StrategyDriven Project Management Article | How To Manage A Successful Construction Project

How To Manage A Successful Construction Project

StrategyDriven Project Management Article | How To Manage A Successful Construction ProjectProject management isn’t simple. People, resources, budgets and time need to work together. If something isn’t in place, it can slow down productivity and cost you more money. This post will show you how to manage a construction project successfully by using the right tools and staying organized. Check out our tips for successful construction project management below.

Be Prepared

Being fully prepared with the most information possible is necessary for a construction project of this scale. This can be difficult, especially when you’re trying to coordinate the schedules of multiple contractors, engineers, and other stakeholders. Most information can be found from clients, suppliers, and co-contractors; however, some information may need to be found with a request for information (RFI). This means you may need to ask for information from the other parties involved with your claim. To benefit, your RFI in construction should be specific and relevant to your case.

Set Realistic Budgets

Setting realistic budgets is essential to good construction project management —and it’s one of the most important things you can do to ensure that your project meets its budget. A budget is important because it helps you manage your construction project by defining how much money you have to spend so that you can manage your client’s expectations properly and they don’t end up with costly surprises. A good budget will help you manage your construction project because it forces you to think about how much money is available for each aspect of the project.

Plan Your Resourcing Correctly

An important part of project management is resource allocation. In construction management, resource allocation is essential for project success. If you don’t allocate your resources correctly, it can lead to delays and cost overruns that could have been avoided altogether. Resource allocation is one of the most important skills in construction management. It’s easy to understand how resource allocation can lead to costly mistakes if you don’t take the time to think through all the details before you start a project.


Revaluate Project Plans

Even the best-laid plans can go awry, so keep an eye on your plans and update and adapt where necessary. Check in with your team to see how they are doing so that you know what time targets you’re hitting, and if you’re missing any find out why. If you have a to-do list, make sure that it’s up-to-date and complete. If you don’t, start using one! It will help keep your plans clear so you’ll know if anything is falling through the cracks.

Communicate Continuously

You need to communicate with your team members and clients on a regular basis so that everyone is on the same page. Communication should be open, clear, and concise. Many construction projects are large and complex so it’s vital to have the latest information from all parties involved. Your job managing the project is to be the glue that holds everything together.

Do you run successful construction projects? Share your tips in the comments to inspire others.

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article | The Scope of Supply Chain Management in the Corporate Sector

The Scope of Supply Chain Management in the Corporate Sector

StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article | The Scope of Supply Chain Management in the Corporate Sector

In today’s fast-paced economy, businesses can’t take a solo flight and achieve business goals. To achieve perpetual growth and increase revenues, businesses need to work closely with all parties involved in fulfilling core business operations. This includes a business’s suppliers, logistics partners, warehousing, distribution, retailers, and end-users or customers. Increased sales can be directly attributed to how successfully a business collaborates with the entire supply chain.

Supply chain management has immense potential to enhance business operations, improve productivity, and increase a business’s agility to changing market trends and customer demand. This article sheds light on the importance of supply chain management and its effective role in the corporate sector.

 

Understanding Supply Chain Management

Every product that reaches the customer is a result of a chain of activities, starting from acquiring raw materials from nature to processing, producing, and distributing finished products. Various entities work together to convert an idea into a product and ensure it reaches the intended customers acting as a loop in the chain. A single missing loop can disrupt the entire chain of businesses. These entities combine to form what we call a supply chain. Supply chain management (SCM) entails the optimal execution of all these events in a sustainable, cost-effective, and efficient manner using technology to cater to customers’ demands and minimize delays.

Since businesses rely heavily on supply chain experts to make sourcing strategies, forecast production, and maintain a balance between product supply and demand, they hire MBA in SCM graduates as logistics managers, supply chain managers, logistics analysts, procurement managers, and director purchasing. Due to its increased demand, educational institutes now offer degree programs, diplomas, and courses to equip students with conceptual and technical knowledge of SCM. Students can also choose an online MBA in supply chain management as a way to learn and work at the same time. MBA graduates with a concentration in supply chain management can use various strategies, tools, techniques, and methodologies to source, produce and distribute products.

 

Scope of Supply Chain Management in the Corporate Sector

No matter the nature of the business or which type of market a business operates in, it cannot exist in the fiercely competitive market without effective supply chain management; no company in the supply chain environment can exist long-term without SCM. This is why supply chain management’s scope, role, and significance cannot be overlooked. Here’s why supply chain management is gaining tremendous importance in the corporate sector today:

Reducing Operational Costs

SCM lowers the cost of operating a business by reducing the cost of material acquisition, production, and distribution. While specialized intelligent SCM systems play an important part in optimizing business processes, the right supply chain strategy by supply chain experts helps businesses choose the best supplier, minimize sourcing delays, and reduce the overall operational cost of production. Most supply chain strategies focus on optimizing supply chain entities and sourcing directly from ground-zero suppliers instead of third-party vendors. This increases sourcing efficiency, reduces operational costs, and improves product manufacturing and dispersal cycle.

