Courses (71)
KCI provides applied management and professional development education in several disciplines. The extensive Portfolio of Seminars addresses a variety of business interests and needs. We provide various seminars and courses for public and in-house training. These courses are focused on contemporary topics, issues, and skills needed by many organizations. Our courses are designed to provide a broad understanding and clear application focus for all participants.
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KCI On-line Courses (0)
KCI offers a series of on-line courses with very experienced professionals and educators to facilitate the best knowledge transfer of real-life experiences. The courses offer tremendous insights into contemporary approaches to the areas of your interest.
Course Experts (2)
Business Analysis (12)
Business analysis depends on the successful application of applying different types of analytics: financial, quantitative, and descriptive (qualitative).
KCI's courses are focused upon building the skills necessary to operating within an organization utilizing any of one of these skills.
Information Technology (IT) (20)
Today's Information Technology (IT) and Management Information Systems (MIS) environments have to address the management of the entire organization's environment as a collection of interacting automated/manual information systems. These systems are so critical to the "digital" organization that KCI has a series of courses designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the key elements needed to manage IT or MIS.
Some of these offerings can be packaged into a designed certification program for your organization.
Process Management (6)
Process performance and improvement are two keys in improving an organizations's operations. They form the basis of efficiently and effectively delivery of both product and service to customers. Various approaches are used to accomplish focus on process performance and improvement. Somoe of the areas include: process analytics, process modeling and mapping techniques, process management and project organization.
KCI's course offerings provide the understanding which approaches provide the foundation for developing, implementing or improving an organizations' business processes and its overall performance.
Enterprise Performance Management (4)
Performance of the organization depends on setting direction and then executing to meet that direction. Organization or enterprise performance management includes the skills an disciplines you need to do both. Strategic business thinking is required to enable an organization to properly understand, assess, and make decisions on both direction and execution. Additionally major usage of technology, skills and policies will impact the organizational performance.
Auditing and Risk Management (3)
Auditing and risk management is a very critical element of maintaining today's organization. In the ever-changing business environment, encountering risk is inevitable. The ability to manage these increasingly significant risks now represent the difference between a thriving organization and one that is struggling to deal with the challenges facing it.
KCI offers different courses focusing on practical forms of auditing and risk management approaches.
Architecture (22)
Understanding the structure of an organization today means understanding the relationships between the various elements of the organization, its partners, or other businesses. Each organization utilizes different viewpoints that are part of the normal operations of running the organization. Looking at it from an architectural perspective, it may include: the business environment, the perceived market needs, product / service architecture, the process architecture, and supporting architectures.
KCI courses address builiding the understanding of how to integrate these architectural perspectives.
Business analysts typically use analytic techniques to improve business performance. Effective business analysis depends on successful application of three different types of analytics: financial, quantitative and descriptive.
Real advantage comes from applying these analysis techniques to external and strategic interests. In these applications, insights from analysis form the basis for the development of requirements for process change, acquisition or development of applications, package deployment or services articulation.
Analytic techniques are also used for support of decisions in business organizations. They determine the response to the business ecosystem in terms of opportunity and threat neutralization. Opportunities here include merger, acquisition, divestiture, privatization, consolidation, and outsourcing. Analytic methods are important for realizing the opportune results of restructuring efforts.
The implications of business analysis often lead to the assessment of change that impacts the organization. Business analysis also includes topics of operational due diligence, performance measurement, knowledge management, product architecture, process architecture, competitive intelligence, and business intelligence.
In summary, business analytics are a combination of various strategies, techniques, methods, and tools used to improve the organization’s or enterprise's performance. Our professional courses in business analytics can help you identify the predictive and diagnostic analysis you need to undertake to understand your current and future business problems and opportunities.
Today business analytics including big data analytics are critical to the success of organizations. KCI has an extensive 25 year history of applying analytics to business issues from the strategic perspective through tactical considerations and into operational improvements. KCI provides a suite of professional education sessions that improve the skill level of your staff and improve organizational performance.
