1. When you’re
outgrowing your homegrown
credential management system...
Do You
Build
or Buy
your next system?
A BrightLink Insight Series
6 Challenges & Opportunities for Credentialing Organizations Volume 1 | July 2016
Transitioning Employee Engagement
From Stagnation to Innovation1

2. 1. Employee Engagement:
From Stagnation to
Innovation
2. Candidate Turnaround:
From Handicapped to
Healthy
3. Business Processes:
From Counterproductive
to Coefficient
4. Cultural Ethos: From
Entrenchment to
Enrichment
5. Candidate Perception:
From Negative to Positive
6. Technology Mindset:
From Myopic to Modern
Six Challenges
& Opportunities
in deciding whether
To Build or Buy
your next solution
BrightLink Insights | Volume 1 | July 2016 thebrightlink.com | Page 2
Executive Summary
Transitioning from homegrown manual processes to automation
will always require strategic planning to confront significant
challenges. There are generally three observable stages in the
overall process:
● Discerning when your organization may be
outgrowing homegrown solutions.
● Determining when to transition.
● Deciding to build or buy a credential management
solution as part of the transition..
Our interactions with credentialing organizations reveal six
typical challenges. Each one overlaps with the others creating
some complexity. All of them uncover significant opportunities
for stabilization and growth.
Each challenge and corresponding opportunity deserves its own
distinct evaluation with key players and decision makers in the
organization, and is thus presented in its own white paper in this
series.
Solving each challenge and taking advantage of the opportunity
presented leads to the next. Confidence deepens, the transition
path is smoothed, overhead is reduced, innovation is revitalized,
and new growth enjoyed.

3. BrightLink Insights | Volume 1 | July 2016 thebrightlink.com | Page 3
Introduction
Most organizations are aware of the ultimate need
to transition from manual to automation. The
challenge is always one of funding and timing. The
biggest challenge is confronting the temptation to
improve existing manual processes. Another
iteration of improvement may be less challenging,
but it always proves more costly, perhaps even as
much as the decision to build a custom solution.
When presented with these options, the logical
solution would be to build a custom solution. Why
not build a system that can…
● integrate seamlessly with your
organization’s existing website?
● meet the needs of your current workflow
and processes?
● handle your exclusive needs?
● be implemented in stages?
Why not try to hire a vendor who can pull this off?
Or why not try to do it yourself in house? These
are great questions.. Our clients thought so as well.
Questions like these are a part of a necessary
journey in discovering a transition pathway.
Our clients found that while their organization’s
workflow and processes were unique in some
respects, one common denominator remained
apparent: they were each credentialing,
certification or licensing organizations with an
industry-typical workflow. As such,
our clients discovered there were industry
standards and best practices that had
developed across multiple vertical
markets.
When it comes to the staff in a credentialing
organization, putting industry best practices in
place automate repetitive administrative work is
crucial. It is also the natural step toward enabling
staff to unlock and exercise their potential
creativity and innovation. In turn the organization
can organically stabilize, optimize, and grow.
Homegrown solutions that involve paper and
manual processes will eventually become a
bottleneck for this experience, if they have not
already. The next solution should be preceded by
careful inquiry into current processes and systems
that engage staff in work that could otherwise be
automated.

