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On December 1st, 1913, Henry Ford’s assembly line turned out its first Model T. A model of efficiency and safety in the workplace, Ford’s assembly line continued to churn out Model T’s at the previously unbelievable rate of one every three minutes. The only color available at the time was black, not because cars couldn’t be painted other colors, but because, until the development of fast drying lacquers in 1926, black was the only color that would dry fast enough to keep up with the manufacturing process. There are many who erroneously believe that Henry Ford invented the assembly line. In actual fact the first linear and continuous assembly line was used at the Portsmouth Block Mills in the very early 1800’s and, even earlier, in 1797, Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, created an assembly line for the production of muskets, 10,000 of which his factory produced for the U.S. government in just two years. Ford wasn’t even the first person to use an assembly line in the production of cars. That was Ransom Olds, who patented his assembly line process for producing the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, the company’s first mass-produced car, which began rolling off the line in 1901. So, if Ford didn’t invent the assembly line and he wasn’t even the first to use this technology to produce cars, how did his name become so widely associated with automation? And what does any of this have to do with automated Business Process Management? A very good case could be made that Ford simply took advantage of the accumulation of pre-requisite technologies to engineer a manufacturing system that simply wouldn’t have been possible even a few years before, and furthermore that if Ford hadn’t done it someone else would have. Automated Business Process Management is an emerging technology very much like Ford’s continuous production line. Instead of parts, it controls the flow of tasks and information within an organization, and in doing so, manages the workflow for people within that organization rather than the flow of materials. And, just as Ford’s assembly line simply wasn’t possible until certain pre-requisite technologies were in place, so too, automated BPM wasn’t possible on a practical scale until early in the 21st century. Before Ford could engineer his manufacturing process, a process that became known as ‘Fordism’ and that has been the model for virtually all manufacturing done today, there were a number of technologies which had to be in place. First was the concept of interchangeable parts. Up until the late 1700’s virtually everything was custom built one unit at a time. This meant that if you owned a musket, and a part broke, you couldn’t replace that part with the same part from another musket, even if it was made by the same company. The part wouldn’t fit. Secondly, there was required the concept of the assembly line itself (remember, Ford didn’t invent this). The idea that it was more efficient to bring the work to the employee, rather than bringing the employee to the work was revolutionary not too many years before the time of Ford and Olds. The final piece of the puzzle, though, Ford can take credit for: the moving assembly line. Ford’s factory was the first known use of moving assembly lines, essentially combining the idea of an assembly line with a powered conveyer belt which brought the work to the employees at a controlled and steady pace. In the same way, until very recently, the pre-requisite technologies for automated Business Process Management simply did not exist. First, we needed a business environment in which virtually all jobs within a company required a computer. Then, we needed to network those computers so that communication between workers can be instantaneous and automatic. Third, we required a standardized method for describing any business process and finally, we had to have open source software that could make the process of engineering automated Business Process Management solutions efficient and cost-effective, obviating the need for a completely custom solution for every business - a requirement that would have put the implementation of automated BPM out of the price range of most companies. Ford made one other very important contribution to modern manufacturing practices, one that has a significant parallel with automated Business Process Management. Ford’s most significant contribution was not so much the moving assembly line, despite the significant innovation that was, but the manner in which he organized the entire assembly process. It was this model which came to be known as ‘Fordism’ and which still forms the basis for most manufacturing today. Many people picture Ford’s assembly line as one long conveyer moving a chassis from start to completion but in fact Ford’s process was much more complex than this. Along the central assembly line were many tributary lines on which were assembled the constituent parts of the car. One line would produce steering columns, another fuel pumps and yet others assembled wheels, headlights, coolant systems and all the other parts the car required. Each of these was placed in a specific order and the assembly process timed so that the part being prepared was ready as the chassis reached that station. Furthermore, each part had to be installed within a specific time frame before the chassis moved on automatically to the next station. It was in this manner that Ford decreased the time required to assemble a car from over 12 man hours to just over 90 minutes.

