Question: 1. How does the Boomer Technology Circle
1. How does the Boomer Technology Circle illustrate the concept of the bidirectional service supply relationship?
2. How has Boomer Consulting, Inc., made the client a coproduce in the service delivery process?
3. How is the concept of “leverage†achieved by Boomer Consulting?
4. Can the Boomer Technology Circles be applied to other industries? What are some of the risks in pursuing this strategy?
Boomer Consulting, Inc.17
Boomer Consulting, Inc. (BCI), began as a division of the small regional CPA firm of Varney & Associates. The division was headed by a single partner, L. Gary Boomer. In 1995, as the division’s revenues grew, the firm separated the consulting and accounting practice, creating a wholly owned subsidiary, which was headed by Boomer and named Boomer Consulting. In 1997, Boomer bought out his partnership agreement and as CEO transformed BCI into an entrepreneurial company.
L. Gary Boomer is recognized in the accounting profession as the leading authority on technology and firm management. Since 1995, he has been named by Accounting Today as one of the 100 most influential people in accounting. He consults and speaks internationally on management and technology- related topics such as strategic and technology planning, compensation, and developing a training/learning culture. He acts as a planning facilitator, provides coaching, and serves on many advisory boards.
THE ACCOUNTING INDUSTRY
Until 1989, the accounting industry was viewed in terms of “The Big Eight†and “all others.†Owing to industry consolidation and major scandals (most notably the Arthur Andersen and Enron events), the industry morphed into “The Big Four†and “all others.†The recent scandals also resulted in increased regulation (e.g., Sarbanes–Oxley) and concern about litigation. These issues affected both the cost of doing business with a big four accounting firm and the workload required of the employees of those firms. As a result both clients and employees are moving to smaller national and regional firms (i.e., “all othersâ€).
The scandals also increased the industry’s focus on ethics and management issues. Major issues in the industry include increasing corporate governance as firms shift from a partnership model to more of a corporate-management structure, document management and records retention, succession planning, offshoring tax-return preparation, strategic planning, and general management topics such as human resources and compensation. The industry also is notorious for being late adopters in terms of technology that stimulates considerable interest among clients in both hardware and software.
BCI EARLY OPERATIONS
Boomer Consulting, Inc.’s client base comprises a variety of CPA firms in terms of size and geography. Clients include firms as large as those just below “The Big Four†and as small as firms with just a handful of employees. Geographically, clients are spread throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and India. Clients typically call on BCI for a number of services ranging from traditional one-on-one engagements to membership in the Boomer Technology Circles. The wide range of services makes BCI an integral part of many firms’ strategic planning processes and positions BCI as a coach to many in the industry.
In the early days of BCI, a Sunday afternoon flight out of Kansas City to New York was the norm for Boomer. Clients were dispersed primarily throughout the United States and Canada and he might be in New York on Monday and Tuesday, San Diego on Wednesday, Jackson, Mississippi, on Thursday, and back home late Friday night. This schedule was necessary to allow one-on-one consulting with clients at their office locations, the method of delivery for consulting services in those days. This was a tiring schedule for one person to maintain so Boomer contemplated ways to reduce the level of travel. Realizing that many of his clients, especially those of similar size, had shared issues, he looked for a way to standardize the delivery of his knowledge and experience.
BCI’s services then evolved from one-on-one client-specific projects to a more standardized set of services. Today, these offerings are encapsulated in a five-phase process-oriented solution called The Technology Leadership Process shown in Figure 9.6.
Figure 9.6: The Technology Leadership Process
BOOMER TECHNOLOGY CIRCLES—A SERVICE INNOVATION
In an effort both to reduce travel and standardize the process, Boomer developed a unique service offering that transformed the BCI business model. Instead of traveling constantly to the client site for one- or two-day projects, he created the Boomer Technology Circles (Circle) where the clients come to BCI.
The Boomer Technology Circles were built on the concept of “roundtables,†where clients share common concerns and solutions. The circles are held at a hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, which provides a centralized location for the geographically dispersed client base. Circle members are placed into one of ten different circles, and each circle meets three times per year for a one and one-half day conference. Each circle consists of two employees from about 15–20 firms that are of similar size, increasing the probability of having common issues and concerns. BCI avoids placing clients who are direct competitors in a geographical region in the same circle unless all parties agree.
