Earned several promotions due to exemplary work performance.

Currently oversee
initiatives designed to advance continuous improvement, competitive advantage and
profitable growth. Lead business process and workflow mapping/analysis using data
capture and modeling technologies, methods and tools. Analyze business, user and
technical requirements for proposed SAS, web-based and system solutions.

Completed in-depth analyses for business-optimization projects, reporting tools,

back-office programs and payment-processing apps. Measurable outcomes:
— 9.2% revenue growth (2016)

— Up to 45% in efficiency gains

— $575K capital-expense reduction

— $1.1M labor-cost savings

— 97% account-retention rates

— 10% increase in referrals

Provided executives with analytics and decision-support tools used as the basis for
reorganization, consolidation and relocation strategies.
Partnered with developers to automate manual processes, saving time and money while
decreasing errors. Credited as a primary driving force behind a 5% increase in
margins this fiscal year.
Collaborated with stakeholder groups across the organization to ensure business and
technology alignment. Proposed solutions meeting defined specifications and needs.
Performed quality assurance, system integration and user acceptance testing
facilitating on-time, on-budget and acclaimed “go-live” of enterprise
implementations for up to 12,000 global users

https://zety.com/blog/entry-level-business-analyst-resume-example

What is a Digital Transformation Strategy?

A Digital Transformation Strategy is a plan of action describing how a business

must strategically reposition itself in the digital economy. As customer habits
change so do the way winning businesses operate. They innovate, change operating
and business models and leverage emerging technology.

What is a Digital Transformation Strategy? »

What is a Digital Business? »
How to make a Digital Transformation Strategy? »
Digital Transformation Strategy in 2020 »
Where to Start with a Digital Transformation Strategy »
Who should be involved in creating a Digital Transformation Strategy? »
What happens to businesses that don’t have a Digital Transformation Strategy? »
What are the top 5 Digital Transformation Strategy Frameworks? »
How do I measure if my Digital Transformation Strategy is working? »
For the technology industry perspective, a digital transformation strategy
typically means the use of technology to complete tasks once manual. The challenge
with this concept is that businesses have used technology to improve how they
deliver their products and services since the dawn of commerce. Why is it now
considered strategic and transformational?

From the creative industry perspective, digital transformation strategy is

discussed through the lens of digital marketing and user experience (Ux). The idea
that customers now utilise technology to research, find and select products and
services that match their needs. While this is true, building a website, an app or
e-commerce strategy is hardly transformational.

From the management consultants perspective, they see digital transformation as an

opportunity to reshape a business. To align the operating model with new business
models. The product and services of a business can, if considered in the right way,
become more digitally infused. This reduces the operating cost and increases
profit.

So who is right? All of them are right to a certain degree. To create a digital
transformation strategy needs technology as the tools used to create a transformed
business. It requires the creative industry to express the new value produced in a
way customers admire. It requires a

management consultancy to help build a more efficient business. But one person is
missing…

You! You need to change. Technology doesn’t change a business, you do, leveraging
technology. Management consultancies don’t improve your business. You do by
distilling their advice into action. Creative professionals can only express the
differentiation you create. The starting point to creating a winning digital
transformation strategy is to transform yourself.

It is unfair and potentially arrogant to assume that what created your success is
all that’s needed to continue. Creating a digital transformation strategy is
radically different from creating a business-as-usual strategy. The business
ambition is not to upgrade its digital activities. It’s setting out to transform!

Before diving into digital transformation strategy, let’s get precise on what a
digital business is.

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Check out our Digital Transformation Courses

What is a Digital Business?

A digital business is a smart, adaptable, innovative organisation that can compete

in the digital economy. Digital businesses reinvent rather than enhance or improve
whatever is already in existence. They look at the world through virtual reality
goggles, see new possibilities and are geared up to making things happen without
causing a world of pain.
When we look at these businesses, they usually have some shiny, fancy techie
‘stuff’ of some description. We may be tempted to think that therein lies the
secret to their success.

Au contraire.

Look beyond the sheen and what do you see?

I bet it’s a brilliant solution to a problem you might not even have known existed.
That fancy shiny stuff is a result of good old fashioned groundwork.
They’re like Magyver but with way cooler gadgets.

Digital businesses are not more imaginative or creative than anyone else. They are
very good at doing their homework and they’ve got their strategy right. They have
taken the time to really understand their customers and worked hard to develop
solutions to their customers’ problems.

These businesses have leaders who have accepted it is their responsibility to lead
their transformation, not the technologist, not the management consultant – the
leader, taking them from business leader to digital leader.

Ok, so we’ve established what a digital transformation strategy is, we’ve

distinguished what a digital business is, who needs to be involved and of course –
who needs to lead this change. Now for the nitty gritty…

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How to make a Digital Transformation Strategy

In 1996 Michael Porter, the Harvard Lecturer wrote an article in HBR called What is
Strategy? In it, he argues that operational effectiveness, although necessary to
superior performance, is not sufficient, because its techniques are easy to
imitate. Richard Rumelt is an Emeritus Professor of Business and Society at UCLA
Anderson School of Management. Described by McKinsey as “Strategy’s Strategist’. In
his 20011 book Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he reinforces that a strategy is not a
goal or objectives. It is the battle plan for action that is designed upon a unique
set of attributes or conditions (kernels) that sets an organization apart from its
competitors (leverages) and results in exceptional and sustainable profits.