Just as early attempts at assembly line manufacturing predate Fordism by over 100 years, so too there have been attempts at implementing automated Business Process Management systems since the early days of networked computers. These attempts were necessarily hampered by the limitations of early computer networks, the lack of a standardized means to outline business processes and the need for open source software in which the groundwork had already been laid. Today these pre-requisite technologies are in place and, as a result, in recent years automated Business Process Management has become not only a realistic option for many companies but increasingly it has become required in order to remain competitive. The advantages of a well-engineered automated BPM solution are many, resulting in greater efficiency and freeing management from day to day monitoring of work flow and thereby allowing managers to focus on those areas which will serve to increase productivity and profitability. Before automated BPM, management was required to spend the majority of their time monitoring workflow – the simple day-to-day tasks which each department needed to complete in order to keep a company functioning at a basic level. This of course meant there was very little time left over to focus on strategy and growth, to assist in addressing unexpected problems that might be encountered by employees in the course of doing their daily tasks, and perhaps most importantly, to simply think about the bigger picture; to engage in the kind of top-down analysis that leads to innovation. Instead managers spend time monitoring each employee, checking in to see that required tasks are being completed in a timely manner so that other employees farther down the task chain can do their jobs, and so on in a never-ending circle. Now imagine that same manager able to simply check an on-screen checklist, often from anywhere – the office, home, or on the road – and see at a glance what tasks have been completed by each employee, see where a bottleneck in workflow may be forming, or even assign priorities to pending tasks. The same system will notify each employee, automatically, when a pre-requisite task by another employee in the chain has been completed and flag a new task ‘pending’ as a result, then monitor that task in turn and notify yet another employee, and management, when the task has been completed and so on in a never-ending circle – all without the manager ever needing to step outside their office, send an email or pick up the phone. Another obvious advantage of this technology is the ability to make an organization ‘leaner’, especially those companies that are very task heavy and that, as a result, have traditionally required mid-level managers whose sole purpose is to monitor daily workflow. Some of these positions can now be eliminated as the automated BPM system will replace them with a more efficient and tireless ‘virtual manager’. This not only saves the company money but has the potential to remove levels of obfuscation that make it difficult for upper management to see where an organization may have room for improvement or innovation. In addition, many companies have compliance requirements which must be adhered to. A well implemented automated BPM solution will control workflow ensuring that all required tasks are not only completed but completed in time, while ensuring that any associated or pre-requisite tasks are also completed and while simultaneously keeping a record of these tasks. A system such as this will greatly reduce the likelihood of a company unintentionally violating compliance regulations.

