For Keith Neely, delivering business process improvements began with one of IT's oldest, clunkiest tools. When his employer, sporting-goods maker Mizuno USA, bought a new ERP system in 2000, the IT shop had a difficult time aligning day-to-day processes with the then-new technology. The philosophy at the time, says Neely, vice president for customer support and IT and now also the company's chief business process engineer, was, "This is what we used to do. We're going to try to do it the same way, even if we don't get any benefits out of the new system."
Subscribing to that philosophy didn't fly with Neely. He knew that the Norcross, Ga., company, which pulled in about $100m in revenue back then, was up against fierce competitors--most of which were three to four times bigger. Instead, Neely put together a team that initiated a multi-step approach to reengineering the companies call center operations--specifically in pricing and order entry--to match the capabilities of the new system. Those improvements, he says, helped Mizuno more than double its annual revenue, effectively growing the business and its prominence in the market, all without adding new employees to the call center.
Source: CIO Insight