Business Process Management (BPM) is the computer-generated approach used by many CEOs and business strategy and development managers to ensure that a company’s workflow is efficient and adaptable.

David Jackson believes that BPM software is essential to the effective running of a company. Based on an activity, or set of activities, it can help an organization as a whole to accomplish set and defined organisational goals.

“The sole goal of BPM, essentially, is to reduce human error and miscommunication,By focusing staff on the requirements of their roles, they buy into a subset culture of infrastructure management say’s David Jackson. HBOS new article read more…..

“This is an administrative area, concerned with maintaining and optimizing an organisation’s equipment and core operations.”

Efficient processes are the foundation of any business, he says. Every process is designed to streamline the way that you and your team work. When everyone in an organisation follows a well-tested set of steps, there are fewer errors and delays. “You can see this by looking at situations where processes do not work. At 328 Group, there have been a few in the past that have led to customer complaints, frustrated colleagues and wasted resources.

BPM software is often the lateral communication between the line of business (the company’s bottom line) and the IT department, explains Dave Jackson. HBOS the full story…..

Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) have been created to facilitate communication between the two areas. Both languages are easy to learn. This means that business people and IT professionals alike can quickly learn to use them and construct effective processes.

“When corroborating BPM as a business strategy and development leader, there are two frameworks to bear in mind.

“A horizontal framework deals with design and development of business processes. These are generally focused on technology and reuse of that technology.

“A vertical BPM framework is used when workforces need to focus on a pre-determined set of co-ordinated tasks and have pre-built templates, which can be easily configured and deployed.”

Dave Jackson explains that a full-service BPM suite will have five main components:
• Process discovery and project scoping
• Process modeling and design
• Business rules engine
• Workflow engine
• Simulation and testing

“BPM can be monitored via intelligent software, which is readily available and affordable today. Alternatively, systems can be managed manually, usually by a business strategy and development manager.

“Step one of the method is to map-out the processes you want to change and improve. At this stage, get clear about the main processes needing attention. After that, you can analyse the process, and investigate what problems actually exist. Are there common themes? Where is the root?

After this, Dave Jackson advises, the company is ready to redesign the process. This will aim to totally eliminate the problems identified and the costs involved in making the necessary changes. “Sometimes, as we have experienced at Local Ltd., change will require the allocation of new resource and an overhaul of entire departments. To implement and communicate change, you need to be prepared for resistance and patient with the process.

Small improvements in BPM can make a huge difference to the efficiency and workability of an organisation, according to the 328 Group CEO.

“The significance of BPM is remarkable in today’s competitive market as work processes are extensively affected by technology. An effective way to achieve a successful BPM strategy is to concentrate more on the business requirement than on the technology used to achieve the solution. This way, you can’t go wrong.”

Related articles - 328 Group – HBOS - Corporate Jet Services

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The EU has this week proposed an increase in income tax on UK homes to curb excessive house prices, advises Tony Shakesby, CFO of 328 Group Limited and also a finance specialist consultant in London.

“Deploy appropriate measures,” says Shakesby, is the message from The European Commission (EC). Of course, they are referring to the UK’s rocketing house prices. The EC has called on the UK government to set appropriate limits and take control of the housing market, which should include a potential adjustment of the popular Help To Buy scheme. The Union’s executives also urged British policy makers to address “excessive” house price rises, particularly in the Capital, by raising taxes on property and land. A move, Tony Shakesby, says will be incredibly unpopular. “Following the economic downturn, the UK has struggled tirelessly to reach a place where economic growth can finally be felt again,” says the 328 Group and JETS chief. “The growth period has seen a dramatic rise in things such as household items. If the UK government takes the advice, it will prove to be a very unpopular move, particularly for the already ‘pinched middle’.

Despite this fact, I agree that some damage control policy needs to be put in place. As a business consultant, we don’t want to see the past repeating itself, and lessons should have been learnt.” At the moment, increasing property values are not translated into higher property taxes, says the EC in a statement. “As the property value roll has not been updated since 1991 and taxes on higher value property are lower than on lower value property in relative terms due to the regressivity of the current rates and bands within the council tax system.” The EC also advised that the government must build more homes.

The supply has fallen short of demand by a considerable margin, according to the EC – despite the UK’s continued effort to build more. “This, combined with low interest rates and easier terms for mortgage lending, has led to strong growth in house prices in parts of the UK, particularly in London,” says Shakesby. Tony Shakesby goes on to further say: “Action is needed to further boost the supply of houses – by creating appropriate incentives to raise supply at the local level.

