How to Say No and Yes at the Same time to the Customer

A few years ago, I went to one big customer to do System Audit. The Customer outsourced the support of ERP to a few vendors. She wanted me to review the entire process and provide the recommendations for Improvement. I reviewed the Support where I found there are many legacy applications with no documentation and the support consultants have the entire knowledge. The Support consultants fix the issues without revealing how are they fixed The Support consultants run the monopoly as no one else has the knowledge The attempts to transition the knowledge to the Customer org were failed Consultants don't have any succession plans. for every role there is one and only one consultant. If the consultant is out for any reason the work is staled No Consultant does two roles. If asked, the Consultant will try to add another consultant to do that job I did the review and submitted the report with some suggestions such as Introduce ticketing tool to formally store all issues logged. Even freeware could be a good starting point The Tcket is not closed unless the User approves at the end The Support engineer has to fill the Solution Template with all relevant details in the template to submit the ticket for closure The metrics include howmany duplicate tickets and similar ticets are logged. this impacts the Support performance ratings 5. ... The customer was just fine with the report and she revealed that she actually wanted to terminate a few people and asked me to include those names in the report. It is not professionally correct to get to that level of extent in Customer organization. Hence I suggested her an approach. 1. Do a reorganization for Support Unit 2. Reorganize in such a way that the roles will be restricted to the number that she wanted to retain 3. Prepare the Role description and rationale to qualify for each of the role 4. Once the teams are accommodated in the roles the rest will be job less Customer was happy and thanked me. I thanked the god as I escaped from great embarrassment.

Disclaimer: I have been writing the blogs in the style of story telling based on real incidents but with some fiction added to emphasize the message. Hence I request not to make any conclusions to derive facts based on the posts in these articlesa

What do we mean by Process Oriented

I had an Audit to my work scheduled for entire day. As we all know audit is on activity which is quite exciting for the guys who audit and pain in the neck for the Auditee. I was quite tense because irrespective of my focus to do the things right, I come across lot of arguments with my internal auditors more than the external teams. Last time, my customer of the Offshore Development Center (ODC) asked me to share the entire Network diagram to improve the access from our ODC to do a deepdive and improve the speed of access and work from ODC. There were challenges in the speed and the customer was facing issues in getting the deliverables fast. At the same time, the network was owned by the Customer and hence we didnt have freedom to explore and area of improvement. Customer had no choice but to do on own for the rectification. We wanted to share the network diagram but my internal process administrator asked me to share the diagram with password Protection. He however clearly communicated that I cant share the password. Surprised and I asked about what is the reason for not sharing the password to view the Network diagram owned by the recipient, he replied in a brief and caustic reply "As per Policy". I was just furious and requested on how can i than share the details of ODC network. He was very calm and replied "It is your issue, Process Administrator is not bound to respond on Business activities". Please dont ask me on how I managed but it was quite challenging because I needed to manage the Customer's Fury while we had to meet the "Policy".

By the time I reached office, I found Sikhandi seriously reviewing the Invoicing Process. The set of data that he was checking was Invoice Line Items for a big Invoice in a spread sheet. Sikhandi was doing something with his calculator. I asked him "Good Morning Mr. Sikhandi, can I know what are you verifying?'

' I am checking whether the totals are correctly done by your team' Sikhandi replied.

"the sheet is password Protected and all calculated cells of the spreadsheet are locked. I can explain about how we protected the data and made sure only calculated amounts are populated by the tool'

'But Mr Khaderao, I need to check whether you are doing right or wrong'

"Agreed. Can I show the famulas we applied and the protections we made?'

'I already checked.'

'than what are you checking now? I am checking if the totals are correct or not'

Than I found that Sikhandi is entering each amount of the Invoice line and calculating the sum of Invoice Amounts to make sure Excel did the sum correctly or not. Great. this is quite Process Oriented approach! Checking whether Excel is doing the Sum right or wrong????

While I was wondering about what to say, Sikhandi's assistant Kripakar came and said 'I found there are too many guys having admin rights in your team. We will stop giving the Admin rights from now'

I replied to him "there is a reason on why we are requesting for admin rights to some of the team members it is not even more than 1%".

'But the people with admin rights will install unauthorized software, can enable the USB drives and streal the data .....'