Digital Transformation Strategy Kernel

Digital Transformation Strategy

Good Strategy

Rumelt tells us that a good strategy has 3 components:

1. Diagnosis
2. Guiding Policy
3. Coherent Plan of Action.
(For more detail on Rumelts Digital Transformation Strategy Kernel, check out this
no nonsense book review; Richard Rumelt – “Good Strategy. Bad Strategy”.)

Bad Strategy
From the organisations we’ve worked with, it’s quite common to see any one of these
3 components missing. Skipping these steps manifest themselves in many ways – but
the outcomes for the organization eerily common. Let’s take a look at the pitfalls
associated with each component.

What happens if you skip diagnosis?

Random acts of digital, unrealistic desired outcomes, mayhem, uncertainty.

People stabbing in the dark hoping to find something that will yield positive
results. You might see isolated parts of the business becoming more ‘digital’.
Technology is implemented but people don’t use it, scattered projects are underway
but they don’t link to anything tangible, people don’t really understand what
they’re doing or how to evaluate efforts.

Best case scenario is improved operational efficiency. Worst case scenario is

frustration, complication, and wasted resource.
Either way there is no transformation, just digitised versions of the same
processes, products and services.
The aim of the diagnosis phase is to understand the existing situation and the
challenges that must be overcome in order to reach a desirable new situation — it
gives tremendous clarity and helps keep things on track.
What happens if there is no guiding policy?

In most cases, the business will not meet its strategic objectives. If they are,
it’s due to sheer good luck rather than good guidance. Without guiding policy a
strategy is little more than a wishlist.

How do you identify a strategy without a guiding policy?

By asking one question — how do you want me to do that exactly?

If you can hear tumbleweed blowing through the corridors you know you have hit the
spot.
A note of caution: beware the misguiding policies that might have you wandering up
the garden path. How can you tell a guiding policy from a misguiding policy? Well
if competitive advantage comes from differentiation a good guiding policy will
contain some kind of ‘if this, then that’ statement. If your guiding policy can be
applied to any organisation at any time and under any circumstances it probably
isn’t all that helpful.

What happens if you don’t have a coherent plan of action?

Not a lot.

Sometimes people go straight back to work and carry on with business as usual.
Sometimes people work around the clock and get nowhere. (The phrase headless
chickens springs to mind.)
Ultimately it leads to wasted resources — waste of time, effort and investment.
Sadly, this eventually ends in disenfranchised, disheartened, burnout staff.
Nobody wants that.
The good news:
Now that we know what the problem is, we do can something about it.

A Step-by-step guide to Digital Transformation

Download a step-by-step guide to digital transformation PDF

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Not sure where to start with your Digital Transformation Strategy?

Check out our Courses for Government & Enterprise

Digital Transformation Strategy in 2020

Fast forward to 2020 and the digital economy is flourishing. How customers,
suppliers, products and services are sought, influenced and constructed, has
changed. Anything that can be digitised, is being digitised. However, simply
digitising existing products and services isn’t enough. It violates Porter’s and
Rumelt’s philosophies.

Porter would claim that simply digitising that which already exists is operational
effectiveness. He suggests it should be done, but it’s not a strategy. Rumelt would
claim that a business should have a vision but that the strategy should be three
months in length. It should be thought of as a continuous set of actions that
provide insight through diagnosis, guidance and coherent action.

Many businesses mistake a to-do list as a strategy. Operational plans, resource

plans or capital investment is thought of as strategic. While important, they’re
not considered strategic by either Rumelt or Porter.
A digital transformation strategy is a plan of action to reposition a business in
the digital economy. Data allows us to find new opportunities much more easily.
Building a business that can leverage emerging technology and ride new
opportunities with speed skill and determination, often requires a transformed way
of working.

“True transformation isn’t top-down or bottom-up“ claims author Greg Satell in his
book Cascades. “It’s side-to-side.”

“Change never happens all at once and can’t simply be willed into existence. It can
only happen when people truly internalize and embrace it. The best way to do that
is to empower those who already believe in the change to bring in those around
them” says Satell.

Ionology has created the most advanced digital transformation framework in the
world. “Most businesses say they want to change but their actions say otherwise.”
Says Professor Niall McKeown, CEO of Ionology.

“Porter and Rumelt’s philosophy on strategy has never been more important. How we
find the new opportunities they often talk about, however, has changed. This is why
we need data-driven digital transformation frameworks and those with expert skills
to guide their business through change”.

This video is an intense review of the Ionology framework (7 Principles of Digital

Business Strategy). In a thrilling case study, it illustrates how to use frameworks
to manage the process of digital transformation strategy creation.

Back to top of page

Where Do I Start With My Digital Transformation Strategy?

Where do insights come from? The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s highest-
energy particle collider and the largest machine in the world. The machine studies
the smallest known elements in the universe, sub-atomic particles. Sometimes we
need to zoom-out and look at the large mechanics that govern business. Sometimes we
zoom-in and look at the detail. Both go hand-in-hand.

In the zoom-out/zoom-in metaphor, we can consider the 5 Change Blocks of Digital

Transformation as the zoom-out. Finding opportunity in data is the zoom-in
equivalent. It’s possible to start at the macro and micro level as the Digital
Transformation Strategy video shows.

The 5 Change Blocks of Digital Transformation

The 5 Change Blocks of Digital Transformation

Strategy

Strategy is but one part of creating a digitally transformed organisation. This

sounds like I’m selling something. Trying to get you to buy more than you need. I
promise this is not the case. All of the change blocks are a requirement and of
course, strategy and technology are the two obvious components. However, having a
good strategy and the right technology leads to digitising, not transforming.

