dK Top 5

dK Clients Announced as Finalists for TechPoint 2011 Mira Awards!

Each year TechPoint recognizes individuals, companies and organizations that have exhibited exceptional use of technology to bring positive change to the community and / or the industries they service.

This year is no different as two of digitalKnowledge's favorite clients, Strategic Healthcare Group and EnerGenuity, were just announced as finalist for the coveted Mira Awards. 

Strategic Healthcare Group, a finalist for the Health Care Information Technology (HIT) Mira Award, is the leading provider of blood management consulting and informatics solutions, partnering with the US blood collection industry and a growing number of healthcare systems.

Through its innovative solutions and proven methodologies, SHG has helped hospitals around the United States achieve reductions in blood utilization from 13 to 30 percent, resulting in millions of dollars in cost savings and improved quality of care and patient safety.

Strategic Healthcare Group partnered with digitalKnowledge to help develop BloodStat Multidimensional Analytics, the innovative data management system that provides the clinical and business intelligence to identify, improve and maintain blood management opportunities. BloodStat Multidimensional Analytics represents one of the key components of SHG's comprehensive blood management solution, and has U.S. and international patents pending.

Equally as impressive is EnerGenuity's S.M.A.R.T. Suite application developed to ensure efficient and responsible energy consumption.

Through this application, companies and organizations better understand their use of energy (gas and electricity) and the factors that cause energy use to increase or decrease - a service that is vitally important to our  nation, especially in light of the recent news concerning potential energy supply disruption in the Middle East.

EnerGenuity partnered with digitalKnowledge to help develop the S.M.A.R.T. Suite application that is now up for TechPoint's Mira Award for Clean Technology/Energy Innovation.  Through the use of this application, energy companies and energy consumers are saving significant amounts of money, all while supporting cleaner, more responsible energy consumption.

Both Strategic Healthcare Group and EnerGenuity completed their interviews with the Mira Award judges in late March and will be in attendance at the Mira Award Gala on May 7th as digitalKnowledge's guests.

Make 2011 Your Best Year Yet!

As tradition would have it, we celebrate the new year with resolutions to better our personal lives, goals to improve our professional lives and aspirations to have the best business year yet.  

Although the execution isn't always easy, we all know what we need to do to reach better health and improve our performance at work, but how do we take our businesses to the next level?  How can we ensure that 2011 will be the best year yet for our business?

Before starting digitalKnowledge, Curt Sellke and Sean Olssen were on the executive team at Braun Consulting (now Fair Isaac) where they were instrument in helping the firm grow from 13 to over 600 employees.  After helping Braun grow, Sellke and Olssen left the consulting firm to start their own, digitalKnowledge.

Below are Sellke's tips and tricks he has used over the years to bring major success to both Braun and digitalKnowledge... Good Luck & Happy 2011!

1.  Empower Your People:  Empower your staff to become leaders through internal and external projects.  Create an environment supportive of Risk Taking.  Share financial results with everyone.  Create and use a shared portal for information and knowledge that is accessible to all staff.

2.  Growing People:  Create an environment that encourages and supports continuous learning.  Make sure you are having regular conversations on how individuals are doing from a variety of sources (project managers, coaches, mentors, clients, peers).

3.  Create a Compelling Workplace and Benefits:  Offer your employees workplace mobility.  Let them work where they are most productive, whether that be their house, Starbucks or the office.  Equip your employees with the tools they need to succeed (laptop reimbursement, new technology allowances, internet reimbursement, etc).  Create a comfortable and fun workplace environment (at dK, we allow our employees to bring their dogs to work).  Provide your team with compelling benefits (time off, bonuses tied to objectives, special reimbursements, time off for philanthropy, etc.)

4. Setting, Measuring and Paying for the Achievement of Corporate and Individual Objectives:  Tie your company goals to individual goals.  Tie personal goals to skill development or enhancement.  Create bonus structures that support goal attainment.  Share and celebrate goal achievement. 

5. Pay it forward - Corporate Philanthropy and Social Responsibility:  People want to be part of something bigger that ultimately helps others.  Create corporate goals and objectives related to philanthropy and socially responsible causes.  Make time available for people to pursue philanthropic endeavors.  Allow and plan for pro-bono projects.  Pay a portion of your profits out to charitable causes.

 

The Season of Giving

"Give more than you receive, leave more than you take." - Foster McGaw

In the spirit of the holidays, digitalKnowledge employees and their families once again gathered for a celebration of grand proportions.  Rather than commemorating the holidays with the traditional office party, dK'ers opted for something a little different - a day of giving.

When digitalKnoweldge was started in 2003, the goal was to create a company based on a core set of values.  Curt Sellke and Sean Olssen were determined to change the value proposition of the typical consulting firm.  digitalKnowledge was to be focused on upholding Foster McGaw's standard of "Give more than you receive, and leave more than you take."

