Business Management and Improvement of services provided by businesses to its customers

ThirdWave is a subject matter expert and national thought leader with business process analysis and improvement to optimize mission critical business processes. We offer:

• An award winning, patented BPI/BPR tool (US Patent Office, Patent No. 8,615,423)
• A track record of facilitating more than 3,000 requirements definition workshops
• A body of work using Rapid Workflow® (also known as RWPM™) on 150 Business Process Reengineering projects of scale and complexity for city, county, state and federal agencies - and Fortune 500 corporations

Rapid Workflow® has proven itself in some of the largest government and corporate environments in the U.S. It is a fast yet effective methodology to identify operating opportunities through business process analysis, requirements definition and solution development. It provides the synthesis of optimized management policies, business practices, organizational architecture and Information Technologies. Rapid Workflow® has resulted in enterprise-wide transformation change, enhanced efficiencies, reduced operational costs, and improved customer service. Contact us and we will provide a downloadable presentation of the Rapid Workflow Process Modeling® tool.

Download RWPM PowerPoint

A Tool for Transformation Change

Rapid Workflow® been recognized as an innovative best practice. Unlike other process modeling methods, it is a more comprehensive technique. It synthesizes workflows, problems, impacts, solutions and benefits in ONE workshop to identify business process improvement opportunities and technology requirements. It does not require multiple, time consuming workshops held over multiple days. Rapid Workflow® has been use for more than a quarter century for:

• Business Process Reengineering / Business Process Improvement
• Business / Organizational / Technology Strategic Planning & Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Development of Solicitation documents (RFPs, RFQs, RFIs)
• Enterprise IT Implementations / Project Management Office functions for Portfolio Management
• Software and Application Development and Enterprise Application Integration

Rapid Workflow® can be carried out with great results in a short timeline. Other techniques (i.e., Six-Sigma, Lean, Kaizen and BPR) take multiple meetings where Rapid Workflow® takes one 4 hour meeting. And it collects substantially more data. According to our clients who have experience with Six-Sigma, Rapid Workflow® is superior by far. It saves our clients staff time and money, builds a compelling business case, and allows for prioritizing business and technology initiatives.

Download RWPM PowerPoint

Business Process Training You Can Actually Use

ThirdWave conducts classes, seminars and workshops on RWPM. We also speak at conferences in the field of Business Management and improving the services provided by a government organization or business to its customers.

RWPM® training has been used with great success in government and Fortune 500 corporations for years. The classes provide a highly interactive and scalable technique applicable from the department to enterprise level. It is an easy to learn tool to effectively carry out functional / technical requirements definition for business process improvement / IT initiatives by:

• Synthesizing business process workflows, problems, impacts, solutions and benefits;
• Tying business process enhancement opportunities with Information Technology solutions where applicable; and,
• Focusing on building a compelling business case / Cost Benefit Analysis for change.
• Companies or government organizations that seek to improve their performance measured in profitability, reduced operational costs, enhanced service delivery, and/or improved customer satisfaction take this training. RWPM® is also an excellent tool for meeting the Malcolm Baldrige Award criteria.

Our clients throughout the US have certified more than 1,100 RWPM Facilitators. These progressive organizations adopt the tool as part of continuous improvement programs fostering transformational change.

RWPM Courses

Rapid Workflow® 101: This one day class includes instruction on the Rapid Workflow® methodology, BPR/BPI principles, As-Is / To-Be process mapping concepts and exercises. The class also covers basic MS Visio productivity techniques.
Cost: $ 1,500 / student (5 student min., 36 maximum.) Tiered volume pricing available.

Rapid Workflow® Certification Training: This is an intensive two day course. The workshop covers the one day material in addition to:

• Effective workshop facilitation
• Applying the methodology to:
• Business / IT Strategic Planning
• Business Process Reengineering / Improvement
• Business / IT Requirements Definition
• RFP Development
• Cost / Benefit Analysis

Cost: $ 2,000 / student (5 student min., 24 maximum) Tiered volume pricing available.

Rapid Workflow® Licensed Courseware includes unlimited use of the Rapid Workflow® PowerPoint Courseware (Instructor Guide, Student Booklet, PowerPoint Presentation, Visio Template and Symbol Set for use on projects) licensed to the customer for Internal Training and Use Only. This product is beneficial for organizations that are interested in establishing internal BPI / BPR / Continuous Improvement Teams, a Train-the-Trainer Program, or carrying out ongoing Business Process Improvement / Reengineering.
Cost: Onetime fee is based on organization size.