Business Process Model and Notation is quite simply a method of flowcharting any business process in a manner which is largely intuitive and which bridges the communication gap between the employees within an organization, including management, and the programmers who must implement the automated Business Process Management system. The actual creation of the BPMN flowcharts and the accompanying notes require a specialized skill set provided by Business Analysts/Technical Writers who interview Subject Matter Experts within an organization, distill the resulting information to discover the exact processes which are required to complete the organization’s objectives and then create flowcharts using standardized symbols. These flowcharts and notes are then handed off to the programmers and are also used in most cases to create Operations and Procedures Manuals for the company itself. These manuals not only serve as a handy reference for existing employees but also serve to speed training of new employees, although these benefits are corollary to the main purpose of enabling the implementation of an automated BPM solution in an efficient manner. Business Process Model and Notation 2.0 is, as previously mentioned, largely intuitive once the basic concepts have been explained. The concepts are themselves quite simple and straightforward. There are three basic types of flowchart symbols used: rectangles which represent Tasks, diamonds which represent Decisions (or ‘Gateways’ in programming parlance) and circles which represent Events. Once a clear understanding of the differences between each of these three concepts has been gained a well prepared BPMN flowchart will enable anyone with the pre-requisite knowledge of their industry to see and understand a given business process. Events are things which ‘happen’, such as a phone call from a customer, an email from a business partner or other employee, or a cheque arriving in the mail. ‘Open’ or ‘Catch’ events always begin a process, that is, there is always an event which triggers a chain of tasks and decisions. There are also ‘Close’ events which end a process, ‘Intermediate’ or ‘Throw’ events which move the flow to another process or sub-process, ‘Timed’ events, ‘Message’ events and several other types as well, however it is only necessary to understand that these are things which ‘happen’, not things which are ‘done’ and in fact the sub-types of events are often used at the discretion of the Business Analyst and usually only where their use will serve to clarify, rather than complicate, the BPMN flowchart. Tasks are things which are ‘done’, such as a sales rep completing an order form, an email being sent or a cheque being deposited. Just as with events, there are different types of tasks but it is only necessary to understand that these are things which require an employee or a computer to do a certain thing. It is similarly important to know that tasks can be automated and that what is a task for one person or department may be an event for another. Finally, there are ‘decisions’ which are somewhat self-explanatory beyond understanding that decisions are not themselves tasks. Decisions come out of tasks. For example, a sales rep may complete the task of speaking with a customer to determine which options the customer would like. On the flowchart, this task will be represented as a rectangle with the subsequent options flowcharted as decisions (diamonds) following that task, either in sequence or in parallel. In programming parlance, BPMN ‘decisions’ are often referred to as ‘gateways’, simply because they control the logic flow within the automated BPM solution in the same way that, for example, electrical relays control the flow of power within a wiring network. Decisions can be exclusive, that is, only one path out of two or more may be taken, or they may be inclusive, allowing several paths to be followed simultaneously. There are also ‘complex’ decisions which may be dependent upon conditional logic to determine the path taken. Once again, just as with tasks and events, detailed decision or gateway symbols will be used only to clarify in cases where the generic symbol may lead to confusion.

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How to do an external URL redirect in Wordpress

First off, credit where credit is due. This content is based on content found here: http://www.nathanrice.net/blog/how-to-redirect-a-page-using-custom-fields-in-wordpress/ I've taken Nathan Rice's basic concept for internal and external URI redirection with custom fields in Wordpress and broken it down into basic steps.

Connect to your FTP host

Go to the following directory (usually) /home/yoursite/public_html/wp-content/themes/yourtheme/

Open pages.php

Find the following line of code (usually the very first line):

<?php get_header(); ?>

Replace it with the following code:

<?php global $post; // < -- globalize, just in case $field = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'redirect', true); if($field) wp_redirect(clean_url($field), 301); get_header(); ?>

Save the changes and upload the file back to your FTP host

Log in to your Wordpress site (as an Administrator)

Go to your "Pages" section and click "Add New"

Name the page what you would like the link to be called. eg. For www.yoursite.com/abc, name the page "abc"

Make sure that "Custom Fields" is checked in "Screen Options" (top right)

Add a custom field called "redirect" and set the value to the URL you would like the site to redirect to

Publish the page

BPM or Business Process Management can give any business, big or small, various benefits that could translate to revenue. While there may be a lot of businesses that cling to traditional ways of operating, more and more organizations have opted to incorporate technology to make processes more efficient. If your business has not yet explored the possibilities of using BPM, the following BPM benefits might convince you to finally make a change.

BPM can help you save.

Sometimes cost cutting may not do the trick anymore. Too much cost cutting can even lead to high employee dissatisfaction and turnover, bad work environment conditions, and poor output and service. These things can lead to bankruptcy and the possible shut down of a company. Don’t let this happen to your own company too. Instead of cutting down costs, why not make your operations more efficient? Operation efficiency can lead to cost saving.

With the help of BPM, tasks and the entire business workflow can be efficiently managed which then leads to maximized work hours. There will be no time wasted when work is effectively managed and tracked. Errors are also minimized with the help of BPM, thus waste of resources is minimized if not totally eliminated.

BPM can make your operations organized.

Another basic feature BPMs offer is a more organized process following an easy structure for your company. With a systemized operation which can be easily modified, your company can move freely with the least error. Whatever mistake is seen on the system can quickly be addressed to eliminate delays and losses.

BPM enhances employee satisfaction.

