Business Process Management is is a management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. If your company has already successfully implemented Six Sigma, this is a great program to combine with Six Sigma Principes. Here is a great article to read that corroborates this; Connections: Business Process Management and Six Sigma.

University of San Francisco has just introduced a Master Certificate in Business Process Management. This is an 24 week program that will guide you and teach you how to do the following:

To see a demo, click here.

– Implement all phases of BPM methodology.
– Assess and build organization processes
– Lead process design teams
– Transform a company into a Process-Based Organization (PBO)
– Utilize Centers of Excellence (COE)
– Manage processes effectively
– Standardize documentation
– Align BPM with the business architecture

The first 8 week class is Applied Business Process Management.

The second 8 week class is Advanced Business Process Management Methodology.

The third 8 week class is Business Process Management Design & Implementation.

I think one of the real benefits of this program are the instructors. They are some of the best in the industry, and are teaching you from firsthand knowledge. The faculty is as follows:

Dean T. Walsh, BS, MBA, Ph. D
Will Rose, BS, MBA
Manuel Pineiro, BS, MBA
Matthew Bross, BA, MACC

This program costs $4995 if you enroll for all 3.

Please contact me for more information on this program. The first class will begin September 1, 2010. You can reach me at Elizabeth-Block@universityalliance.com or by phone 800-436-1713 ext. 4203. I am pre-enrolling for this program now. You can contact me over the weekend at lizb0503@gmail.com if you have any questions. I look forward to working together.

I am so excited to announce that we have officially launched some new certificates! Advanced Mobile Marketing is one of them. If you are a small business or a consultant, or looking for a job, you must have Mobile Marketing in your arsenal. If you want projections for Mobile Marketing, look at this incredible data from Forrester Research on U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast 2009-2014.

If you are interested in this program, please make sure that you either take the Master Certificate first, or that you feel that you have a good working knowledge of mobile marketing. This is not a beginner class.

You will learn the tools that you need to use for mobile marketing. You will learn how to develop a mobile marketing campaign. You will learn how to integrate these campaigns and identify the correct creative necessary for mobile media, and how to fully analyze your results through web analytics. A very essential part of this course will be to fully understand the ethics and regulations for mobile marketing. This will save you lots of time and money in the long run. We also have many case studies that should help to provide you with a much better understanding of what has worked, and has not worked.

For more information on this program, please call me directly at 800-436-1713 ext 4203 or email me Elizabeth-Block@universityalliance.com

If you are in the military, you should really consider using your Tuition Assistance Benefits to go back to school. Here is a Tuition Assistance Program Overview that should help you to understand what your benefits are. Once you review this, you should take the next step and find out what program is best suited for you.

One of the nicest benefits of our programs at University Alliance is that you can take these classes 100% online from anywhere in the world. This makes going back to school that much easier.

We offer several programs that would be of interest to the military; Project Management, Supply Chain Management, Six Sigma, and much more.

I cannot tell you how many people I speak with that have never used any of their benefits for continuing education. I am amazed at how many people I enroll who are taking classes for the first time. You typically receive $4,500 per fiscal year. Why would you not take advantage of this?

Take a look at our programs, and call me or email me for a consultation. I look forward to working together, and thank you very much for your service to maintain our freedom. You can reach me at 800-436-1713 ext 4203 or via email Elizabeth-Block@universityalliance.com

Today, I read an article that I found very intriguing. It was in USA Today about the fact that more small businesses are using Facebook, and Twitter to promote their products/services. Just take a look at this statistic from the article “For the first time, social media has become the most visible way for small businesses to promote their products and services. More than half of nearly 10,000 respondents nationwide say they plan to create or maintain a social-networking presence in the next three months, compared with 41% in the first three months of this year.”

What does this mean for you as a job seeker? as a small business owner?

You must learn how to use this medium in order to be as efficient as possible and turn a profit using social media.

