The challenges faced by small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) mean resources are often limited and that the business is in survival mode - dealing with crises rather than planning for growth in a structured way.
This is the view of Dina Jacobs, CEO at triVector, explaining that just-in-time (JIT) business process management (BPM) helps SMEs by streamlining processes and covering all bases.
“When we refer to resources within the context of development of small-to-medium-sized operations, we speak of time, funding and human resources. The fact is that investment in JIT business process management will help to ensure that decision-makers in companies manoeuvre the business effectively through various stages of growth,” says Jacobs.
“This is done by helping to identify issues and potential challenges within each stage and also by providing the best approach to address issues immediately if and when they occur,” she adds.
Jacobs refers to the Greiner Model of 'five stages of growth' and explains how challenges can arise as a company proceeds through each stage.
“As the company matures, it goes through a series of very important growth phases. As the business progresses from evolution stages towards maturity, there are areas known as revolutionary stages that emerge between the point of crisis and the point of growth.
“Without an effective business process management strategy in place, many critical aspects of SME management that occur during growth are overlooked or neglected,” Jacobs explains.
She says this development of the business involves the effective management of crises which incorporates aspects such as leadership and direction, authority and delegation, as well as control and coordination.
“If processes, controls, role clarification and integrated systems are not in place, the business is exposed to risk. These risks could include the control of the invoicing process, dealing with vendor age analysis, spending unnecessary time on back office processes, duplication across systems and lack of management reports,” Jacobs adds.
Jacobs says in 2006, there were two million SMEs in SA, constituting 98% of the country's total number of firms.
“These SMEs employed 55% of the workforce and contributed 42% of the country's wage bill. There is no doubt that this category of business continues to have a profound affect on socio-economic development,” Jacobs adds.
She says a JIT BPM solution is designed to assist SMEs in defining controls, to manage complexity and outsourcing; ensure role clarification as part of change management; and promote the 'single truth' via integrated information systems.
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