Online College Education

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If you find yourself hemming and hawing over whether you should attend a brick and mortar university or take the plunge and enroll into an online school, knowing the reasons why almost six million students registered for online classes in 2010 could help you with your decision. Whether you are single or married, have children or a full time job, your current responsibilities and favorite hobbies do not need to be shelved in order for you to seek higher education. The following reasons for choosing online degrees highlight the main benefits of earning educational measures through the use of an internet connection and personal computer.

Flexibility is touted as the most cited reason for students choosing to earn online degrees. By having a flexible learning schedule, other definite commitments like work, family and certain social events can easily be met while still affording you the opportunity to earn your degree. Class schedules set up at universities you physically attend are generally rigid and cannot be missed without sacrificing the course material. This is avoided with online courses as you have the option to learn your lessons anywhere you have access to a computer with an internet connection at any time of day or night. This can be particularly inviting to those who find themselves to function better during the night or early morning hours when most people are asleep.

Another reason for choosing to earn online degrees is the access to not only quality course materials but access to the teacher as well. With an internet connection, you are afforded the opportunity to download course materials when you need them. You can also store the materials on your computer’s memory or a separate hard drive and have them backed up so that nothing will be lost when needed for future reference. Teachers can also be accessed through email if you have any particular questions or concerns. Another benefit to using the internet for schooling is the availability of discussing any complications you may have come across in your learning with other students. By figuring out solutions with other people, regardless of how you come together, you can have a sense of community even in the virtual world.

School books have become increasingly expensive over the years for students. Tuition, housing, transportation and food costs have also been on the rise in recent years and are all reasons why choosing online degrees can be beneficial to you and your wallet. By earning a degree online, you may be able to save more than half of the normal cost of attending a physical college. This reason alone is why many students have chosen the online way of learning.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6335432

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Sales people often forget to find out and get to know what make their buyers tick. The more you can find out about your buyer the more effective your sale closing techniques will be.

This may involve taking them out for a lunch away from the atmosphere and the office phones, however today a mobile is never far away, I appreciate some companies frown upon this so you need to make sure this type of meeting is conducted ethically. However the more relaxed a buyer is with your company the easier it will be to close that sale.

I found in my experience that sales people often talk too much and forget to listen, I was once told we have one mouth and two ears! – There is a reason for that. The opportunity for talking will come up to further explain your products benefits or overcome objections in the sales process.

A good sales person will use sales closing methods and techniques to close a sale that are subtle and will appear to put the buyer under no pressure, but to do this you need to be confident and well rehearsed in your sales closing techniques so practice your methods often and know your product inside out!

One of the saddest things I come across from sales people is that they go through all the hard work of a sales process of breaking down all the barriers and then forget to follow up! A sales close could take 2-3 visits that is why it is important to set realistic goals and plan your sales strategy depending on the type of sale you are involved in.

For example a capital equipment sale of high value may take more than one visit than if you were to sell a consumable item – like low cost retail products. If your product requires a demonstration to highlight the benefits, then plan your demonstration during your presentation or make a separate visit specifically for the trial, but remember the trial is a powerful closing method – convincing the customer he needs your product.

Finally make sure you take care how you dress, first impressions are still very important and turning up in jeans or casual clothing even today will not give you an advantage – quite the opposite, if you look the part you are already part of the way there – Do not undervalue the power of your appearance.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6480755

Why Transactional Lean?

Lean is about meeting customer requirements efficiently and effectively. Managers have come to the realization that they need to reduce costs in all areas of their business. Typically more than 60% of the cost of a product or service can be attributed to administrative or transactional processes like entering a customer order, generating an invoice, filing an insurance claim, ordering an item via the internet, and others are not much unlike manufacturing processes when it comes to managing costs. These transactions represent how we interact with customers to ensure products and services are provided at some acceptable level of profit. It is imperative that these processes are effective and efficient. This can be attained through the application of transactional lean.