KCI provides education internationally as well as in the US. Current courses are scheduled in the fall for Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are hot topics today. Along with big data and analytics in general these present a daunting challenge to management. Just how much of AI do you need? Should it be done with big data? Does it need a billion rows of data? Can you really use the 100+ machine learning algorithms out there? Do you have a skilled staff, including data scientists, to identify which issues are best for you to address? Can your managers use these technologies to help them manage better?
Organizations require an answer to these types of questions when considering moving into these technologies. However, much of this, but not all, is overkill for many organizations. Managers, analysts and consultants need a basic and core set of analytics that they can apply to a variety of problems and opportunities in an organization. Along with a core set of analytics, a rational and realistic plan should be in place to realize the value and benefits from change efforts.
Some key insights about AI
A little background here helps. There are 6 basic type of artificial intelligence technologies that all the methods can be grouped under:
- Statistical Machine Learning
- Simple Predictive Neural Nets
- Deep Learning
- Expert Systems
- Decision predictive techniques
- Knowledge leverage
- Avoid launching enterprise wide project. Past experience with very new technologies shows this is dangerous and fraught with failures. Indications are that complex problems are still difficult to solve with deep learning neural nets and have led to a number of failures. Small projects on the other hand have a high degree of success.
- Have a clear objective for each project
- Develop an AI risk profile for your AI portfolio
- Grow your skills as you increase your AI use
- Get good help and make sure there is knowledge transfer
- Professional team training in AI and ML
- On the job training and mentoring for project teams
- Tool selection and matching to need
- Focus on AI requirements and plan
- AI Risk analysis
- Knowledge transfer
Enterprise Risk Management
Description:
In the ever-changing business environment, encountering risk is inevitable. The ability to manage these increasingly significant risks now represents the difference between a thriving organisation and one that is struggling to deal with the challenges facing it. Many businesses have realized that misunderstanding risk can lead to disaster. The organizations that have dealt with the recession most effectively have realized that this requires extensive knowledge of risk management tools and techniques. This is exactly what you will find in this course. As the current worldwide situation demonstrates, poorly informed or improperly executed risk management can mean disaster. Conversely, a well organized and focused risk process and strong risk management team will enable your company to maintain and strengthen your edge over your competitors. Moreover, studies have shown that financial risk is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’, as nearly 80% of key risks are not insurable. This critical 80% of risks must be ‘insured’ internally with a capable risk management team.
Risk management has been catapulted from being a useful tool to becoming the very pulse of the organization and the yardstick by which its management is judged. The key is to recognise that risk is not something that should be avoided – a risk is often an opportunity in disguise.
Duration: 5 days
Fraud – The Invisible Enemy
Description:
Would you know if fraud was occurring in your organization? Do you know what the major fraud risks are in your business?
Do you have the use of any automated fraud detection techniques? If fraud is suspected do you have a clearly defined approach for managing the investigation?
If you have answered “NO” to any of the above questions, you are not alone.
Fraud is estimated to have cost the World Economy at least $ 4 days trillion (US) in 2010/11. The average organisation loses $10 per day (US) per employee to fraud and abuse (source association of fraud examiners). The true cost of fraud is much higher when you take into account impact on reputation, diversion of management attention and loss of trust within teams.
Many organisations assume that fraud is not happening in their business, as they have not uncovered any frauds 95% of organisations make no use at all of electronic information to detect fraud (Ernst and Young Study).
Most managers assume that having good controls in place will significantly reduce the risk of fraud – the reality is that as many fraudsters are senior personnel, they will know the controls and how to bypass them (however sophisticated you think they may be).
During the current economic crisis, fraud poses an even greater threat.
Duration: 5 days
Auditing and Risk Management - Auditing of Projects and Contracts
Description:
How many projects do you know which have been delivered on time, to budget and fully met the needs of all the parties involved? Not very many, I am sure will be your answer.
Research indicates that in many projects, risks are identified and analyzed in a random, uncoordinated manner. Not only does this result in unexpected risks arising, but the true impact of the risks actually identified are not fully appreciated or the combination effect of the risks are misunderstood.