Please contact us and we will provide a downloadable presentation of the training we provide.

Download RWPM PowerPoint

Transformational Outcomes & Benefits

Rapid Workflow® has provided actionable recommendations and strategies that have produced substantial, transformation change for our clients. It has provided an extensive list of benefits including:

• Detailed management, operational and Information Technology functional and technical requirements
• Shortened business processes and cycle times
• Staff time savings
• Cost avoidance, reduction and/or savings
• Increased operating efficiencies
• Improved customer satisfaction levels
• Compelling business cases using real, verifiable business / operational data
• Detailed data and comprehensive budget estimates
• Actionable, prioritized recommendations including “low-hanging fruit”
• Sound business planning that can withstand fiscal scrutiny
• Improved Change Management, Project Management and Portfolio Management
• Enhanced management policies, balanced scorecards, dashboards, performance measurements
• Sound investments in business / technology initiatives
• Planned IT deployments aligned with business and service delivery needs
• Pragmatic, measurable quantitative (fiscal) and qualitative (service delivery) benefits

Download RWPM PowerPoint

Enhanced Customer Services, Cost Savings and Operating Efficiencies

With 100+ IT Strategic Planning (ITSP) projects carried out over 25 years, we are experts in enterprise strategic planning. ThirdWave offers a core competency and specialization in ITSPs for local, county, state and federal organizations. We have a vast body of work for many small, medium and large cities (e.g., cities of Los Angeles, San Jose, Pasadena, Las Vegas, Austin; Counties such as Stanislaus, Orange, and Galveston; Ports such as Los Angeles and San Diego; state agencies such as CalSTRS, DOIT, DEQ Montana; and federal agencies such as NOAA). This is a partial list, not counting Fortune 500 clients.

Our ITSPs are holistic, using a balanced focus on management, operational and technology needs and performance parameters. We employ our award winning, patent pending Rapid Workflow® methodology to produce business, functional and technical requirements. This fast, yet comprehensive methodology has produced many technically viable, financially sound, and fully responsive ITSPs. ThirdWave has a long track record of success producing exceptional ITSPs that get adopted and funded. They are consistently recognized as comprehensive, thorough and exceptional by our clients. Exceedingly rare in the IT industry, 98% of the ITSPs we have produced have been funded and implemented, an unequaled statistic in the IT industry. This has resulted in business process improvement, increased operational efficiencies, and enhanced service delivery to constituents.

Leveraging the Internet for online service delivery, not just information posting

ThirdWave has been a pioneer and innovator of E-Government strategies and solutions since 1995. We have assisted government agencies take innovative steps to utilize Web applications to operate in a more cost-effective manner. Our focus has to fully leveraging the Internet to provide web-enabled applications providing interactive and transactional online services – not just information posting. Our clients have become leading E-Government cities. ThirdWave offers the following services:

• E-Government Strategic Planning
• ThirdWave’s E-Government Maturity Model™ website assessments
• Web-enabled service delivery application development, training and ongoing support
• Interactive / database driven web site development
• Web application integration to legacy databases and systems, i.e., Enterprise Resource Planning
• Workflow Automation applications for Business Processes Improvement
• E-Commerce applications for revenue generation

A National / International award winner with Enterprise Content Management Systems

As the recipient of Southern California AIIM, National AIIM and AIIM International awards, our experience, expertise and accomplishments place ThirdWave at the forefront of the Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS) industry. ThirdWave has been a leader in the ECMS market since the technology was invented in the 1980s. We have earned a reputation for extraordinary performance in delivering solutions for both public and privat sectors. We offer a rare and comprehensive mix of expertise in delivering ECMS solutions, including:

• ECMS Strategic Planning
• Taxonomy Development
• Procurement Assistance: Business process analysis, requirements definition, RFP Development, systems evaluation and selection and contract negotiation assistance
• Implemetation Planning
• Project Management Office during the the system implementation
• ECMS Application Development: Automated Workflow, E-Forms, E-Signatures, Web Apps

ThirdWave has provided consulting and implementation services for cities, counties, state and federal agencies, in addition to utilities (i.e. HECO) and Fortune 500 corporations (i.e.GM.)