Increase Cohesion and Interconnectivity

Supply chain management is about increasing cohesion between all parties involved in conducting core business functions. Supply chain management allows increased cohesion and interconnectivity between all parties involved, including suppliers, logistics, retailers, and consumers. Increased communication between these parties is vital for a business to increase market agility and reduce production and dispersal delays. It addresses significant difficulties related to corporate development, business partnerships, outsourcing, brand awareness, and product line expansion.

Operational Visibility

One of the major challenges for any business is enhancing its operational visibility in complex supply-and-demand structures. Operational visibility refers to an organization’s capacity to clearly understand how its major operations are functioning, and this is only possible by effectively monitoring all processes involved in the supply chain.

Effective supply chain management systems combined with business intelligence and data analytics equip supply chain experts with the right tools and knowledge to get an insight into business performance, market trends, and product performance. These tools allow them to better grasp the supply chain’s strengths and limitations and discover changing market trends that help them make better strategic decisions.

Decreased Disruptions

The more complex a supply chain network is, the more vulnerable it is to source and supply disruptions and market risks. Integrated SCM systems allow experts to study past data and analyze and predict future patterns. This helps businesses minimize disruptions in production, logistics, and distribution. Businesses can predict potential disruptions like price hikes, shortages of raw materials, increased market demand, or changes in transport routes.

Integrating Technology to Increase Agility

Businesses must implement agile supply chains to stay ahead of their competition and ensure the product maintains a supply-and-demand ratio in the market. Businesses achieve this by implementing integrated supply chain management systems that bring all entities involved in a supply chain to a single technological platform.

Supply chain management systems are important in increasing communication among entities and integrating major business functions. For example, suppliers can monitor a business’s raw material inventory and are instantly notified when inventory reaches replenishment points. Similarly, these integrated systems can generate automated purchase orders to vendors for approval by purchasing officers. Integrated SMS systems help businesses remove inefficiencies, optimize business processes, and improve agility in the supply chain to respond efficiently to changing market demand.

Businesses can detect problems and discover suitable solutions by optimizing and simplifying business processes. Businesses can use intelligent SCM systems with big data analytics to run what-if analyses and predict business performance under various unprecedented scenarios to examine alternatives and discover the best possible solution for a particular situation.

 

Final Thoughts

Supply chain management acts as a backbone for businesses to survive in the increasingly competitive global marketplace. To achieve perpetual growth and increase agility in a dynamic market, businesses need to incorporate the latest technology tools in their existing supply chain management systems and make smart use of supply chain analytics. When a business effectively reduces operational costs and improves cohesion among all supply chain entities, it reflects on its financial position and product or service quality. With smart SCM tools, businesses can improve revenues, meet production and sales targets, and achieve perpetual growth. Integrated supply chain management systems take all stakeholders on board and benefit each supply chain entity individually and collectively. We hope this article will help you recognize the importance of supply chain management and its role in business success and growth.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Traditional Marketing Strategies on Rise - Reasons Behind This Trend

Traditional Marketing Strategies on Rise – Reasons Behind This Trend

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article | Traditional Marketing Strategies on Rise - Reasons Behind This Trend

Undoubtedly, digital marketing techniques are ruling the technological space. Moreover, some of us believe that traditional marketing has lost its charm. But that’s nothing more than a myth. The biggest evidence of it is the latest metrics. As per the recent trends, the marketers clarified that the spending on traditional marketing techniques would increase by 3%. It certainly means the marketers are moving back to basics.

The leading companies in this ongoing shift are B2C, which offer different services. On average, B2C service companies spend around 10.2% on traditional marketing. The numbers are expected to increase rapidly in the future. The second runner-up leading the shift is none other than the B2C product companies. Over 12 months, the companies will certainly increase their spending budget on traditional advertising forms.

After reading the above metrics, you might ask why marketers are shifting to using traditional advertising. Hold on; we are here to answer your questions in this blog with solid reasons.

 

Long Lasting and Highly Sustainable

One of the biggest drawbacks of digital marketing is the need to serve the audience with something new daily. You tend to feel overwhelmed when you constantly try to win the attention of potential customers. You may post around 3 to 4 times on social handles to stay on the audience’s mind. The hassle of coming up with new content pieces every day is troublesome.

Traditional marketing methods eradicate this issue smoothly. For a while, take the example of TV ads for businesses; they are sustainable and stay engraved in mind. There are still a bunch of timeless TV ads, and you still remember them even after years of launch. Think of your childhood days, how you used to sing every TV ad word by word.