It has been estimated that a strong risk management process can decrease problems on a project by as much as 80 or 90 percent. In combination with solid project management practices, a good risk management process is critical in cutting down on surprises, or unexpected project risks. Such a process can also help with problem resolution when requirements change, because now those changes are anticipated and actions have already been reviewed and approved, avoiding the need for panic and emergency treatment.
Auditing the project throughout its life from the project development stage to the post implementation review and adopting a risk based approach is a proven way to maximize the opportunity to deliver the project to time, to budget and fully meet the needs of all interested parties.
Duration: 5 days
(5 Forces, Balanced Scorecard, Value Chain)
Description:
Any enterprise that operates in today’s ‘Flat World’ needs to characterize, identify and assess the forces that shape their organizations so that a successful direction can be established. There are two categories of pressure on an enterprise. Those two can best be described by the five competitive forces and the environmental forces that shape the landscape that surrounds the enterprise. Assessing the competitive and environmental pressures using these two categories provides an enterprise with an answer for the direction it might take. It is not enough to know what is going on with competitors but you must have the larger picture of the surrounding business environment. Add to that the scenarios that expose approaches, the decisions needed and alternatives in facing the competitive challenges in the market and you have a plan for success.
Not all the forces will have equal impact. Coupled with the environmental forces such as economic, social, legislative, market and technology an enterprise could suddenly find itself under considerable stress. These environmental forces impact all the competitors but may impact each of them differently and to different degrees.
Global competition from all sizes of organizations demands that an enterprise identify as many of the threats and opportunities as possible in setting their direction. Regional competition on top of the global competition increases the pressure on organizations today.
This course explains the 5 forces idea and provides a means of assessing competition along the five forces dimensions. The course also connects the concept to environmental scanning for a more complete understanding of impact on the business. Successful analysis along with scenario planning reduces the uncertainty most enterprises face in competing in today’s global business scene.
Duration: 4 days
Benchmarking for Strategic Excellence
Description:
Benchmarking considers the performance concept, the technology, skills, motives and disciplines that management supports in the operation and direction of the enterprise. In this sense, it is much more than looking at the performance of processes even though this is an important component. Benchmarking is related to quality, best practices, and baselines of performance, attitudes and corporate learning. Integrating these concepts together gives management a potent tool for directing the performance of the enterprise.
This course is intended for people who want to put the ideas and concepts of benchmarking into effective use in their enterprise. The focus is on the understanding, organization and focus of the benchmarking effort in the enterprise. A key feature of this course is the differentiation of the different points of focus of benchmarking such as strategic, operational and financial. Added to this list is the idea of IT, cross industry and competitive benchmarking. Methods, motives and techniques for different types of benchmarking along with their core, shared components are covered. Further, the methods and methodologies needed to make benchmarking definitive are discussed in some detail. A short case study is used to help the attendee gain a sense of the effort involved with putting together a benchmarking effort.
Duration: 4 days
Description:
Scorecard approaches have received considerable attention as a means to assess both operational and strategic performance of an organization. The balanced scorecard approach has had very good reception and success in assisting management with a way to improve the value to shareholders through an organized view of measures in the enterprise. Further, the approach connects in a logical manner to the strategic needs and direction of the enterprise. Understanding strategic impact is key to the successful use of scorecards.
This course includes some background on various scorecard approaches used in the past and present. The balanced scorecard approach is covered in considerable detail as the current scorecarding technique to gain widespread use and global success. Finally, the economy is changing in many ways and the balanced scorecard approach must change with it to be relevant.
This course also introduces the attendee to the potential changes that may happen in the very near future.
Duration: 4 days
Essential Management Reporting
Description:
Today's reporting function has moved beyond simple financial reporting into a more structured yet flexible accumulation of general information that can be used to support rapid and accurate business decision making. Emphasis should also be placed on determining why something happened and ensuring that appropriate corrective action is initiated.
Corporate reporting must be designed to provide timely, accurate and meaningful information regardless of destination of the data that will allow management to make decisions and take appropriate action. Understanding the business model and then developing the proper reporting requirements are keys to success.