While your employees may be skeptical when it comes to incorporating a new technology at work, BPM will make them love the change. BPMs offer collaborative features which allow team members and employees to collaborate and easily reach out to each team member. With a well-tracked project, time use will be maximized which will prevent project delays. This could be a source of stress for many employees. When the company will implement performance-based bonuses for employees, those who work well will be compensated more and those who don’t will also be encouraged to put in more effort. BPM reviews show that employee satisfaction has been enhanced after implementation of BPM in the company.

BPM promotes customer satisfaction.

It is common for BPMs to have features aiming to improve the company’s customer experience. With BPM, customers are closer than ever to the company as they could easily reach out with their concerns and queries. This leads to quicker response and problem resolution which enhances customer experience.

BPM offers security to the company.

Productivity must be a company’s main goal. Without it, your company is set to go bankrupt and fail. It is common for a company to have problems when it comes to productivity. Poor productivity may be attributed to inefficient systems and processes, defective tools and equipment, slacking employees and lack of performance evaluation. These and many more issues regarding productivity can be addressed with BPM or Business Process Management. Below is a brief explanation of each scenario.

Easy to follow business structure and process.

With an easy to understand process which can be viewed on a BPM’s interface, the company reduces mistakes which could lead to better products and higher production.

Easy to identify loopholes.

When something is wrong with your process, the system can determine where you have fallen short which can then be easily addressed through the BPM’s efficient reporting and real time tracking of projects and the entire process.

It maximizes employee performance.

The collaboration feature BPMs offer is a great tool for employees to be able to connect with each other especially when working on the same project. The system can also track projects and their progress as well as the performance of employees (how much time spent on projects, who’s working on what, etc.)

It reduces human error and waste of resources.

With a systematic process and a more organized workflow, human error is minimized if not totally eliminated. Forms are also available and easily modified and tracked within a BPM system. This eliminates waste and paperless process will definitely save on costs.

Easily develops solutions to identified problems and adjust to certain changes.

One key factor for business success is the adoption of technology and its application to various business operations. We have to admit that technology makes businesses more manageable. Business process management for instance makes business workflow almost seamless, highly coordinated and easily altered according to changes that happen in the organization. With its effectiveness, there’s no wonder why a lot of business organizations make use of BPM software. There are a lot of BPM software in the market but the following 3 BPMs promise to deliver results:

BonitaSoft BPM – Created in 2001, BonitaSoft is an advanced and stable Business Process Management Software that can do the following:

Help the company in the recruitment process – Are you just getting started on building your company or hiring more employees for expansion? There is no need to worry about the rigorous process of recruitment. BonitaSoft can do it for you. Starting from job publication, form drafting collection and analysis, up to applicant tracking and a structured interview, BonitaSoft got them all covered.

Manage the company’s finance department – The finance department is one important branch of the business but some processes can take days to weeks to be completed. With BonitaSoft, red tape can be eliminated which leads to more accurate and quicker operations. Validation of orders, forwarding them to the right departments and invoicing are just some of the processes BonitaSoft takes care of.

Automate customer service support – Customer service is one aspect of your business that can be delegated but equally important that it must be handled efficiently. BonitaSoft makes sure that customer claims and queries are addressed in a timely manner, forms are made available, collected and analyzed, and offers 24/7 support for customers.

ProcessMaker – It is a workflow management and BPM software that is also getting a lot of raves from users. The top features of ProcessMaker are as follows:

Creates and manages workflow for the business – One key feature of ProcessMaker is its easy-to-use workflow creation feature. This is highly helpful to business analysts and the business process creation team. With its drag-and-drop interface, ProcessMaker makes things a lot simpler and highly efficient.

Secures your business systems with its debugger – A debugger is one great feature of ProcessMaker that ensures your processes are highly optimized, checks for possible loopholes and corrects them before you can launch your systems back to work.

KISSFlow – Keep It Simple and Smart Work Flow or KISSFlow was created by OrangeScape Technologies back in 2003 and has been used across more than 100 countries by 10,000+ customers. Its key features are the following:

Has a unified home screen – The software is rooted in simplicity and effectiveness which are best exemplified by its home screen where the user can see everything that needs attention from process requests and approval to initiation and tracking and follow up.

