Cavendish

This Model clearly recognises the importance of `Strategic Information Management`. The Business model is a complete system of a business enterprise and how you can implement the model into your business for long-term success and an increase in the `bottom-line`.

"Strategic Information Management is going to be a terrific tool. People who know how to use information strategically will be on the fast track of "Strategic Information Management in the New Reality." Says Colin Thompson.

Testimonials

"The Enterprise Business Model provides step-by-step guidance for managers to understand the interaction of change in a business."

"Sales, Production, Environment, Finance, Management of Information and Change processes are all covered in the `Enterprise Business Model`. It integrates business processes and aids management thinking in how best to fine-tune them - by application of many small incremental changes of key manufacturing criteria that raise the `bottom-line`".

"The Enterprise Business Model is a `fantastic` business tool to increase your profitability and allows me to have a `pocket` business adviser at all times.This is a powerful performance model"

Angus Clark,Chief Executive-T.J.International Limited

"At last, a visual aid to join-up the thinking and the processes in a printing company. The Enterprise Business Model (EBM) does this comprehensively for any printing organisation. As a training aide and a management reference source, the EBM opens up the company for management by consensus - to harness the benefits of excellent improvements in all departments".
"It takes a complicated subject and treats it in a way that can be easily understood".

Jonathan Richards, Chairman, Imprint Business Systems Limited

Strategic information management will integrate information management at the executive, strategic level of an organisation. It's all about managing information strategically for competitive advantage, which requires a new perspective and new skills for most records and information management professionals. Experienced and skilled people designed this `Enterprise Business Model`. to help implement a full enterprise structure for growth and success.

To use information `Strategically` we must first understand our business, we must know … the why, when, where, how, and who of our business…. in other words we need an integrated picture of our Enterprise. Our view of Information should not be limited to data alone. It should incorporate different types of information including Organisation (Groups), Processes (Business Activities), User Needs, Corporate Objectives, Applications, Functional Requirements, etc. These various information types can then be related to each other to paint a complete picture of our enterprise…

What is an Enterprise Business Model?

An Enterprise Business Model or EBM is a planning tool, used by a business analyst, to support both strategic and tactical project plans. The EBM identifies:

An EBM is an interactive 3-D "map" of the organisation. its processes, and resources. Also, it allows you to increase your `bottom-line`.

A MAP is a document that provides context to information; it positions objects relative to other objects. Consider if the military sent troops into battle without careful reconnaissance and maps, or a master plan that details who does what, where, and when. It seems sensible then that before we embark on major corporate change we should arm ourselves with a clear set of maps to guide our efforts. An EBM is a non-invasive and participatory tool to increases stakeholder understanding, improves communication, and provides strategic insight to the possibilities within the enterprise.

Using the EBM, management can identify who does what work, which resources are used by a particular process, which groups manage a specific resource and which processes are dependent on this same resource.

An EBM can be navigated to provide stakeholders with a big picture view of the enterprise and their component relationships. If we know one of the three entities (group, activity, or resource) we can triangulate and identify a variety of unknowns. For example: identify all mission critical processes, the groups involved, and resources that support these processes.

Simply stated to plan, implement, and respond effectively to the impacts of change. Plus, increases your `bottom-line` from day one!

1. A better way to gather and organise information. Data is easily verified by stakeholders, it supports collaborative problem solving, therefore trust and confidence in the model grows.

2. Better understanding and communication of complex business issues. Information is structured to represent relationships found in the real world. This allows us to identify inconsistencies and the impact of planned changes to people, processes, and other corporate resources.

3. Corporate Alignment: The ability to link strategic goals and objectives with tactical plans, projects, and resources required achieving those objectives. Project funding requests are more easily understood and…. approved.

4. Improve the quality of business decisions and reduce the risk associated with Corporate Change.

The "RISK" of a decision is defined by a simple formula:

The use of EBM methodology increases the VALUE of decisions by identifying both the RISKS and the POTENTIAL OUTCOME of a variety of alternatives. This enhances the quality of the decision making process.

