Badge of the Month: Hello, June!

Miran Saric

Summer is here for many of us—which means it's time to earn the June badge in our Badge of the Month series.

A big thank you goes out to May's participants: @Fethi ZERARA, @Nicolas CHIGROS, @Nico Weber, @Carlos Eduardo Meneses Maran, and @Rishabh Shahi. We appreciate your contributions.

Remember: it's never too late to take part in this program as anyone is free to join at any point! All you have to do is answer the question below and the badge is all yours. And while you're at it, be sure to visit past months' posts and earn those badges as well, as there's no time limit to this program!

March Badge of the Month
April Badge of the Month
May Badge of the Month

While you're at it, check out our entire Community Voices series to meet some of our Community leaders and learn from their experiences and successes. If you want to take part in this series, let us know by reaching out to us at community@board.com.

Why take part?

Our Community grows when we all take part in sharing our experience and knowledge, and what better way to help us grow than to take part in this series? Plus, you'll receive a neat badge for your profile each time you participate! Not to mention, those that participate every month this year are eligible for the Community Captains program.

Now, let's get to the question:

June question of the month

This month, we're talking about how having a Center of Excellence (CoE) can support your business practice.
In your experience, what are some key benefits of establishing a CoE? Do you have a CoE? Share your best practices with the Community in the comments below.

Feel free to go into detail on your creative solution in the comments below, and be sure to follow our Badge of the Month series the rest of the year.

Fethi ZERARA

A Center of Excellence (CoE) supercharges your business by enforcing best practices and consistent processes, leading to efficient, high-quality work

And of course, a such structure centralizes expertise, promoting continuous learning and growth, ultimately driving customer satisfaction ( Cross-Selling / Upselling Potential )

Internally, we're actively building our CoE (mouting a such cell may take sometime in fact) . While initial costs, potential resistance to change, and integration challenges exist, the long-term benefits are undeniable

Miran Saric

Appreciate you sharing, @Fethi ZERARA!

Helmut Heimann

As an employee, I'm in the consulting field but I look back at 30+ years in the consulting business and can tell that sooner or later you'll have to take care of business, yourselves.

My experience says that sooner will always be better.

From my point of view, you should establish a CoE to keep your applications up-to-date regarding system health and expandability for upcoming business needs. The sooner you get involved in understanding how your applications work and what they need to support your business in the best possible way, the better you're off. Then, you'll be able to help your colleagues achieve their goals.

Nico Weber

In today's competitive business landscape, establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) can provide significant advantages. Here are some key benefits:

1. Enhanced Expertise and Skill Development

A CoE centralizes top talent, fostering an environment for developing and sharing specialized knowledge, keeping the organization at the forefront of industry trends.

2. Standardization and Best Practices

By promoting best practices, a CoE ensures consistency and high standards across the organization, improving efficiency and scalability.

3. Increased Efficiency and Cost Savings

Streamlined processes and elimination of redundancies through a CoE lead to significant cost savings and more effective resource utilization.

4. Innovation and Competitive Advantage

A CoE encourages innovation by exploring new ideas and technologies, providing the organization with a competitive edge and maintaining its market position.

5. Improved Decision-Making

Access to expert insights and data-driven analytics enhances decision-making, leading to better business outcomes and strategic planning.

6. Better Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

A CoE fosters cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing, breaking down silos and leading to more innovative solutions and a cohesive organizational culture.

Establishing a CoE is a strategic move that centralizes expertise, promotes best practices, and drives innovation, leading to improved efficiency, better decision-making, and enhanced customer satisfaction. For organizations aiming to thrive in a dynamic market, a CoE is an invaluable asset.

Miran Saric

Great advice @Helmut Heimann and @Nico Weber, always appreciate your insight and expertise!

Dave

We recently began researching and implementing our Center of Excellence (CoE) for Technology. Three of the key points I presented to the senior leadership team were:

1. Alignment and Innovation: A CoE for Technology will ensure alignment around a common purpose and drive innovation within our organization. We need a structure to measure, experiment, and drive each other towards excellence, ultimately fostering an environment of continuous improvement and innovation

2. Specialized Skills and Expertise: A CoE for Technology will allow me to bring people with specialized skills and expertise outside the IT Department to a group to contribute to our digital transformation. This concentration of expertise addresses skills and knowledge deficits within the organization, providing leadership and disseminating knowledge to support others.

3. Standardization and Best Practices: The CoE for Technology will not only help standardize best practices for company-wide technology adoption but also play a pivotal role in strategic planning, decision-making, and execution of technology projects. It will provide valuable input, guide our technology strategies, and ensure successful implementation.

Miran Saric

Thank you for sharing and best of luck in your implementation, @Dave!

Rishabh Shahi

Keeping Up-to-Date with Methodologies

With any software or tech product, it's crucial to stay current with existing methodologies and enhancements. This is especially important for Board, where new updates are launched in multiple cycles throughout the year.

Purpose of a Centre of Excellence (CoE)

A Centre of Excellence (CoE) addresses the need for continuous improvement and knowledge-sharing among users and teams. It helps fill knowledge gaps and ensures teams remain proficient with the product.

Importance of CoE for Stability

With many features and capabilities involved, a CoE not only enhances the validity of processes but also serves as a safety net when issues arise, helping ensure service continuity. Relying on the expertise of a CoE team is essential when employees lack familiarity with certain components.

Role of CoE in Supporting Operations

A CoE provides a multi-faceted group of SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) who offer round-the-clock support for the full lifecycle of live solutions, ensuring smooth operations.

Achieving Operational Independence

To reach a high level of operational independence, organizations need multiple levels of enablement, which takes time. Catching up to the full range of offerings from Board requires planning and effort, making it advisable to always include a CoE team when starting new projects.

Best Practices for Data and Testing

Two critical best practices to follow:

• Consistent Backups: Ensure that Data Models are backed up regularly to avoid data loss.
• Sandbox Testing: Always test changes in a sandbox or parallel environment before deploying them to the production environment to avoid unintended consequences.

*edited with headers..

Miran Saric

Great advice, thank you @Rishabh Shahi!

Carlos Eduardo Meneses Maran

In my experience, I can give a simple example of what @Nico Weber has described as

3. Increased Efficiency and Cost Savings

There is always the question among people newly introduced to Board:

Can I manually delete entity members? Should it never ever be done?

As Board has already stablished its CoE, I can suggest reading its article "How to Remove Obsolete Entity Members". Doing like that, those asking that question will get a precise answer while I can save some time instead of starting such a long and tricky explanation.

https://community.board.com/discussion/16273/how-to-remove-obsolete-entity-members

Miran Saric

Great article to share, thanks @Carlos Eduardo Meneses Maran!