No industry is immune to meeting customer requirements better, faster and at an acceptable price. Industries as diverse as retailing, telecommunications, airlines, services, banking, and insurance have adopted Lean tools and concepts to achieve improvements in quality and efficiency of 40 to 70 percent. Healthcare, financial services, construction, armed services, local and federal government can apply the same Lean tools and concepts practiced by Toyota and achieve the same success-doing more with less. Getting started on your transactional Lean journey are comprised of four activities:

Encouraging a culture of teamwork
Developing a snapshot of the current state
Identifying and mapping the value stream
Analyzing and solving problems

Encouraging a Culture of Teamwork

Lean is a team sport and as with any team initiative, it is important that everyone involved in the change contribute their ideas. Assemble a process improvement team for managing the improvements. The team should follow basic teaming guidelines:

Identify team roles, such as leader, timekeeper, scribe, facilitator
Establish team norms
Prepare a team charter

Make sure the team members understand the overall objectives of the project. Teach the team some of the lean tools and concepts. As they learn these skills have them creatively adapt and apply them to your transactional processes.

Developing a Snapshot of the Current State

Developing a picture of your current state consists of collecting information and data to analyze, re-define or modify your current processes. This will help you identify the critical (value-adding) processes-those that directly impact the customer or have a direct financial impact on your organization. Some examples of critical value added processes might be:

Entering a customer order
Completing an invoice
Treating a patient
Providing information to a customer

In developing this picture of your current state you will also identify some of the non-critical processes-those that are necessary but do not add value to the customer. Examples of necessary transactional processes include:

Preparing a budget
Generating a quote
Preparing a month-end report
Conducting marketing research

Once we are clear on what our current state looks like we are ready to select a value stream to map and improve.

Identifying and Mapping a Value Stream

A value stream is defined as everything including non-value-added activities that are required to deliver a product or service to a customer. A value stream can include a single process or a connected series of processes. It is a visual representation of the work flows and the information flows necessary to meet customer demand.

We define value as something the customer is willing to pay for. Non-value-added is what the customer isn’t willing to pay for. Both types of activities are identified on the value stream map. Our goal is to eliminate all the non-value-added activities. We can accomplish this goal using Lean tools. How do we choose a value stream for improvement?

There are a variety of methods for selecting a value stream for improvement. Some of the most commons are:

Identify any immediate customer concerns
Perform a work flow analysis
Prioritize target value streams
Business conditions

Customer concerns

Many times a customer will mandate improvements to a product or service. This type of request takes precedence over all other methods of selecting a value stream. We would look for improvement opportunities in the processes that make up the value stream in question.

Work-flow analysis

If the customer does not immediately identify a target value stream for you, you can use work-flow analysis. This is accomplished by creating a simple matrix of the work units sharing common processes to identify a value stream. To perform a work-flow analysis, follow these steps:

List the customers on the left
Next to the customers, list volume, total sales, number of patients, number of loan applications, number of insurance claims, etc. over a given period of time. At a minimum at least three months of data should be analyzed.
At the top of the chart list the processes in sequence that involve all the customers listed above.
Indicate which processes or activities apply to each customer by marking an X in the grid
Group together the customers or families that have the same process routes, and rank them by volume.

Prioritize target value streams

You may want to target a value stream from a list of prioritizedprocesses you have identified that the organization needs to improve going forward. When working from a prioritize list of value streams it is important to have the value stream “touch” or relate to the ultimate customer.

Business conditions

The challenges an organization faces in today’s business climate demands continual improvement to remain competitive. Constant attention must be given to your competitors. If competition creates a new product or service that decreases your market share, then you need to identify a new value stream in which to compete.

After selecting the value stream and attaining a good understanding of Lean, the next step is to map the current state to obtain a high level, visual representation of the specific transactional processes under review.

Mapping the value stream

To improve a value stream you must first observe and understand it. Mapping the process gives you a clear picture of the value-added and non-value-added (waste) activities. Eliminating the waste makes it possible to reduce transactional processing time, which will help the organization consistently meet customer demand. When creating your map focus on gathering accurate, real-time data related to the product or customer families you develop during your initial analysis. Use this information to identify all the specific activities occurring along each value stream.