A shortage of supply has long been a structural phenomenon and is likely to extend into the medium term. The finance specialist and accountant for 328 Group wants Prime Minister David Cameron to acknowledge that the EU’s recommendations are in line with the government’s approach. The PM, according to Tony Shakesby, is embroiled in a battle with European ministers over his recent opposition to federalist Jean-Claude Juncker becoming the next head of the commission. Business consultants say that the main policy set out was related to the housing market with a warning that demand was outstripping supply. The document reiterated: “Action is needed to further boost the supply of houses – by creating appropriate incentives to raise supply at the local level. “The authorities should continue to monitor house prices and mortgage indebtedness and stand ready to deploy appropriate measures, including adjusting the Help to Buy 2 scheme, if deemed necessary,” agrees Tony Shakesby. HBOS- a full in depth interview here……

“As CFO to 328 Group and number of other companies, I can appreciate that we are enjoying a current return to growth. Employment will continue to rise, which is a great thing. This will gradually happen, and it will be slow. Public finances are much healthier today than they have been in previous years, and financial specialists are happy in their work, knowing that the market have stabilised. “But this recovery remains fragile and needs to be handled with great, great care.

The whole of Europe is still not out of crisis and we need to get back to a place of cemented solid growth.”

Other News:  328 Group -  HBOS - Corporate Jet Services

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Today I came accross DylanKingsberry.com, which is an ‘earn money blogging’ site. Im assuming that because I signed up for payperpost through his site, he gets some sort of referral credit.

Layout:

The layout of Dylans site is fairly decent, he has a nice and simple two-column layout. The colors are also simple, and easy to look at. I did notice that halfway down his main page, a giant blue horizontal banner split his blog posting in half – I’m assuming its some sort of bug. Dylan has monetized his site with six or seven different services, and In my opinioin he should’nt add nay more advertisements on his page. Everyone wants to make money, but as soon as I see a page overloaded with ads, I immediatly leave. Dylans site has just the right amount of advertising.

Content:

Most of dylans posts are fairly short and simple to read. He has some good reviews of different ad programs available, and some decent ideas about driving traffic to your site. I think if he keeps it up he will ultimatly create a successful blog.

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The Millionaire Next Door shows that you don’t need a huge income to become wealthy. Nor do you have to live like a hermit. You can have a great lifestyle in the present while saving for the future…but you have to exercise control.

This book was like a jolt of electricity to me and made me aware that I was living way beyond my means with little if anything put away for retirement or even emergencies.

By contrast, I know some people who earn far less than I do, live reasonably well and have also saved a small fortune by being frugal.

Do you really need that bottled water? Eat out every day? Rent so many videos? Have to buy those new fashions? Need to buy a new car just to keep in style? Need to move into that bigger house to keep up with your neighbors?

Here is a tip: increase your spending starting tomorrow by putting at le ast 10% of your gross income away. Invest into a IRA and your 401 (k) (or RRSP) plan at work. If you are doing that, great. Increase your spending by increasing the amount of money you put into investments. Make extra principal payments on your mortgage and credit cards. Spend extra money in rental properties…carefully or start a small home based business and then use the profits to enhance your lifestyle.

The Millionaire Next Door is packed full of statistics about what average millionaires spend their money on, what food they eat, where they shop, what they drive, what kind of education they have, and much much more. I highly reccomend this book!

The post The Millionaire Next Door – Thomas J Stanley & William D. Danko appeared first on My dot Money.

I put a request in to Investopedia today to see if they would let me use their ‘term of the day’ newsletter as subject content for this site, but that was a no-go. Not a big drawback though, I can easilly compile my own list of terms and definitions and add one every couple of days.

The post Back into the swing of things appeared first on My dot Money.

When I was ready to start putting money back into savings/investments I had decided that I wanted to invest in Uranium. I bought one uranium stock, that wound up merging with another. Within the first 3 months or so, I had seen a 50% gain in my stock price. I was super excited, so I went out and bought 2 more U companies. This was mabye.. 6 or 7 months ago when the U companies were HOT HOT HOT. Now, after watching my portfolio drop not only down to my original investment level, but even further I realize why everyone stresses diversification. My limited portfolio went from being up 60% to down 20% in under a year. Thats a pretty huge swing.

This all leads into diversification. Do not put all of your eggs in one or two or even three baskets, hoping to catch the next big stock. Even holding onto one sector is very risky. I actually took a loss on my investments in order to properly diversify myself.

Being a new and still fairly inexperienced investor, I didn’t want to have to hand pick the stocks in my portfolio, so I did something a little bit different. I bought into an Index Fund. I will write another post later explaining all about Index funds and ETF’s (Exchange Traded Funds), but I can quickly summarize it here. The fund that I bought is the iShares S&P TSX 60 fund, which is compromised of the 60 largest and most liquid stocks traded on the TSX. Now, I can’t say that my portfolio is truley diversified yet, as this TSX fund is weighted very heavily on the financial and energy sectors, but it is definitally WAY better than my previous picks. Over the past 10 years or so, the TSX exchange has averaged around 10%. Not an incredible return, but still very respectable. Over the past 4 or so years, the TSX has averaged closer to 18% return – thats pretty nice in my books.

