Anna María Proppé
Consultant & teacher, Kópavogur, Iceland
Projects, tasks & goals
I have had the pleasure of participating in various projects in miscallanious arenas. I love taking on new projects, analysing new processes and business plans and helping bring all together in a time and money saving way.
Case Management
When working with cases there can be an endless process they need to go through. By scrutinizing the whole process, different employees that handle the case and the various stages of the cases lifecycle the whole picture emerges.
It was very satisfying work to see thousands of cases come to order both physically and within the system. The employees could use their time more efficiently, no more searching for lost cases and finding out who had it in their pile last. All documentation was scanned, all communication between various staff members was attached to the case and as the case progressed in its various stages, employees recieved notices of its status, reminders of various tasks and were always able to see which employee was responisble at each time. It didn't matter if cases were new or 10 years old, all information was up to date and at the fingertips of those who needed it. The proccess was clear cut and every member had a clear picture of what their involvment entailed.
The main benefits were that all staff members could at all times give answers to clients calling, thus freeing up time for other employees to accomplish more and take on new cases, thus focusing on each and every ones expertise.
Conference
In conection with Iceland University and the MBA alumni a conference was held in March 2009 on Initiative, Skills and Leadership in Reykjavik.
As the MBA alumni president, I was part of the workgroup with responsability for the marketing material.
The conference was centered around inovation and how to get things started. Key speakers were Icelands trade minster, Dohop founder and Chairman of Greenstone, data warehouse.
Take a look at the agenda here.
In 2007 the same group held a conference under the name Roots of Competitiveness where the keynote speaker was Dr. Christian Ketels from the Michael E. Porter Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Havard Business School. This confernece was set up in two parts, lectures and after lunch, workshops.
Implementation
When a company buys software they often forget that they need strong implementation and ongoing courses for employees new and present. Without this the software can become obsolete and useless.
One of my projects involved re-introducing the software to a company that had multilple benefits of using the tool properly.
By taking on each group, analysing their work methods and teaching them to usse the software in the apropriate way, the benefits to daily tasks evolved to the extent that fewer people were needed and could be used in other compelling projects. The increase in usage was 600% in three years time.
Stratigic planning
My objective was to build a successfull education unit. At the start there were two instructors, two types of courses and one classroom. Bookings came through the marketing and sales division.
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The first step was to get to know the product and it's versitality.
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Build courses with a normal continual development
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Write teaching material and build a teaching environment
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Build conections with customers
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Hire experienced teachers
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Development of new material and courses in context with the evoloution of the product
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Hire contact and sales administrator
In two years time the unit recieved 85% of the income from it's own conections with highly satisfied customers. There were eight different courses to choose from, each with its own material, six very capable teachers and three classrooms each rooming 12 participants.