ECONS
Instilling Efficacy in Business Process Management

ECONS is a business process management (BPM) solutions provider established with the primary goal of delivering contract and consulting services to businesses in the pursuit of process excellence. It offers strategic and tactical solutions by harnessing its slogan “The Power of E”; achieving Excellence through Effectiveness, Efficiency, Execution, and constant Evolution.

“Our approach to helping businesses improve processes combines multiple elements that make our BPM solutions more holistic. We seek to cover all relevant but applicable elements of BPM; always with pragmatism first” says Alex Peña, General Manager at ECONS.

ECONS seeks to help organizations combat common challenges in understanding, modeling, measuring, automating, and governing their processes. It partners with clients in the application of methodologies that can be applied in the manufacturing and service industries, as well as public sectors. Its BPM framework include the following service offerings: process modeling or design, process improvement, business intelligence, automation, governance, and operations management. While the nature of the service interactions with its customers are varied and the solutions proposed will depend on their BPM maturity level and most pressing needs, there are common phases in a full-cycle service.

ECONS’ initial Assessment Phase is all about fact-finding. It includes problem statement validation, client’s business process reviews and key performance indicators assessment. This stage is key in creating alignment on where the focus of the effort will be directed to. Based on the findings, the application of industrial engineering techniques will help drill down on process variables and develop process models to evaluate their resource capacity and their proper utilization.

The Improvement Opportunity Proposal phase is based on the observations captured and the input received during assessment. The proposal is presented in two stages. Short and Medium-to-Long term solutions. Early in the assessment phase, short term, quick process improvement opportunities that surface are presented for agreement and immediate adoption. Processes associated to Key Performance Indicators management and Business intelligence usually allow for modifications in data mining for business analytics, metric definition, and dashboard and visualization design, where improvement can be quickly obtained.

Simple process automation is also an area where digitalization can quickly eliminate inefficiencies on data capture or manual process cycle time, providing a quick productivity improvement. The use custom workflow automation based on the office 365 suite provides simple, customizable, and scalable solutions saving customers from investing in new software.

The third Phase is the planning and implementation of medium-to-long term initiatives. ECONS supports this process in the form of project and change management to create an implementation plan and provide process improvement project management resources to lead the organization and team members in the implementation of those initiatives previously agreed to with the assigned sponsor. This stage also includes the creation or modification to existing governance forums and mechanisms, process documentation to promote standardization and process audit programs to ensure compliance.

ECONS not only applies these methods in the improvement of existing process but also in the design of new operational processes. ECONS helped a client build a regulatory assessment and submission end-to-end process that didn’t exist before and expanded it to a global, 120+ county operation. Within the first 6 months, it developed, documented, and automated the new process using office 365 tools. Their workflow was developed to capture essential process information and enable various teams around the globe to interact and engage in a common visualization scheme. After one year of successful deployment, ECONS built a Process Excellence Framework to allow the operation generate metrics and implement governance processes to reduce cycle times by 28%, reduce rework in 33%, and improve communication and trasparency. It also implemented forecasting and capacity models to properly plan resources and quote projects to their internal customers.

Our approach to helping businesses improve processes combines multiple elements that make our BPM solutions more holistic

Also, associated to the constant Evolution of organizations, ECONS’ consultants have been providing basic level training solutions to customers for several years now, primarily in lean/ sigma and project management. The objective behind these training programs is to involve as many individuals as possible in understanding how to solve problems and transforming the culture. For instance, F.A.S.T. is a process improvement training program for basic to intermediate level practitioners in the process improvement techniques; it ranges from 4 to 16 hours, depending on the audience and organizational requirements. F.A.S.T. develops employees and accelerates the implementation time using the most necessary tools to document and guide a problem-solving process. It follows the popular DMAIC Methodology, made popular by the Six Sigma Philosophy, and offers the White and Yellow Belt Certification.

In collaboration with partner consulting firms, ECONS created a hybrid training program called Workforce 360º Developmental Training Program. This program incorporates Lean Six Sigma basic tools, and project management methodologies into a leadership academia for supervisors and individual contributors that covers communications, change management, personal efficacy and many other aspects key to an effective mid-level leader. The program’s learning methodology includes pre-work, workshop sessions, and application assignments. This methodology improves engagement and internalization of the concepts taught.

ECONS’ efficacy of its model is based in methodology, but also, and most importantly, in hiring experienced people that align with ECONS values and bring their expertise and experiences to their assigned customers. ECONS combines generalists and specialists that bring non-technical and technical expertise in their roles. While emphasizing technical knowledge, it also promotes development in general skills that can cross industries. These non-technical roles leverages skilled leaders that possess advanced communication and management skills.

An proud and active member of the Minority Business Supplier Development Councils, nationally and locally, ECONS connects with other minority enterprises and corporate sponsors to add value to the local economy. This commitment to the program has enabled ECONS to gain a significant edge in the market.