CalSTRS: Continuous Improvement Team
February 2, 2007
Thanks for the fabulous presentation yesterday - I don't think that I have slept as well as I did last night for a very long time! Jeff and I are very excited about this missing link and we will do everything that we can to work with you, help you, etc. As I said yesterday, this missing piece (Rapid Workflow) will give us the opportunity to capture the right data, make improvements and see real success in our work. Thanks again, and look forward to chatting with you again soon.
Barbara Diedesch
PRISM Manager
California State Teachers' Retirement System
CalSTRS: Purchasing BPR
I am happy to serve as a reference for ThirdWave Corporation, particularly with respect to my experience with Roy Hernandez on the RFP Process Solutions Project that developed from the CalSTRS Purchasing BPI Project in the spring of 2008.
I found Mr. Hernandez in his capacity as the President and CEO of ThirdWave Corporation to be rigorous and elucidating in his work, which involved initiating and moving along a process that affects various divisions at CalSTRS. Mr. Hernandez's solutions-oriented approach, ability to clarify the issues, and generally out-of-the box perspective served ThirdWave well in this specific project, for which several of his recommendations we are implementing today.
Teresa Cutter, M.A., M.B.A.
External Managers, Fixed Income
California State Teachers' Retirement System
CalSTRS: Rapid Workflow Training
January 24, 2014
Hi Roy,
I wanted to let you know that I think that this process is amazing! You are the perfect person to facilitate this type of meeting/process. I have never heard of this type of “brainstorming” so-to-speak prior to attending the first meeting for the onboarding process, but I have to say I like it a lot. Additionally, I am recommending you to my father who is the Director of Building and Safety for the City of Sacramento because I think that his department and the City would benefit from this.
Thanks,
Kateshia Butler
Personnel Technician
HR Benefits & Retirement
City of Berkeley
December 1, 2020
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to recommend the services of ThirdWave Corporation (“ThirdWave”). The City of Berkeley has worked directly with Roy Hernandez and his team at ThirdWave since 2016 on multiple large citywide and department level projects. Briefly, these projects include:
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Needs Assessment and Project Management Services for the City’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and neighboring applications—discovery, business requirements, RFP development, and vendor analysis
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Established a five-year Digital Strategic Plan for the City of Berkeley
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Established a Technology Service Fund for the City’s IT Department
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Training and certifying City staff to use the Rapid Workflow® methodology
Each of these projects were high-priority, high-risk, and overdue at the City of Berkeley. ThirdWave delivered their services on schedule and on budget, and consistently exceeded the scope of work to ensure the City received clear documentation, accurate feedback, and quality analysis in support of each project. This included as many in-person one-on-one meetings as the City needed, late-night phone calls to review RFPs and business analysis documentation, as well as in-person support at our City Council meetings.
The five-year Digital Strategic Plan that ThirdWave produced was not your average mission statement and SWOT analysis, but an invaluable artifact that documents actionable technology projects, their timeline, and estimated budget. The City was able to use this breakdown developed by ThirdWave to transparently request funding and provided a structure by which we can provide updates to our community.
The Rapid Workflow® methodology used and taught by ThirdWave is also highly effective. After experiencing Roy’s fluid and clear Rapid Workflow® sessions, he seamlessly taught our staff how to execute the Rapid Workflow® methodology to document business, technical, and functional solution requirements. To this day, staff continues to save the City thousands of dollars across multiple large citywide projects by defining their requirements before procuring technology solutions, and we continue to bring back Roy to certify new IT staff in the Rapid Workflow® methodology.
The most critical component of ThirdWave’s value to the City is the collaborative relationship they were able to create with our departments. Roy and his team at ThirdWave were and continue to be responsive to the City’s specific needs. ThirdWave has not only completed a successful scope of work with the City of Berkeley, and has become a trusted resource and partner with the City of Berkeley. Thank You!
Sincerely,
Savita Chaudhary
Director of Information Technology
City of Berkeley
July 19, 2016
Savita, today’s IT strategic planning session was the best one I’ve attended, and I think all that attended found it to be provocative and insightful. As you know, it focused on homeless encampments.
Roy said he’s done 3,200 mapping workshops in his career and this is the first one he’s done focused on this subject. I think he really enjoyed it in terms of complexity, nuance, policy and politics. He will be emailing you and I everything he captured on the flip charts, the map and the matrix. One thing that the materials make clear is that they way we’re doing this is not sustainable and that there is a compelling case to come up with a new model that achieves a greater number of objectives and solves more of the problems the group identified, as well as offering a path to accurately documenting the costs of the city efforts.
Thanks for setting this up
Jim Hynes
Director of Economic Development
City of Berkeley
City of Carlsbad: Crime Reporting Process Mapping
April 3, 2013
The PD received a copy of the Rapid Workflow model for the crime reporting process and was very pleased. In the last couple of days, just about everyone that participated in the meeting has commented on how impressed they are with you, your company and the strategic planning process. We are confident that a good and comprehensive plan will be developed for the entire City using this process.
Thanks.. and hope to see you again in the near future.