The Circle meetings are designed to meet a number of objectives, such as issues that Boomer regards as “hot topics†in the accounting industry, information sharing among clients through breakout sessions and participant-led presentations, accountability through the 90-day game plan, progress reports, and planning future meetings.
The focal point of the meetings is information sharing among the Circle members. During the breakout sessions and member-led presentations, members share the most pressing issues in their firms and the solutions they are pursuing. Break- out sessions have only five-to-seven participants and provide an intimate setting for knowledge transfer. The member-led presentations are assigned to members at the previous meet- ng and cover industry topics agreed upon by the members.
BCI employees play the role of facilitators during the conference, only presenting information to clients for two out of the twelve hours of meeting time. This practice helps to keep clients abreast of the major issues facing the accounting industry today and provides BCI employees with some “face time†during the meetings.
Accountability is achieved by using a 90-day game plan and progress reports. At the end of each meeting, each participant fills out a 90-day game plan form that includes short-term goals during the next three months. These plans are shared among participants in the breakout sessions. At the beginning of the subsequent meeting, each participant also fills out a progress report that lets the members reflect on those goals that have been accomplished and those that
require additional work. The progress reports also are shared among participants during the breakout sessions. This pro- cess creates accountability for goals and adds an element of peer pressure.
Finally, the Circles also involve the members in the planning process for the next meeting. BCI facilitates the suggestions and ultimate decisions for the next meeting’s agenda, but the ideas and decisions ultimately are provided by the Circle’s members. This process also helps to ensure that content is fresh and relevant because it comes straight from the members who work directly in the industry.
RELATIONSHIPS AND IMAGE
BCI develops long-term relationships with its clients by positioning itself as a coach to accounting firms and assuring that the content of the Circle meetings is timely and relevant. Social events are built into each meeting to strengthen relationships: Breakfast is served each day before the meetings begin, and an optional cocktail hour and dinner provide two additional opportunities for members to interact. These activities provide clients with an opportunity to have one-on-one discussions with Boomer Consulting employees.
Special care also is taken to ensure that all elements of the circles promote an image of prestige and exclusivity. Meetings are held at The Fairmont Kansas City at the Plaza, one of the finest hotels in Kansas City, and most members also stay at the hotel. Exclusivity is achieved by giving Circle members access to a special section of the Boomer website www.boomer.com and to a variety of tools not available to non-Circle clients.
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Phase 1: Workshop The Technology Leadership Work shop™ is a free, one hour, one-on-one conference call with Boomer Consult ing, Inc.'s consul. tants. During this call, we will address issues dealing with firm perceptions, requirements, and expectations. Phase 2: Review The Strategic Review™ is designed to first identify your firm's dangers, opportunities, and strengths; and then to provide the vision and strategy necessary to ensure a return on your investment as well as provide your firm a tremendous advantage. The Technical Review™ assesses your current technol. ogy situation and provides feedback in areas that will help your firm be more productive and profitable. The Executive Analysis is a combination of the strategic and techni cal reviews. It is the best of the technical and management worlds. The Consultants Training Program™ will educate you on the components needed to create a consulting practice so your firm may become a leader in the use of technology. Phase 3: Blueprint Phase 4: Team The Technology Lead. ership Blueprint" helps your firm map out a technology strategy. The final product is a written The Kolbe Team Success Program™ helps you diagnose your organization's productivity problems and offer prescrip plan including objections for success. This tives, priorities, strate gies, due dates, and responsible parties. The Technology Lead ership Budget™ will produce a detailed three-year budget specific to your firm's needs, vision, and expectations. Phase 5: Coach The Boomer Tech. nology Circles are exclusive groups of firms that join together to examine current issues and share common con cerns about manage ment and technology challenges they are facing today. The Firm Summit is an opportunity to have your firm's seminar allows your teams to have an interactive format in which to explore the ways different instinc. tive strengths play off each other. Results of this informative semiannual management nar forecast individual retreat facilitated by stress as well as the Boomer Consulting. probability of team We leverage over success. 20 years of experi ence working with CPA firms to help you make the most of this valuable time.