Successful IT Projects, 100% on time and on budget

Our SI experience spans IT Technology consulting, enterprise applications development, and integration on a variety of platforms. ThirdWave has worked on every major hardware platform, Operating System and Database engine in the IT industry integrating disparate systems. Our System integration services have also added value to our clients’ system, i.e., interfacing web applications to ERP systems, Permitting Systems with GIS and Content Management Systems, and so on. In today’s world, where APIs now come with most commercial systems, the role of system integration has become key to getting the maximum ROI from investment in technology. ThirdWave provides the following:

• Software and hardware engineering, interface protocols, and interfacing disparate systems
• Enterprise Systems (infrastructure, hardware, software) installations and upgrades
• Vertical Integration of subsystems according to their functionality
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) integration
• Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
• On-site / off-site outsourced staff

Enterprise GIS Systems for the Public Sector

ThirdWave has a 25 year track record with Enterprise GIS Projects for the public sector. One of our first projects in 1989 was the development of a CADD/GIS Strategic Plan for the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, which resulted in ThirdWave implementing the first ESRI GIS system in the City of Los Angeles. The following provides a partial list of services we have provided.

• Enterprise GIS Strategic Planning: Silicon Valley Intelligent Transportation System Infrastructure Master Plan for 13 Silicon Valley cities, Caltrans, Santa Clara County, and the Valley Transportation Authority; Culver City, City of Las Vegas, and Pierce County (4 County Regional GIS)

• GIS Development and Integration: US West National Communications Infrastructure Project (a 3-year, $15,000,000, 150 person project to convert all of US West’s facilities maps in 15 states into a national GIS geodatabase), SCAG, Las Vegas, LA DWP: Owens Lake Dust Mitigation GIS modeling of environmental data (part of a $30 million dollar project); City of Los Angeles DOT Accident Mapping & Reporting Application; City of Los Angeles Public Works: GIS Wye Map, the first ESRI ArcInfo; and OCTA: custom transportation modeling application development for the 4th largest transit agency in the country.

• GIS Outsourcing: providing systems planning, application programming, web-enabled application development, and the deployment of enterprise-wide GIS transportation applications, documentation, and enterprise-wide custom tailored training programs: MTA (5 year/$4,000,000 outsourcing support contract, Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency (4 year), and Southern California Association of Governments.

Subject Matter Experts in Government Procurements

ThirdWave is a Subject Matter Expert with government procurement and contracting. Our first procurement assistance project was for the City of Los Angeles in 1989, where we developed an RFP for the procurement of $6,000,000 in technology for the Department of Public Works. Since then we have written approximately 40 RFPs for large IT procurements, many of them in the multimillion dollar range (i.e., CAD/RMS, ERP, ECMS, CADD, GIS, and so on). We have also facilitated the vendor evaluation and selection process. ThirdWave has the proven capability to assist our clients effective manage the entire procurement life cycle, including:

• Requirements definition, specifications and solicitation documents (RFPs, RFIs and RFQs,)
• Pre-bid conference facilitation
• Evaluation criteria development
• Benchmark and demonstration script development
• Evaluation score card development
• Benchmark / vendor demonstration facilitation
• Vendor evaluation and selection assistance
• Contract negotiation
• Implementation Planning
• Independent Verification & Validation

ThirdWave does not have any relationship whatsoever with hardware or software vendors. We are truly objective and represent the exclusive best interest of our clients – not vendors.

Disciplined Project Management Best Practices

A startling statistic in the IT industry is that (according to the Standish CHAOS Report 2009) 68% of software projects do not meet time, cost, or scope targets. Even worse, only 32% of projects were completed on time, within budget and delivered measurable business and stakeholder benefits. This dismal industry record would be unacceptable in any other market or industry.

There are many reasons for this failure. A Price-Waterhouse-Cooper survey of 1,524 organizations uncovered that inadequate project estimating and planning constitutes 30% of project failures; the lack of executive sponsorship constitutes 16%, and poorly defined goals and objectives constitute 12%. ThirdWave has a quarter century of experience delivering results on budget and schedule. Our Project Management / Project Management Office services include:

• Resource requirements and resource allocation plans
• Project identification and formal project prioritization
• Project Management standards implementation and use in the execution of projects
• Project Management documentation, guidance and metrics
• Training on project management principles based on industry-standard methodologies, i.e., PMBOK
Using established PM/PMO best practices increases success as measured by key performance indicators of quality, scope, schedule, budgets and benefits. ThirdWave has employed rigorous PM/PMO best practices on 350 IT projects over 25 years; ALL delivered on schedule and within budget. Our track record includes successfully managing numerous large, multi-million dollar, IT projects.