Maria Callander
Public Safety IT Manager
City of Carlsbad
City of Coronado: Business IT Strategic Plan
Hi Roy,
I am the lady from the library who attended three of your workshops. Each were wonderful, and I found you to be an amazing facilitator! The entire process was enlightening, and I received a valuable education in the overall process for each subject.
I look forward to seeing you again in the future!
Thank you,
Linda Sanders, Administrative Secretary
Coronado Public Library
City of Lancaster: Business/IT Strategic Plan
The Rapid Workflow methodology is a tight and deliberate analytical process that fully engages the client. In our case it produced quick and dramatic opportunities for improvement that were enthusiastically embraced and implemented. These products were so well received that we had numerous other work units requesting that the effort be undertaken for them. We extended the scope of the work to accommodate the increased demand. The methodology applied by Third Wave's highly skilled analysis was accurate, insightful, and easy to implement.
Bob La Sala
City Manager
City of Santa Ana: Rapid Work Methodology
September 18, 2015
To whom it may concern,
ThirdWave is a highly qualified firm with an extraordinary track record of accomplishment. The Rapid Work methodology used by ThirdWave is an enormously effective and industry accepted methodology that our City staff experienced as very logical in drawing out needs, exploring requirements, and identifying constraints. This structured approach sounds good on paper, but when matched with the deft execution exhibited by the ThirdWave team, and Roy in particular, wonderfully achieved the goals of being responsive to the City’s specific needs and facilitating the participatory process we strived to create.
Best,
Haney Mustafa
Project Manager
City of Santa Ana
City of West Hollywood: Digital Procurement Lean Process Improvement Project
June 11, 2019
The City of West Hollywood hired ThirdWave for a procurement process improvement. Using their Rapid Workflow® methodology, their team led six workshops (3 As-Is and 3 To-Be) to help the City identify ways to improve our workflow before moving to a digital system. Over 20% of our full time staff participated in the workshops. Staff appreciated the depth of knowledge ThirdWave has with government clients, and enjoyed Roy’s sense of humor and dedication to ending workshops on time, or early if possible! Deliverables were thorough and of high quality. The team stayed on budget, and was flexible with our schedule.
The City is moving forward with the implementation phase of the digital system, thanks to the roadmap ThirdWave created for us. We would gladly work with them again in the future.
Kate Kigongo
Innovation Analyst
City of West Hollywood
County of Riverside: Asset Management BPR
First of all, CHA personnel who had the privilege of participating in the two days you and Jacqueline were here, would like to express their heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for being given the opportunity to be part of an exercise they felt were extremely useful. In contacting those who participated, everyone had nothing but praise for the (Rapid Workflow) methodology and have expressed the need to perform workflow analyses throughout the agency.
Everyone expressed how clearly these RWPM diagrams captures their day-to-day operational environment. More importantly, the supporting text information with respect to problems, impacts, solutions, and benefits provides them a tool they can take to management in explaining the pluses and minuses of their daily work environment. All of them are now eager to carry this process further in their work area.
There is no question that those who attended the two days sessions are sold on the methodology and look forward in obtaining formal training from ThirdWave.
Once again, thanks so much. Our hope is that we will be able to work together in implementing an IT solution that will contribute enormously towards a more efficient and effective County operation, with a side benefit of more good lunches at Anchos.
Clarence I. Nishihara
IT Application Manager, MIS Division
CHA-IT Room 311
County of San Diego: District wide Technology Strategic Plan
November 19, 2012
I worked with Roy on a District wide Technology Strategic Plan for approximately 3 months. I was constantly amazed by his ability to identify and give voice to complex issues and create brilliant solutions. His communication style is characterized by clarity, strength, and commitment. He is an inspiring and motivating leader with integrity and professional expertise light years above the norm. At the same time he openly recognizes value, expertise, and skills in others. He was the leader and was key in assisting our team in identifying opportunities for business process improvement through the application of strategic business technologies. Always positive and engaged, Roy is truly a benefit beyond measure to any company, project, or endeavor he chooses to be a part of.
Anna Lisa Acedo
IPMA-SCP HR Services Manager
County of San Diego
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
June 17, 2020
To Whom it May Concern:
In December 2018, ThirdWave Corporation was awarded a contract by LACMTA to assess business processes and procedures for the Vendor Contract Management department. The scope, consisting of conducting workshops, evaluating input, and analyzing data, yielded multiple deliverables which documented efficiency opportunities across the following six business process workflows.
1. Request for Quote (RFQ)
2. Request for Proposal (RFP)
3. Invitation for Bid (IFB)
4. Change Order
5. Closeout
6. Procurement Card
Engaging with a LACMTA cross functional team, ThirdWave Corporation conducted a series of "As-ls" workshops which were designed to facilitate process mapping of existing workflow and elicit any corresponding problem/opportunities. Upon acceptance of the documented As-Is process flow, ThirdWave then conducted a series of "To-Be" workshops, once again engaging the team in the development of "What-If" scenarios for solution narratives and viable process efficiency modifications. When the workshops were completed, ThirdWave submitted both the As-Is and To-Be deliverables for approval and project closeout.