"Dear Kripakar, we know this. But the guys to whom we provide the rights are quite responsible. '

'No, Any slippage can happen by any one'

"Sorry Sikhandi and Kripakar, it is like switching off electricity because people can die of electric shock. Many times we need to respond to the speed expected by the Customer and these previleges are quite critical to act fast in certain development projects"

Sikhandi interfered 'how can you ensure these guys dont do anything wrong?'

I sighed with relief. For a change Sikhandi came to the right point.

'Dear Sikandi, this is exactly the point I also want to discuss. Let the guys have the privileges based on the justification provided. But let the IT team monitor what are they doing. I am sure the IT guys should have the intelligence and tools to track the desktops of my team. even if there is one slippage, I will sack them'

'that puts lot of work for my team'

'That must be fine mr. Sikhandi. Denying these previleges will increase the work for more than 100 people in my team if they need to go through your team to run the routines, installations and what not. it is work for your team and my team with lot of delays. My proposal will ensure the guys will do the right work in short time and if they do wrong your team is there is alert and take action'

Disclaimer: I have been writing the blogs in the style of story telling based on real incidents but with some fiction added to emphasize the message. Hence I request not to make any conclusions to derive facts based on the posts in these articles

Know your Business Problem First

Disclaimer: I have been writing the blogs in the style of story telling based on some incidents with some fiction added to emphasize the message. Hence please do not conclude anything based on the blogs. The characters are fictitious and do not intend to any individuals

One day, I got an urgent call from my fellow leader Anil rathod that there is a serious escalation from the Customer and needed some help. I immediately went to his work place to understand the situation.

"Khaderao, I need as many technical people as possible from your team for the next 6-8 weeks. Please .. I cant fund them as the project is already overrun but I need your help"

I replied "I will try my best, but can I understand the issue and reason for escalation?"

"We need to load 4000 Sales order lines in to the Customer's ERP. They need this to be completed by this week or next"

"Oh, I heard this Cutomer went live recently. Why this escalation?"

"The customer went live 2 months ago. But they didnt enter any Sales orders and continued in their legacy system. Now they realized that they needed all these lines in ERP"

"If that is the case, why is the escalation?"

"Our team told that this can be done only in 4 weeks and asked for a Change request"

"Hmm"

"Customer says no one guided them and informed that Sales orders needed to be entered in ERP"

"Interesting. Once went live, all transactions must be in ERP unless there was a different plan"

"True. But he says no one informed them on the same"

"OK. Now what is the plan"

"I have a very meticulous plan and I am sure we can get there. But I need about 20-25 technical people to execute the plan"

"Why cant the customer wait for 4 weeks if thats what it takes?"

"One second. Let me check."

Anil called the Onsite Project Manager and after a couple of minutes, he said "the Customer needs these lines to be in the ERP before end of Financial Year to show the accounts receivables.... Otherwise his true budget will not be reflected and he will not get sufficient funds for next year"

"How much is the amount approximately"

Anil called his PM again.

"4.85 Billion Dollars"

"Oh." (Now I understand the business Problem)

"OK Anil, can we meet your team?"

On the way to his team working place, I called my technical people to reach there.

When I went there it was a great scene.

Sikhandi was talking to about 15 people.

"Pani, you take the first 100 lines, Veena take 101 to 200. Charles you 201 to 300..... And all of you will be working here till we are finished. I will arrange food and bed for all of you. Ibrahim, you need work with overlaps and keep updating the Onsite team..."

Sikhandi's face was glowing with excitement about the kind of meticulous plan he is going to execute.

In a span of 1 hour Customer made 2,3 calls to know what is the progress. Entire team is full of pressure . But Sikhandi is quite excited to do this.

In the mean time Sikhandi prepared a Dashboard to show how many lines are completed, in progress and yet to be migrated. He generated some charts as well to show the same report in colors and figures.

While Sikhandi's speech was going on, I went to the team lead kind of person and asked her to let me have a look at the list of lines to be migrated to ERP.

I asked her to sort the list in descending order of Line amounts. I generated a Pareto chart to check the lines that cover 80% of the revenue. It needed about 850 lines which are actually amounting to close to 4 Billions.

I waited till Sikhandi completed the speech.

