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ValueNet Works™ Practitioner Qualification

The Professional and Group Editions of the ValueNetworks.com application offer an extensive Help Library with self-paced learning modules. You may qualify as a ValueNet Works™ Practitioner by passing our Qualification Test, which is based on the Help Library Topics. The testing fee of $495 USD allows three efforts to pass.

ValueNet Works™ Advanced Practitioner and Facilitator Qualification

The advanced ValueNet Works™ Practitioner and Facilitator qualification includes the fee for the basic Qualification Test, a one year license to the Professional Edition and personal coaching for eight weeks to complete your first Value Network Analysis (VNA) project. Coaching is delivered virtually by Oliver Schwabe and his talented team of analysts and coaches with experience in a broad range of industries. The all inclusive fee of $3500 USD puts you on the fast track to business results!

We can also provide a fast start for your entire team with our on site training programs and project launches. For more information write info@valuenetworks.com or call +1 415 277 5405.

Network expert Pati Anklam (author of Net Work) asked for the current thinking about adding a virtual space (a social networking site, a document repository) etc. as a role in a value network map. This question comes up frequently. There are different schools of thought on this. From the Help Library in the ValueNetworks.com application comes the following:

Why can’t a Role be a computer or a database?
Work is a social activity. Humans may create technologies that mechanize certain tasks, but machines do not make their own decisions about which activities they engage in. Only people make those decisions, determining what activities and transactions are important, and assigning the tasks either to real people, or technology enablers such as applications that can complete the tasks.

But don’t applications sometimes take the place of humans to play Roles?
Yes, they can and do. As technologies become more sophisticated a software program may well be capable of filling a Role. An example might be using an online reservations program to book airline travel. In that case the technology supports fulfillment tasks by acting in the Role of “travel agent” or “reservation service provider.” So even though a software program is capable of filling that Role it is fulfilling it based on the way a real human would typically behave in that Role. The technology is merely a mechanism for a Role to be executed. Focus on the Role first; then consider what might be the most effective mechanisms to support the Role activities.

So, given those guidelines the “role” of a social networking site is really the role of “community organizer” That role is supported by the technology of a social networking platform. But the platform itself does not make decisions – it only does what it is told by the real human “community organizer.” We program applications according to how a real human would execute the role.

Databases are very tempting for people to identify as a role or node in a value network. But the database is just a mechanism to support information deliverables moving from one role to another. From the standpoint of the network it is irrelevant whether the message “your order is in” is delivered by telephone, text message, a website, a face to face meeting or a nod of the head. The deliverable of the message itself is what is important – that it happens between two specific roles.

What happens when people make the database a role is that it becomes a “dumping ground” for all the information and knowledge deliverables that people really don’t want to think through carefully. A common justification is “we just put that in the database for everyone to see.”  My position is that if you are posting something for everyone then you are posting it for no one. Until you have indentified the specific kinds of information that must be exchanged between specific roles you have not really considered the real value (or user) of that deliverable. People do sometimes create a role called “database” but once they start to really go deeper into the analysis it becomes problematic pretty quickly.

Every customer contact is important, but Symantec believes that the postsales support relationship with their customers is especially important. Because most customer support experiences happen without direct contact with a Symantec employee, improving the customer Customer support experience requires systematic and structural changes.

Bradford Smith leads the customer support experience effort for Symantec. "Every part of the organization was investing to do the right thing for the customer," Smith remembers. But because everyone was focused on their own piece of thee puzzle, we weren't getting the results we expected. We needed to create a coordinated plan we could execute together."

Symantec faces two support challenges:
1. They have a rapidly-growing customer base and product portfolio that strains the traditional support model
2. They needed to improve the support customer service while controlling costs.

What they did

• Facilitated a workshop that brought together more than 50 stakeholders in the support customer experience
• Used value networks and customer-centered design to prioritize scenarios from the customer perspective
• Redirected dozens of "inflight" different initiatives into a small number of strategic tasks  

The Results

• A common framework for figuring out what to do and why
• Reognition of the true scope and dynamics of the support experience
• A model to optimize the support network
• Cross-functional buy-in on the highest priorities for the support user experience
• A manageable number of high-value strategic initiatives

The group implemented Allee's value network analysis under the guidance of facilitator David Kay. Learn more about how by reading the full story on the Consortium for Service Innovation website.