Q & A with Rick from Praetorian Tactical

Derek and I talk with Rick Inkster (my brother) from Praetorian Tactical all about starting and building an online business. He's special - we love him. Rick has been running an online business for just about 2 years. For the last year, it has supported him with a full time income. In this episode, we talk about:

Outsourcing staff

Legal details about setting up a business

Creating a mailing list

Security vs. Freedom

Dealing with fears and frustrations

Running a business with a family

How long it actually takes to make money

Building a following using forums

and much, much more...

How can a geek make a profitable online business?

As a geek, you’ve seen many different online business models. But do you know which ones make money? People say that the potential to make money online is virtually unlimited - how do you get your piece of the online business pie? The most effective strategy is to determine which (or what combination of) online business model best suits you as a geek - it should fit your company, your brand, your audience and your expertise. In this article, I outline several business models that have been proven to be effective in making money online. All of them require you to actually build the business (they are not automatic systems), but many people have made substantial income using each of these methods.

Selling sponsorships

“This video brought to you by, ABC Company...” Many businesses are looking to create specific, targeted marketing online. Since there is a demand for this, why not supply it? As a business to business (B2B) model, this system requires less direct interaction with the final client. You simply create the content that you would normally create (whether article, newsletter, video or something else entirely) and interject the sponsorship. To make money with this online model, you must have a sufficiently large targeted user base to draw the interest of sponsors. Once you have the users, you can approach potential sponsors and they pay you directly.

Selling listings

“Click here to sell your product...” From job listings and houses for sale to, quite literally, the kitchen sink, a site that focusses on online listings can be extremely lucrative. Some sites (like kijiji.com) allow users to post listings for free, then upsell to create revenue (featured listings, additional listing details). Other sites (like monster.com) charge a substantial fee just to post the listing. As with selling sponsorships, what you can charge and who you charge it to is directly based on the type of web traffic that you are generating. A major draw of this online business model is that there is very little interaction with the individual clients. Generally, online directory listing sites are self-service. The individual (or company) posting the listing inputs the content and pays for their advertisement by charging a credit card or other payment method.

Selling impressions

If you have great content, why not sell ads right next to it? Generally, when people think of making money online, this is one of the first things that they think of. A major advantage of this method is that it’s very easy to get started - all you need is Google AdWords. You simply create an account (or use the one you already have), place their code on your site and within minutes you have the vehicle to make money online with. As your business grows you may find that it’s more profitable to sell advertisement space directly to your clients. Rather than selling impressions for 15 to 30 cents per thousand (CPM) impressions, you could sell a specific ad space for several hundred dollars per month and have more control over the look and feel of the advertisement itself. One caveat of this business model is that it requires vast amounts of traffic to generate revenue. While sites like forbes.com generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually online, they also have tens of millions of unique visitors monthly in a very high paying demographic. If you do use this online business model, be prepared to generate huge traffic for modest returns at first.

Selling leads

With a lead-generation business model, everyone gets what they are looking for. An advertiser pays you, the publisher, to receive users’ contact information. As a publisher, you create content that is relevant to the advertiser’s product and place a form alongside that content where a user can express interest in the product. The advertiser pays you for each interested user (called a warm lead or simply a lead), and your users get directly contacted by the advertiser regarding only the products that they are interested in. With this business model, you must be comfortable creating sales copy for another company because, no matter how unbiased an article is, you are still making the initial sales pitch for your advertisers. If you are comfortable with this, then this model can be extremely lucrative.