4. Transitioning Employee Engagement
From Stagnation to Innovation
An organization may discover they have outgrown
their homegrown system when they feel stuck in one
or more of three ruts.
1. Putting out too many customer service fires.
2. Doing customer service recovery.
3. Working hard to prop up processes that their
gut tells them are too complex.
The symptoms are generally evident in a staff that is
often left feeling frazzled by frenetic work and
generally unfulfilled in their roles. Consequently, they
stagnate as passion and purpose denigrates.
Organizations may also detect the need for
transitioning out of a homegrown system when
employees are engaged in rote, low-challenge work
and subsequently prevented from more enriching,
innovative work.
In a 2011 study by the Maritz Institute, two of the
three recurring attributes among multiple
experiences contributing input on workplace
enrichment were:
1. The opportunity for self-discovery, self-
improvement, skill mastery, learning and
personal growth.
2. The ability to do something that made a
difference and contributed to the well-being of
others...within the organization.
Arising from a basic understanding of humanity and
respect comes a principle known as “the eighth
waste” in the organizational management model
known as Lean Six Sigma. This waste is identified by
underutilized talent, or non-utilized talent.
The eighth waste indicates that talent and people can
be engaged in tasks where they are not a match, or
are being utilized to perform processes that are
largely outside the scope of their role. When all
employees are engaged to the best of their ability, an
organization has a lean team.
BrightLink Insights | Volume 1 | July 2016 thebrightlink.com | Page 4
60%
Of engaged employees are not directing their
efforts toward the organization’s top priorities.
20%
Of employees
are disengaged
from their current
assignments.
25%
Of employees
are actively looking for
new employment
opportunities.
人間尊重
The original Japanese words
for “respect for people.”
“Holding precious what
it is to be human”
Jon
Miller
Lean
Expert

5. “Many factors influence
employee retention. [One]
way to help keep employees
is by enriching job functions.
The organization can
contract repetitive, low-
challenge work.
“That leaves a position with
the intellectually
challenging work. It
enriches the positions and
makes work experience
positive.”
“Another approach...is to
brainstorm with staff about
improvements. Employees
may have ideas for changes
that eliminate the less
desirable duties.
Non-utilized talent can be identified in an organization’s failure to
leverage people’s skills, talent, knowledge or creativity. It is reflected in
the following ways among employees.
● Failure to engage their brain fully.
● Absence of asking hard questions.
● Absence of suggestions, recommendations, or original thought.
● A “That’s not my job” attitude.
● A belief that their opinion doesn’t matter
● Feeling that they are simply expected to come to work and do
what they are told.
● Spending too much time on low-level tasks that should be
automated, while customers are left waiting on staff expertise.
● Stating there’s too much to do without much evident value-add
in the work they are given to do.
● A deep sense that some or much of their work is complex and
should be much simpler.
A crucial element of the eighth waste is that employees are left feeling
unfulfilled. When many employees are unfulfilled, the quality of the
organization’s output decreases. A symbiotic relationship between the
organization’s mission and engaged, fulfilled employees is the “sweet
spot” for both.
BrightLink Insights | Volume 1 | July 2016 thebrightlink.com | Page 5
Exceptional Certification
By Roger L. Brauer
Copyright 2011, p. 47
“I want people to come to work
and feel great about themselves
and their organization... to build
their skills and capabilities—
everyone striving to be their best,
to be an artisan at something.”
Norman Bodek
Just as candidates value the quality of their credential and the process it
took to earn it, employees in the credentialing organization value the
quality of their work-life and the processes they use to serve the
candidates. Performance enhancement management coach, Robert A.
Brown believes that “self-esteem, sense of mastery, accomplishment,
teamwork...positive interactions with others and a sense of well-being”
are the desired outcomes. The goal, according to Carlos Venegas, in his
book, Flow in the Office, is to liberate “hidden talents and capacities in
everyone involved, even as it unleashes value.”
Employee development happens not only in the training that
organizations offer or require to fill skill and knowledge gaps. It also
happens through making sure the right people are in the right spots so
they can flourish in what they do best. CPI seeks to discover how to do
both and eliminate waste. Respecting the basic nature and needs of
employees will enhance and improve the inner attitude of the people,
affecting the outward production of the organization.

