Connect the business process dots to create a real-time organisation

Business processes are the lifeblood of a company: they are the mechanisms through which costs are incurred and revenues generated, and they define the customer experience. Traditionally, a company`s business processes operated as isolated islands, where people took little cognisance of how one business process impacted on another in the value chain. As a result, customer service suffered.

Michael Hammer, in his work Beyond Reengineering, believes: "The single most important word in the definition of process is `customer`. A process perspective on a business is the customer`s perspective. To a customer, processes are the essence of a company..."

Therefore, to take customer service to a new level, a company must connect its processes through business performance management (BPM), moving from the traditional island approach to an environment that is transparent and where business processes are aligned with the organisation`s strategic goals. BPM enables the company to automate mundane processes and to focus on finding ways to do things better and faster. It is a stepping-stone on a company`s path to becoming a real-time organisation with transparent and dynamic processes and workflows.

The Aberdeen Group believes BPM is about the reality that business processes are complex, dynamic and intertwined throughout an organisation, and that cross-functional processes must be effectively automated and managed.

In a BPM-enabled environment, people can see what impact their work has on the output of others in the company; the organisation can establish transparent workflows that speed up service to customers and partners; and the organisation`s value chain begins and ends with the customer.

An organisation that has implemented BPM methodologies and tools, and that is working towards becoming a real-time organisation, will increasingly be able to provide better service to its customers using dynamic and transparent workflows.

If a customer walks into the nearest branch of his bank and applies for a personal loan, the real-time organisation could move that application through several processes while the customer sits there. As his details are being entered into the system, they could be forwarded automatically to the credit bureau for credit checks.

If the credit division finds all in order, the application can be forwarded to the next division for approvals, and so move through the business processes until a decision is made to grant the requested loan. By the time the personal banker has completed the application, the loan could have been approved and the customer would walk away a happy man.

In the call centre environment of a connected, real-time organisation, agents can view customer details and call history straight away; and if a question is asked that the agent cannot answer, it can be sent through the company and resolved almost immediately.

In the dynamic environment of a real-time organisation, people would not wait for work to land on their desks. They would proactively find ways of speeding up the business process they are involved in, so that a colleague engaging with a client can provide the best service possible.

Business performance management enables organisations to perfect their business processes and to provide decision-makers with a real-time view of the business. With this view, problem areas can be highlighted and addressed immediately; or business ventures can be monitored against the business plans and goals set to ensure that everything is on track.

If things are not going as planned, decisions can be made to halt the venture or steps can be taken to bring that venture in line with the original plan.

It is no longer good enough to simply have workflows connecting people and business processes. Companies need real-time analytics of what is happening, where things are collapsing, and where they are doing well.

Business performance management, and the move towards becoming dynamic, transparent and real-time, can create anxiety among staff. They could become defensive as everything they do becomes measured and monitored; they could fear redundancy; or they could feel uncertainty about the value of their role in the business.

All these fears and negative emotions can be allayed if the company highlights the benefits of having transparency and dynamism. The company can show that the move towards real-time operations will result in staff expanding in their roles. Key performance indicators can be adjusted to reflect a staff member`s new role and rewards for their achievements can be handed out more frequently.

The change to becoming a real-time organisation must be managed carefully. A company can only go as far as its people are willing. With increased visibility and the introduction of dynamic workflows and business processes, there needs to be both a paradigm shift for the business and a mindset shift for the staff.