A digital transformation strategy created by a team that has the right digital
mindset will result in a very different plan of action from those that have the
traditional business mindset. The interplay between mindset and strategy is
fundamental. This is why they are contained as a single unit in the 5 Change Blocks
of Digital Transformation.
Communications

Creating a digital transformation strategy requires that we understand how to

communicate the changed state and the value it creates. If we fail to convince
customers of the value they won’t buy. If we fail to convince our internal teams,
they won’t shift!

If the change is minimal, it’s unlikely to be transformational, not going far

enough. It’s not uncommon to test the value of the new transformed state by
creating a ‘business of the future’ document or video. It explains what the
business is transforming into. If the customer shrugs, it will be a long journey.
If full support isn’t given by the leadership team, it just won’t happen.

Culture of Innovation

A digital transformation strategy must address innovation. The ultimate goal is to

create a culture of innovation. This is easier said than done. Creativity needs to
be nurtured. Like an artist learns to paint over time, so too does innovation
talent mature from practice.

Steps To Creating a Culture of Innovation

Good Ideas Are Not Good Enough

Many businesses mistake good ideas as innovation. They purchase proven technology
and implement it claiming to have transformed their business. What they’ve usually
done is made it more efficient. While this is a worthy pursuit, it doesn’t create
lasting competitive advantage, it’s not strategic and this kind of marginal gain
has been happening since the business was born. It is not transformational.

The strategy should have a list of diagnosed ‘unknowns’. The unknowns create
experiments. These experiments create insights. The insights lead to innovations.
Innovations are not one-time-shots or blue-sky thinking. It’s not the creation of
an app although that may be necessary to simply maintain business as usual.

Innovation starts with a customer pain, problem or unmet need. The strategy focuses
on identifying pain or unmet need. The communications will focus on articulating
that need. Creativity will bring the best ideas to solving that need, through
deliberate processes of innovation. Technology will be used to solve that need and
data to measure its success.

A culture of innovation means that the business is capable of doing the above,
systematically.

Technology

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and
underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be
lulled into inaction.” – Bill Gates

Imagine a pilot announced “It’s time to take off. Strap in while I turn on the
blowing machines that are stuck to the wings. I’m not sure what they do but don’t
worry, I have an engineering team that does.” We wouldn’t stay on that plane for
too long. We would look for the exit.

Yet this low standard of technical understanding is common among leaders, managers
and decision-makers. New business models enabled by AI, Blockchain and IoT are a
bigger threat to most businesses than compliance and financial mismanagement. In
the boardroom, it would be unthinkable to abandon all fiscal and legal
responsibilities, claiming the finance and legal departments have it covered. So
why is it acceptable to do so with technology?

Technology is the tool that is inspiring innovators and enabling new business
models. Leaders, managers and decision-makers have a compelling reason to
understand the business capabilities of emerging technology. Like the pilot, we
don’t expect them to understand how to change the fuel pump on the jet engine. They
are expected to understand the capabilities of the engine if they are to take off
and land safely. The same thing goes for non-technical executives wanting to lead a
business through digital transformation.

Data

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? This conundrum is designed to lead to a
circular argument. There is no right answer. Replace the chicken with “data” and
the egg with “business problem”. Does the data identify the business problem or
does the business problem identify the data needed to solve it?

The answer is to start with the business problem, not the data. The chicken/egg
metaphor doesn’t work in this instance. The business problem should come before the
data. This is not a circular argument.

And where do the business challenges come from? They come from the digital
transformation strategy. The process of diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent
action helps identify the ‘unknowns’. From there the process of innovation and the
implementation of emerging technology is submerged in data. If the chicken was the
innovation, the egg would be the technology, data the yolk.

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Would you like to learn more on how Ionology can help with your Digital
Transformation Strategy?
Visit Digital Transformation Executive Education

Who should be involved in creating a digital transformation strategy?

There are many skills required to transform a business. Creative, leadership,

technical, empathy and more. The three most important legs to the stool.
They are

The Communications professional

The Technologist
The Leader.
Who is involved in Digital Transformation Strategy?
Who is involved in Digital Transformation Strategy?

The 3 Core Groups Involved in Creating a Digital Transformation Strategy

The Communications Professional

Think about every manager you’ve ever had. Some were great, an inspiration. Others
were awful, made you want to leave. Yet both had the same title, “Manager”. The
same is true of Communications Professionals. According to a recent social media
usage report, nearly half of the World’s population will be using social media in
2021. Using social media isn’t difficult yet some make a career of posting bland
me-too content to Instagram while others self-indulge in vain attempts to gain
personal notoriety. Then there are a few, truly exceptional communications experts.
They don’t talk about tools or content. They talk about the mindscape of the
customer.

When transforming a business, there tend to be two key sets of stakeholders,

internal and external. Internal is the employees. They are the toughest group to
convince that the changed state is better than the previous. A great communications
professional understands and can empathise with their natural tendency to fight
change.

People are not afraid of change, they are afraid of the unknown. Demystifying the
unknown takes patience and clarity of vision. And where does this clarity of vision
emanate from? The digital transformation strategy of course. If the strategy
doesn’t give clarity to the future state of the business, even the best
communications professional will struggle to sell the idea internally.

The Technologist

No one ever phoned the technology department and thanked them for keeping the
network safe. Nobody has ever brought a cake into the IT department because the
mail server has had an uptime of 100% in the past year. The same thing goes for the
app developers, systems integrators, data professionals and network engineers.
Often a thankless job where the spotlight falls only when systems fail. The better
the job they do, the less the rest of the business engages.