"Anil, please take these 850 lines and distribute to the teams. Let this round be completed with full focus. and there cant be any errors or iterations and they all must work fine once migrated to ERP"

The team got the redistributed list. I told them to take the same time as planned earlier for 4000 lines but do the migration perfectly.

In the mean time customer made a few more calls. I kept the phone disconnected.

By evening the 850 lines were completed and tested.

I asked Sikhandi to provide the Update. Sikhandi was not happy. He however fed the report. Now the graphs show 850 lines completed with % of work completed and so on.

I tweaked a few things and modified the graphs to show how much revenue is covered instead of lines migrated.

Sikhandi was not happy. "We have been sending the progress in terms of lines. I prepared a great dashboard. Now you are sending something else"

I said "Sikhandi, I am not competing with you. For that matter no leader needs to compete with his own team. You are going to send this email with this progress. In the body of message please clearly mention that you covered 80% of the revenue amount to reflect in the ERP."

Sikhandi is a bit relieved. The email was sent. Anil called the customer and updated the same.

"Now you wont get any more calls from the Customer. Please continue the work and complete the rest of the lines in the order that is prepared by Sikhandi (???). "

"Also please ensure ! the Customer should now enter the sales only in ERP. No more lines in the Legacy system please.... "

***

This may conclude that

•  Understand the Problem Statement instead jumping to Solutions
• The key is to identify what is really impacting the stakeholder from the Problem
• Work for sufficient time to understand and plan the right task in place of jumping to tasks with no plan
• The Focus must be on the final outcome
• Every time lining up bunch of people may not work if the plan is missing

Enablers are Important But can we forget Outcome?

Disclaimer: I have been writing the blogs in the style of story telling based on real incidents but with some fiction added to emphasize the message. Hence please do not conclude anything based on the blogs. 

When I went to Nobel Hospital I found Nobel already waiting there with a garland with bunch of people behind him, all in business suits. Before I got down Nobel opened the Car door and invited me. A beautiful lady came with the garland and before I prevented the garland was around my neck. "Mr. Khaderao, it is a great feeling to have you here. Please come" We all went inside. It was stunning experience for me when I looked inside. It was a huge hall fully decorated and equipped with five receptionists sitting in the middle of the floor. All of them are with Neat and Clean Hospital Uniform. Even all other Staff moving on the Hall were full of White and Clean clothes. The Hall is full of room freshener flavor. They all greeted me and I folded my hands and told Namaste to them before they offered a hand shake (I am also a mad guy). "Dear Khaderao, we have five receptionists to ensure we serve the best. Their job is to ensure who ever enters this building are authorized" First receptionist Swathi asked me show my bag. She almost tore the bag to check all parts and sides of the bag and ensured there are no dangerous items like Pen Drives, Data Cards, CDs etc. She returned the (Torn) bag as it is and I needed to close all portions and put all my belongings in to my bag. Thinking that my job is done, I wanted to move forward. But Rosy (next receptionist) stopped me. "Sir I want to check your laptop" I replied "I didnt bring laptop" "But I need to check sir. My apologies""Just now Swathi checked my bag and there was no laptop inside?..." "Sorry Sir, she checked if there are CDs, Pen Drives etc. I need to check if there is Laptop"

"But she didnt find any laptop in my bag. You also must have seen?" "As per process I need to do my checks sir, I am sorry without this checking we do not permit any one to go inside our Office' Nobel interfered and said to me "Dear Khaderao, I know this is slight inconvenience, but we have robust process to ensure there are no risks. Please cooperate" I was quite impressed and my Bag was again torn to the max limit. There are 3 more to check my bag. Probably one will check if I have bombs and Arms and another whether I have a camera and the last one will check if the Bag is still useful!!! Fortunately the other checks were completed very fast in an hour. When I thought of moving, the last receptionist told me, "Sir outside items are not allowed. I request you to please leave the bag here in reception" I left the Bag after filling 5 page form with all details of what is in the Bag. At last I could go inside the office at about 12.30 PM. It was lunch time. 

Nobel asked me if I want to have lunch. I asked what the best nearby Hotel. I wanted to go but quickly changed my mind after Nobel explained that I need to leave with my bag and enter again through the same process that I followed in the morning.

