An example of project is the recruitment process of employees for an up-coming branch opening.
The tasks would be define the position specifications or job description, prepare advertisement, publish advertisement on website, receive inquiries and send further information, closing date for applications, agree composition of interview panel, book interview room, evaluate applications and prepare shortlist, invite shortlisted applicants for interview, conduct interviews, confirm selection decisions and finally send offer letter to successful candidates.
The marketing department uses Gantt charts for planning the grand openings of new branches. But I’m not sure if all the departments use them.I would recommend the use of Gantt charts because they help you work out the order in which tasks need to be carried out; allow you to identify the resources needed to complete the project, along with the times when these resources will be needed; help you work out the quickest possible time in which a project can be completed; and help you identify the "critical path" for a project ( the sequence of tasks that must be completed on time if you are to complete the project by a particular date).
www.isbnj.com
Monday, May 5, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Supply Chain Management
A supply chain is the set of entities and relationships that cumulatively define materials and information flows both downstream toward the customer and upstream toward the very first supplier. Materials and requisite information flow downstream or forward from suppliers to customers, with materials being transformed by the various entities into units of the final product sold to the customer.
In the case of Investors Savings Bank, the only supplier of a tangible product (besides the office supplies) is DELUXE, one of the top check producers in North America. Deluxe offers bank checks to the customers, acting on behalf of the bank. There are two ways of ordering checks for the first time, via the own bank on-line system or by the phone. Once the order is processed, the manufacturing flow starts. Deluxe will ask to its suppliers for the implements to produce the checks. The checks will be sent to the customer in one or two weeks, some customers ask to receive the checks at their own address and some to receive them at the bank and then pick them up. The customer that set the reorder on line can also check the status of the order and shop for check accessories like check registers, checkbook covers, address labels and stamps.
To determine the performance in terms of deliver, quality, time and cost; we could just say that Investors is in the industry average but always willing to provide personalized and friendly service. About the quality, we could say that the Deluxe OrderProSM is helping the bank to improve the experience of the check ordering process. Deluxe OrderPro is a browser-based eCommerce solution that supports branch and call center check ordering. It provides product images and pricing in a user-friendly format that encourages cross-selling. Built-in product rules reduce the chance of order entry errors, reducing reprints and improving customer satisfaction.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Quality Control
Like most banks customer service and transactions (time and accuracy) are highly monitored for quality. Investors Savings Bank, again like most banks, uses cards and/or online surveys that customers can fill out that expresses their level of satisfaction in many areas in which their visit encompasses. These area would be friendliness of the teller, how much time the transaction/s took,....etc. The use of QC charts doesn't really work very well with intangible products and services that Investment Savings Bank offers, so the surveys of customers are the best way to guage quality.
Investors Savings Bank, like all other companies, is always looking to continually improve it's practices and quality for the sake of business success and customer satisfaction. A bank is is responsible for using careful procedures for the processes to ensure that customers money is accessable to them. Banks cannnot afford to have unintended variablitiy in there services. The fishbone diagram is most definately used to seek out inefficiencies that might be adversely effect quality. Training of employees, new bank technology (software and hardware), and even the manager's schedualing of more employees at peek hours or days will probably be the categories most looked at using the fishbone diagram.
Investors Savings Bank does not use Six Sigma practices. Investors Savings Bank should look into adopting Six Sigma practices because it has been proven to increase efficiency which positively correlates with quality. Also, since Six Sigma basically regiments practices, it would be very fitting for a bank because banks must follow many procedures to accomplish their everyday business. (www.isbnj.com)
Investors Savings Bank, like all other companies, is always looking to continually improve it's practices and quality for the sake of business success and customer satisfaction. A bank is is responsible for using careful procedures for the processes to ensure that customers money is accessable to them. Banks cannnot afford to have unintended variablitiy in there services. The fishbone diagram is most definately used to seek out inefficiencies that might be adversely effect quality. Training of employees, new bank technology (software and hardware), and even the manager's schedualing of more employees at peek hours or days will probably be the categories most looked at using the fishbone diagram.
Investors Savings Bank does not use Six Sigma practices. Investors Savings Bank should look into adopting Six Sigma practices because it has been proven to increase efficiency which positively correlates with quality. Also, since Six Sigma basically regiments practices, it would be very fitting for a bank because banks must follow many procedures to accomplish their everyday business. (www.isbnj.com)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Quality Management
4 Dimensions of quality:
PROCESS OF DESIGN:
To meet the customers need, Investors keeps opening new modern branches in diverse cities in New Jersey (Red Bank Branch is the next grand opening) and trying to create ways in which the customers can gain access to their account in a really simple way.