The Communications Professional asks the Technologists to help them with

experiments that might break, or cause data leaks. The response from the
technologists is typically one of reluctance. Every time something failed in the
past, they get kicked. Why trust the system now?

The mindset of the organisation must first change. Definable risk set. The ability
to build-measure-learn and accept that experimentation will not work out the way we
thought it would. Many businesses claim they accept this kind of risk but they
don’t. The technologists and communications professionals seek to hide ‘mistakes’
rather than explore them deeply. If the mindset isn’t corrected, even the best
technologists will not be able to innovate and transform a business.

Mindset and strategy are two sides of the same coin.

The Leader

Create a data-driven strategy. To bring clarity to everyone about everything.

Remove barriers. Sounds easy? It’s not. A data driven strategy isn’t setting sales
targets. It’s not acquiring new assets or competitors. It is understanding where
the new emerging business opportunities are going to come from in the short term
and having the resources at hand to use predictive models to exploit the
opportunity.

When the opportunity matures, it needs to fit into the wider picture, displacing
business-as-usual and restructuring the business in order to better serve the
customer in new ways. With new digital business models, we almost always find that
the current business silos are not adequate to best serve customer needs. Building
teams based on customer tasks isn’t an easy thing to do and requires true agility
within the business.

In government institutions many citizen needs don’t end at the door of one Ministry
but cut across several. It is the leader’s role to build those alliances and ensure
that the best citizen experience is actualised. The politics involved is often
numbing.

Without these three having deep, personal involvement in the creation and delivery
of a digital transformation strategy, the business will struggle to succeed in
transformational change. In a small business, it’s not uncommon that a single
individual takes on more than one of these roles. This works, as long as their
conscious that they wear two hats and give both hats enough time-on-head.

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…Are you a Consultant hoping to Develop your Education and Skills in Digital
Transformation?
Check out our Consultants Course

What happens to businesses that don’t have a digital transformation strategy?

The short answer to this question is that quite often nothing happens. There is a
misunderstanding that all businesses need to digitally transform. They don’t. Some
businesses are naturally curious and continuously seek to innovate and change.
However, most medium and larger businesses struggle with adaptation. It’s not their
fault. These businesses have created a digital transformation strategy that is
designed to protect the existing cash cow and of course, there are the quarterly
results. The only people that can sack the CEO are the shareholders.

Having a digital transformation strategy doesn’t mean it’s a good one. While this
sounds obvious, how many senior leaders ask others to check their work? How many
get to the end of creating a new vision for their business and say “I don’t think
I’ve done a good job?”. It’s one of the most important tests that never gets
marked. Yet every other aspect of the business’s performance is graded, measured
and monitored.

Other times having a digital transformation strategy gets blocked by politics and
short-sighted shareholders. As pointed out in the video above and in this blog,
Blockbuster didn’t go down due to management incompetence. It fell because of
shareholder protectionism.

Having a digital transformation strategy doesn’t mean a business will survive and
thrive.

Not having a digital transformation strategy doesn’t mean a business will be

disrupted.

Having a bad digital transformation strategy, however, does guarantee a poor

outcome

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Been Tasked with Delivering Digital Transformation in your Organisation?

Check out our Digital Transformation Course for Businesses

What are the top 5 digital transformation strategy frameworks?

Digital Transformation Frameworks

Framework Created By Designed for Powered by

Ionology 7 Principles
of Digital
Business
Strategy Digital
Transformation
Professionals Business &
Government Data-Driven
Insights
MIT Solan The 9
Elements of
Digital
Transformation Digital
Transformation
Professionals Business Analogue
Cognizant A
Framework
for Digital
Transformation Digital
Transformation
Professionals Business Programmatic Change
Altimeter The Six
Stages of
Digital
Transformation Digital
Transformation
Professionals Business Component
Approach
Columbia The Digital
Transformation
Playbook Academic Students Analogue
Not all methods for creating a digitally transformed business are equal. Some are
showing their age. Others are subjective in nature, much like a swot analysis.
While frameworks are not designed to give you the business answers, data-driven
frameworks go some way in helping in that investigation.

All require some level of business transformation skill and an external,

subjective, perspective for them to be effective.

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Discover our AI for Business Courses

How do I measure if my digital transformation strategy is working?

How do I measure if my digital transformation strategy is working?

“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

It’s hard to get a good starting point when measuring if a digital transformation
strategy is working. More recently there some very AIpowered tools have been
created to help quantify progress. One such Digital Transformation Platform is
Propulsion. A video explanation.

The Ionology tool is designed to help predict where your business is in the digital
economy and quantify its position. It’s possible to then compare that against
competitors and understand if your business is fighting the good fight. The
platform links with the 7 Principles of Digital Business Strategy framework.

Measure your Digital Footprint

Measure your Digital Footprint
The report predicts levels of innovation within a business, the culture associated
with it. It predicts a business’s potential for growth based upon its visible
activity.

Need Help With Your Digital Transformation?