5. Knowledge Management: Capture and Reuse of knowledge to solve similar or industry specific business problems. E.g. Implementing ISO 9000 and downsizing.

Corporate Teaming: a planning and communication tool for defining the roles, responsibilities, and information sharing requirements on projects.

Human Resources Management: a knowledge management tool for job design, job analysis and human resources planning.

System Integration: Analyse user needs, define functional requirements, create system specifications and optimise information systems.

Organisational Restructuring: Assess the impact of corporate downsizing, outsourcing, mergers, and acquisitions to the business model. Reduce risks; plan transitions, service level agreements, etc.

WEB Site Planning: Support your Strategic Planning activities by "Mapping" WEB components to the business model. Use EBM to define the business model, identify activities to be enabled, optimise business processes, establish content stewardship, gather content, and map all this information into a single model. EBM provides a roadmap and continuity between the business model and the WEB enabled delivery system.

Business Modeling is distinctly different from the financial modeling, which uses the spreadsheet as its core tool. To understand business modeling we must first understand the meaning of a business "enterprise".

6. The EBM is structured around the proven principles of the European Foundation for Quality Management's Business Excellence Model - an internationally recognised methodology for measuring the nine key criteria of any organisation:

*Leadership
*People Management
*Policy and Strategy
*Resource Management
*Processes
*People Satisfaction
*Customer Satisfaction
*Impact on Society
*Business Results

This helps your business to identify its current position and determine future direction and priorities. It allows comparisons with the achievements of other organisation. and provides for regular monitoring of progress.

A `Enterprise Business Model` is a complex system of people, process, and technology component engineered to accomplish organisational goals. With out the benefits of a `Enterprise Buisness Model` your business will not be as successful as it should be!

There are many different types of business models, each type serves a specific purpose and is focused to the needs of a specific user. I will highlight only three in this article:

Enterprise Business Modelling (EBM): The newest type of modelling methodologies, it is a planning tool that captures different types of business information (i.e. business objectives, user needs, organisation structure, business activities, data resources, etc.) and relates these to each other in a meaningful way. It is used to gather and organise information to bring clarity and a common understanding of how the business interacts with stakeholders. It supports a variety of analysis capabilities such as change impact analysis to support organisational change such as mergers & acquisitions, upsizing/downsizing, and outsourcing activities. Other uses include the Strategic Management of organisation software portfolio and information assets. Enterprise Business Modelling is frequently confused with Business Process Modelling. The two are frequently used in conjunction with each other but they are not the same.

Business Process Modelling: A common modelling methodology that visually depicts the flow of work through an organisation in a process. It focuses on the relationship between the individual components of a specific business process and their enablers. It is sometimes referred to as business modelling, hence the frequent confusion with EBM, and is often called `Workflow Modelling`. Whereas workflow modelling is used to analyse and optimise a business process, Enterprise Business Modelling is a framework that can contain all the components of a workflow model, it can reference specific workflow models and can be used to determine the enterprise impact of any planned change made to these components.

Data Modelling: The first and oldest of the modelling methodologies, it lets users track where data resides in a database or related applications. A data model is a conceptual representation of the data structures that are required by a database. The data structures include the data objects, the associations between data objects, and the rules, which govern operations on the objects. As the name implies, the data model focuses on what data is required, and how it should be organised rather than what operations will be performed on the data.

A data model is independent of hardware or software constraints. Rather than try to represent the data, as a database would see it, the data model focuses on representing the data as the user sees it in the "real world". It serves as a bridge between the concepts

that make up real-world events and processes and the physical representation of those concepts in a database. The Enterprise Business Model can be used to capture the data model but is generally not used to analyse and optimise the data model (specific data modelling tools are used for this purpose). Information in the EBM may be exported to the specific data-modelling tool used by a data base designer.

In summary each type of model has a purpose and a place in `Business Process Improvement`. Although a traditional toolkit supports workflow and data models to analyse your business needs the `new` Enterprise Business Modeling approach will expand the value proposition to help you manage your information strategically?

To learn more about Business Modelling I have explained below in more detail.

Why use a model?