6. Building a Custom Solution
Building a custom solution with staff input may bring
reinvigoration and innovation, perhaps eliminating
the eighth waste. Coming together to solve common
problems with mutual effort and input creates
something new, thereby rejuvenating employees,
spreading new energy to candidates as well.
However, as some organizations will attest, there can
be a painful failure to accurately and thoroughly
analyze results in a custom solution with built in
problems, change requests and ballooning estimates
and invoices. A blowback effect occurs, yielding even
more frustration and budget blows, possibly creating
deeper morale challenges than existed previously.
Buying an Existing Solution
Some organizations find a wiser move in choosing an
existing solution with industry best practices baked
in, thus resolving many of the eighth waste
reflections on the previous page. In so doing, staff are
able to finally surrender low-challenge work to an
automated solution that can autopilot rote tasks. This
allows staff re-engage their brain, creativity,
innovation, knowledge, and skills more fully to the
original mission of the organization.
The amazing yet obvious result of
an existing software solution is that
more “headspace” is created.
The amazing outcome is that both employee
and organization mutually grow.
...it can
give your
organization
an edge
over your
competitors.
...you are
building a large
credentialing
organization
and are able to
spread the
building costs
over a number
of years.
Build your
own
custom
solution if
and when...
BrightLink Insights | Volume 1 | July 2016 thebrightlink.com | Page 6
Use an existing
solution if your
organization has...
a limited
budget
lack of
technical
proficiency
a limited
timeframe access to
a great
product
already
available
No need for a
competitive advantage.
Choose a solution that engages the strengths, talents, gifts
and skills of your employees and doesn’t just keep them
busy with low-level, l0w-challenge, rote administrative tasks.
Build?
Or Buy?

7. Client Studies
Our clients indicate that after implementing Clarus,
employee satisfaction increased with three
noteworthy results.
1. Some are innovating and initiating process
improvements and making customers happier.
2. Most are taking ownership to evolve in the
organization as their industry evolves.
3. A few are transitioning into other roles where
they perform customer-facing responsibilities to
innovate other growth.
Most employees have also reported an increased
satisfaction in their own lifestyles with restored sense
of work-life balance.
With one or more of the above results unfolding, a
surprising common denominator appeared among
clients who used Clarus:
a net reduction in work-
force never occurred.
Invoicing team
consisted of 12
employees. Without
Clarus today that
team would be 20.
Invoicing team
reduced to 5 people
and concurrently
handled a 2x
increase in revenue
and invoicing.
Client Example
In one client’s experience, an invoicing team of twelve
persons was reduced to five, with the remaining
seven persons transitioning to other meaningful
opportunities in the organization (see figure 1).
Figure 1
Figure 2
BrightLink Insights | Volume 1 | July 2016 thebrightlink.com | Page 7
Without Clarus, that same team today
would require twenty employees along with
the associated labor costs.
With Clarus, the team was cut by 60%
while revenue was doubling concurrently.
Thanks to automated and integrated
invoicing, that team of five today is 25% of
what it would be without Clarus, given that
organization’s current revenue (see figure 2).

8. ● Cloud-based: accessible by permissioned users from any location with an
internet connection.
● Secure Scalability: securely growing with you as your organization grows.
● Industry Exclusive: developed and maintained by a company exclusively
devoted to the credentialing industry.
● Baked-In Experience: built from the ground up with industry best
practices across a variety of credentialing markets, including healthcare,
financial, construction, utilities, safety and more.
● Integrated Systems: unifying the workflow from profile to application,
eligibility verification to approval/denial, exam registration to payment,
exam scheduling to exam results, recertification to renewal and
termination.
● Pinpoint Accessibility: locating and accessing any candidate information
at any point in the lifecycle, at the click of a mouse in seconds.
● Customized Reporting: using innovative business intelligence
“Perspectives” to manage any candidates in any workflow phase.
● Third-Party Accessible: offering secure access to third-parties for
credential original source verification.
● Accelerated Consolidation: defragmenting disparate sources of
candidate information into rapidly, flexibly and securely updated
information.
Clarus
A Credential
Management
Solution
BrightLink
502 Bombay Lane
Roswell, GA 30076
thebrightlink.com
Phone:
678.392.3317
Email:
info@thebrightlink.com
Web:
getclarus.com
If you believe you may be outgrowing your homegrown systems, partner with
Clarus to help your organization confront challenges and identify the
opportunities associated with the “build or buy” question. The Clarus solution is...
BrightLink’s Clarus services and solutions help transition your
homegrown-but-outgrown credential, candidate and certification
lifecycle management information systems to an autopilot experience.
What’s your next step?
As a starting point, consider Clarus Navigator, a technology-neutral consultative
service with the Clarus team, designed to discover where you are, where you
want to be and how to safely navigate the path there.