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Business Process Management. |
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Market success increasingly depends on the organizational agility which can set a company apart from the competitors who offer similar products and services
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A business process is a series of procedures, tasks and decisions that are carried out in a routine and orderly manner within a company. These processes should be continuously optimized to meet the growing expectations of the external and internal customers. |
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What is BPM?
"Business Process Management (BPM) is the art and science of overseeing how work is performed in an organization to ensure consistent outcomes and to take advantage of improvement opportunities." following: Marlon Dumas, Marcello La Rosa, Jan Mendling, Hajo A. Reijers "Fundamentals of Business Process Management").
What is the difference between a business process and a project?
As we described above, a business process plays out routinely in standard business situations to ensure a replicable consistent quality of outcome. A project, on the other hand, is a unique endeavor that is meant to create a new product, service or organizational solution.
Specifically, with regard to business processes, we can imagine a project that results in the development of a new business process or a substantial modification of an existing one. Business process management refers to operations management, while projects are related to business development. Which business processes are most often developed and upgraded?
The selection of the processes to develop/upgrade is determined by economic considerations (opportunities to reduce costs, increase revenues, improve quality and expediency) and the scale of the process (the number of people involved, including those from different departments, that are involved in carrying out a set of activities).
In most cases companies are looking for improvements in the areas of:
A separate and important matter are the business processes implemented at manufacturing companies related to optimal production planning Why is business process management so important?
These days, creating a competitive advantage based solely on innovative products is very difficult and is usually the domain of either large corporations or exceptionally creative start-ups. So increasingly it is the quality of the business processes that determines success. Customers and employees expect an expedient fulfillment of commitments, a high quality of service, accessibility and, increasingly just simple consistency.
From the company's perspective, business process optimization enables cost reduction and the ability to make easy employee substitutions as the business processes play out. How do we create a business processes model?
An effective and well-functioning business process (one that generates added value) should be modeled in a way that is clear to its participants (i.e. actors and customers). It's usually presented in the form of a set of diagrams depicting a series of procedures and decisions, which provide an exemplary illustration of the workflow.
The industry standard is the BPMN (Business Process Management Notation). Additionally you can create a responsibility matrix (a RACI chart) and specify roles and responsibilities assigned to individual team members . Who can benefit from BPD's business process upgrade services?
Given our experience, we are fully prepared to effectively assist medium-sized service companies.
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The benefits of BPM:
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Effective Business Process Management directly results in increased company profits and reduced costs. In addition, it brings tangible operational benefits for both employees and customers. |
Business process optimization step-by-step:
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An analysis of needs
Companies are usually aware of the problems in how their business operates. The challenge is to find solutions which will take their business to the next level. A BPM consultant will conduct an analysis with regards to the business processes put in place (or identify the lack thereof).
Making a process inventory
In many cases, we first map all of the processes, both strategic ones as well as their operational components. Capturing the interdependence of the processes may be helpful. Though it's not always necessary if the conclusion of the initial analysis is considered by the deciding parties to be accurate or most likely true.
Defining the performance indicators for key processes
A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a quantifiable measure of performance that we use when modeling and upgrading a business process. An increase in the value of an indicator assigned to a process means that there's been a notable improvement. You never begin making improvements without defining the KPIs first. An intrinsic feature of a business process is to produce added value at each stage of the process.
Selecting the business processes that need to be developed or upgraded
The selection of the processes to develop/upgrade is determined by economic considerations (opportunities to reduce costs, increase revenues, improve quality and expediency - expressed in KPIs) and the scale of the process (the number of people involved, from different departments, that are involved in carrying out a set of tasks). At this stage we use tried-and-true decision-making methods, such as the path of least resistance method, which tells us which process improvements will yield the best results with the least amount of effort during process development and implementation. In case where the process architecture is more complex, we use a decision matrix that takes into account multiple criteria of factors.
Business process modeling
The final outcome of this stage is a model of a business process in the form of a logical diagram of a set of tasks and procedures using the BPMN (Business Process Management Notation) language, a responsibility matrix and specific roles and responsibilities assigned to individual team members. This stage requires a facilitated workshop that includes the business process owners and the key actors (the people who will carry out the given tasks). Additionally we may recommend changes to the IT systems which manage data and workflows.
Implementation and monitoring
This stage involves managing the change and transforming people's behavior in line with the new business process. During the transition period, special involvement of managers and support from process owners and consultants is needed. Monitoring makes it possible to determine whether the changes introduced have had a positive impact on KPI values.
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