 

Fresh Approach Compared to Existing Digital Clutter

Daily, consumers are bombarded with hundreds of ads. When your target consumer repeatedly watches one ad, their frustration levels will rise. Although you were looking to crack a deal, the recurring digital ads left a negative impression on them.

Consumers have become numb to the ongoing trend of showing ads. Digital clutter is so much on the rise that all you find are ads everywhere. It is one of the reasons why around 57% of individuals disliked ads that played before the video, and 43% of them paid no attention to ads. Considering these metrics, it means your efforts are going in vain.

Under such circumstances, running traditional ads is the right escape. The majority of consumers still love to watch TV ads for businesses. They read print ads and rely on TV and radio channels to engage with brands. Traditional methods are still capable of outperforming digital ads. Also, the cost of running traditional ads is much lower than digital ones.

 

Leverage Consumer’s Trust & Establish Credibility

When you look at the top forms of marketing which consumers trust, the majority of them are traditional. Your potential consumers still prefer trusting traditional modes of advertising for making purchase decisions. Also, trust works like a currency, and it’s the only thing you need to convert the lead into customers.

Also, traditional tactics seem more reliable to your audience than digital ads. Consumers nowadays will choose a business over others if they are genuinely interested in it. As a result, traditional ads allow you to leverage trust and establish long-lasting relationships. Even TV ads for businesses place your brand in the heart and mind of the local audience, which means attracting more customers.

 

Clubbing Digital With Traditional

What if you combined digital marketing with traditional tools? The results would be awesome, powerful, and surprising enough. Think of podcasting and direct mailing for a while. These traditional marketing techniques are still popular but with a new twist. Companies these days send direct mailers with QR codes attached. By scanning the code, the consumers get to know more about the sender. Also, marketers can collect more robust data for creating more targeted ads and boosting ROI.

Similarly, Podcasts are coming back in trend. In recent times, podcasts experienced a rise of around 51%, with the number of listeners still growing rapidly. Running podcast ads is effective in such cases. Also, people often listen to podcasts while commuting or travelling elsewhere. Like TV ads for businesses, podcast ads can potentially gain the target market’s attention.

 

Final Words

For quite a long time, digital pundits have been preaching the death of traditional marketing methods. But the good news is, like a phoenix, the traditional ads are back in trend. The majority of marketers are even questioning the effectiveness of digital ads. Even after spending so much, the ROI is not that much.

Look at all the above pointers, which clarify why traditional advertising is rising. It not only helps in winning trust but also turns buyers into recurring customers. Rethink your marketing strategies now and leverage the effectiveness of traditional ads.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | How To Enhance Revenue Cycle Management For Your Hospital In 2023

How To Enhance Revenue Cycle Management For Your Hospital In 2023

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | How To Enhance Revenue Cycle Management For Your Hospital In 2023

Running a hospital is more than offering a top-notch quality of care to your patients at all times. Of course, it is the mainstay of operations, but you also need to focus on revenues to keep things on track. Whether you run a small private practice or a large multi-specialty hospital, improving revenue cycle management should be your priority. Essentially, it is about streamlining your payment processes, reducing payment lags, and limiting rejected claims. Covering these fronts increases the efficiency of your hospital and brings more money for it. Although you may have a revenue cycle management process in place, the New Year is the best time to improve it. Here are some measures you can embrace in 2023 to facilitate the system.

Step up appointment scheduling

Stepping up the appointment scheduling process gives you a good start with enhancing the revenue cycle efficiency of your hospital. After all, you must ensure that the right number of patients step in at a point in time. Stretching your schedules can affect the quality of care and increase the burden on providers. Conversely, not getting enough patients in appointment slots translates into a loss of revenue. Improving appointment scheduling by letting patients schedule their own appointments can address the concern. Also, implement a system to send out reminders to minimize no-shows and missed appointments. Consider upgrading your practice management software this New Year to streamline the scheduling function.

Automate verification of patient eligibility

Another measure to get better with hospital revenue cycle management is to automate the verification of patient eligibility for claims. Ensuring that your patients are eligible beforehand enables you to reduce claims rejections down the line. It also eliminates one of the biggest pain points of the billing process. Additionally, automation boosts employee productivity as they can skip all the repetitive tasks and focus on more critical aspects of running the practice. Your hospital staff will be in a better place to provide quality care instead of wasting time on verification and paperwork.

Bring transparency in payment processes

Besides streamlining appointment scheduling and eligibility verification, you must focus on bringing transparency to payment processes this year. Ensuring healthcare cost transparency is a trust factor for patients as they know their financial responsibility before committing to the treatment plan. It also benefits your organization by reducing bad debts down the line. You can go the extra mile by giving patients the option to pay their bills online, as it is convenient and encourages timely payments. The overall objective is to make your payment process simple, transparent, and more accessible.