Executive advisory services and education and in:

Digital transformation mindset, strategy and execution,

Emerging technology such as AI
Data-driven decision making
Digital innovation workshops
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About the Author: John Briggs
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Daphney Bednar
3068 Ludwig Spurs San Francisco CA Phone +1 (555) 429 1817
EXPERIENCE
Los Angeles, CA
SENIOR BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION CONSULTANT
03/2014 – present
Leading delivery of complex business transformation programmes across multiple
programmes spanning different industries and geographies
Establishing your credibility and build trust with client organizations
Business Change planning & implementation
Contributes to shaping, preparing and delivering board level presentations,
workshops and proposals
Seek new perspectives and challenge what is possible. Pose the right questions and
share best practices to allow partners to develop long term strategies. Speak up,
be candid and authentic. Break barriers and connect the dots across business,
operations, technology, and key partners
Lead interviews and workshops – Facilitate fact-finding interviews and
brainstorming workshops with cross functional business partners to identify value-
creation opportunities and solutions for the business
Lead small to medium sized project streams, projects, business transformation
initiatives, take ownership to follow through on our commitments with on the ground
support and continuous improvement post implementation
Philadelphia, PA
BUSINESS & TRANSFORMATION CONSULTANT
05/2009 – 01/2014
Excellent working knowledge of ICT, network and business processes in the areas of
OSS, BSS and network technology
Excellent working knowledge of ICT, network and business processes in the areas of
OSS, BSS and Network technology in wireline or wireless environments
Working knowledge of using and supporting ITIL and/or eTOM standards
Define roadmaps for organization change and process development
Sell and deliver enterprise transformation and business process improvement
projects to telecoms clients
Team and stakeholder management
Working knowledge of using and supporting ITIL, eTOM and security standards.
Certification in one or more of these standards is a plus. TOGAF and Frameworx
knowledge beneficial
New York, NY
BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION CONSULTANT
12/2003 – 12/2008
Develop and build core enterprise risk management solution, credit risk management
solutions, assets to enhance credit risk consulting capabilities
Create, manage, and execute the Test and Evaluation Master Plan and associated
schedule
Develop and build core enterprise risk management solution, credit risk management
solutions, assets to enhance R&C credit risk consulting capabilities
Participate in and provide recommendations for business process re-engineering,
communications, stakeholder management, and other change management tasks
Working with the Leadership team, providing insight to the complex financial
position of the business to allow the Leaders to take key business decisions
Support risk assessment and management, and related project management and
execution activities
Works closely with the project team to help them meet all proposed project
performance expectations
EDUCATION
Bachelor’s Degree in Risk Management Related Fields With Good Quantitative
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
SKILLS
Solid knowledge in Banking business and internet finance
Strong communications - written & presentation and excellent collaboration skills
Professional Project Management Knowledge of Concepts and Practices
Oversee and Validate Test Tools Knowledge
Good understanding of lean manufacturing principles and tools
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
Ability to work independently and in a team environment
3) Quality and risk management in Sales and R&D phase
Has Payment business knowledge and experience
Proven ability to lead process improvement teams within the Wealth Management
Industry in order to deliver business process and platform transformations

Agile Methodologies

AUC Financial Hardship

AI BOT integration and process
Confirm & pay - recurring payments
Data Analytics
Reminder Across All customer tounch points
2 Way SMS communications
AUC Positive Bureau Reporting
APAC Loss Mititigation
OPS-DIGI Account OMNI collections
Collection contact digitaization
AUC SIM porting - Fraud detection
Digital PTP real time
Speech analytics

6 Basic SDLC Methodologies: Which One is Best?

By Robert Half on May 24, 2019 at 8:00am

A diagram of the SDLC life cycle.

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the software development world’s
spellcheck — it can flag errors in software creation before they’re discovered (at
a much higher cost) in successive stages. But it’s much more than that, of course:
SDLC can also lay out a plan for getting everything right the first time.

The SDLC process involves several distinct stages, including planning, analysis,
design, building, testing, deployment and maintenance. What's the best SDLC
methodology? Here are six methodologies, or models, to consider.

Software development life cycle models

Agile
Lean
Waterfall
Iterative
Spiral
DevOps
Each of these approaches varies in some ways from the others, but all have a common
purpose: to help teams deliver high-quality software as quickly and cost-
effectively as possible.

Here are six models, or methodologies, to consider.

1. Agile

The Agile model has been around for about a decade. But it has become a major
driving force behind software development in many organizations. Some businesses
value the Agile methodology so much that they are now applying it to other types of
projects, including non-tech initiatives.

In the Agile model, “fast failure” is a good thing. The approach produces ongoing
release cycles, each featuring small, incremental changes from the previous
release. At each iteration, the product is tested. The Agile model helps teams
identify and address small issues on projects before they evolve into more
significant problems and engages business stakeholders to get their feedback
throughout the development process.

As part of their embrace of this methodology, many teams are also applying an Agile
framework known as Scrum to help structure more complex development projects. Scrum
teams work in “sprints,” which usually last two to four weeks, to complete assigned
tasks. Daily Scrum meetings help the whole team monitor progress throughout the
project. And the ScrumMaster is tasked with keeping the team focused on its goal.
(For more on Scrum, see the Scrum Alliance website.)

2. Lean

The Lean model for software development is inspired by "lean" manufacturing

practices and principles. The seven Lean principles (in this order) are: eliminate
waste, amplify learning, decide as late as possible, deliver as fast as possible,
empower the team, build in integrity, and see the whole.

The Lean process is about working only on what must be worked on at the time, so
there’s no room for multitasking. Project teams are also focused on finding
opportunities to cut waste at every turn throughout the SDLC process, from dropping
unnecessary meetings to reducing documentation.