Seven years later, I'm proud to say that digitalKnowledge has stayed true to those values.  Although the company is consistently providing support to the community throughout the year, the holiday party is always a highlight for dK employees and executives as it is a time when the entire company comes together to do something good for the community.

Last Friday, dK'ers met for a lunch at Macaroni Grill where we were divided into three teams.  Each team was given a family and tasked with the responsibility to provide Christmas presents for all the individuals in that family.  The families were all from Coburn Place, a safe haven in Indianapolis for women who have suffered from domestic violence and their children.  

digitalKnowledge employees were then given three hours to purchase Christmas presents for the family they were assigned.  Armed with $100 per individual in the sponsored family, dKer's ventured out to play Santa - each team competing to provide their family with the best gifts.

When the shopping was complete, digitalKnowledge employees and their loved ones met at the Glass Chimney for drinks, appetizers and (most importantly) gift-wrapping.  

"I'm thankful that I work at a company that values our community and realizes the importance of giving back not only during the Christmas season, but throughout the entire year.  Our ability to value not only our employees but also our community is extremely important to me," said dK consultant, Justin Kruse.

For more information on The Coburn Place and ways you can give back to the Indianapolis community, visit http://www.coburnplace.org .

 

Building a Better Business with Web Solutions

With  new technology emerging every day, it can be challenging to figure out which set of tools will empower your business.

Many companies are spending valuable time and money trying to implement packaged applications that fail to meet their business requirements or realize any true business gain.

The truth is, your business is unique.  No third-party product is going to address all of your problems right off the shelf.  You need solutions that are not only designed to address the specific needs of your company, but also provide a flexible, scalable foundation for future growth.

With the right help, you can design a system that transforms your entire business by:

1.  Increasing Productivity and Profit:  With web solutions, you can build tailored web solutions that automate common tasks and eliminate repetitive, manual processes.

2.  Conducting Business Anywhere, Anytime:  Web solutions provides universal access to business applications and documents, fostering more effective communication and decision-making.

3. Becoming Irreplaceable to Clients:  Web solutions provides clients with online services and access to information so tailored to their business needs that you become irreplaceable.

4.  Simplifying & Consolidating Software:  With web solutions you can build an integrated solution that encompasses all business processes, enabling each department to be on the same page.

5. Creating Foundations for Future Growth: Web solutions provides your company with a flexible, scalable foundation for future growth.

For more information on web solutions, how web solutions can address your specific needs and /or how technology in general can help to propel your business forward, visit us at www.digitalknowledge.biz.

Benefits of Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationships matter - today more than ever!  Consumers now enjoy the luxury of choice and access to information, further heightening their expectations of companies and the demand for a more customer-focused approach to business operations.  These factors have transformed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) from a "nice to have" business tool into a fundamental business strategy.  CRM is absolutely necessary for companies seeking to grow and effectively compete in today's increasingly customer-driven environment.

5 Key Benefits of CRM

1. Customer Relationships:  CRM provides businesses with increased customer loyalty and profitability by improving the customer experience.

2. Sales:  CRM helps to shorten sales cycles, increase the close percentage, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of targeted selling and increase cross / up-selling.

3. Marketing:  CRM fosters more timely and relevant communications and improved use of marketing dollars.  CRM provides tangible measurements of marketing ROI, and it delivers more qualified leads. 

4. Service:  With CRM, a company will experience more efficient and effective customer service by providing customer facing employees with a 360 degree view of each client.

5. Executive Decision Making: CRM provides executives with increased visibility into their business, insight into the business's trending patterns and enhanced ability to measure performance.

For more information on Customer Relationship Management, guidance on what type of CRM tool best fits with your business model and /or how technology in general can help to propel your business forward, visit www.digitalknowledge.biz .

 

What is Business Intelligence?

In the current economic climate, informed and educated decision making is more important than ever. Business Intelligence provides decision makers with the tools to evaluate, measure and act upon key drivers in their business.  It provides them with access to accurate, timely data about their products, sales and/or customers in one place.  Most importantly, Business Intelligence empowers leaders with the knowledge they need to make informed, influential decisions quickly and efficiently at all levels of their organization.

5 BI Building Blocks for Company Improvement:

1. Combine & Integrate

    BI allows you to combine and integrate data from multiple systems to provide a composite picture of customers, products, suppliers, marketing campaigns, sales efforts and much more.

2. Improve Decision Making

    BI helps you to improve decision making by using fact-based business data to identify anomalies, interrelationships, trends and patterns.

3. Empower Your People

    BI empowers your people with ad-hoc reporting tools so they can perform "what-if" analysis on their own and quickly get answers at the "speed of thought."