"Let us have something here itself. I may not be able to enter again in next 3,4 hours" "Lunch inside office is not allowed Khaderao" Nobel said.

Good. One day fasting is better. I am already fat to the extent that I reached irreversible state and skipping one meal may help. I made my mind to skip lunch to save that many hours of checks at reception again. Nobel took me to the Research and Development Section. "Dear Khaderao, this is the Research and Development group. The people whoever work here undergo complete checks including mental check to make sure they dont go mad for next 1 year."

"Why So?" I asked with curiosity as well as fear about what will happen to me.

"This is because our systematic approach is not digestible to many immatured people and hence we decided to have this kind of treatment"

We moved forward. "We dont supply papers so that people cant print any documents. We dont provide the phone to ensure our team dont call outsiders"

I was surprised and asked "What if they need any print out? Why cant they call outside?"

"Our Intellectual Property cant go out. If anything is printed you may see the content of printout and reveal to outsiders. Similarly the guys may call outside and reveal the confidential matter to outsiders"

"What if they need to speak to customers, Experts or others for any clarifications?" Nobel smiled proudly.

"We have a process for that as well. The team needs to fill this 7 page form and submit a business case for a phone call or a Printout or both. It will go through a robust approval process and we strictly follow the SLA of 10 days. The team are informed to followup only after these 10 days if they do not get any response."

"Great!!! "

And the approved conversation is monitored by a team of 10 people and it is recorded as well to make sure any of the Monitoring team doesnt join hands with the R&D teams and sabotage"

"What if the recording guy also cheats you?"

"It cant happen because the recording is done in such a way that no one can access the recorded item. And no one can know even the place where the recorded version is stored" Nobel replied with lot of Pride.

"Than how you will anyone access that version if the conversation needs to be verified?"

I didnt ask the question as I was feeling hungry and not having much energy to hear.

Nobel took me to another room. Before I asked, he explained "This is brainwashing room"

"<!*&$#%?????"

"People who are released from the Services are brainwashed completely to forget all they did here !"

"<!*&$#%????? <!*&$#%????? <!*&$#%????? <!*&$#%?????............"

"This is because we prevent CDs Pen Drives, Internet Access, Telephone access and what not. But the guy can still remember the content of the Intellectual properties developed here" Nobel clarified.

This is very innovative!!! And really true. The intelligent guys can still store all the information in their brain. It must be thoroughly washed to protect the IP.

Nobel took me to another room. I saw 100 screens on the big wall with 20 people watching the screens without moving the neck. "These screens show what is happening in the Hospital. We prevented Printouts, phone calls and data storage but people talk between themselves and information may pass between them"

Oh thats valid point !!!!!

"If we find any one talking to other in Development room, conference room or even Toilet, immediately an incident is logged. A 15 member team will review and interrogate the people on what they talked. Depending on the outcome, beyond SLA of 30days (Beyond or within ???) the Employee will be punished or even laid off."

I opened my mouth and hearing.

"We may go with a simple punishment of plastering the mouths of members involved in the discussion for a duration of 30 days. Or we may go to the extreme of terminating them with a fine of 10 Lakh rupees" Nobel elaborated with glowing face. "Currently we have a debate of whether the duration is 30 calendar days or 30 working days. As a matter of safety we are following 30 working days. A 3 member committee is reviewing the Procedure document to figure out what is the correct duration. they will complete the investigation beyond SLA of 2 months (- calendar days or ???)"

Very systematic!

I saw a few more cameras in the same room. Nobel understood my curiosity and explained before I asked. "These cameras are to monitor these 20 guys. They cant move their neck towards anything other than screens"

Oh!

"Yes. We also do a mock drill when we deliberately make huge noise of 100 decibels and if any one turns their neck to understand that noise they will be sacked immediately. This is to ensure they are all disciplined and focused towards their work. Even 1% of deviation is taken very serious in my organization"

I appreciate. He took me to the next room. There are around 50 people sitting and working with lot of concentration. They didnt even look at us. "They are all Inspection teams" "They keep writing new processes to confuse the teams to the best extent." 

~^*%$^#@(*&@^@@????

"This is because even our processes are IP (Intellectual Property) Protected. No one should share these processes to outside. More the confusion much is the protection of our IP"

Thats very true.

