2. Pragmatica Innovations
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o Veteran Owned Small Business founded Va. Beach 2009
o Solutions
o Information and Process Modeling Tools
o Back Office Cloud-Based suite
o Secure Collaborative Suites
o Services
o Business Analytics and Optimization
o Back Office Services
o Information Visualization
o Enterprise Information Management
3. o There are Back Office Services and Operations
o Operations make products and services for others
o Back Office services enable and sustain Operations
o Resources (People, Systems, Facilities) enable
o Strategy, Finance, Administration sustain
What is a Back Office Service?
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4. o We knew there was a “universal model”
o We analyzed our back office against:
o Organization structures in other businesses
o The functions of software suites
o Law, Regulation and Policy topics
o Professional certifications
o Management models and methods
o Reduced this to a comprehensive model - but not
overwhelming
PrISM Origins
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5. PrISM is a…
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o Model – Structure
o A hierarchy of 7 categories of work
o Tool – Physical and Digital Elements
o Office folders and files
o Online workspaces for each type of work
o Method – Implementation
o Organize to the model as needed
o Utility – Solve problems
o increase order and collaboration
o measure and solve problems
6. The PrISM Model
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o 7 core service areas
o 130 services
o Identification
o Every service has a unique name
o Every service area has services that
o conduct the service
o manage its execution
o liaison with other service areas
o provide reference and research
7. PrISM – The Tools
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o A physical map placed in the office.
o Colored cabinets, folders, etc. in the office
o Microsoft SharePoint sites for every service
o Role based access and permissions
8. o Grow the business by “filling in” the model
o Know the mixture of physical and digital information
o Know the structure and stability of information
o Optimize service execution
o Move toward increasing digitization
o Maintain only required physical records
The PrISM Method
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9. PrISM – Utility – A Model Can…
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• Build a common vision and language
• Define resource and work relationships
• Align training, talent and workforce
• Measure IT system utility and dependency
• Direct and bound Process Improvement Teams
• Establish performance measurement points
• Define workflow and collaboration
• Establish Communities of Interest
10. o Speed filing and retrieval
o Reduce learning curve for new staff
o Reduce interruptions to back office staff
o Present an orderly workplace
o Identify what information is being used
o Decrease stress
o Remove barriers to scheduling and career
PrISM – Utility – A Physical Tool Can
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11. o Tag information for faster query and reports
o Build workflow
o Avoid unnecessary software purchases
o Bridge workflow between applications
o Present information visualization
o Create dynamic collaborative teams
PrISM – Utility – A Digital Tool Can
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12. PrISM – Implementation - Steps to Order,
Organize, and Collaborate
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13. Stores Information from Current Applications
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14. Provides New Functions Without A New Software
Investment
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15. Build Workflow Across Independent Applications
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16. PrISM – Summary: Information “Bus” for
Workflow
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17. Defined Roles, Access, and Permissions
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o Service based roles are defined by:
o 3 levels of service access
o Permissions to read, contribute, edit, etc.
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Building Channels and Community
o Channel
o PrISM is a common structure for short or long term
commerce or projects.
o Community
o Share high level information with each other
o Be part of a larger community.
21. Delivering pragmatic solutions for a changing world...
Contact Information
Paul W. Johnson
CEO
Office: 757-575-5243
Mobile: 757-270-1770
paul.johnson@pragmatica-innovations.com
Visit us on the Web at http://www.pragmatica-innovations.com
and www.go-prism.com
Mark Mellblom
Chief Methodologist
Office: 757-575-5243
Mobile: 757-630-3962
mark.mellblom@pragmatica-innovations.com
Join our Pragmatica Innovations team on Kiva at http://www.kiva.org
Changed any lives lately?
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Editor's Notes
Founded in Virginia Beach 2009
11 employees
Information Modeling and Architecture
Develop and Maintain Collaborative Suites
Products: Information and Process Modeling Tools, Frameworks, Methods
Services: Business Optimization, Information Visualization, IT Portfolio Management, Software Requirements
PrISM makes a distinction between those operations that provide products and services to customers from those that provide resources and sustain those operations.
Resources mean all the elements that can be expressed in a process model of operations. People, Systems, Facilities, Communications – doing work – making products and services
Sustainment is the alignment of Strategy, Communications and Finance to provide those resources and all held together by the oversight of Administration.
In the process of building Pragmatica Innovations, we built a back office service model for ourselves – and if it worked for us
One day while discussing reusable models and structure to reduce costs and speed development we asked – are all businesses bound by the same constraints in the back office?
Is there a universal structure with enough detail to be useful?
We looked at our own structure, software suite functions and other businesses to find the “one right way” to express the work of the back office and we had PrISM.
Useful enough to answer “real questions” that could govern and direct the back office in support of operations.
