Tag Archives: Metrics

Pipe Dreams: Pursuit Of The Right Quality Metric

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Quality can mean different things, often many things, to any individual. The term “quality”, by itself doesn’t necessarily clearly spell out what you mean. Identifying what quality means (in the context of a specific project) is vital to any improvement … Continue reading →

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Psychics Are Standing By To Install Your Laptop!

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

What do your clients really want from you? Sometimes a client will instruct you to do something, such as editing a document. When you fail to follow their instructions (because it violates a rule, such as English grammar) you can … Continue reading →

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The Truth About Six Sigma (Part II): Too Many Sigma’s Spoils The Service!

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Where was I? Oh, now I remember! All the talk about Six Sigma… it’s the latest thing, it’s just a bunch of old techniques, it can perform miracles, it can do a lot of damage if you’re not careful.  There’s … Continue reading →

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The Truth About Six Sigma (Part I): Bake it into your Operation!

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Where was I? Oh, now I remember! All the talk about Six Sigma… it’s the latest thing, it’s just a bunch of old techniques, it can perform miracles, it can do a lot of damage if you’re not careful.  There’s … Continue reading →

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Good News, We Have A Customer Complaint!

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

We’ve all had it hammered into us… improve services, eliminate complaints, make the customer happy. We all want to provide a service that makes our clients happy, and never receives a client complaint. If customer satisfaction has been your big … Continue reading →

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Is Quality Control A Waste of Time?

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

If we roll back the clock just a bit, the support services provided by most large corporations lacked any formal quality control. You had people who were dedicated to performing a function, but there wasn’t formal training or process controls. … Continue reading →

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Grime and Punishment: Why Best Practices Matter (Part II)

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Yesterday we looked at CLI’s (Central Line Infections), a type of infection that results from the use of a Central line, the needle and flexible tube used to insert an intravenous drip bag. CLI’s are extremely dangerous and expensive, infecting … Continue reading →

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Do Outsourcers Know What Time It Is?

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Today, I was puttering around on the Internet, on a site that I frequently visit, Linked-In. I decided that I would take a look at their “Answers” section, which lists questions by members that other members are invited to answer. One of … Continue reading →

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Epsilon Cloudburst

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Have you heard of Epsilon, the marketing firm? Well, if you haven’t you can probably expect to hear about them soon. One of the many services Epsilon offers is the management of emailing services for many large corporations. Personally, I … Continue reading →

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When Outsourcing Is Mature…

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

In the last post we talked about where outsourcing is headed for firms that have reached a “mature” stage. That is to say, if you operate out of one or more lower cost locations, all of which passed their “training” … Continue reading →

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