4. Leverage Data

    BI allows you to leverage data mining technologies to help make insightful decisions about significant changes in your business and markets.

5. Foster Collaboration

    BI provides you with the foundation to foster new methods of collaboration among decision   makers in your organization, helping to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Download Additional Information on Business Intelligence

5 Tips for Getting into Consulting: Part 2

As a new graduate and young professional, I have been surprised at how much of a "holistic" experience consulting really is.  For those of you who are new to the world of consulting, I suggest you do the following:

1.  Be well rounded.  Consulting does not just require strong technical skills; on the contrary, people skills are just as important.  Practice and perfect your ability to write, speak publicly and negotiate.

2. Be a problem-solver with a broad vision.  Since you will be selling an idea - an invisible product - you need to have the ability to put your ideas on paper, as well as explore many different solutions for one problem.  Be able to identify your long-term goals while also micro-managing short-term ones.

3. Be an avid learner.  Often your career as a consultant will bring the opportunity to learn new skills, whether technical or social.  Take advantage of these opportunities to put you outside of your comfort zone and achieve something new.

4. Be responsible.  When you make mistakes, own up to them and learn from them.  Make it a goal to never make the same mistake twice.

5.  Be honest with yourself and those around you.  Ask for help when you need it, and treat clients as you would wish to be treated.

In short, consulting is a journey that will take you far in your career as long as you keep an open mind.  Be prepared to encounter challenges you may never have imagined, step outside of your comfort zone, and give of yourself 100%.

Ann Marie Hostetter
digitalKnowledge, Inc.
www.digitalknowledge.biz 

The World of Consulting

5 Tips for Entering the World of Consulting
by Steven Klabak 

Fresh out of college and having one full week of work under my belt, I am excited to talk about what I have learned at digitalKnowledge so far.  Since the first week centered around getting to know the company, the people and the consulting industry in general, I thought I would share a few tips that I've picked up around the office.

1.  Listen!

    Taking a consulting job right out of college, and knowing next to nothing about the day to day operations   of a smaller consulting firm, the ability to listen has to be one of the top assets of a new consultant. Whether you're at the office or meeting with a client, there is a lot to be learned if you can keep your ears open and truly listen.

2. Build Relationships!

    When you're trying to sell the invisible, relationships are crucial.  Work on taking a genuine interest in those around you, especially your clients.  In order to build the best solutions, it's not enough to simply understand the problem.  You must understand the client, take and interest in its people, and be familiar with its day-to-day operations.  With a little extra work you'll have them coming back for more.

3. Give more than you receive, leave more than you take!

    Always give more than you receive and leave more than you take.  While you can't just give your work away for free, it is important to be honest and to keep your clients happy.

4. Make good impressions!

   Remember that as a consultant you are not necessarily selling a tangible product, but rather knowledge, trust, service and results.  When selling intangibles, it is important to always make a good impression on your clients.

5.  Make Yourself Useful!

    Finally, always make sure there's hot coffee for your coworkers in the morning!  Even if you're not billable, you can still make yourself useful for the first couple of weeks.

dK Top 5 Begins!

dK Top 5 is a series of blogs that harvest the knowledge of digitalKnowledge employees in bite-size tips and tricks for easy reading and implementation.  In the spirit on new beginnings, our first blog entry is written by our former intern and features his top five recommendations for others venturing into the world of internships.  We hope you enjoy it!

5 Recommendations for New Interns

An Internship is a great way to get your foot in the door of the corporate world.  You will have the opportunity to network with some great people, as well as the chance to experience the inner workings of their company.  It's important to be aware that this is their chance to form an opinion about you, but don't let that scare you...

1.  Be open minded.  With any new job it's important to have an open mind about technology practices and people.  What was taught in school might be different from what the company does.  Companies vary but hopefully you'll meet a variety of people with different backgrounds.  Being open minded to others is extremely important to having a good internship.

2.  Be flexible.  Just because you have good foundations with Java doesn't mean you'll be programming with it.  Often you will be using technologies that you are unfamiliar with and will have to adjust.  You will also probably have to adjust to other people's schedule.

3.  Be nice.  People in companies are busy.  Respect is a two way street.  Respect them and they will help you out. If you were an experienced employee, you would want the intern to treat you with respect.  Remember - the employer is generally doing you a favor by offering the internship in the first place.

4.  Pay attention.  Employees are busy so when they help you out it's important to pay attention to what they're saying.  They generally don't have much time to say what they need to say, let alone say it twice.

5. Absorb.  Besides getting your foot in the door, the point of an internship is to actually see firsthand what a company does and how they interact.  Be sure to absorb all that is happening.  An internship is only what you make it to be.

By: Bart Sides, Intern 2010