Nobel took me to Robot section where there are 100+ Robots which can do all types of Surgeries including Heart transplantation. He clarified that even these Robots will be brainwashed to make sure their thinking algorithm keeps changing and cleaned frequently. 

In other wing, all testing equipment are placed. "Anyone even if he is dying in front of me before I treat them, they need to undergo the tests!" Nobel proudly told.

"Without the test reports, even a dead body will not be touched by our doctors. We go by everything that is documented. We don't go by anything by apparent symptoms or verbal reports. This is the reason why our auditors don't find even one flaw in our Processes"

Fantastic. 

Nobel took me to another hall which is big to an extent that I can meet the guy on the other end only the next day. There are hundreds of beds with clean bed sheets. Every Bed has a big shelf, lockers, refrigerator and partitions. Beside each bed, there are equipment to support blood tests, Saline loading and even small surgeries etc. What a great Infrastructure! There is a TV infront of the Bed. There is also a room consisting of team which supports the Cable TVs. All that Staff are blind folded. Whenever a repair is required they are allowed to see, fix the issue and go back to blind folds. 

Yes I know why before Nobel clarified. Intellectual property and Process orientation. 

Nobel took me to Ambulance management. There are 100 ambulances. Each Ambulance is like a house. Everything is there in the Ambulance Once again TV is also included. Staff were watching "Munnabhai MBBS" when we went there. 

When Nobel went they stopped the TV immediately. Nobel was furious and told them that the TV is for Customers only. He logged incidents against each of the staff.

We went to many other sections and everywhere it is clean, and perfect.When I finished the visit, I was checked thoroughly again in the most impressive manner. I collected my bag from the 5th receptionist after filling another form and started to move.

But the fourth Receptionist stopped me "Sir, I need to check your bag before leaving"

"Just now I got it from your colleague what will be there other than what you already checked in the morning?"

"Sir that is something I need to confirm. As per process we need to check the visitor before he leaves. We dont go assumptions."

After one full day duration in the the office, I understood a few things and without too many questions I got my bag checked by other 4 as well.My bag is now in very bad shape but I am still happy to see that nothing offensive was found even after a thorough checking.

"Dear Khaderao, you went through the entire show. How is your feeling?" Nobel asked me on my way back.

"Dear Nobel, I am quite impressed by your infrastructure. All latest equipment, robust practices and the most disciplined team. With this kind of system, I am sure you can do a great job and protect the interest of the IP"

Nobel was very proud.

Suddenly I realized one thing before getting into the car.

"By the way, I didnt see any patients. How many are there?"

So far Nobel was answering all queries confidently but for the first time the smile disappeared from his face.I didnt wait for the answer and got in to the Car.

DISCLAIMER:

This Blog is not intended to hurt or criticize any one and the character that I was trying to depict is not any specific person. These were all outcomes of my experience and many times I find myself in one or two aspects of the character Nobel. Directly or indirectly if any of this character or others in the column are resembling any one it is a coincidence only.

Blind Beaurocracy: TAPPA

On a bad morning Nobel called even before I logged into the system.

When I went, he was already red faced and has many people gathered in his room.

"Khaderao. Why didnt you backfill Tappa officer?"

Tappa????Officer????

What is Tappa? Who is Tappa Officer? Why is Nobel asking me?

Even though many people might have got scared to ask, because I am Khaderao, I directly asked him "Can you please explain what is Tappa?"

Now I could see that Sikhandi can dance like angry lord Shiva. I also saw that even though he doesn't have third eye (and other two eyes are blind enough to see the facts), he can generate fire from those dumb eyes.

My god, I may be forced to kill him today (this has been my worry all these days).

"Dont you know? Do you know there is a Tappa process and people need to get this stamped in every process??????"

Without aggravating the situation,I said "I will come back"

"You need to come back before lunch" (Means my lunch is gone.)

I saw one guy who is looking like the leader of that mob. I asked him to come to my work place.The guy names Thilakam came with me.

I asked him what is all this and what is Tappa. Even he was surprised but he is still better than others. So with lot of patience he started the story.

"Sir! a few months ago I needed to have a desktop and I was making a request as per the process. On my way to the process owner Yesupadam's room I found one guy on my sitting on a stool beneath the tree."

