines. Often youll find that experts write some of the best articles in trade journals, and that they are available for consulting jobs. Another great way to find management consultants is by asking friends and associates about consultants they may have hired in the past.

Once youve located candidates, start asking questions. What can they do for you? What will they need to have access to in order to make changes? Describe some of your problems and ask what theyd do to repair them.

Once your consultant is in place, ensure that they have access to everything they need. Speak with your line managers and other involved personnel about what the consultant is going to be doing, and what hes going to need from them in order to do it. Set some project management software in place, and ensure that your consultant feels free to ask you for whatever assistance he or she needs.

You should budget for more than just a consultant when youre working on your operations management. You will certainly need to make some capital and equipment investments as well; a consultant is more likely to add tools than to remove them. Whether its new software, GPS location equipment, or a revamping of the assembly line, youll need to purchase new items to take advantage of the efficiencies your consultant discovers. This seems like an elementary concept; but often companies pour money into a great consultant, only to run out of cash when it comes time to implement the solutions the consultant has found. And by the time the cash is there to implement, the information provided by the consultant is outdated!

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.managementpilot.com. Learn about change management, interim management, project management, corporate governance, management consulting and business development.

ERP Consulting 2010: future business model and alternatives

Analyzing Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains consulting in the Clinton era, then in recession time 2000-2003 and now, at the post-recession, we would like to give certain prognoses for the next five years. This might be attributable to the whole industry: Oracle Financials, Accpac, MAS500, PeopleSoft, SAP for mid-size business and Microsoft Navision, Axapta and Solomon. We are talking about mid-size ERP systems implementation, customization, integration and support, which requires more than one independent consultant efforts client needs Microsoft Business Solutions partner to implement the system. The most important changes in our opinion happened in the time of recession and these changes will reshape the industry in a few years. Right now we are experiencing the time of market redistribution. Lets look at the processes:
Consulting Companies Consolidation. Great Plains Software was supporting small and tiny partners, down to one consultant this was up to the moment when Microsoft purchased the company and formed Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, later on renamed into Microsoft Business Solutions. However the realities of recession-time cash flow forced small and mid-size Microsoft Business Solutions partner to merge with auditing firms. The opposite side of the coin is large companies, serving mid-size and small businesses are pushing consulting and hidden implementation price up.
Recession-time Expenses reduction CEO. Yes corporate, mid-size and small clients launched the program of cost reduction. Recession inevitably pushed consulting rates down and the consolidation process leaded to the situation when clients could not afford the price level due to the weak budget or the believe in the price decrease.
Consultants Layoffs. This is very prosaic process but it is inevitable in the time of recession and lack of orders. Consultants, who were serving client in the booming time had to find another job, mostly in different industry, something like to become controllers for mid-size businesses (when former controller was laid off due to high pre-recession time salary). These historical layoffs however resulted in the nowadays shortage of experienced consultants, especially technical consultants: Great Plains Dexterity, VBA/Modifier, Integration Manager programmers and technical specs writers.

Predictions and Prognoses:
Offshore is only part of the solution. The main reason in our opinion is reasonable conservatism from the side of potential clientele. There were so many malicious virus attacks from overseas and we do not simply trust somebody who is over there and never had a chance to shake our hands. The second reason small to mid-size companies (who have conservative approach to trust somebody) might not have strong IT support and infrastructure to be served via remote desktop, VPN or web session.
Established Partners with Offshore facilities. This is possible way, however we have certain skepticism here. The reason to our skepticism is established partners have to command highest consulting rates due to high level of administrative and headquarters expenses, so the savings to the end client might not be substantial
New Small Nationwide Partners. Due to the recession, there were cases when minor partners had to leave mid-size consulting companies and form new companies on their own, believing in their expertise and the new way of partnering with offshore programming groups. We believe that the future market will turn to these partners and new nation-wide practices.

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in
California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia

Consulting Your Way To A Six Figure Income!

Fiore

Consulting Your Way To A Six Figure Income!

by Chuck and Sue DeFiore

The following are some examples of the power of Lease Purchase Consulting with both Buyers and Sellers.

The seller contacted us after a phone message we left on his machine regarding the Lease Purchase of his home. When we spoke with him he said he needed $8000 upfront, since he was moving into a new home. We told him that we could consult with him. He opted for the complete manual with forms and contracts. We told him if he needed to we would consult with him and take the manual price off the consultation. This seller had previously owned rental property, so he was well versed in real estate and familiar with the process. With our manual and contracts he moved his home in 15 days and received the $8000 he needed. He got $6000 up front and took a note back for the remaining $2000.

This seller contacted us through an e-mail we sent him. He lived out of state and was unsure of what lease purchasing was. He opted for a full consultation. We sent him the manual and contracts and forms, and told him once he received the package to call us and set up his consultation. We went through the package with him and outlined exactly what he had to do. He was selling a 4 bedroom 3 bathroom, 2200 sq. ft. home, with a nice backyard and pool. He said, he didn't need any up front money other than deposits. We again explained the difference between renting and lease option. His payments were $1200 a month for his mortgage. We showed him how to get money up front and positive cash flow. He got $1400 for a monthly payment, which gave him $200 a month positive cash flow, and $5000 option money. He set the term for 3 years, with a rent credit of $600 for the first year only. This seller, with no experience, moved his home in 21 days. He called us recently and said that the tenant/buyers were getting ready to purchase the home.

This couple contacted us on an ad we had placed for a 3 bedroom 2 bath, 1800 square foot home. The home was already lease purchased. However, we did tell them we had a step by step manual that showed them how to find their own lease purchase home. The couple bought the complete manual along with the contracts. They found their own home within 2 months time. They were looking in a very well defined area. They negotiated a three year term with a 50% rent credit. They expect to option in the last year.

We had placed an ad for a 4 bedroom 3-1/2 bath home with pool and spa. This couple came to look at the home, but didn't like the pool being so close to the home. They had small children and were afraid that would be too tempting. They asked us if we had any other properties like this in this area only. They liked the school district and only wanted to look in this area. We told them we didn't at the time, and it was difficult for us to specifically look in such a narrow area. However, we told them we offer a step by step manual on how to do a lease purchase, the manual and contacts, or that we could consult with them in addition to the manual and contracts. They chose for us to consult with them. They didn't feel comfortable doing it all on their own without our support. We helped them define their parameters and set up a plan for them to find their own Lease Purchase within 45 days (their time frame). They did as we advised, followed our plan, and found and moved into their dream home within their time frame.

As you can see, consulting with both sellers and buyers is a win-win-win situation for everyone. The buyers and sellers are happy, and you're very happy. You've made a good consulting fee.

Copyright DeFiore Enterprises 2001

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 17 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our FREE "how to" Home Business Solutions Digest, it's like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com