1. What my company does
A consulting firm that offers Business Process
Management, Middleware System Integration,
as well as Collaborative and Web-Enabled
Solutions. The certified professionals at Optimus
Consulting use leading edge tools and best
practice techniques to design, develop and
implement enterprise-wide solutions.
What I like about my job
No two days are ever the same. Every job has
different challenges and I love that. We work
with Fortune 1000 companies and government
agencies at the executive level to solve
complex business problems unique to each
environment. Thinking outside the box to
design and implement strong, repeatable
processes to replace disjointed and
cumbersome practices is the essence of what we do, and it is always fulfilling. Our
principals share my passion, and our many letters of recommendations from delighted
clients are our proudest achievements.
The difference Process Consulting provides
Organizations that incorporate Business Process Management are able to accommodate
continuous change and adapt the business model to ensure process alignment with
business goals and process compliance with the ever changing regulatory environments.
In short, BPM increases organizational agility.
Our focus at Optimus Consulting is on
using BPM to bridge the gap between IT
and the lines of business, whether that
means applying a governing framework
– usually a vast undertaking - such as ITIL,
or refining a development process using
CMM guidelines. We also specialize in
working with financial institutions across
the range of the organization, not just IT.
I personally do a lot of Basel II
compliance consulting for a large
banking institution.
Typically an organization without a
Business Process orientation will
Vital Statistics
Company Name: Optimus Consulting
– a division of
Optimus Solutions
Client Name: Mark S. Mahre
Job Title: VP of Business
Process
Management
Industry: Consulting Services
Web Site: http://optimussoluti
ons.com/OC
Process Offerings: Six Sigma, ITIL,
Rational Unified
Process (RUP)
Users: 400+
Management Advice:
“Every time you interview a business
leader related to the process, you have
to ask an important question. How will
a new process directly benefit the
value chain, either by saving time,
generating profits or adding strategic
value?”
If the new deployment does not
positively impact the enterprise
business process and value-chain, the
BPM design is merely tactical.

2. purchase a solution that essentially changes the way they do business, and only after the
fact do they begin to deal with issues related to training, implementation, and introduction
to the business environment. We think this is the reverse of what should happen. We
believe the first step should be gathering detailed requirements from every part of the
organization affected by the solution, and the purchase decision should be based on that
information.
The challenges
Align business strategy with IT solutions using
process improvements. Getting executive level
business leaders on board to understand the
impact a solid process solution will provide
enterprise-wide global solutions. We always need
to make sure we involve the business leaders that
clearly understand the value we bring to problem
solving. Similarly IT leaders must also take a
business planning approach to bridge the gap
both with executives and the internal IT clients. A
successful business process touches everyone in
the company and therefore must affect their
workflow in a positive manner.
Outlook on IT/Business Process
The Gartner Group says that IT Infrastructure Library (“ITIL”) framework will be implemented
in 40% of US organizations by 2007. Both the US and Canadian governments will soon
require any IT vendor with which they do business to conform to an ITIL framework. Large
US corporations such as General Motors have already instituted similar requirements.
Optimus Solutions is investing in ITIL and Rational Unified Process training and quickly
gaining certifications to better position our team for large consulting engagements.
Several of our Principals and Senior Consultants are taking the ITIL and Rational track, and
we are hiring practitioner level consultants in these two disciplines. Our case study below
looks at an ITIL and Six Sigma engagement we completed back in November 2004 with a
global top-10 construction company.
Case Study
Problem areas:
Design a Business Process Management framework to develop and deliver operational
and financial control systems for IT Project Management teams in Atlanta, Charlotte,
London, and Sydney.
Issue(s) that required resolution:
Implementing a unified process to measure and analyze performance indicators and
metrics, and report analysis based on data collection to generate optimum decision
Career Advice: “Working with
your management team,
making sure you get top level
executives onboard is
fundamental to business
process consulting. You have to
love going into situations that
allow you to peel away the
layers and get to the root of the
problem, and understand the
core issues causing a
breakdown in the process.”

3. strategies across the enterprise.
How did the problem affect the goals of the organization?
Each region had its own culture and methodology for creating, managing and
implementing projects using different standards and terminology.
What organizational levels were most affected by the problem?
Global CIO, Regional CIO’s, IT CFO, Senior Project Management and Project stakeholders
in each of the four regions.
Goal of solution:
To get all project teams within 4 regions speaking the same terminology and using the
same Governance, Standards and Framework for all enterprise projects over 500,000 in
local currency.
The environment had to accommodate the established European standards (ITIL
Framework), Australian Headquarter culture (consistency) and US rapidly changing
environment (flexibility).
Positions of stakeholder(s):
Jay Skibinski, Global CIO and Wayne Stokes, Global IT CFO understood the value of
streamlining their processes within IT and allowed our consultants to research, design and
train the management teams for implementing the new global solution. Mr. Skibinski also
communicated during an IT Leadership Meeting the introduction and mandate for all
regions to follow the new framework and process moving forward.
Business value-driver:
Allow everyone to use the same framework for running and managing enterprise-wide
projects; saves time, allows a proactive approach, and promotes team building. The new
methodology will better manage the project budgets and hold managers and teams
accountable for delivering a project that was promised to the business units.
Approach:
How did you approach the problem? (Humble approach to the European and Sydney teams,
Considerable Research, Exploration and Comparison)
Start with a top down discovery process that included all regions that included some
regional best practices. Peal back the political layers and really understand the
perception problems the other regions had with the U.S. always driving the standards. We
quickly built some buy-in by using the European and Australian existing framework as the
starting point, and built it from there.
One component was to designed and developed an IT Project Life Cycle Process Flow
Chart to help us evaluate the gaps in the processes. There was also a central project
repository and a governance program that tied into the business case and project
documentation. We then created and robust Business Intelligence tool to monitor the
project metrics and costs in three different currencies, both a regional P&L and PMO
view.
What process did you go through?

4. Building relationships with European, Asian and Australian project managers and team
managers and including their ideas and structure in the overall final product.
While working with a global team for the first time, I wasn’t fully aware how other regions
view the US when it came to our lack of listening skills and cohesiveness team play. I really
had to empathize with them and not show any favoritism towards the US management
team from the very beginning. I believe this is easier said then done, as I quickly realized
mistakes I made along the path and found ways to overcome them. At the end of the
project I earned some lateral respect and made friends in different countries.
Do you have any product selection advice? ITIL Framework for Service Delivery, RUP for
Enterprise Project Management, CMMI for Application Development and Delivery and
incorporating the Six Sigma (DIMAC) disciplines.
Looking ahead: (future strategies…)
Gaining trust with team members outside of the U.S. was a significant challenge to
overcome. Without this earned trust, the team members would have shut me out and
built their own solution behind the scenes.
Looking back:
What a great 18 month experience, to date my most difficult professional challenge.
Being able to create a comfortable and open environment for receiving valuable
information from European and Australian teams to deliver a cohesive solution. Bottom
Line; If you cannot get accurate information and buy in from key stakeholders during a
major consulting engagement, you cannot deliver a sound solution that others will
actually use once you’ve left the project.
Mark S. Mahre
Vice President of BPM, Optimus Consulting