He called me and asked where I was going. I responded him that I needed a Laptop and going to Yesupadam. I also requested that I need to go and submit the application to get the desktop from Yesupadam in at-least 3 months. 

After hearing that he immediately asked me. "Where is the Tappa on your application?" I was wondering on what is Tappa,  but he immediately showed a Rubber Stamp and said that I need to have this Tappa before starting any process. As Automation is being designed by process expert Ranjana it may take time and currently Tappa is manually done.

I promptly got my application stamped. I paid 500 Rupees to him which is the fee for getting Tappa on the application.

When I went to Yesupadam he noticed the "Tappa" on my application and asked me what is this. I told him that Tappa is added as a new step in the 150 step Application process. He approved the application immediately in 7 days (as per SLA it takes 7 days to approve the application). After 6 months I was fortunate and got my desktop. But it was however formatted in next 10 days because I was eligible to have the Desktop for 6 months from the date of application and that period was consumed in waiting itself. I was also fined because I was holding the Desktop for 10 days more than the eligible duration! This was however not a surprise for me as I am used to get my desktops formatted even for other reasons. In addition, my access to office got removed suddenly (as per expectation), I lost even my login at any time (as per predictions). This was all because we work in highly process oriented environment. What I needed to do was to make another application. Now I understood the new process, so promptly got the Tappa stamped. This time I got the desktop in 3 months and I could work for 2 more months....." 

I however didn't understand Thilakam's last sentence, so asked him "Why only two months? as per process your desktop will be formatted after 6 months as a whole? Even if we include 3 months of waiting period you could work for 3 more months????"

Thilakam grinned "Sir you are working with matured company and why are you asking these questions? This time, Yesupadam's team as per process noted wrong dates and formatted the desktop one month earlier than what I believed as the end date of using the desktop. I was not surprised sir. I am used to it and because I completely knew the process including TAPPA, I have no complaints about this"

"Hmm. Seems you are a No COMPLAINTS man. I am curious to know what made you do this dharna with Nobel?"

"Sir, please try to understand. Once I understood the new process, I told all my colleagues to ensure they get TAPPA as the first step for any application. Even if anyone forgets, Yesupadam used to ask them to go back and get TAPPA"

'Than what is the issue?'

"The Tappa guy stopped coming to office sir."

"Oh!"

"Now when we went to Yesupadam, he said without TAPPA no one can move forward. We told that there is no TAPPA guy. Yesupadam insisted we must chase him and get the TAPPA. He clearly stated that there is no deviation defined to this process"

"Why TAPPA guy is not back filled?"

"Sir, this is the question I asked Yesupadam. Like he says usually, he clarified that it is not his job. His job is only to stop or slowdown the work which he has been successfully doing! We waited for 3 months which is quite comfortable for us as we knew how to manually work for 24 hours in a day to cover the backlogs of our projects. Now we reached a stage where we need more than 24 hours for day to manage our work sir. And there are many like me. As many as 500 people are struck. That is when I and other 500 guys went to Nobel"

"Why do you think I have to address this? I don't think TAPPA guy reports to me?"

"Sir, my guess is Nobel called you because you somehow will address the problem even if it doesn't fall on your table."

"Thanks for your understanding. But it is a misunderstanding. I don't want to do anything somehow, that too for Nobel"

"No Sir, I know you are right. but you will do for the team if not for Nobel."

????? This guy got my weak point and trapped me. Now I need to address his problem.

I went to HR and asked them to tell me when TAPPA officer has resigned and what is his job description so that I can hire another guy.

HR promptly took a week to verify and sent a note to me.

"There is no role called TAPPA Officer in the system. We request to investigate and report to us on how and with whose permission did you hire a TAPPA officer. If you do not respond in 55 seconds as per process we will take serious action on you which can be termination......."

Oh my God! we are in an environment where we don't even know why there is a step called Tappa in every process. We don't know who introduced this step. Above all we don't know who is this so-called TAPPA Officer, who collected 500 Rupees per Tappa and disappeared on a fine day.

I will pray the GOD to tell me if there is a manthra to disappear now and reappear when this issue is resolved on its own or by a miracle. If this is not possible, probably I may have to kill Nobel which is in waiting since I started working under him!