> 1. Because of the nontangible nature of a service, forecasting does not play as important a role in service operations as in manufacturing operations. 2. The trade-off to be made with respect to accuracy is between the costs of inaccurate forecasts and t
> 14. When Xerox Corporation introduced the Model 9200 Duplicating System, the level of service dipped because technical representatives were assigned to territories. 15. The average time a customer should expect to wait can be calculated using just the me
> 1. Capacity planning decisions deal implicitly with decisions on the cost of making consumers wait and the extent to which these costs can be borne. 2. A system is said to be in a transient state when the values of its governing parameters in this state
> 1. Waiting is often seen as psychological punishment because the consumer is aware of the opportunity cost of waiting time and the resulting loss of earnings. 2. The net result of waiting, apart from the boredom and frustration experienced by the consume
> 12. Yield management is a pricing and capacity allocation system that was developed by American Airlines. 13. Yield management is a strategy that manages both demand and capacity. 14. An example of segmenting demand is seen when movie theaters offer mati
> 1. The use of a ski-resort hotel for business conventions during the summer is an example of using the complementary service strategy. 2. Overbooking is a strategy that can be used to smooth demand. 3. The strategy of segmenting demand to reduce variatio
> 11. A diversified network is a situation where many services are offered at a single location. 12. Franchising usually is used when developing a focused network. 13. A family restaurant is an example of a focused service. 14. Communication is included in
> 1. Network development is a consideration in the decision to plan a multinational service. 2. When a firm offers multiple services at a single location, it is using a clustered service strategy. 3. A franchise is a low risk investment, because the franch
> 14. Retail and wholesale trade had the greatest percentage of U.S. employment by industry in 2014. 15. From a marketing perspective, services, unlike goods, involve transfer of ownership. 16. It is convenient and often necessary to combine the operations
> 14. Customer-supplier duality acknowledges the customer inputs in a service relationship. 15. A bank is an example of a service provider with a single-level bi-directional service supply relationship. 16. Transfer enhances productive capacity by enabling
> 1. In the physical goods supply chain, information moves to the left and material to the right. 2. Customer demand variability is the most difficult factor to determine in a goods supply chain. 3. In the past, the flow of goods in a physical supply chain
> 11. Geographic information systems are a visual method of displaying data. 12. Cross-median is an approach to the location of a single facility using the metropolitan metric to maximize the total distance traveled. 13. Marketing intermediaries are busin
> 1. Finding a unique set of sites in a multi-location problem is a simple extension of the methods used for single facility location. 2. When a customer travels to the service facility, the direct cost that is incurred is the decrease in potential custome
> 1. DEA circumvents the need to develop standard costs for each service when comparing the efficiency of multiple service units that provide similar services. 2. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is best used in an environment of low divergence and high com
> 11. Serving complimentary drinks on a delayed flight is an example of empathy being shown by the service personnel to the irate customer. 12. In the service quality gap model, GAP1 arises because of the management’s lack of understanding about how custom
> 1. The concept of quality service deployment is based on the belief that services should be designed to reflect customer requirements. 2. Being meaningful and easy to invoke are important elements of a good unconditional service guarantee. 3. A process i
> 14. The procedure to improve flow distance in a process layout by arranging the relative location of departments is known as operations sequence analysis. 15. A product layout affords some degree of customization. 16. Mid-Columbia Medical Center has a sp
> 1. The servicescape can influence perceived quality. 2. The design of facilities is dependent entirely on the construction and operating costs of the facilities. 3. A well-conceived servicescape can communicate desired customer behavior. 4. Heuristic alg
> 14. Internet banking is a service that would appeal to the economizing customer, the personalizing customer, and the convenience customer. 15. Efficiency- versus-satisfaction is the possible source of conflict in the relationship between the customer and
> 1. Services are deeds, processes, and performances. 2. The Clark-Fisher hypothesis notes the shift of employment from one sector of the economy to another. 3. The fall in employment in the agricultural sector is the primary reason for the increase in se
> 1. Who are Goodwill’s customers and how have their demo-graphics changed over time? 2. How should the introduction of for-profit thrifts affect Goodwill’s decisions about the role of customer service? 3. How can Goodwi
> 1. Marketing analysts use market position maps to display visually the customers’ perceptions of a firm in relation to its competitors regarding two attributes. Prepare a market position map for Alamo Draft house using “food quality” and “movie selection
