Title: Tapping%20Your%20Inner%20CEO:%20Management%20Tips%20to%20Stay%20on%20Budget%20and%20Deadline
1Tapping Your Inner CEO Management Tips to Stay
on Budget and Deadline
By Kim Schroeder
2Digitization Projects and Fears
- Most of our professional literature talks about
the fear of obsolescence in context to these
projects. - While that is a fear not to be minimized, there
is another fear that archivists have and that is
running out of budget. Whether not imagining
they have enough money to even begin or anxiety
over running out in funds in the middle, these
fears hamper digital projects and success. - How to avoid this is not well documented and yet
business processes are clear and supportive. - We need to stop making solo archivists re-invent
the wheel when embarking on a digital project.
3Business Principles
- Sound business principles exist for a reason.
- Businesses that diverge from them, impact
employees, company survival and even sometimes
the world economy. - Using these tools we can attain efficiency and a
certain comfort zone.
4Business Principles
- Few archivists have a business background.
- Many have an impression of business as something
they are removed from. - We need to be involved in ACTIVE management of
these projects. - As we are so understaffed, much of our time is
spent reacting to users and issues rather than
proactively managing.
5Business Principles
- We need to actively plan out how much effort the
project will take. - How much money we have or need.
- How much money we think that we can obtain.
- Set deadlines and milestones.
- Build in the promotion, fund-raising and outreach
of these collections. - Lets begin where most archivists do
6Pricing
- There is much talk on the listservs about what to
charge for various services in libraries and
archives.
7Pricing
- There is much talk on the listservs about what to
charge for various services in libraries and
archives. - What is wrong with this?
8Pricing
- Addressing what a patron can afford is important.
So is looking at the market rate to make sure
you are not missing something in determining your
price and set it unreasonably too high or low. - BUT
9Pricing
- You need to know how much your COST is.
- Example
- Your institution will provide on-demand scanning
of archival materials (within reason). How much
do you charge?
10Pricing
- You need to know how much your COST is.
- What costs go into this determination?
11Pricing
- You need to know how much your COST is.
- What costs go into this determination?
- Fixed Costs
- Variable Costs
12Pricing
- Fixed Costs
- Costs spread throughout the institution for it to
exist. - Variable Costs
- Depends on the type of service and may vary on a
case by case basis.
13Pricing
- Fixed Costs
- Might include building costs, staffing, utility
bills, office supplies, etc. - Variable Costs
- Might include ink that varies in annual cost
based on how many prints you make.
14Pricing
- Fixed Costs
- Costs spread throughout the institution for it to
exist. - Might include building costs, staffing, utility
bills, office supplies, etc. - Building - Annual Lease - 100,000
- Staff Salaries and Benefits - 250,000
- Utilities - 10,000
- Supplies - 1500
- Insurance - 2000
- Total - 363,500 / 2,000 open hours 181.75
per hour base cost
15Pricing
- Variable Costs
- Might include ink that varies in annual cost
based on how many prints you make. - Ink Cartridge - 50 (used half of it)
- Paper - 1.00
- Staff Scanning/Research Time 1 hour
- Total Cost to make a patron scan 207.75
16Budgeting
- Knowing your internal costs allows you to
determine your real budget. - Hidden costs, not knowing internal cost, fees,
and timing all create failing budgets.
17Budgeting
- Defining a digital service is important. For
instance, developing a Twitter project to help
you promote your digital collection is a
reasonable option. Lets look at the real costs.
18Sample Twitter Project Costs(Assuming no
Technology Investment Needed)
Needs Assessment 5 hrs 25 x 5 125
Developing Content for Twitter/ Competitive Research Developing Content for Twitter/ Competitive Research 10 hrs 25 x 10 250 You should start with a backlog of content
Developing Institutional Process Developing Institutional Process 5 hrs 25 x 5 125 Minimum!
Setting up Account .5 hrs 25 x .5 12.50
Monitoring Account 2.5 hrs 25 x 2.5 62.50 Per Week Minimum!
Uploading Content 2 hrs 25 x 2 50 Per Week Minimum!
On-going Develop of Content On-going Develop of Content 2 hrs 25 x 2 50 Per Week Minimum!
Totals 512.5 Start-up Staff Time
162.5 On-going Weekly Costs
19Budgeting
- Developing a digital project budget is quite a
bit more complicated and often takes a team of
people to review for accuracy.
20Budgeting
21Budgeting
22Budgeting
23Budgeting
Interface Design
Search Methodology
User Access
Folksonomies?
Network Back-ups
Vendor Management
On-going IT Administration
24Vendor Relations
- Hidden costs are rampant with vendors and this is
a problem on both ends. - Arguing over money ruins many marriages and a
business relationship is no different! - Understand the fine print, the amount of
maintenance now and in the future, fees, upgrade
issues, etc. - Consider capping service hours.
- Be sure to specify in contracts what is a working
product or service. Completion is not competency.
25Tracking
- Report generation is something that is often put
to the side. - It is vital for management
- You can feasibly track EVERYTHING.
- Staff time on the Internet
- Average chat reference length
- Satisfaction with reference interaction
- Improvement in digital response, breadth of
content, depth of content, user volume, etc.
