Case Studies, Newsletters, "How To" Tools,
Success Stories
"The value of THEORY is its ability to Predict."
Milton Friedman
To assist others in producing the best possible results from projects, Tom Ingram & Associates, Inc. publishes a newsletter called "High Impact Projects". Our intent is to highlight successful cases and provide "how-to" tips for those facing similar situations.
These Case Studies and Newsletters are in Acrobat format (.PDF files). If you have Acrobat Reader loaded on your PC you should be able to just double click and read the files.
[If you need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader click on http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html]
| Newsletter / Case Study Topic | Newsletter / Case Study Number |
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How an Accounting Department Saved $450,000/year and Improved Service |
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Book Chapter: Further Details on How Accounting Department Saved $450,000 (From How to Turn Computer Problems Into Competitive Advantage, PMI, 1998) |
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| How a $5 Million Project In Trouble Was Turned Around, Resulting in $10 Million Order | Newsletter 3 |
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How Process Thinking Reduced an Order Processing Cycle from 5 days to 1 1/2 Days |
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15 Tips for an Effective IT Department |
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Help for Non-Technical Executives: Part I Tips from a Technical CEO. |
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Help for Non-Technical Executives: Part II Tips for Non Technical CFOs. |
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Help for Non-Technical Executives: Part III More Tips for the Non-technical Executive. |
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How to Dig Out of a Technology Black Hole, Get Product To Market Faster |
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IT Priorities During a Turnaround |
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$32 per hour Improvement in Gross Margins for Services Firm |
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Inventory Reduced by $262,000 while Simultaneously Improving Customer Service |
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30 Percent Labor Savings and Improved Customer Service! |
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$1.5 million reduction in accounts receivable for Texas Instruments. Advanced technology project delivered on-time, on-budget using Earned Value Project Accounting. (Article from PM Network Magazine) |
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How To Penetrate A Major Account Through High Value, Solution Selling |
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Customer Quotes on the Value Of Case Studies |
Newsletter 17 |
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How to Sell $8 Million Worth of Work and Deliver a $21 Million Customer Payback |
Newsletter 18 |
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How We Generated $1 Million Worth of New Prospects in 60 Days for a Struggling Software Company |
Newsletter 20 |
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How We Helped a Client Win a $5 Million Fraud Settlement |
Newsletter 21 |
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Harvard Business Review Asks if Public Firms Require Earned Value Management to Comply with Sarbanes Oxley 302 (a1), (a2), (a3), (a4b), (a4c), (a4d), (a5a) |
Newsletter 22 |
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Software Firm Stays Profitable, Grows to $28 Million through a Narrow Focus |
Newsletter 23 |
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Software Company Closes Six Large Sales in Eight Months (After Closing Zero Sales in the Previous 16 Months) |
Newsletter 24 |
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Software Company Sales Rocket from $2 Million to $75 Million in 4 Years by Narrowly Focusing on Customers with an Urgent Need to Buy |
Newsletter 25 |
| Conference call recording of Jeff Miller, CEO of Documentum, discussing how they grew from $2 million to $75 million in 4 years | Newsletter 25A |
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Struggling Software Firm Sells 12 New Accounts in 16 Months, Generates Over $10 Million in Revenue |
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CASE STUDY: Consumer Goods Sales Company Frees Up 63,000 Sales and Support Hours per Year, Saves $2.5 Million per Year by Improving One Process |
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| Study of Retail Merchandising Software and Process Issues | Newsletter 32 |
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How Outsourcing Customer Service Saves $400,000 and Improves Service |
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$942,500 in Labor Savings and $260,000 in Material Savings for Commodity Product |
Case Study 201 |
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Supply Process Reduced from 21 Major Steps to 6 Major Steps |
Case Study 202 |
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Heroic Effort Brings New Manufacturing Line Up in 10 Days |
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On Time Shipments Improved from 70% to 95%, Misshipments Reduced from 10% to 1%, Returns Reduced from 1 in 10 to Zero |
Case Study 204 |
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Process Improvements and JIT Help Manufacturer Profitably Expand Low Margin Product Line by 5-fold! |
Supporting Materials for Cases, Training, Etc.
| Overall Framework for understanding WHO is responsible for WHAT (Business Unit, Business Analyst, IT Department) FOP JOPP RUAT SEAT Acronym | FOP JOPP RUAT SEAT |
| A Master Flow Chart demonstrating "Storyboarding" and "Stapling Yourself To and Order" concepts for a major web/internet development project | Newsletter 10 Master Flow Chart |
| Use Case documents showing how Use Cases assist with developing good requirements documents and good specifications | Newsletter 10 Use Cases |
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Screen Flow and Use Case example, simple, materially aided Texas Instruments
Accounts Payable project |
UserScreenAndUserStepSequenceSimple.pdf |
| Business Case Payback Examples for An Energy Firm | Business Case Payback Examples 1 |
| Prioritization method for proposed projects for a services firm including Quick Hits and the Dots method | Project Priorities Dots Quick Hits |
| Detailed Business Case Payback Examples for a Services Firm | Business Case Payback Examples 2 |
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Time Study and Process efficiency analysis of
15 orders. Process efficiency analysis compares an order's total
elapsed time (from customer authorization through completion of delivery) to
a theoretically optimum order (how fast an order could be completed if
everything were perfect).