The Agile model is actually a Lean method for the SDLC, but with some notable
differences. One is how each prioritizes customer satisfaction: Agile makes it the
top priority from the outset, creating a flexible process where project teams can
respond quickly to stakeholder feedback throughout the SDLC. Lean, meanwhile,
emphasizes the elimination of waste as a way to create more overall value for
customers — which, in turn, helps to enhance satisfaction.

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3. Waterfall

Some experts argue that the Waterfall model was never meant to be a process model
for real projects (check out the discussion on this topic on StackExchange).
Regardless, the Waterfall model is widely considered the oldest of the structured
SDLC methodologies. It’s also a very straightforward approach: finish one phase,
then move on to the next. No going back. Each stage relies on information from the
previous stage and has its own project plan.

The downside of Waterfall is its rigidity. Sure, it’s easy to understand and simple
to manage. But early delays can throw off the entire project timeline. With little
room for revisions once a stage is completed, problems can’t be fixed until you get
to the maintenance stage. This model doesn’t work well if flexibility is needed or
if the project is long-term and ongoing.

Even more rigid is the related Verification and Validation model — or V-shaped
model. This linear development methodology sprang from the Waterfall approach. It’s
characterized by a corresponding testing phase for each development stage. Like
Waterfall, each stage begins only after the previous one has ended. This SDLC model
can be useful, provided your project has no unknown requirements.

4. Iterative

The Iterative model is repetition incarnate. Instead of starting with fully known
requirements, project teams implement a set of software requirements, then test,
evaluate and pinpoint further requirements. A new version of the software is
produced with each phase, or iteration. Rinse and repeat until the complete system
is ready.

Advantages of the Iterative model over other common SDLC methodologies is that it
produces a working version of the project early in the process and makes it less
expensive to implement changes. One disadvantage: Repetitive processes can consume
resources quickly.

One example of an Iterative model is the Rational Unified Process (RUP), developed
by IBM’s Rational Software division. RUP is a “process product” designed to enhance
team productivity for a wide range of projects and organizations.

RUP divides the development process into four phases:

Inception, when the idea for a project is set

Elaboration, when the project is further defined and resources are evaluated
Construction, when the project is developed and completed
Transition, when the product is released
Each phase of the project involves business modeling, analysis and design,
implementation, testing, and deployment.

5. Spiral

One of the most flexible SDLC methodologies, the Spiral model takes a cue from the
Iterative model and its repetition; the project passes through four phases
(planning, risk analysis, engineering and evaluation) over and over in a “spiral”
until completed, allowing for multiple rounds of refinement.

The Spiral model is typically used for large projects. It enables development teams
to build a highly customized product, and incorporate user feedback early on in the
project. Another benefit of this SDLC model is risk management. Each iteration
starts by looking ahead to potential risks and figuring out how best to avoid or
mitigate them.

6. DevOps

The DevOps methodology is the newcomer to the SDLC scene. As this article explains,
it emerged from two trends: the application of Agile and Lean practices to
operations work, and the general shift in business toward seeing the value of
collaboration between development and operations staff at all stages of the SDLC
process.

In a DevOps model, Developers and Operations teams work together closely — and
sometimes as one team — to accelerate innovation and the deployment of higher-
quality and more reliable software products and functionalities. Updates to
products are small but frequent. Discipline, continuous feedback and process
improvement, and automation of manual development processes are all hallmarks of
the DevOps model.

Amazon Web Services describes DevOps like this: “DevOps is the combination of
cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization’s
ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity: evolving and
improving products at a faster pace than organizations using traditional software
development and infrastructure management processes.” So, like many SDLC models,
DevOps is not only an approach to planning and executing work, but also a
philosophy that demands significant mindset and culture changes in an organization.

Choosing the right SDLC model for your software development project will require
careful thought. But keep in mind that a methodology for planning and guiding your
project is only one ingredient for success. Even more important is assembling a
solid team of skilled talent committed to moving the project forward through every
unexpected challenge or setback.

HARDSHIP

Banks want to help their customers during times of financial difficulty and have
adopted policies, programs, practices and support services to do this. Banks
recognise that there are different categories of financial difficulty and have
different means to help their customers overcome a wide variety of financial
difficulties.
For example, banks acknowledge that their customers can experience a permanent
change in their circumstances and may face a permanent state of financial
difficulty, can find themselves in situations where they have simply missed a
payment and need temporary relief, or can be faced with a situation that impacts
their ability to meet their repayments or existing financial obligations.
While banks recognise that their customers have unique experiences, not all these
situations are
defined as “financial hardship”. “Financial hardship” is when a customer is willing
and has the intention
to pay, but is unable to meet their repayments or existing financial obligations,
and with formal hardship assistance their financial situation can be restored.
Financial hardship can be due unforeseen circumstances or unexpected events, for
example:
 Unexpected changes in income and/or expenditure.
 Changes in employment status (such as losing a job or a reduction in income).
 Significant life events (such as a relationship breakdown or a death in the
family).

Why is it Important to Digitize a Call Center?

See below for three benefits that come one a call center has undergone a digital
transformation.

Call Center Efficiency

Speed is the name of the game when it comes to improving efficiency, and digital
forms of communication will be the only way in which contact centers can move
faster.

In a digital call center, software and AI can help detect a customer’s issue by
recognizing keywords typed into a chat box and either direct the customer to an
online help resource or immediately route a call to an agent who can handle that
specific issue. This means less aggravation and therefore a better experience from
a customer perspective, as no one likes to be bounced from agent to agent or to
have to extensively search for the right resource.

