2009
Business Process Improvement:FIRST PLACE (TIE)
United States Postal Service
It may not seem apparent, at first glance, when you see a postal service delivery person— but huge systems are involved in getting the mail routed to your mailbox. The United States Postal Service (USPS) rightfully earned First Place in the Business Process Improvement category for their overhaul of their Mail Delivery Systems (DOIS). The re-engineered Mail Delivery system replaces three different stovepipe applications, and has allowed the postal service to improve customer service and match workloads with available resources. Because data from all delivery units is stored in a national database, the data is available for purposes other than mail delivery—such as building planning and work and performance studies. There are 156,000 city routes in the Postal Service. The system saves roughly eight million hours per year, or about three million dollars in operating costs. The Mail Delivery System is a key tool in right-sizing the workforce in each geographic area. To date, 2500 routes have been restructured with an annual projected savings of $338 million.
Business Process Improvement: FIRST PLACE (TIE)
Pershing LLC
Pershing scored a First Place for re-engineering their business process for opening new accounts. Not only did they eliminate a time-consuming manual paper process that that suffered from poor quality control, they substantially improved the turn-around time for establishing an account. The old process was disjointed; up to 42 different documents could be associated with an application, and supporting documentation could be in email, fax or paper format. Plus, the application was literally walked through different levels of approval—so tracking the progress of a new request was difficult. The resulting streamlined process speeded up the opening of new accounts, eliminated many errors, facilitated the communication among the bank associates and automatically updated the new account certification database. The new account database allows for a variety of useful management reports, including reports that document compliance with banking industry regulations. The hallmark of any best practice for business process improvement is that the idea can be used in similar projects. Pershing developed the new account process for one customer, and has since extended it to 20 other clients. From a competitive advantage standpoint, the project has led to more accounts being opened, and has generated a new revenue stream.
Business Process Improvement: HONORABLE MENTION
Accenture
“How are we doing against our sales plan?” Rapid growth in key markets, changing economic conditions and cost management goals made it a critical priority for Accenture to answer that question with great precision. Accenture wanted a faster, clearer and more accurate process that would enable business leaders to view and analyze its vast sales management pipeline of 76,000+ new business opportunities annually. Accenture’s Sales Reporting Solution (SRS) automated sales activities that were largely manual and paper-based, and scattered across geographically-diverse business units. Under the lessons-learned category, Accenture found that to get end-users to adopt new processes and systems, IT teams had to build the system around very specific business outcomes and metrics. For this project Accenture’s IT and Sales Effectiveness organizations worked together and designed a system that could answer key business questions. The resulting suite of reporting tools provides their sales leadership with sophisticated analytics, and allows them to respond more quickly and intelligently to the changing requirements of their business.
Information Security:FIRST PLACE
University of Chicago Medical Center & Layer 7 Technologies
The University of Chicago Medical Center’s (UCMC) clinical branch required a way to automate radiology orders, appointments, delivery of service and follow-ups. Additionally, the Research & Development branch of UCMC required a process to automate the input, collation and querying of medical data (i.e. radiology patient information). Any solution would have to include secure, system-wide SLA and HIPAA compliance enforcement. In selecting Layer 7’s technology, UCMC set out to achieve its main goals, which included increasing operational efficiencies while maintaining stringent security and management measures for sensitive patient records. President Obama’s initiative to modernize the health care information system means organizations will be looking for ways to streamline the processing and sharing of information, while protecting patients’ privacy. We chose the University of Chicaqo Medical Center and Layer 7 Technology as the winner for their excellent implementation of a Secure Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) solution. Other organizations can learn best practices for SOA security and governance from UCMC’s implementation. UCMC derived immediate benefits from the program, including: increased efficiency—under the old system, staff had to manually enter the patient/radiology data; reduced error rate in data entry by 30-40 percent; and stringent HIPAA compliance, with the new system automatically stripping out personal patient information and ensuring patient confidentiality.