The analysis shows that, on average, these 15 orders were only about 10% efficient. Industry standards show that the efficiency of these orders could be improved by 100% to 500%. |
TimeStudyProcessEfficiencyDetail.pdf (password required) TimeStudyProcessEfficiencySummary14Projects.pdf (password required) |
| AS IS Process flow for major services operation showing too many handoffs and too much variance from standard operation and systems | ProcessFlowASISLargeServicesCoDiv1A.pdf (password required) |
| Improved AS IS Process flow for same major services operation resulting in substantially faster and more profitable operation. Primary improvements were reduction in hand-offs and requiring standardization of operating procedures | ProcessFlowASISLargeServicesCoDiv2.pdf (password required) |
| TO BE Process flow examples for same major services operation showing combined, standardized, simplified model for bringing all three operations together into a consolidated process. Multipath version shows benefit of simulatneous processing of urgent orders. |
ProcessFlowTOBEServicesCoDraft1.pdf
(password required) ProcessFlowTOBEServicesCoMultipathDraft2.pdf (password required) |
| Integration Flow Chart sample, hard, difficult, undocumented systems | IntegrationFlowChartHard.pdf |
| Software Implementation Workshop: Guidelines for implementing a large software package for an energy company | Software Implementation Workshop |
| Planning method for major software development release planning based on PMI's OBS (Organization Breakdown Structure) and WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) concepts | OBS WBS Major Swr Release Plan |
| OBS (Organization Breakdown Structure) and WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) showing why a project is severely bottlenecked | OBSWBSReportingProjectShowsBottlenecks.pdf |
| AS IS Process flow chart for a specialty retailer - full detail | Newsletter 5 AS IS Master Flowchart |
| TO BE Process flow chart for a specialty retailer - full detail | Newsletter 5 TO BE Master Flowchart |
| Sales / Use Cases for specialty retailer illustrating how to think through cases to produce screen specifications | Sales Use Cases Specialty Retailer |
| AS IS Process flow chart for an IT Outsourcing firm's software development process | Project Process Improvement AS IS |
| AS IS Process flow chart for an IT Outsourcing firm's software development process | Project Process Improvement TO BE |
| Project Process Improvement WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) for improving the software development processes for a major software development department | Project Process Improvement WBS |
| Release Plan for managing and prioritizing the requirements for a major software development project with numerous interfaces | Release Plan for Interface Requirements |
| Sample RFP / RFI (Request for Proposal / Request for Information | RFP RFI Sample |
| Sample "Out of Scope" Log and documentation from kick-off meeting | Out Of Scope List |
| Development Standards | DevelopmentSpecificationStandards.pdf |
| Risk Management Checklist | Risk Management Checklist |
| Requirements Log from very large software development / purchase effort requiring users to submit business justification for including the requirement | Requirements Log With Business Case |
| SOW (Statement of Work) Sample | SOW Sample |
| Team Guidlines - help to establish common working arrangements within team | TeamGuidelines.pdf |
| Bid Package for Major Software Development Project with Use Case / Test Case and Screens | UseCaseScreensDetailBidPackage.pdf |
| Action Items Issues Meeting Minutes Sample - Resulted in $5 million Fraud Settlement | action items issues minutes sample |
| Action Items Issues Log - Resulted in substantially improved project management process for outsourcing firm | ActionIssueLog.pdf |
| Report showing failure of customer to perform their agreed upon tasks - prevented $4 million lawsuit | StatRptShowingCustRespAndFailure.pdf |
| Checklist for Customer "Contracts" | CustomerContractChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Customer Responsibilities and Due Dates | CustomerResponsibilitiesDueDatesChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Dealing with Other Departments | OtherDeptChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Dealing with 3rd Parties | ThirdPartyRespChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Requirements (Functional Specifications) | FunctionalSpecificationChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for High Level Design and Order of Magnitude Estimate | HighLevelDesignOOMEstimateChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Detailed Design | DetailedDesignChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Production Cutover | ProductionCutoverChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Project Planning | ProjectPlanChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Risk Management | RiskManagementChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for Test Planning & Testing | TestPlanChecklist.pdf |
| Checklist for User Acceptance | UserAcceptanceChecklist.pdf |
| Process flow for putting software into production safely, Telecom company | PuttingSwrIntoProductionProcessFlow.pdf |
| Pay For Performance In Software Development: A study of available papers on the topic | PayForPerfSwrDev.pdf |
| Project Problem Decomposition: How to look for patterns among your projects to determine root causes | ProjectProblemDecomposition.pdf |
| Change Request sample, showing sign-off | ChangeRequestSignedOff.pdf |
| Process flow resulting in 25% reduction of test and fix cycle | ProcessFlow25PReductionY2KRemediation.pdf |
| Technical Breakdown Structure showing how to reduce risk of complex infrastructure projects | TechnicalBreakdownStructure.pdf |
| Database design sample, showing sign-off | DatabaseDesignSampleWithSignOff.pdf |
| Test and Fix log | TestFixLog.pdf |
| Business unit functional diagram showing all major applications | BusinessUnitFunctionalDiagram.pdf |
| Screen flow example, simple, showing signoff | ScreensFlowSimpleWithSignOff.pdf |
| Use and Test Case example, simple | UseTestCasesSimple.pdf |
| Project Plan, simple, showing testing time as too low | SimpleProjectPlanTestingTooLow.pdf |
| Work Authorization Process for IT Department of Major Manufacturer | WorkAuthorizationProcess.pdf |
| Dallas Manufacturer $5 million project - problems and solutions | DallasMfrProblemsSuccessStory.pdf |