> 1. For the Burger Palace example, perform a complete analysis of efficiency improvement alternatives for unit S2, including determination of a composite reference unit. 2. For the Burger Palace example, perform a complete analysis of efficiency improveme
> 1. Compare and contrast the strategic service vision of El Banco and United Commercial Bank. 2. Identify the service winners, qualifiers, and service losers for El Banco and United Commercial Bank. 3. What are the differentiating features of banks tha
> 1. Use DEA to identify efficient and inefficient terminal operations. Formulate the problem as a linear programming model, and solve using computer software such as Excel Solver that permits input file editing between runs. 2. Using the appropriate refer
> 1. Assume that you are part of the management staff whose task is to develop this sketch plan. Using Microsoft Project, develop the PERT network as outlined above, identify the critical path, and determine the expected time to reach basic operational sta
> 1. Using Microsoft Project, prepare a network and identify the critical path activities, the expected project duration, and scheduling times for all activities. 2. The elapsed time for delivery of the hardware is estimated at 90 days. Would the project c
> Located in a major southwestern U.S. city, Elysian Cycles (EC) is a wholesale distributor of bicycles and bicycle parts. Its primary retail outlets are located in eight cities within a 400-mile radius of the distribution center. These retail outlets gene
> 1. Assuming that the cost of stock out is the lost contribution of one dessert, how many portions of Sweet Revenge should the chef prepare each weekday? 2. Based on Martin Quinn’s estimate of other stock out costs, how many servings sho
> A.D. Small, Inc., provides management consulting services from its offices located in more than 300 cities in the United States and abroad. The company recruits its staff from top graduates of recognized MBA programs. Upon joining A.D. Small, a recruit a
> Gnomial Functions, Inc. (GFI), is a medium-sized consulting firm in San Francisco that specializes in developing various forecasts of product demand, sales, consumption, or other information for its clients. To a lesser degree, it also has developed ongo
> Oak Hollow Medical Evaluation Center is a nonprofit agency offering multidisciplinary diagnostic services to study children with disabilities or developmental delays. The center can test each patient for physical, psychological, or social problems. Fees
> Computer simulation provides management an experimental laboratory in which to study a model of a real system and to determine how the system might respond to changes in policies, resource levels, or customer demand. A system, for our purposes, is define
> 1. Describe Xpresso Lube’s service package. 2. How are the distinctive characteristics of a service operation illustrated by Xpresso Lube? 3. What elements of Xpresso Lube’s location contribute to its success? 4. Given the example of Xpresso Lube, what o
> On a hillside in Rolling wood, a community just southwest of Austin, Texas, the Renaissance Clinic provides dedicated obstetric and gynecological services. The medical treatment at this facility is wrapped in an exclusive-feeling physical environment tha
> Let us revisit the Automobile Driver’s License Office Example 5.2 and model the proposed process improvement shown as Figure 5.6 (b). Recall that the improvement consisted of combining activities 1 and 4 (Review Application and Eye Test
> Renaissance Clinic is a hospital dedicated to the health care of women. It is located in the hill country surrounding Austin, Texas, and offers an environment that is unique in the city. At the time of a visit, a patient of Dr. Margaret Thompsonâ&#
> 1. During periods of bad weather, as compared with periods of clear weather, how many additional gallons of fuel on aver-age should FreeEx expect its planes to consume because of airport congestion? 2. Given FreeEx’s policy of ensuring that its planes do
> The Houston Port Authority has engaged you as a consultant to advise it on possible changes in the handling of wheat exports. At present, a crew of dockworkers using conventional belt conveyors unloads hopper cars containing wheat into cargo ships bound
> Go forth armed with clipboard and stopwatch and study an actual waiting experience (e.g., post office, fast-food restaurant, retail bank). Begin with a sketch of the layout noting the queue configuration. Describe the characteristics of the calling popul
> 1. In this chapter, we referred to Maister’s First and Second Laws of Service. How do they relate to this case? 2. What features of a good waiting process are evident in Dr. X’s practice? List the shortcomings that you see. 3. Do you think that Mrs. F is
> Thrifty Car Rental (now part of Hertz) began as a regional business in the southwest, but it now has more than 470 locations across the country and almost 600 international locations. About 80 percent of its U.S. locations are at airports, and the rest a
> 1. For the forecast period (i.e., July–December), determine the number of new trainees who must be hired at the beginning of each month so that total personnel costs for the flight-attendant staff and training program are minimized. For
> On the morning of November 10, 2002, Jon Thomas, market analyst for the Mexico leisure markets, canceled more than 300 seats “illegally” reserved on two flights to Acapulco. All of the seats on Jon’s Acapulco flights were booked by the same sales represe