In today’s COVID-19 era, the less direct contact between customer and provider the
better, safer and easier it is for everyone. Digital communication channels also
offer more security and reliability with high-level encryption software designed to
minimize the risks of hacking.

OMNI CHANNELS
Customers continue to drive omnichannel experiences. They want interactions on one
channel (or device) to carry over to their next interaction channel. Customers
don’t necessarily look for the same experience on different channels, but they do
expect and demand consistency and highly personalized experiences across all
channels.

Omnichannel marketing recognizes that customers engage with companies in many

different ways, on both physical and digital sites. Customers view interactions
with
a company as a single relationship, no matter which or how many channels are used.
Integrated personalization and continuity of interactions from channel to channel
are critical to ensure consistent and engaging experiences.

new
Companies need digital marketing and marketing automation technologies, as well as
digital experience platforms that are rich in content management and commerce
capabilities to enable marketers to keep up with omnichannel and customer demands.
Collecting customer data from multiple sources and channels and then performing
advanced analytics require sophisticated software for continuous processing.
Mobile devices are rapidly becoming a core platform for technologies that connect
customers across many channels. Both customers and vendors are increasingly using
mobile for many different kinds of experiences and interactions.

WM
It is a discipline which incorporates structuring and planning wealth to assist in
growing, preserving and protecting wealth, whilst passing it onto the family in a
tax-efficient manner and in accordance with their wishes. Wealth management brings
together tax planning, wealth protection, estate planning, succession planning and
family governance.

Investment Banking vs. Wealth Management: An Overview

Wealth management and investment banking are two of the most popular career choices
within the financial sector. While there is a significant amount of overlap and
interaction between these fields, the two jobs are distinctly different.

An investment banker mainly offers financial services and advice to corporate

entities, rather than to individuals. Investment banking is the area of the
financial sector that handles mergers and acquisitions (M&A), business
restructuring, spinoffs, stock splits, share buybacks, initial public offerings
(IPOs), and secondary stock issues or bond issues. In addition, investment bankers
may handle the short-term investments of their corporate clients.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Investment bankers are likely to work longer hours and draw somewhat larger
paychecks.
Wealth management is focused more on personal service of individuals, while
investment banking clients are primarily corporations.
There is frequently some overlap between the operations of investment bankers and
wealth management firms.
High net worth individuals who are clients of wealth management companies are often
business owners who are likely to want advice from the field of investment banking
regarding business restructuring or possible M&As and may want access to investment
banking products, such as IPOs or bond issues.
Investment Banking
The best investment bankers excel at managing businesses' finances and persuasively
negotiating complex multi-billion-dollar deals. They are adept at leveraged buyouts
and at helping clients resist attempted hostile takeovers. Investment banking can
provide considerable excitement from time to time, but also consists of periods of
relative inaction.

Investment bankers must be able to understand the important industry-specific

factors that drive the success or failure of a business. While market analysts are
experts are evaluating stocks, investment bankers must be experts at the
fundamental evaluation of businesses.

In addition to having a solid head for numbers and basic accounting, investment
bankers must also be able to think creatively to devise the best possible means of
arranging financing and structuring business deals.

In terms of the actual functions within investment banking and the job
responsibilities of investment bankers, there are two types of investment banker
positions: account managers and operations specialists. Account managers act in the
lead position of developing and maintaining relationships with clients and seeing
that their needs are properly met. Operations specialists execute investment
banking services, such as an IPO or stock buyback.

Wealth Management
The field of wealth management is concerned with providing financial services
primarily for high net worth individuals and ultra high net worth individuals,
although less wealthy people sometimes seek wealth management services, too. There
are wealth managers who work with individuals who hold assets anywhere from $50,000
to $500,00, and others who prefer to work with high net worth clients and handle
millions.

Wealth managers may work one-on-one with their clients, while investment bankers
typically work with multiple corporate clients.
Wealth management refers simply to money management, in all its aspects. Wealth
management firms make money by charging fees for the various services they provide.
In the area of investments, clients are often sold managed account services,
discretionary investment accounts that are traded on behalf of the client by one of
the investment professionals at the firm.

In addition, wealth management firms provide clients with brokerage accounts, so

clients can access virtually any type of investment. In addition to investment
services, wealth management clients are provided with tax planning, estate
planning, and retirement planning services.

Relationship Managers and Investment Professionals

The job of providing these services is typically split between relationship
managers and investment professionals. The job of the relationship manager is to
know the client. The job of the investment professional is to know the investments
that are considered by, and for, the client.

It is the relationship manager who is primarily responsible for meeting the

client's needs and wishes, and who most often meets directly with the client,
although investment professionals are frequently included in regular, scheduled
client meetings.

In the case of ultra high net worth clients, there may be an entire team of people
assigned to a client's account, but there is still usually a single relationship
manager assigned to oversee the account and to serve as the firm's primary
representative.

The division of labor between the two aspects of wealth management can be seen as
somewhat resembling the two aspects of relationship management and project
execution that exist in investment banking.

Special Considerations
There are certain commonalities that tend to exist in candidates for a career in
either wealth management or investment banking, but there is no educational major
that specifically prepares an individual to act as a wealth manager or an
investment banker. A degree in business, either a bachelor's degree or a Master of
Business Administration (MBA), provides a basic foundation for a career in the
banking or financial service industry. A degree in accounting or economics may be
equally useful.

Importance of Talent and Skills

What may be more important than an individual's specific educational background are
the personal talents and skills they possess. Good communication skills, both
verbal and written, are definitely required for either career choice.