An enterprise embodies many functions and leading an enterprise requires us to lead them all. To succeed in one function may be a science, but to succeed in enterprise is an art. A good model can inspire the promising artists to great achievement.

A business model provides us with a basis for understanding and a set of stimuli. At the macro-level, a model will prompt us to make decisions and take actions; at the micro-level, a model might specify actions to be taken.

All entrepreneurs hold a 'mind's eye' picture of their `enterprise`. It reflects what they perceive to be the enterprise's key elements and how these key elements relate to needs. Naturally, how clear and coherent that pictures; how up to date, how detailed, and how accurate, will vary widely from entrepreneur to entrepreneur.

The risks and limitations of running a business on the basis of that informal, personal, internalised model alone are largely dimensioned by the scope and complexity of the enterprise, and by the extent to which the leader legitimately exercises personal discretion and control over everything that's done.

For example, there are few risks in this approach for a 'one-man-business' Printing Service. Here, the entrepreneur is, at one and the same time, the sole employee stakeholder the major supplier stakeholder (labour being the key material), and probably the sole investor stakeholder. The need to communicate process knowledge and context externally is effectively eliminated. The internalised, informal model may well be adequate - though even here, it will be worthwhile to externalise sufficient of a simple, consistent 'process model' to enable customers to make and maintain contact.

If we move from Printing Service to Printing Group the picture changes subtly. Supplier stakeholders grow more key. The operation, too, will grow more complex. Whilst the entrepreneur will grow confident in a core portfolio of familiar, common work, there will be other tasks beyond his competence to remember. For these he will need to refer to business manuals. In effect, the risk of relying on a wholly internal, informal model will have increased significantly and a more formal, externalised micro-model will have become appropriate.

If, later, our entrepreneur opens a subsidiary employing another 10 printers we can see that he needs to externalise more not only for his own protection, but also to share corporate understanding across his organisation.

Where numbers of people become increasingly involved, we need to understand and share not just the functional elements of our business, but also how those functions, and the stakeholders involved with them, inter-relate. For success, we need to work 'on' our business rather than 'in' our business. To do that we need a simple but comprehensive appreciation of our enterprise on which to build for the future. In these circumstances, whilst many enterprises may survive and a few may even prosper, none is likely to realise its full potential without some use of a ` Enterprise Business Model`. An `Enterprise Business Model` gives us that appreciation. It offers a simple way to consider our organisations's dynamics and opportunities. It provides a basis for shared and consistent understanding it can free up time and energy to deal with specific pressures. And it catalyses a way of thinking that promotes learning and, through leaning, improves our chances of success. At the very least, an enterprise business model can reduce wasted effort on unproductive approaches: at best it can stimulate us to create new, world-beating, solutions.

So what `Business Model` should we use? Our `Enterprise Business Model` Most useful to the entrepreneur and any size business would be one that is holistic; cross-functional; recognises the pivotal nature of stakeholder relationships; and addresses key input and output issues. Ideally, also recognises the intangible 'flux' that flows through an enterprise, fuelling and pulling together its otherwise disparate functional and behavioural elements. Our `Enterprise Business Model` fulfils these needs.

This `Enterprise Business Model` is everything you could wish for in making your business join-up its information streams. It has the appropriate methods and systems to help you be successful. Overall, the model will improve the `bottom-line` from day one.

Investment cost of the `Enterprise Business Model` is £1500 in Software/CD format. This investment will be recouped from day one!

Go to the order page – for your most valued investment into the `Enterprise Business Model` to help you implement all the right methods and systems to be successful. This will be the best investment you probably have ever made to raise the `bottom-line`!

Colin Thompson, former successful Managing Director of Transactional/Print Manufacturing Plants, Print Management/Workflow Solutions companies, other organisations, Group Chairman of the Academy for Chief Executives and Non-Executive Director, helping companies raise their `bottom-line`and `increase cash flow`. Author of business books, research reports, guides, business and educational models on CD-ROM's/Software and over 400 articles published worldwide. Plus, Key Note Speaker at Conferences, Seminars, also Visiting University Professor on the International circuit.