PROCESS OF CONFORMANCE:
The last grand opening - Perth Amboy Office - had high quality of conformance. Local customers are really happy to have a branch close to home, with not only bilingual, but efficient and courteous service.
High quality conformance is shown in the use of online banking too.
ABILITIES:
Availability: Each branch has its own operations hours. The regular hours are from Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 5 pm and Saturdays from 9 am to 1 pm. Perth Amboy for example has late-night hours Thursdays and Fridays until 6 pm. Online banking is 24 hours and 7 days a week, and the same for the ATMs and the Phone Automatic System.
Reliability: The bank offers such things as savings and checking accounts. These types of accounts given to customers are very secure and there is almost no chance of failure. Possible threats are fraud and other types of abuses to these accounts. There are many regulations and ways for customers to regain their lost moneys, so the threat is taken care of.
Maintainability: In case of any sort of account abuse, the customer is immediately notified to these wrong doings. Steps are then taken toward the reacquisition of their funds.
FIELD SERVICE:
The customer service at Investors is prompt, competent and integral. Investors will always try to help its customers, providing personalized and friendly service. The objective is developing new business while retaining and expanding existing customer relationships.
Investors Savings Bank currently has many quality systems in place. These include 24/7 online banking, ATM machines, bank employees (during store hours), automated phone services, and online information on their website. Future improvements can be made by opening up more new stores which would allow for a greater number of ATM locations and a greater number of bank employees to speak with. The automated phone services should become less automated and become more personal with live representatives of the bank. This would establish a more personal feel to the bank, which should earn Investors Bank a good reputation, which would generate more business. Also, on the topic of speaking with customers, Investors Bank has many bilingual locations, but increasing the number of languages spoken by employees could be a very big asset for brining in new clientele. http://www.isbnj.com/
Service Process Design
SERVICE PROCESS DESIGN
The tangible (explicit) service in Investors Savings Bank is borrowing and lending money to its customers and real estate services. The financial security provided to them is the implicit service and the facilitating goods are the 47 branches all over New Jersey, the drive-up windows, the ATMs, the Point-of-Sale (POS) Terminals, the checks, and the debit and credit cards.
Investors Savings Bank offers co-routed services in teller stations and at the customer services representative desks (branch operations). Here it offers a moderate number of choices to customers, providing personalized and friendly service, products tailored to the needs of its clients, and competitive interest rates. In the other hand, Investors ATMs are service systems with a very limited number of pathways from which customers may choose and they provide a limited set of services and there is little customer discretion in using them; so ATMs fit as provider routed in the service matrix.
CUSTOMER CONTACT:
To open an account at Investors, the presence of the customer is required at the desk. The Customer Service Representative will interact with the customer during the opening of the account process. After that, the customer has more than one choice: access to his or her own account via the teller or drive-up (again face-to-face), by the phone (via 1-800-252-8119), via internet (http://www.isbnj.com/) or at the ATMs (low contact system). The ATMs are the best example of self service and technology at the same time, but if we want to consider technology, we must mention the website and the online services offered by Investors. Technology allows customers nowadays pay their bills in matter of minutes, shop online, transfer money among accounts, and more.
Investors focuses operations in the long-term relationship with its customers. And the employees have the objective to bring 110% of them to successfully satisfy every customer. At the same time, employees are trained not only to accomplish with the description of the position they got, but trained in customer service excellence. Productive employees are rewarded with yearly bonuses.
Complementary services for Investors Preferred and Preferred Plus Customers :
Free checking
Free checks
Free online banking with bill pay
Free money orders
Free travelers checks
Free notary
Free check imaging
Free ATMs worldwide*
Discounted or free sweep protection
Discounted or free safe deposit box
Special Preferred loan rates
Special Preferred deposit rates
*Investors Savings Bank will reimburse up to $6 in ATM surcharges you incur per month for Preferred Plus Banking and up to $3 per month for Preferred Banking. Customers will not be charged the surcharge and no extra fee will be deducted from their account.
The tangible (explicit) service in Investors Savings Bank is borrowing and lending money to its customers and real estate services. The financial security provided to them is the implicit service and the facilitating goods are the 47 branches all over New Jersey, the drive-up windows, the ATMs, the Point-of-Sale (POS) Terminals, the checks, and the debit and credit cards.
Investors Savings Bank offers co-routed services in teller stations and at the customer services representative desks (branch operations). Here it offers a moderate number of choices to customers, providing personalized and friendly service, products tailored to the needs of its clients, and competitive interest rates. In the other hand, Investors ATMs are service systems with a very limited number of pathways from which customers may choose and they provide a limited set of services and there is little customer discretion in using them; so ATMs fit as provider routed in the service matrix.