Information Security:HONORABLE MENTION
The George Washington University & American University & Georgetown University
Not all innovative best practices in the field of information security involve the implementation of a software solution. This is well exemplified by the accomplishment of three universities located in the Washington, DC area: The George Washington University, Georgetown University, and American University. Between August, 2008 and February, 2009 the Chief Security Officers of these universities met to craft a collaborative agreement: the Memorandum of Understanding Cyber Security Addendum. This document was created to ensure that the computing resources of each university would be made available to any of the three institutions in the event of a major cyber security incident. The Memorandum creates a partnership among the universities; this partnership allows the collective information security staffs of the three schools to make themselves available in the case of any large-scale attack or incident where additional expertise is required. This agreement has been successfully tested several times since its inception in early 2009. The partnership among three major American universities is a replicable model for all institutions, including those in the for-profit sector. A similar Memorandum of Understanding can permit institutions to prepare for a large-scale continuity event and to learn how to create and leverage relationships that will mitigate the damaging effects of a crisis. In addition, this form of Understanding may represent a cost-effective alternative to the establishment of a backup data center. As described by the universities, this type of Memorandum enables institutions to “consider your services, identify your local partners, know their faces, understand their problems, share ideas and solutions, and look for alternatives to improve together and individually.”
Storage Management & Virtualization: FIRST PLACE
Prudential
The Prudential Virtual LaunchPad (PVL) USB Pocket drive is a rather long name. However, it describes a simply elegant solution to the problem of how to deliver cost-effective, secure computing capability to agents in the field. The innovative Prudential solution is a custom-built USB pocket drive that combines virtualization and storage technologies in one slim device. With this device, their mostly mobile sales force can give their field support team a completely virtualized desktop environment, with all relevant applications on an external portable hard drive. The hard drive is hardened with layered security and takes advantage of both hardware and software encryption. The devices are managed by a central server at Prudential, so the desktops can be reconfigured easily or wiped clean in case of loss or theft. The impetus to develop this system was a compliance directive from the information security office that Prudential software was no longer permitted to be installed on unsecured privately-owned computers. At the time, agents in the field used a virtual machine called the LaunchPad laptop on their own computers with robust security software and secured VPN access to internal systems. The VPL team assignment was to develop a secure but low-cost virtual machine for the support staff working for the agents in the field—and one which mirrored the capability of the agent’s LaunchPad Laptop. The team vetted eight solutions, and selected a drive that is self-powered and uses only one USB port on the user’s host machine. Now, when Prudential sales professionals purchase their own equipment for the marketing assistants they hire, the new PVL USB Pocket drive ensures that support staff has access to the same technology as the agent—and in a safe, secure, compliant environment.
Technology Innovation: FIRST PLACE
PHH Arval
PHH Arval is a fleet management company that helps its clients with all aspects of their corporate vehicles – from leasing and acquisition to operations programs like fuel, maintenance, accident management, and resale. Each year, PHH orders tens of thousands of vehicles across the US and Canada, managing a total of over 600,000 vehicles for its clients. The business driver for this year’s winner of the Technology Innovation award is a PHH Arval’s online web based “driver level ordering system”. PHH had developed an online driver ordering system for the US several years ago, but for the Canadian version, they scraped the legacy system and developed the Canadian version on a totally new platform that is now the basis for an integrated North American ordering capability. We selected PHH for their innovative development strategy using Agile methodology for software development. The Agile methodology is based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration among cross-functional teams. PHH’s use of prototyping made it possible for IT and business end-users to see the potential of the new system. Through frequent inspection and adaptation, the developers created a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software. The PHH Driver Ordering system simplifies vehicle ordering, cuts valuable time out of the process and revolutionizes the way commercial vehicles are ordered. It enables fleet managers who operate fleets in both the US and Canada to order their vehicles from one system, across international borders, giving PHH a competitive advantage in both client retention and the sales process.
2008
Business Process Improvement:FIRST PLACE (TIE) Bharti Airtel & technology partner IBM India Private Limited
Business Process Improvement:FIRST PLACE (TIE) Deutsche Bank AG
Business Process Improvement: HONORABLE MENTION Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
Business Process Improvement: : HONORABLE MENTIONPrudential Douglas Elliman & Gig Werks
Technology Innovation: FIRST PLACE Citi & technology partner Alexander Interactive
Information Security:FIRST PLACE United States Postal Service
Storage Management :FIRST PLACE Hilton Grand Vacations Club
Storage Management: : HONORABLE MENTION Grey Healthcare Group, a division of the Grey Global Group, and FalconStor Software
2007
Business Process Improvement:First Place (TIE) Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Business Process Improvement:First Place (TIE) Pershing LLC & Information Builders
First Place: Outsourcing Management Deutsche Bank & HCL Technologies Ltd.