> 1. How is SSM different from Deming’s PDCA cycle? 2. Prepare a cause-and-effect or fishbone diagram for a problem such as “Why customers have long waits for coffee.” Your fishbone diagram should be s
> 1. Assume that you are the assistant to the manager for operations at the FAA. Use the techniques of work shift scheduling to analyze the total workforce requirements and days-off schedule. For the primary analysis, assume that a. Operator requirements w
> River City National Bank has been in business for 10 years and is a fast-growing community bank. Its president, Gary Miller, took over his position 5 years ago in an effort to get the bank on its feet. He is one of the youngest bank presidents in the sou
> Securing a mortgage often is a time-consuming and frustrating experience for a homebuyer. The process involves multi- ple stages with many handoffs to independent organizations providing specialized services (e.g., property survey and title search). The
> 1. What features of the 7-Eleven Japan distribution system illustrate the concept of the bidirectional service supply relationship? 2. Does the 7-Eleven Japan distribution system exhibit scalability economies? 3. How does the 7-Eleven example of B2C e-co
> 1. Utilizing a spreadsheet version of the Huff location model (with λ = 1.0), recommend a store size and location for AFI. Assuming that AFI does not wish to consider a store that is smaller than 10,000 square feet, assess the store sizes (b
> Joan Taylor, the administrator of Life-Time Insurance Company, which is based in Buffalo, New York, was charged with establishing a health maintenance organization (HMO) satellite clinic in Austin, Texas. The HMO concept would offer Austin residents an a
> 1. Briefly summarize the complaints and compliments in Dr. Loflin’s letter. 2. Critique the letter of Gail Pearson in reply to Dr. Loflin. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the letter? 3. Prepare an “improved” response letter from Gail Pearson. 4.
> 1. Prepare an -chart and R-chart for complaints, and plot the average complaints for each crew during the nine-month period. Do the same for the performance ratings. What does this analysis reveal about the service quality of CSI’s
> 1. Describe Village Volvo’s service package. 2. How are the distinctive characteristics of a service firm illustrated by Village Volvo? 3. How could Village Volvo manage its back office (i.e., repair operations) like a factory? 4. How can Village Volvo d
> 1. How do the environmental dimensions of the services cape explain the success of Central Market? 2. Comment on how the services cape shapes the behaviors of both customers and employees. Central Market5 The original Central Market grocery store, locat
> 1. Use CRAFT logic to develop a layout that will maximize customer time in the store. 2. What percentage increase in customer time spent in the store is achieved by the proposed layout? 3. What other consumer behavior concepts should be considered in the
> 1. Identify the bottleneck activity, and show how capacity can be increased by using only two pharmacists and two technicians. 2. In addition to savings on personnel costs, what benefits does this arrangement have? Health Maintenance Organization (B) Th
> 1. Beginning with a good initial layout, use operations sequence analysis to determine a better layout that would minimize the walking distance between different areas in the clinic. 2. Defend your final layout based on features other than minimizing wal
> 1. How has Enterprise Rent-A-Car (ERAC) defined its service differently than that of the typical national car rental company? 2. What features of its business concept allow ERAC to compete effectively with the existing national rental car companies? 3. U
> 1. Describe the service organization culture at Amy’s Ice Cream. 2. What are the personality attributes of the employees who are sought by Amy’s Ice Cream? 3. Design a personnel selection procedure for Amy’s Ice Cream using abstract questioning, a situat
> 1.How does Amazon.com illustrate the sources of service sector growth? Comment on information technology, the Internet as an enabler, innovation, and changing demographics. 2.What generic approach(s) to service design does Amazon.com illustrate, and what
> 1. Prepare a service blueprint for Commuter Cleaning. 2. What generic approach to service system design is illustrated by Commuter Cleaning, and what competitive advantages does this design offer? 3. Using the data in Table 3.5, calculate a break-eve
> 1. Describe the growth strategy of Federal Express. How did this strategy differ from those of its competitors? 2. What risks were involved in the acquisition of Tiger International? 3. In addition to the question of merging FedEx and Flying Tigers pilot
> 1. Prepare a service blueprint for the 100 Yen Sushi House operation. 2. What features of the 100 Yen Sushi House service delivery system differentiate it from the competition, and what competitive advantages do they offer? 3. How has the 100 Yen Sushi
> 1. Prepare a run chart on each of the incident categories. Does she have reason to be concerned about burglaries? What variable might you plot against burglaries to create a scatter diagram to determine a possible explanation? 2. What is unusual about th
> Conduct a Google search on “project finance” and find employment opportunities in project finance. What is the role of finance in projects?