A relationship manager for a wealth management firm needs to have well-developed

interpersonal skills to service the firm's clients. Interpersonal skills are
important for an investment banker as well since it typically requires a
substantial amount of wining and dining of clients.

Fluency in a second language or familiarity with the culture or business practices

of another country can be a plus on a job candidate's resume since the banking
industry is a global enterprise. Anything an individual can take care of in the way
of obtaining licensing or certification, such as taking the Series 7 exam or
obtaining certification as a financial planner or chartered financial analyst
(CFA), can put them ahead of the game as far as necess

COLLECTIONS
In response to rising delinquencies, shifting consumer preferences, and the current
regulatory environment, leading financial institutions have begun a journey of
digital transformation in collections. Borrowing heavily from successful approaches
used in other parts of the business, they are investing in advanced analytics,
digital channels, advanced collector capabilities, and next-generation collections
strategies. Recognizing that it takes time to design, build, test, and implement
such strategies, these leaders have inaugurated transformation efforts with 12
months or more set aside for completion. We have observed four effective
constituent actions:

. Strengthen segmentation capabilities with advanced analytics

With rising delinquencies and resource limitations, institutions need better

segmentation and fewer customers referred for personal attention. Analytics can
improve segmentation efforts and enable tailored contact strategies. As
institutions perfect their enterprise data warehouse and advanced-analytics
capabilities, they are discovering that more can be done with what they already
have in the meantime. Regulators have lately welcomed analytics applications that
allow issuers to improve customer differentiation and tailor contact and
collections strategies. The approach has generated better outcomes for customers.
Issuers can maximize the number of customers that pay on their own initiative
(self-cure) with analytics-based targeted digital campaigns for those in early
delinquency or even predelinquency, while using the customers’ preferred digital
contact channels. Furthermore, unresponsive accounts that fit the profile for fraud
can be filtered out more rigorously and sent to a separate treatment queue.

2. Develop effective omnichannel orchestration

Digital-first customers inhabit an app-based world. They expect to address their

delinquency in their own time, through easy-to-use self-serve channels. The growth
of online bill payment points the way for issuers. With an integrated collections
platform, customers would have self-serve access to the exact same payment plans
and treatment solutions as those that issuers offer over the phone. Customers
should also be able, through the online self-service channel, to schedule automated
future payments (“autopay”).

These digital-first customers should also continue to be contacted through an

orchestrated omnichannel digital contact strategy, even if they are delinquent
beyond 30 days. With active-response models, business rules can be introduced such
that outliers that have not responded digitally after a reasonable amount of time
are passed to agents for skip-tracing and personal assistance.

3. Optimize messaging used in all customer contacts

Examples abound of delinquent customers responding positively to empathetic

messages from their issuers. Instead of sending generic or passive-aggressive
notices of collections, issuers can use language that highlights options for
solutions and payments. Many institutions have had success with this approach.
Leading issuers are also using more client-specific language in alerts, to avoid
the appearance of spamming or phishing. By training and empowering collectors to
have intelligent conversations using “words that work” according to customer needs—
rather than standardized scripts—collections managers create a higher likelihood of
finding a sustainable solution for customers.

4. Restructure the operating model to serve customer needs

The collections operating model should be structured to allocate collectors in

proportion to customer needs. Institutions can better anticipate these needs by
improving segmentation, as discussed previously. One step is to divert low-risk and
self-cure customers away from live calling and toward digital-first solutions. For
higher-risk customers, collectors can be trained to identify their needs more
closely by assessing their ability and willingness to pay. These parameters help
enable more effective negotiations and better outcomes. Another step is to shift
staff to more personalized “ownership” teams, whose members take ownership of a
customer relationship, engaging in repeated conversations with particular high-risk
customers to craft personalized and sustainable solutions.

1. Strengthen segmentation capabilities with advanced analytics

2. Develop effective omnichannel orchestration
3. Optimize messaging used in all customer contacts
4. Restructure the operating model to serve customer needs

Prioritize and act now

In our experience, collections executives are never short of ideas for improvement
but sometimes fail effectively to prioritize their agenda. As advocated in a book
by our colleagues, Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick: People, Probabilities, and Big
Moves to Beat the Odds (John Wiley & Sons, 2018), a top team will create far
greater impact by focusing on five to ten major initiatives than by trying to
implement 50 to 100 minor ones. Operational agility will be critically important;
priority initiatives should include both quick wins to build momentum as well as
the longer-term capability goals. The collections initiatives we are proposing
require the introduction of new approaches, such as a digital self-service
platform, that will quickly become self-funding.

Many collections heads encounter resistance to modernizing their departments while

losses hover around historical averages. Indeed, many report that collections has
been largely neglected as product revenues have expanded. We argue that this state
of affairs must change. From “trough to peak,” losses rose 250 percent in the 24
months after the fourth quarter of 2007. At many institutions, meanwhile,
implementing a major IT project (such as a collections transformation) can take 12
to 18 months. Even with a sound plan of action (such as that described previously),
many institutions will lack implementation capabilities, leaving collections
operations extremely vulnerable. By failing to digitize their collections
operations, these institutions risk potentially crippling losses in a future
downturn. But if they start now, they could have a largely transformed shop within
12 months.

The global economy has been emitting mixed signals of late, prompting a fair amount
of analyst speculation about an impending downturn. One need not guess at the
“estimated time of arrival” of a recession, however, before investing in a smart,
digital-forward collections transformation. The sooner institutions act, the sooner
they will reap near-term rewards and be prepared for future uncertainties.