Model – Structure
an “architecture and design” of the back office services. Enterprise Architecture is the discipline of expressing the relationships between resources at play in a company. It uses graphic diagrams, maxtrixes and some textual summaries. It often begins with a work model independent of the resources and organizations doing the work. This allows an unbiased view of IT utility, roles, organization and investment.
Tool – Physical and Digital Elements
PrISM structure is built into the office and online. It is kept consistent by using the model as a guide for both the office and online
Method – Implementation is not a single event. It is a gradual movement toward the PrISM structure.
optimize business and mature the information structure.
Utility - Being a “PrISM business” means using the model to frame questions and answers.
7 core service areas
130 services. Those are just the “leaf level” / atomic services. There are about 40 parental services forming a folders structure that are more general. Nonetheless, these too have all the utility of the others when in SharePoint to support the access and permissions model.
Identification
Every service has a unique name to support meta data.
Every service area has services that
conduct the service
manage its execution
liaison with other service areas.
provide reference and research
This makes the model complete, allowing each service area to express not only how it supports Operations but how it supports itself. Remember that the model is functional and not organizational, so some of this work will be collaborative efforts by different people in different organizations.
The Model is a map on the wall that exposes the structure of information. It is analogous to a mall map as a navigation and planning aid.
The map aligns between the physical and digital
Colored cabinets, folders, etc. in the office
170 Microsoft SharePoint sites online
Each site is a secure service workplace with:
Library of documents, images, audio, etc.
Lists of records
Calendar
Discussions
Tasks
The SharePoint sites are built by cloning a template of the site. So there is not time wasted “building it out”.
One of our hosting partners is portalfront.com. All they host is SharePoint and have an excellent rating
Role based permissions in context of service
Mature the business by “filling in” the model
Understanding the mixture of physical and digital information.
Understanding the structure and stability of information.
Move toward increasing digitization
Maintain only required physical records
We use a Business Optimization Method (BOM) to build and stabilize a service and then use an Enterprise Maturity Model (EMM) to measure how much information has transitioned to digital and how well defined is its structure.
This is going to make the distinction between the model and the tool. The model is focused on communication, lexicon and relationships. It is the work model of the back office architecture. The model establishes and defines the structures. The tool executes them
Build a common vision and language
Define resource and work relationships
Align training, talent and workforce
Measure IT system utility and dependency
Direct and bound Process Improvement Teams
Establish performance measurement points
Define workflow and collaboration
Establish Communities of Interest
The physical tool is both cabinets, folders, files etc. but not the SharePoint sites, drives, servers etc.
Organize office records
Speed filing and retrieval
Reduce learning curve for new staff
Since model is on the wall, literally
Reduce interruptions to back office staff
New people and those with access have the model to guide them.
Present an orderly workplace
order is the visual aesthetic of organization
Identify what information is being used
understand workflow, and identify access permissions
Decrease stress
time spent filing and retrieving reduced
Remove barriers scheduling time off, emergencies, etc.
The structure is public, so there is no indispensible person
Open career progression opportunities
The structure is public, so people are not trapped as indispensible
This story shows existing folders migrating toward the PrISM structure in the physical office and also the digital information finding a place in a service specific SharePoint workspace.
The workspace has “capabilities” - tools and structures. To the left is a screenshot of a service area home page to give some idea of what SharePoint looks like to the user.
This normalizes the back office for several solutions, all of which support communication.
You do not loose the investment in software. We all use dedicated software for the back office. PrISM does not interfere with any of the Operational software that is business specific.
These dedicated systems are populating the PrISM model with information. They are not integrated. PrISM provides integration between the systems though the model.
Companies may wish to have a limited digital functionality and avoid purchasing a 3rd party application for just a small amount of fucntionality. SharePoint is capable and optimized to providing functions and integration with existing Microsoft Office products. Using Lists, calendars, alerts, etc to build workflow for specific needs can avoid an expensive investment in software.
There is a difference between populating the model from a specific software application and using the model to move across the information to “Do Workflow”. Here workflow is complex. It shows how participants gather information from several service areas to do different steps.
A summary view showing the work of populating the model and working with the information.
The PrISM model is the security model.
Each service has 3 levels of permissions
Shared Access to provide common information across the services and external to the company – a general “homepage” for the service
Inter-Service Access to support using information from other services to participate in defined type of workflow.
Service Level Work Access – Restricted to service users only. This is populating the model with a specific type of information.
A graphic to show just a few services and their access
With a standard back office you can build and expand a company or integrate with others for either long term relationships or short term goals. If the back offices require a common place to work, this may be done with a single instance or if the proprietary and privacy require more security, then their may be separate instances of PrISM used. The decision for best implementation is situational.
A simple graphic expressing how different types of work are conducted at different levels of access.