Duration: 4 days
More...
The Implications of Case
Description:
The CASE management approach to processes is very different from the traditional view of process improvement and documentation. In CASE management the input is known and the desired outcome is known but the path to get between the two is not known until the process is executed. This is because there are a variety of sub processes that may be invoked in an order that is not known. Most of the sub processes are defined but a few may be developed on the way.
The classic example is the health care situation where a patient enters the emergency room and the condition is known and the desired outcome is to fix the patient. The path between will depend on the results of action during the evaluation of the situation. So a CASE is a process ‘built on the fly’ that is as you go though the analysis of the patient. Some paths will be incorrect and some will be correct. Another good example is customer service in certain industries where the path is again variable. Such is the case for a travel agent who presents options to someone and waits for an evaluative response to choose the next set of steps.
CASE management requires some different techniques, domain knowledge management concepts and tools to successfully analyze and improve the CASE process. A good example of the types of tools used are process mining tools that determine the typical or most common sequence of paths through a case.
Duration: 4 days
Using of Process Management Tools Effectively
Description:
Developing skills for BPM is usually done on the first project an enterprise undertakes. Often few or no tools are used or tools designed for other purposes such as graphic tools used for process mapping with no linkage to analysis tools or workflow. This adds risk to the project as the staff must learn anywhere from one tool to a suite of tools plus the methodology framework for the BPM project. The work may be performed by contractors or company staff or even by a tool vendor in some cases. Usually the framework for good process management is an afterthought and the resulting artifacts left in a chaotic state.
The tools used on a BPM project might include an analysis tool, a process modeling tool, a workflow tool and even a repository for saving the results. Positioning the skills at using BPM tools can be a great advantage in doing a BPM project or embarking on a larger BPM effort that requires the use of tools.
This course provides hands on work experience using a case study project designed to highlight the tools in BPM typical of those used today. Related issues such as analysis analytics, process modeling and mapping techniques, process management and project organization are covered as part of the lecture portion of the course. Examples of each artifact used in the course are provided along with a CD that contains trial versions of all products used in the class. This course uses extensive exercises based on a tools suite for BPM. The attendee should have some basic working knowledge of process mapping but no tools experience is needed.
Who should attend: Business process teams, Business planners, Process Analysts, Managers, Professionals, IT Specialists, Business Analysts and IT Architects.
Duration: 3 days
Understanding and delivering Workflow
Description:
Workflow is a key approach to improving business process and organizational performance today. The includes the three stages of performance improvement as supported by the International Society for Performance Improvement focuses on the Organization, the Processes and the Individuals that execute the processes. In this course the process execution is extended beyond the individuals through other enablers such as systems, policies, procedures, databases and other means of improving and supporting processes. Including all the enablers is the key to successful workflow implementation.
This course explains the most current approaches to workflow. It covers the core concepts in documenting and defining the workflows of the enterprise. The course includes the idea of performance excellence and the center of excellence for workflow. Analytics are included that relate workflows to the performance of the organization. Simple examples are provided of certain types of tools for workflow, performance analytics and enabler impact.
This course includes extensive exercises organized around a case study concept that the participant can use as a workflow project template in their organization. The techniques presented in this workshop provide a staff the means to increase value by starting projects with realistic skills and knowledge.
Duration: 5 days
Essential ways to do Process Analysis, Analytics and Measurement
Description:
Process analysis identifies the major process improvement opportunities in the business. Process analytics identifies which ones would have the best yield in terms of strategic performance to fix and the most impact on the strategic performance of the organization. Process measurement identifies if you are meeting the performance goals.
Issues such as process analytics, process modeling and mapping techniques, process management and project organization are critical to improving process performance. These topics are covered as part of the lecture portion of the course. Examples of each artifact used in the course are provided along with a CD that contains trial versions of all products used in the class. This course uses extensive exercises and some analytic tools for assessing impact and ranking process opportunities. The attendee should have some basic working knowledge of process mapping but no tool experience is needed.