> Could firms in the “world-class service delivery” stage of competitiveness be described as “learning organizations’?
> Discuss the difference between time variance, cost variance, and schedule variance.
> Explain why the PERT estimate of expected project duration always is optimistic. Can we get any feel for the magnitude of this bias?
> Are Gantt charts still viable project management tools? Explain.
> Illustrate the four stages of team building from your own experience.
> Give an example that demonstrates the trade-off inherent in projects among cost, time, and performance.
> Identify dependent and independent demand for an airline and a hospital.
> Service capacity (i.e., seats on an aircraft) has characteristics similar to inventories. What inventory model would apply?
> How is a service level determined for most inventory items?
> How valid are the assumptions for the simple EOQ model?
> Discuss how information technology can help to create a competitive advantage through inventory management?
> Determine if the U.S. service sector currently is expanding or contracting based upon the Non-Manufacturing Index (NMI) found at ISM Report on Business on the Institute of Supply Management website: http://www.ism.ws/pubs/ismmag/.
> Compare and contrast a continuous review inventory system with a periodic review inventory system?
> How would one find values for inventory management costs?
> Discuss the functions of inventory for different organizations in the supply chain (i.e., manufacturing, suppliers, distributors, and retailers).
> What changes in (, (, and ( would you recommend to improve the performance of the trendline seasonal adjustment forecast shown in Figure 11.4? Figure 11.4: Profile of Operator Requirements and Tour Assignments Number of operators 25 20 15 10 5 0 12
> Why is the N-period moving-average model still in common use if the simple exponential smoothing model has superior qualities?
> Suggest a number of independent variables for a regression model to predict the potential sales volume of a given location for a retail store (e.g., a video rental store).
> The number of customers at a bank likely will vary by the hour of the day and by the day of the month. What are the implications of this for choosing a forecasting model?
> For each of the three forecasting methods (i.e., time series, causal, and subjective), what costs are associated with the development and use of the forecast model? What costs are associated with forecast error?
> What characteristics of service organizations make forecast accuracy important?
> Discuss how the M/G/( model could be used to determine the number of emergency medical vehicles that are required to serve a community.
> Give an example of a firm that began as world-class and has remained in that category.
> What are some disadvantages associated with the concept of pooling service resources?
> For a queuing system with a finite queue, the arrival rate can exceed the capacity to serve. Use an example to explain how this is feasible.
> Example 13.1 presents a naïve capacity planning exercise and was criticized for using averages. Recall the concept of a "bottleneck" from Chapter 5, "Supporting Facility and Process Flows," and suggest other reservations about this planning exercise.
> Discuss how one could determine the economic cost of keeping customers waiting.
> When the line becomes long at some fast-food restaurants, an employee will walk along the line taking orders. What are the benefits of this policy?
> Suggest ways that service management can influence the arrival times of customers.
> Select a bad and good waiting experience, and contrast the situations with respect to the aesthetics of the surroundings, diversions, people waiting, and attitude of servers.
> Suggest diversions that could make waiting less painful.
> Suggest some strategies for controlling the variability in service times.
> Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_Management and discuss the ethical issues associated with yield management.
> What is the value of self-service in an economy?