Read the article. Let me know your thoughts. If you would like to discuss enrollment into our Advanced Social Media class at University of San Francisco, please contact me at 800-436-1713 ext 4203 or through email at Elizabeth-Block@universityalliance.com

If you are looking for a job in Internet Marketing, you need to look into our Master Certificate in Internet Marketing This program will not only teach you how properly utilize the Internet for marketing, but teach you step-by-step how to implement your media plan. Most people that have been working in the interactive field have learned what they know by trial and error, and on the job training. That has worked for the short term. However, now companies have realized that they need to hire people with a proven track record and education. That is where our program comes into play. University of San Francisco launched their Internet Marketing Master Certificate program through University Alliance approximately 17 months ago. From the moment of inception, the enrollments have continued to grow and grow. People are signing up from all walks of life.

Our program currently offers 7 classes in total. However, the first three classes make up the Master Certificate. We offer three classes in the Master Certificate; Integrated Online Strategies, Search Engine Marketing and Usability and Advanced Interactive Marketing and Measurement.

Each of these classes are 8 weeks long. You work at your own pace and watch video lectures, and then weekly, you have a live virtual class where you interact and learn with the other students in your class, as well as the instructor. One of the great benefits of our program are the industry experts teaching. They are some of the best in the industry, and are very helpful, and want to work with you to make you a success. Please look at their bios to learn more about them. The other benefit of this program is that you truly learn how to implement through a step-by-step approach. This is rare, and hard to come by. I am sure so may of you have attended either a seminar, or an online class, and walked out feeling as though you learned so much, only to find out that you have no idea how to implement what they just taught you. That can be very frustrating. However, these classes truly teach you how take what you have learned and turn the theoretical into action.

Typically, you will need 4-6 hours a week to work on these classes. When we put this program together, we understood that most people don’t have the luxury of time. Therefore, this time committment seems to work for most busy professionals.

We then have specialized advanced classes that you can pursue as well in Social Media, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing and Web Analytics.

So why take these classes when looking for a job? I cannot tell you how many people I have enrolled that have gotten positions while attending University of San Francisco. Companies want to know that you understand what you are doing with their marketing campaigns. Whether this be Social Media, SEO or analytics. They have no room to waste their time or resources to train you, or hire you and hope you know what you are doing. These classes will allow you to position yourself above the rest.

I always suggest that when you are submitting resumes, that you incorporate a cover letter that will clearly state that you are getting your Internet Marketing education from University of San Francisco. This is a top-tiered university that has consistently been ranked as one of America’s top schools according to U.S.News and World Report

Another question I always get is what kind of job opportunities are available for me once I complete this program? While we do not provide employment services, I suggest that you look at some of the job/career sites and conduct some searches. You will get a much better understanding of what your options might be.

Here are some suggestions for searches:

SEO
Web Analytics
Social Media

This should get you started. You can then continue to conduct some searches.

The bottom line is this. You need to keep yourself current and competitive.

Call me today for more information at 800-436-1713 ext 4203, or email Elizabeth-Block@universityalliance.com. We will work together to get this done.

Hello,

We are all familiar with “social media.” We all use it through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, etc. However, many companies are now being faced with the challenge that social media is more than a fad. We now must integrate it into our strategy. But how?

If anyone wants to get a sense of how big social media has already become, please look at this video.

So the question becomes, what do you do to implement social media strategies? Where do you go to get the right education so that you can begin implementing right away?

University of San Francisco offers a great certificate program in social media. It is an 8 week course that is designed to teach you how to implement social media strategies. It is instructor-led by some of the top experts in the industry. You can read more about them at Interactive Marketing Experts. Jay Berkowitz is one of the leading experts. He owns Ten Golden Rules. This is a B2B Internet Advertising Agency that specializes in online advertising and marketing consulting. Jay also hosts a Podcast for Ten Golden Rules of Internet Advertising. . You should listen to this, because it is brilliant.