Selling ebooks

With the advent of ebook readers like the Kindle and the iPad, selling ebooks has become much simpler and very much more profitable. There are people who have built up communities and sell ebooks specific to their niche and make 5 and 6 figures whenever they release a new ebook. There are other people who make a modest 4 figure monthly income that concern themselves less with building a community to sell to. There are also people who make next to nothing selling ebooks. What differentiates these results? Several things. First and foremost, the most successful ebooks are written in subject areas where people have a high motivation to purchase (areas such as weight loss, educational products and “get rich quick” schemes). To be truly successful, take your time choosing your subject matter. The second differentiating factor is the size of the community being sold to. There are many more people who want to lose weight than there are who want to learn to play the banjo. As a result, a weight loss book will do better than a “Banjo Playing 101” ebook. We call selling to a large, preexisting community “standing in front of a parade”. The final major item to consider with ebooks is the quality of the product that you produce. It is significantly easier to generate interest (and therefore sales) with a well written, informative ebook than it is with something second rate. Make a real point of creating material that you can be proud of. By doing this, you will make your life much easier and will create a “buzz” around your ebook.

Selling software products

Download a 15-day trial of this application... What used to be called shareware has now become the de-facto method of software distribution. Nowadays, people won’t purchase an application unless they are able to “kick the tires” a bit. Everyone from the kid next door to Microsoft is offering trial or limited versions of their software to encourage purchases. If you can create a piece of software, then this may be the most effective way for you to make money online. I personally have made thousands of dollars selling applications that took me less than 1 week to create. As with ebooks, you want to consider who has motivation to purchase, how many potential clients there are and be very careful of the quality of the product that you create. In addition, software products are particularly prone to software piracy - recognize that you will have your software stolen by some (perhaps many) people. As a consolation for this, remember that all publicity is good publicity and even though a percentage of your users did not pay for the software, they are still using it and this will create additional “buzz” around your product. Many, many millionaires have been created using this online business model. It is a straightforward and clean method of making money online. You create a product people want, they pay you for it. Since it’s electronic, you don’t even need to worry about shipping, they can download it immediately.

Selling memberships

Technology is often viewed as an additional expense for a company and something that must be embraced by the entire organization. Initially, technology might be viewed as something negative especially by employees who are used to doing everything manually. Facilitating technology might be taken as an inconvenience. However, technology can in fact make company operations more efficient. Just like BPM or Business Process Management, it could entirely change the company’s processes for the better. To maximize BPM’s efficiency, the company’s management must also be able to facilitate changes within the organization. This is how you can leverage BPM for your own company:

Maximize customer experience

According to a survey done by American Express, almost 80% of customers fail to do business with a certain company because of poor customer service. Customer service is becoming more and more of a need for both the company and the customer in order to arrive in a negotiation. This is where BPM can greatly help. With a more structured process that extends even to customer support, customer experience will be highly enhanced.

For instance, customer query submission can be easily fetched with the use of forms and systemized analysis of data. Automated and 24/7 customer support will also be put in place. Addressing customer concerns can be done effectively and in a timely manner with the help of BPM.

If you are a customer-centric company, encourage customers to leave feedbacks and make them feel that their opinions matter. Once BPM is in place, maximize its use by connecting to your customers more.

Take control of company records and files

Record keeping can be easily managed when you own a small business that you can keep track even when you do the recording manually. A little excel knowledge will already do the trick. However, when you deal with a business that demands an intensive record keeping process, the task can be quite daunting. The problem could get worse when a lot of people have access to your company records. Excel files can be easily modified or worse deleted without knowing who did it.

This is where you will need a cloud-based storage for your company files and records which is also a provided feature of common BPMs. Your records don’t need to be accessed on a single computer. They can be viewed, edited and downloaded across various devices which will give you flexibility and ease.

To leverage the cloud storage feature of your BPM, keep everyone in the company informed of how it works and how it could possibly make processes efficient. You can also control access permissions.

Enhance social media integration

Social media brings a lot of advantages especially to businesses. It can bridge the gap between the company and the customers as well as employees. With social media integration offered by various BPMs, customer experience is enhanced and concerns needing immediate action are highly prioritized.

For instance, a customer complaint can easily be addressed by a CSR through direct tweets using BPM and Twitter integration. Salesforce chatter, a workforce collaboration software, also makes it possible for an employee to make his concern known to the concerned company department. These are great tools for speedier and more efficient conflict resolution.