In this engagement, ThirdWave Corporation provided professional consulting services and delivered this project on-schedule and within budget.
Regards,
Raul Perez
Deputy Executive Officer, Administration and Policy
LA Metro
Los Angeles World Airports: Purchasing BPR
The whole project went very smoothly and was a fun one with which to be involved, largely thanks to ThirdWave’s “can do” attitude and intelligent enthusiasm. Roy, Sergio and the other staff participants were always very responsive, and we had a lot of last-minute requests for help from them. I believe LAWA got far more out of the project than we expected. Thank you!
S. McTigue
BPR Project Manager
Strategic Planning
Los Angeles World Airports
Placer County: Development Permitting Business Process Improvement
Thanks Roy, we really enjoyed the workshops. In general, the workshops helped not only us to better define our workflows, but also our customers and other agencies. From a transparency aspect, our customers now better understand how their applications are processed after they are submitted. However, in my opinion, the greatest value with these workshops was allowing our customers full input on identifying problems and how to fix them. They truly felt engaged and are willing to work with us to make things better.
Thanks again for facilitating these workshops with Placer County. Steve and I are committed to keep moving forward on improving how we do things and these workshops play a major role in identifying what we need to work on.
Rick Eiri, PE
Assistant Director
Community Development Resource Agency
Auburn Office
Stanislaus County
April 18, 2002
Hi Roy!
I also want to echo everything you said to me about you! I told my husband and our kids about you, all that you do, and all that you have accomplished. I am so proud to have met you! It was a great honor!
Again, it was a great pleasure meeting you and having you as our facilitator! Rapid Workflow is a great technique that is overdue and needs to be used by all county/non-county government agencies!
!Gracias por tu ayuda! Let's stay in touch!
Hasta Pronto,
Connie "Consuelo" Moreno-Peraza, LCSW
Administrator
Alcohol and Drug Programs
September 10, 2020
I was very impressed with the training. I have heard some very good things from the participants. I appreciate very much how well you did at shortening the training to meet our needs. The managers are never plesaed at having to go to all day training sessions, because of all the work they are leaving behind unattended. You accommated their concerns very well. I am very hopeful that many of them will take these tools back and put them to good use. I know I will. Thank you very, very much for your generous offering to do this training for us AND on such short notice. You did brilliantly.
Gerry Caviness
Interim Director, Community Services Agency
Stanislaus County
Stanislaus County: Rapid Workflow Training
Thank you for your very engaging Rapid Workflow training session last Thursday.
I am so intrigued by this process because I believe that it has enormous potential to really improve macro/micro-level systems. My area of interest is health care services and policy. While I've been writing grants for nearly my entire professional career, my position as grants writer for the county Health Services Agency serves as a learning laboratory for applied health services research and analysis. Grants (and more importantly, the grants writing process) are most effective when they function as a catalyst for positive transformation in the lives of individuals, programs, organizations, communities, systems and policies.
The key to having that happen lies in accurately identifying problems and involving key stakeholders (those that are obvious as well as those not-so-obvious) to develop effective solutions. Systems modeling and simulation are one approach to identifying and quantifying problems and possible solutions. Your Rapid Workflow process bridges the gap between theory and practical application in a real world, real time environment.
Rapid Workflow provides a common language, symbology and process to accurately identify, quantify and prioritize problems. The completed Rapid Workflow diagram very graphically validates and illuminates problems and impacts within a given process or system.
My goal is to use RWF as a tool to analyze, describe and graphically display current health care needs and practices. This would be very useful in developing the "need/problem statement" portion of any grant proposal. The process will also help partners to develop a common understanding of how a particular system works and factors contributing to the targeted issue(s). This will be useful in developing an effective program or service delivery design/intervention with measurable outcomes, which are necessary for developing a proposal's evaluation component.
Rapid Workflow may also alert us of the need to significantly alter or abandon an approach that may not be effective or not worth the cost vs. benefit. I'd like to explore this application further-maybe even as part of my PhD program at Berkley.
Cherie Morrison Davis, MPA
Grants Writer
Stanislaus County Health Services Agency
Stanislaus County: Rapid Workflow Training
September 10, 2002
I would like to thank each of you for taking time out of your very busy schedules to attend the Rapid Work Flow training on Thursday. I think Roy did an excellent job in condensing the training to meet everyone’s needs. I think the training provided some excellent tools that each of us can use to make process improvements in our respective areas. I encourage each of you to take advantage of these tools as we seek to improve services to our clients.
Again, thank you so much for making this a very worthwhile training session.
Gerry Caviness
Stanislaus County
State of Montana Department of Environmental Quality: Rapid Workflow Certification Training
August 19, 2013
Wow this was great!
Dave Nagel
DEQ
Bureau Chief, Business Development
State of Montana
State of Montana Department of Project Management: Rapid Workflow Certification Training
August 19, 2013
Its one of the few trainings where I couldn't wait for the next day of training.
Roy clearly understands the material and conveys the information so that its easy to understand.
Anita Bangert
Bureau Chief
Project Management Office
State of Montana