As mentioned, this is an 8 week course that is 100% online. You watch streaming video lectures at your own pace during the week. Then, weekly, you will have a live virtual class where you will interact with the other students who are taking the class, as well as the instructor. These virtual classes are recorded, so that you can watch them over again. These classes are highly interactive and usually spent discussing social media tactics and ways to implement your social media strategies. You have the ability to ask questions and speak directly with the instructor.

The outline for this course is as follows:

Week 1: Introduction to Social Media
Week 2: Listening and Monitoring
Week 3: Content Creation
Week 4: Communication
Week 5: Metrics and Science
Week 6: Legal and Ethical Considerations
Week 7: Adopting Social Media
Week 8: Social Media Case Studies

Click here to view the syllabus.

If you would like to discuss this class any further, please contact me directly at 800-436-1713 ext 4203, or email me Elizabeth-Block@universityalliance.com.

I am curious to know how many of you that are currently in Project Management have gotten a certification through The Project Management Institute (PMI)? For those of you not familiar with The Project Management Institute, you can see a fact sheet here.

Please share your thoughts on how certification has helped you in your career. Please also state what certification you have.

I speak to so many prospective students each day. How many of them do you think have updated their skills within the last year? It is negligible. That is shocking. Now, how many students do you think have bothered to continue to learn and improve their skills and have continued to excel even in this current economic environment? Well, the small percentage that have are in very good shape. What does this tell us? You must continue to update your skills. I can say it over and over again, but it is a fact. However, no matter how much I can try to urge people to do this; it is the job of the individual to take ownership and responsibility for their well-being.

I strongly advise for you to take at least one course a year to maintain your resume. Why? You never know what will happen moving forward. You must take control of your own life.

Even more so today, in this current environment are people hurting because they have not gotten the updates that they needed to make themselves more employable. I am seeing more and more students who come to me after they have been laid off, and now feeling the pressure of having no job, and needed to go back to school because they need to stay competitive.

My advice to you is to act now. Create an education fund so that you may continue to go back and learn. We are never done learning, and you never know when it will benefit you most. Why be caught off guard?

Call me today at 800-436-1713 ext 4203 or email me Elizabeth-Block@universityalliance.com

Hello,

This was a question that came up on LinkedIN, and I chose to respond to his question. I think that it is something that can be very useful for other prospective students.

This is not a simple question to answer. A great definition comes directly from APICS. Supply Chain Management is the “design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand, and measuring performance globally.” There are two associations that one can go to, to get their certification. They are APICS and ISM. Both associations offer different certifications depending on what your area of focus will be; purchasing or operations. Therefore, your first step would be to decide in which area are you going to focus on. ISM offers certification for your Certified Professional in Supply Management® (CPSM®). APICS offers two certifications; Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM), and Certified Supply Chain Professional. (CSCP).

Once you make your decision on which route you want to take, you need to then find the appropriate program of study that will help you to achieve that certification. Through University of San Francisco, there is a Master Certificate program in Supply Chain Management. This program serves two purposes. You are prepared for certification, as well as learning the entire supply chain. This can be invaluable for you when seeking out employment. It is essential that you understand the supply chain from end-to-end. You can visit USF’s online program for more information. I have provided a link to their program below. Once you complete your online course, you will then need to pass the certification exam, and then fulfill your work experience requirement. Most likely, you will start in an entry level position and work your way up.

Here is a list of some common entry level positions that you can look into further: Supply Chain Consultant, Supply Chain Analyst, Buyer/Planner, Supply Manager, Procurement Manager, Inventory Manager, Purchasing Manager, Logistics Planner, Materials Manager, Plant Manager, Six Sigma Blackbelt, Operations Manager, Quality Manager, Operations Analyst, Service Manager, Business Analyst. You can always seek out employment in an entry level position while you are in class.

You must understand that this is not a fast-track plan. It will most likely take you 2-3 years of solid work experience to really reap the reward. However, if you follow this plan, you will get there.

I hope this has helped you. You can contact me if you would like to discuss this program further that we offer at University of San Francisco. You can email me at Elizabeth-Block@universityalliance.com

You can email me at lizb0503@gmail.com with any questions over the weekend.