Value stream mapping begins with creating the current state map. After you have gathered the data, you are ready to map the current state. Always begin with a clean sheet of paper and use a pencil (“the best thing about a pencil is the eraser.”) A generic current state mapping procedure is as follows:

Draw the external (or internal) customer and supplier (if the supplier is different from the customer) and list their requirements. Many times in transactional or administrative processes the customer and supplier is one in the same.
Draw the entry and exit processes to the value stream
Draw all processes between the entry and exit processes beginning farthest downstream or closest to the customer
List all process attributes
Draw queue times between processes
Draw all communications that occur within the value stream
Draw push or pull icons to identify the type of workflow
Complete the map with any other data

After you complete the current state map review it for waste or non-value-added activities and brainstorm how to eliminate these activities using Lean tools and concepts. Following the brainstorming session it is now time to start developing the future state map.

The future state map is current state map with all the non-value-added steps or activities removed. Mapping the future state takes into consideration three conditions:

Understanding customer demand for your services and work units, including quality characteristics and lead time.
Implementing continuous flow so that internal and external customers receive the right work unit, at the right time, in the right quality.
Leveling or distributing work evenly by volume, variety to reduce waiting times and allow smaller work units to move through the process if practical.

Once you have completed the value stream maps there will be many issues and problems needing resolution. This means that your value stream team must be capable of analyzing and solving problems.

Analyzing and Solving Problems

When using Lean tools within a problem solving methodology, greater improvements can be achieved. There are many systematic problem solving methodologies that work well but all focus on determining the root cause. Many times we instruct teams to use the “5 Whys” to dig down to the root cause of a problem. Most problem solving methodologies are composed of the following steps:

Define the problem
Implement temporary countermeasures to contain the problem
Analyze the problem and generate potential solutions
Determine the root causes and select solutions
Implement the solutions
Verify the effectiveness of the solutions
Take action to resolve the difference in actual results and expected results

This seven step methodology has several advantages:

Simplicity
It can be used by individuals or teams
It can be used at all levels of the organization
It provides a common language and approach

Getting started with Lean in transactional processes takes time-four to six months in functional or departmental units and two to three years on an organizational level. A new mind-set and new capabilities like teamwork, identifying and mapping value streams, and problem solving are needed. The effort won’t be universally appreciated, at least in the beginning.

Ultimately, leaner transactional processes will reduce costs, increase quality and better align corporate responsibilities within and between functions and create a wholesome cycle of waste reduction.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6478540

Some Information on a Management Course

If you want to work as a manager it is imperative that you take up a management course. This will help you get enough training to work efficiently as a manager in any business enterprise. You need to look for the right course if you want to work effectively and efficiently as manager. It can be a risky job because the entire process of administration of a company depends upon the manager. But in order for the work to go smoothly you need to be trained properly and this will make your job entirely easier than you expect it to be. Make sure that you do enough research before you actually take up a course because choosing the right one will help you in the long run. You will be trained to face all the challenges that will come forward when you actually become a manager or a leader. An entrepreneur is usually dependent on the manager to get updates on the functioning of the business.

As a manager you will be asked to solve massive issues and you should be able to think on your feet. You will be trained to do all this in a management course. If you don’t have the time to enroll yourself into an institution then you can take up a course online. Here you have the benefit of studying at your own convenience. You can study and also get rained in other stuff. Some programs specialize in certain areas so you need to choose one of your choices. This way you can get trained in the field you require. You can take up a management course even when you are pursuing your graduation. This will make things easier for you. Just make sure that you look for the right course and you will be taught everything that you require.

A management course should be able to teach you everything that is required to be learned by a potential leader. Having a degree in hand will help you get a job faster. The institutions providing these courses are closely associated with different companies. So chances are that you may not even have to look for a job when you complete your course, you can get your research don’t online and then choose a course that is suitable to you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_C_Logan
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