First Place: Information Security Mass Mutual Financial Group & OpenService
First Place: TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION (TIE) Internal Revenue Service (IRS) & AT&T Government Services & TiVerity Consulting
First Place: TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION (TIE) Blackboard, Inc. & Scalent Systems
2006
First Place: BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT Citigroup
Honorable Mention: Business Process Improvement Smithfield
First Place: Information Security Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey & Forsythe Solutions Group
Honorable Mention: Information Security Verizon Wireless & Open Service
First Place: IT COMPLIANCE Verizon Business
First Place: SERVICE ORIENTED COMPUTING Motorola & AmberPoint
First Place: Technology Innovation Nationwide Insurance & TeraData
First Place: Outsourcing Management Deutsche Bank
2005
First Place: BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT Nationwide Insurance Enterprise
First Place: INFORMATION SECURITY Novartis & Qualys, Inc.
Honorable Mention: INFORMATION SECURITY Citigroup--CIB Tech
First Place: SERVICE ORIENTED COMPUTING Horizon BCBSNJ & Microsoft Corporation
First Place: OUTSOURCING MANAGEMENT J. & W. Seligman & Globix & Harte-Hanks & BitLathe
First Place (co-winner): IT COMPLIANCE Citigroup
First Place (co-winner): IT COMPLIANCE U.S. Postal Service & Harris Corp. & Internet Security Systems
First Place (co-winner): TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION MCI – IMPACT Network Management
First Place (co-winner): TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION The Corcoran Group
First Place (co-winner): TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION Noble Group-Fleet Management Limited
Honorable mention: TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION Merrill Lynch & Softricity, Inc.
Honorable mention: TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION Pershing LLC
2004
First Place: TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION UPS
Honorable Mention: TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION Deutsche Bank, Execution Services
First Place: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMPLIANCEPrudential Financial
First Place: BUSINESS CONTINUITY Calpine Corporation and Iron Mountain
First Place: BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey & Dakota Imaging, Inc., a WebMD company
Honorable Mention:BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and Business Logic, Inc.
First Place: OUTSOURCING MANAGEMENT Deutsche Bank
2003
First Place: Business Continuity Planning PHH Arval
Honorable Mention: Business Continuity Planning FleetBoston Financial Crisis Management Program
First Place: B2B E-Commerce Citigroup
First Place: Business Process Improvement TruServ and Business Objects
First Place: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Siebel Healthcare
First Place : Information Security Astoria Federal Savings
Honorable Mention: Information Security Citigroup and eEye Digital Security
First Place: Project Management Pershing LLC
First Place: (TIE) Technology Innovation South Carolina Department of Health & Human Services and Novell
First Place: (TIE) Technology Innovation Citigroup
2002
First Place: Business Continuity Planning Prudential Financial
First Place: B2B E-Commerce New York State Insurance Department
First Place: B2C E-Commerce IBM WebSphere Commerce and CareTouch - www.carepanion.com
Honorable Mention: B2C E-Commerce Gateway
First Place: Business Process Improvement Deutsche BankGlobal Securities Services and Trace Datawise Financial, Ltd. and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young U.S. LLC
First Place: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Prudential Financial
First Place: Enterprise Management Citigroup
First Place: Helpdesk Prudential Financial
Honorable Mention: Helpdesk Bobcat Company and SEI Information Technology
First Place (Tie): Information Security Prudential Financial and Access360
First Place (Tie): Information Security George Washington University and PentaSafe
First Place: Technology Innovation Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. and Mindjet LLC
Honorable Mention: Technology Innovation TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions
2001
Disaster Recovery Management Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, NYC
B2B E-Commerce Prudential U.S. Consumer Group
B2C E-Commerce Corcoran.com
Business Process Improvement Ryder and eCredit
Enterprise Management Census Bureau, Computer Services Division, Bowie Computer Center
Help Desk Prudential Corporate Technology Services
Information Security NTT America and Camelot
Technology Innovation State of California and Verity, Inc.
2000
B2B E-Commerce GE Aircraft Engines with Enigma & Spaceworks
B2C E-Commerce Site59.com & WebCollage
Enterprise Management Prudential Insurance Company of America
Business Process Improvement Prudential Insurance Company of the Americas
Information Security Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Technology Innovation NSW TAFE & Getronics
1999
Business Process Improvement Time, Inc.
Business Process Improvement Honorable Mention Data General
Enterprise Management AmeriServe Food Distribution
Help Desk New York Times
