Improving Innovation Processes Examples

A global company had recently acquired a number of new businesses. To create a single, efficient organization, we reviewed all relevant processes and then guided the customer through a smooth change program that we had devised. This included redesigning, introducing and rolling out a harmonized business process for the entire organization. A ‘one team’ feeling was generated, facilitating cross-business working within the company.

One of our customers wanted a predictable and controlled process for executing software development projects. We helped them adapt SEI’s Capability Maturity Model for Software (CMM) to suit their needs, providing support throughout the planning and implementation of the improvement program. Together, we created a new software process that has been objectively assessed as meeting CMM L3 requirements and forms the basis for continuous improvement. This reduced development effort and software defects, and cut schedule slip to below 10%.

A global company was working on products that integrate components from several business groups as part of an end-user driven innovation strategy. To streamline collaboration, it asked us to create a company-wide vision for managing product data across business groups. We set up a project team, consisting of people from the various business groups and the customer’s central IT department, to analyze existing practices and solutions. Through our knowledge and experience of commercial product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, the vision was developed and accepted by management. The vision will reduce IT costs and improve teamwork opportunities within the business.