I will follow up with more info on ETF’s and Diversification.

The post Diversification through an ETF appeared first on My dot Money.

With that said, where does one start? You’ve decided that you no longer want to live paycheque to paycheque, but you don’t know what to do next.

The very first thing that you should do, before putting any money into investments, is to pay off all of your outstanding high-interest debt. My definition of high interest debt, is anything above prime excluding your mortgage. If you have a balance on your credit card that is costing you 19%, there is absolutely no point in taking money and investing it. You can take your money and put it in a GIC, T-bill, Bond, mutual fund, or any type of financial instrument, but unless your investment is returning MORE than 19%, you are going to be loosing money.

So, pay off those credit cards, high interest LOC’s, and any other outstanding debt that you may have, and then you can start to create a plan for richness.

The post Beginners Investing – Part 1 appeared first on My dot Money.

Have some toast, fruit & coffee at home every morning, rather than stopping by Starbucks and purchasing a coffee & muffin.
Do you buy bottled water? Gallon for gallon, it costs more than gasoline. Try to train yourself to drink tap water. If for some reason that is absolutely out of the question, purchase a filter for your tap or water jug. Even buy in bulk and fill up smaller water bottles.
Stop buying lottery tickets! You have a greater chance of being hit by a meteorite than winning the lottery.
Other than the obvious health implications, cigarettes are an absolute HUGE waste of money. If you are a smoker, and want to save money – the very first thing you need to do is quit smoking!
When going on grocery trips, only purchase what you have written down in advance. This will help limit needless spending, and impulse buying.
No matter what you are shopping for, always look around and search for bargains.
These are just a few suggestions, there are obviously thousands of ways that a person or family can be smarter with their money. Do some research, and plan ahead. One of the first rules for saving, is that its not the amount of money that you save that matters the most, its the amount of money that you spend. There are numerous examples that I have read about, of people earning close to minimum wage their entire lives, yet retiring comfortably because they limited spending, and saved properly.

$12.00 a day?

I’l going to use an example of someone earning $16.00/hr. (In Alberta, where I live, the average salary is just under $22.00/hr so this is modest). $16/hr = $33,280/year. You work 8 hours a day. Even if you take 45 minutes out of that work day, and put the money earned aside ($12.00) you have an amazing financial instrument. $12/day at 0% interest will yield you $3,120 in one year. (about 9.3% of your gross income). If you open up a premium rate savings account at a mere 4%, and donate $120 every two weeks, at the end of 12 months you will have $3,650.62. (11% of your gross income)

Get rich automatically

Easier said than done, right? Every two weeks, taking $120 and putting it into a separate account. The best way to do this is to automate it. Every bank or brokerage house will easily set up automatic money transfers for you at pre-determined times. many employers also have the ability to split your pay up, and send different amounts into different accounts. The money comes right off of the top. We all know that money you can’t see, you can’t spend. Get your money working for your future, without you having to do anything!

Double up ROI for free

Many employers now have a program in place, where they will match your contributions into a retirement / pension account up to a certain percentage of your income. This is absolutely fantastic! Take advantage of this as soon as you are eligible. My current employer matches 3% of my gross income into my pension account. I put in 3% and my company puts in 3%. Essentially I am doubling my investment immediately. Even the best fund managers on wall street don’t turn a 100% gain on their funds. Most fund managers are very happy if they earn 8-12% per year. You would assume that taking advantage of this program would be a no-brainer, but believe it or not, there are people out there that decline it.

Once you’ve made a savings plan, and have freed up the cash that you would like to invest with, you are free to start selecting the different investment opportunities out there.

The post Beginners Investing – Part 2 appeared first on My dot Money.

Once you have selected your long-term investments, I think its a good idea to leave them alone. Don’t move your money around trying to catch the latest trends and cash in on some short term profits. Simply make your monthly contributions and let the market do the work for you. Give it some time, and you will begin to see the magic of compound interest.

Why compounding works

If you put $1,000 in an account that earned 8% interest, after one year you would have an additional $80.00. If you took that $80.00 out and spent it, and did that every year for 10 years, you would have… well, $1,000. You would’ve spent a total of $800 over the 10 year period. On the other hand, if you didn’t want to spend the $80.00 per year, you would have $1080 after the first year. After the second year, not only would you have earned 8% on your original thousand, but also on the interest. You will find that 8% of $1080 is $86.40, leaving you with $1166.40 after two years. At the end of the 10 years, you will have $2158.92 – not only did your original principal earn you $800 in interest, but you also earned an additional $358.92 on top of that. Your annual rate was 8%, but your ‘effective’ total rate of return was about 11.6% due to the compounding.

I’ve included a worksheet that I drew up where I’ve compared two different investors. It’s an amazing example of the power of compound interest.

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