Modernize claims processing

Modernizing claims processing should be next on your checklist to improve the revenue cycle management for your hospital. You can do it by implementing a software solution to handle claim documentation and calculations instead of relying on the conventional manual process. The switch helps in ensuring the accuracy and completion of claims before submitting them to insurers. It boosts the chances of prompt payment and limits the risk of rejection of claims for your hospital.

Manage claim denials

Denied claims are an integral part of the business, so you cannot sideline them completely, no matter how efficient your process is. But careful planning and attention to detail can help you minimize them. Outsourcing your revenue cycle management to specialists ensures the highest first-pass acceptance rate. Also, follow up on denied claims instead of losing track and not resubmitting them. You can always send such claims for review and resubmission to get a second shot.

Outsource medical billing

Another simple step to enhance hospital revenue cycle management is to clean up your medical billing practices. The best way to do it is by outsourcing the process to an expert as it reduces your workload and prevents errors and inefficiencies in medical billing. A specialist can also help you improve the process efficiency to get you paid faster and increase your revenues in the long run. Moreover, your staff can concentrate their energy on patient care without worrying about long and complex billing processes.

A healthy revenue cycle is key to the success of a hospital as it keeps the money flowing and boosts profits in the long haul. But you cannot take a set-and-forget approach to revenue cycle management because things can easily go out of control if you are complacent about billing, payments, and claims. Follow these easy steps this New Year to keep track of dollars, ensure timely payments, and stay ahead of denied claims in 2023 and beyond.

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Don't Delay Justice - 5 Mistakes To Avoid Post Car Accident

Don’t Delay Justice – 5 Mistakes To Avoid Post Car Accident

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Don't Delay Justice - 5 Mistakes To Avoid Post Car Accident

It doesn’t matter whether you have been in a minor car accident or in a major crash with another vehicle, it is very crucial that you take certain steps to not just mitigate your loss but also to ensure that you get compensation for your damages from the party at fault. It is going to be a little difficult to remember these things, especially when you are disoriented after a car crash. There will be a lot of things to deal with later on such as medical bills, lost wages, repair costs of your vehicle, and a lot more. But all of that can be managed well enough if you do not make the mistakes that this blog talks about after your car accident. Let’s discuss them in detail right now:

1. Admitting Your Fault

If you do this, you will be jeopardizing your car accident case yourself. But it is important to refrain from saying “I am sorry” or apologizing to the other driver under any circumstances. If it is a minor car accident and if both parties agree to apologize to each other and move on with their lives, that is a different thing. However, if it is a serious injury whether it is sustained on your body or the other person’s, things are going to change significantly for both of you. This is where you will need the support of a legal advisor or car accident attorney. Remember, it is never a good idea to apologize because that amounts to admitting that you are at fault.

2. Leaving The Car Accident Scene

If you do this, it is going to leave no room for imagination for anyone. Everybody is going to think that you were responsible for the accident and this is why you fled the scene of the car crash. This is not a good approach to take. In fact, you are supposed to stay at the scene of the car accident for as long as you can and collect evidence in the form of pictures and videos after your accident. In most cases, it will be that you cannot leave the scene of the accident because you are probably injured or temporarily disabled due to physical and emotional trauma. It is better to try to come back to your senses and record footage of the place if you can.

3. Forgetting To Call The Police

Whether it is a big accident or a small one, it is important to call the police or local law enforcement officers in your area. The place will be able to pick up important clues from the site of the accident that can help you claim damages for your loss. They will be able to record all the evidence and put together a file for your benefit. It also helps you create a record of the entire incident so that your traffic accident lawyer can refer to it at a later stage to verify his observations if you finally decide to go to court.

4. Avoiding Seeing A Doctor

Avoiding seeing a doctor is also a very big mistake that a lot of people make. The jury or judge is going to need evidence that you have sat through all the treatments and gone through all the medical procedures that were due. They are critical to recovering from the physical and emotional trauma that you have suffered. It is important to seek prompt medical attention and treatments to recuperate from your accident injuries. This is because the longer you wait to see the doctor the more difficult it will become for your lawyer to prove that your injuries were actually a cause of the accident and not some other ailment or disease.

5. Mistakes In Your Medical Expenses

If you are not good at math, it is better to hand over this responsibility to somebody else in your family. Forgetting to document all the expenses related to your medical treatments and procedures is a very big mistake. You cannot neglect this responsibility because this is going to get you closer to getting your rightful compensation from the party at fault. If you have detailed information about your medical expenses, the insurance adjusters are going to find it easier to calculate the compensation that you should get for your damages.

Conclusion

Finally, if you can avoid all of these mistakes in addition to a few more that your lawyer can talk to you about, it will be easier for you to claim your damages and get back to your life much sooner.