Services > performance improvement > efficiency

Service efficiency >

Viewed from a distance, all businesses are alike: they convert inputs into outputs as efficiently as possible for desired outcomes and benefits. Inefficiencies tend to hit companies where it hurts most - a bottom line impact for private enterprises or failing services and missed outcomes for public service organisations.

Whilst most managers concur with the need to make the most efficient use of resources, the knowledge and capacity is generally lacking in the organisation. As a consequence, efficiency is often just seen as cost-cutting exercise rather than a strategic approach that reviews processes, the use of technology, the design of jobs and working practices.

OnPoint helps clients eradicate waste and inefficiency in ways that enhance their prospects for success. We help clients achieve more with the same level of resources, and at the same time eliminate unnecessary waste and bureaucracy. In other words, we see efficiency as a means to an end - not the end in itself.

Our normal starting point is a value diagnostic and cost reduction study. We evaluate your specific success factors and assess the fitness of your business and IT systems, balance of resources, structures, expertise and capabilities, and current operating model. We then present our recommendations and help you implement them and realise the benefits. We link our rewards intrinsically to the realisable benefits and critical outcomes..

Cost reduction >

In today's fast moving economy and society, doing more with less has become a staple requirement of all progressive organisations. So whilst your organisation seeks growth (or in the public sector, to achieve better value for money outcomes for citizens, taxpayers, and service users), the demand to reduce costs is a constant one. Developing an effective cost-reduction strategy that maximizes efficiency without compromising growth, capacity, capabilities, and quality is a tricky balance to achieve. You have to resist pressure to make indiscriminate cuts, topslice budgets, or slash headcount across the board. The secret is to optimise cost-performance or to put it another way " trim the fat without cutting into the bone". You need to identify core competencies where efficiency can be improved, trim and consolidate non-core functions, and reinvest the savings in critical business assets. And even before you start, you need buy-in from your company employees and other stakeholders.

Outsourcing might seem to be an easy answer. In many sectors, contracting out non-core business functions such as human resources, billing, or payroll to third-party providers is gaining acceptance. Some companies have even outsourced parts of their operating processes. But once an organisation decides to outsource, it also exposes itself to new forms of risk.

So whatever route you take, you must proceed with caution — and knowledgeable counsel. At OnPoint, we have considerable experience in developing, implementing and evaluating cost reduction, avoidance, and containment programmes. Whats more, our experience in grounded in the 'real world' so you can confident that our recommendations will be feasible, practicable, and cost-benefits clearly identified and interpreted.