CUSTOMER CONTACT:
To open an account at Investors, the presence of the customer is required at the desk. The Customer Service Representative will interact with the customer during the opening of the account process. After that, the customer has more than one choice: access to his or her own account via the teller or drive-up (again face-to-face), by the phone (via 1-800-252-8119), via internet (http://www.isbnj.com/) or at the ATMs (low contact system). The ATMs are the best example of self service and technology at the same time, but if we want to consider technology, we must mention the website and the online services offered by Investors. Technology allows customers nowadays pay their bills in matter of minutes, shop online, transfer money among accounts, and more.
Investors focuses operations in the long-term relationship with its customers. And the employees have the objective to bring 110% of them to successfully satisfy every customer. At the same time, employees are trained not only to accomplish with the description of the position they got, but trained in customer service excellence. Productive employees are rewarded with yearly bonuses.
Complementary services for Investors Preferred and Preferred Plus Customers :
Free checking
Free checks
Free online banking with bill pay
Free money orders
Free travelers checks
Free notary
Free check imaging
Free ATMs worldwide*
Discounted or free sweep protection
Discounted or free safe deposit box
Special Preferred loan rates
Special Preferred deposit rates
*Investors Savings Bank will reimburse up to $6 in ATM surcharges you incur per month for Preferred Plus Banking and up to $3 per month for Preferred Banking. Customers will not be charged the surcharge and no extra fee will be deducted from their account.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Process
What type of product flow do they use?
What type of customer order do they process?
Investors Savings uses a made-to-stock customer order, because it provides a faster service to customers. In a bank there are a few standard products specified by the bank, the process will begin there, then the customer requests a product (for example a checking account) and the product will be available immediately (following the example, starter kits will be provided to them from the inventory at the moment they open the account).
Which cell do they fall into in the process characteristics matrix?
Product-Process Matrix (*click matrix to view in full.)
Investors Savings falls in the middle of the diagonal in the product-process matrix. There are low-medium volume products. And the costumers are batched based on their needs. Meaning Investors Savings Bank would be located where Batch is on the matrix.
What are some of the factors influencing their process selection?
The factors influencing Investors process selection are market conditions, capital requirements, labor and technology. Investors Savings Bank always considers market conditions and the competition in the market, trying to keep relatively better interest rates than the average in the market, offering features like Investors Preferred Banking giving their preferred customers thousands of reward points, extras, free services, higher rates and much more, all because it wants a great relationship with the customers. The expenses incurred in the construction of new branches would be an example of capital requirements. The employees, in the corporate office and in each branch, are the labor factor in a bank. Before assuming functions into the bank, every employee must go through training (depending on the position). Regular employees receive an hourly salary and exempt employees annual salary. Finally, technology is used in Investors in its products and in its processes. Online banking and the ATMs are very good examples of it.
Can they adopt any of the mass customization methods discussed?
Mass customization is possible through http://www.isbnj.com/ where customers can access to their accounts and customize the services the bank offer to them. They are able to check every detailed transaction, link their accounts and make payments online. Online banking is free for the bank customers.
Monday, February 11, 2008
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
CASH
Each branch has a vault that stores and provides cash to each teller and to the ATM (Automatic Teller Machine). The inventory system used is a continuous review system. The vault manager has to monitor the stock position after each transaction (continuously) and when the stock position drops to a predetermined level, the vault manager will place a fixed amount of cash order. There is only one cash supplier for the bank designated for the Corporate Office. The cash will be received the next day (lead time = one day).
OFFICE SUPPLIES
Each branch operations manager is responsible for the office supplies such as paper, envelopes, transaction slips, binders, pens, pencils, printer ink, stamps, etc. A periodic inventory system is used for office supplies. The stock position of each office supplies is reviewed monthly and an order is placed on-line to achieve a target stock position level. Investors Savings Bank has 4 supply companies (suppliers). Each branch operations manager decides where to place the order. The supplies will be received in between 3 or 4 days depending in the supplier.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Investors Savings Bank
Investors Savings Bank an independent community bank with 47 full-service branches in eight counties of New Jersey, is dedicated to serving the banking needs of New Jersey families and commercial real estate clients. Investors Savings Bank provides personalized and friendly service, products tailored to the needs of its clients, and competitive interest rates. The Bank, which celebrates its 82th anniversary in April 2008, also provides banking services through an Internet delivery channel, http://www.isbnj.com/.
In addition, Investors Savings Bank's Charitable Foundation and dedicated employees support organizations that enrich the quality of life in the communities the bank serves.
In addition, Investors Savings Bank's Charitable Foundation and dedicated employees support organizations that enrich the quality of life in the communities the bank serves.
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