26Sample Time Ticket
Archive Media Partners, Inc. Archive Media Partners, Inc. Archive Media Partners, Inc. Archive Media Partners, Inc. Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet Daily Time Sheet
220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946 220 Bagley, Suite 828, Detroit, MI 48226, phone 313-963-6355, fax 413-383-9946
Employee Name Employee Name Willie C. Durant Willie C. Durant Willie C. Durant Willie C. Durant Willie C. Durant Week Ending Week Ending Week Ending 8/15/2010 8/15/2010 8/15/2010 8/15/2010 8/15/2010
Client/Work Order Monday Monday Tuesday Tuesday Wednesday Wednesday Thursday Thursday Friday Friday Sat/Sun Sat/Sun Totals Totals
Client/Work Order HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod HO prod
AMP-002 DAM Meeting 2 2 0
Scan-0003 5 25 8 40 13 65
Index-0001 6 60 6
Index - 0002 2 10 8 45 10 55
QC-001 1 15 8 100 9 115
27Sample Time Ticket
- From this simple format the following data can be
generated - Average scans per hour
- Percentage of time for each task per employee
- Overall production
- Amount of time spent on tech problems
28Adjusting
- Tracking is of no value if the data is not
analyzed and acted upon. - A good project management practice is to define
the process but leave room for adjustment for
optimal efficiency.
29Workflow Tables
30Workflow Table
31Data Sample
- Example The weekly time ticket report generates
the following. What does it tell you?
32(No Transcript)
33Reading the Data
- 1) The through-put of the scanning is making the
goals but the through-put for the other tasks is
holding the entire project behind. - 2) More staff needs to be given to indexing and
qc or decreasing scanning might be an option. - 3) The backlog of quality check is increasing at
a faster rate than indexing. This might mean
that there are issues with the training of the
staff or an increase in questions with the
indexing. The indexing process might need to be
examined as well. - 4) Looking at increases month to month might be
important rather than quarterly. - If nothing is done, you risk having your
collection piled high in incomplete stacks
instead of fully digitized and refiled.
34Reading the Data
- If nothing is done, you risk having your
collection piled high in incomplete stacks
instead of fully digitized and refiled. - You also risk not completing a task at all.
35Feedback
- Staff, management and patrons all deserve to be
given feedback. In a service business we all
need communication of our mutual goals,
successes, failures and (hopefully) improvements. - When issues arise that hold up a smooth workflow,
the entire team should be asked for input. This
has to be done in a comfortable atmosphere so
that true suggestions will be offered. - Even if your team is making its goals, regular
solicitation of staff for ways to be more
efficient should be executed.
36Feedback Tools
- Suggestion Box Posted in a clearly marked area
of the workroom. It should be reviewed each
week. - Announcing Open Door policy for all staff to
suggest improvements to management. - Hiring a consultant to moderate and document
suggestions and an optimal process. - Create an online survey of staff in Survey Monkey
or others. - Hand out surveys to staff.
37Feedback Tools
- Sample questions
- What are typical problems that you encounter in
______? - (Scanning, indexing, quality control, etc.?)
- If you were to re-do the process, what would you
change? - If we had an unlimited budget what would you like
to see done to the process?
38Evaluation
- Evaluating how your budget is progressing is
important. A weekly or monthly review is
recommended and even more frequently if needed. - This means that overages can be caught before it
is too late. - In the previous example, we see a few things that
affect the through-put for hitting completion but
what about the impact on budget? - Not enough is typically done to think about the
dollars that are now needed. The impact of
slow-downs in tasks might be greater search time
to answer a user research request or it might
mean the project goes tremendously over budget.
39Evaluation and Quantification
- Does the backlog in indexing mean that we are
pulling other staff off of other vital tasks? - Analyzing the data and adjusting the workflow is
critical to staying on budget and deadline. - The quantification is one side of it, but quality
is a big half of this. The quality of work and
quantifying that is often a tough aspect for
archives. - It is possible to create this type of numerical
support and create a business case? Yes, it is.
40Evaluation and Quantification
- Akin to public libraries that look at their
circulation numbers for the year and multiply out
the cost per book to get a total purchase price
for books and magazines that shrinks the cost of
a millage. Creating these numbers is an
important selling tool in developing your budget. - Perhaps, you plan to digitize your 75 most
requested images. This will then cut down on
repeat questions and create an economy of scale. - This when uploaded to your website also creates a
buzz about your archive and its valuable
contents. Media coverage can be quantified. - The more people know about your archive, the more
they will use it and sustain it.
41Time Studies
- The results of the time tickets can give you
great information about how much time it takes to
do each task. - When comparing it to the time expected it is a
strong tool for managing a digital project that
is on a limited budget.
42Time Studies
43Time Studies
44Time Studies
- This tells us that Henry and John should not be
scanning? - Mary is a stronger scanner?
- If Henry did all of the scanning for 1000 images
then it would take him 400 hours. If Mary did
it, she would take about 143 hours. With a rate
of pay of 20 per hour the cost difference IF
quality is the same would be - Henry 8000 vs. Mary at 2860 with a dollar
difference of 5140.
45Time Studies
- Money is part of the picture.
- Quality is the other side.
- How often do each of them make mistakes?
- The quality control aspect has to be part of this
story problem!
46Tools Re-cap
- Spreadsheets
- Tracking Forms
- Time Tickets
- Charts!
- Surveys
- Suggestion Boxes
47Sample Tracking Forms Included
- Workflow Tables/Charts
- Time Studies
- Production Reports
- Time Tickets
48Contact Information
- Kim Schroeder
- Adjunct Faculty
- Wayne State University
- School of Library and Information Science
- AG1797_at_WAYNE.EDU
- President/Consultant
- Archive Media Partners
- kim_at_archivemediapartners.com
- Professional Blog to talk about these issues
- www.archivemediapartners.com/AMPed
- Note a link to this presentation is available
via the blog