In the challenge for survival in today`s business environment, organisations that can adapt to change gain significant competitive advantage. Processes pave the way for business to create a platform to increase return on investment from every business initiative undertaken. Ultimately, processes allow for the execution of the corporate strategy throughout the organisation. It sounds simple and obvious yet many organisations still work with processes that do not deliver strategy and are also near impossible to manage and implement.
Enterprise Process Management (EPM) describes how the business operates in a way that a business-user understands. As such it is used for day-to-day operations, training, decision-making and performance management. EPM is key to executing strategy and delivering sustainable competitive advantage through your processes. It translates strategy into operational processes and needs to be driven by senior management.
EPM can be used to identify opportunities for improvement including process automation, processes reengineering and continuous improvement. It can also be used to simulate different options and build your business case for change.
Enterprise Process Management maps the entire breadth and depth of the business to enable ongoing management of the business performance through provision of an integrated repository that covers all activities.
It is widely accepted that business process management is a sound approach to managing performance but is commonly applied to specific processes in isolation. The key to managing business performance is an integrated set of processes that consistently represent the organisation. Creating and maintaining such a process map repository for ongoing management of business performance represents a challenge that requires a unique approach.
The first step in this approach is in understanding how processes work and inter-relate with each other. Building process information into a process repository links strategy, critical success factors, key performance indicators and measures to activities, thus enabling sound decisions to be made regarding changes, such as whether to improve, automate, invest or outsource. EPM provides a single, common `database` of process and related information.
The Gartner Group has decomposed the architecture of the business into layers that serve to aid the understanding of the information relevant in each. The key layer that translates the business strategy is the Business Process Architecture. This serves as the framework to determine the business information requirements evident in the Information Architecture as well as the Data Architecture immediately below. This is the span of EPM and is the bridge to the Application Architecture and Technical (Infrastructure) Architecture, which are conventionally the domain of the IT department.
The integrated set of maps is an extremely valuable information asset that requires procedures to safeguard and protect it. EPM is an approach that ensures that processes are not only mapped, but also maintained as an integrated set of maps in a single repository, under the regime of configuration management and change control.
With few exceptions, most business improvement interventions require documentation and analysis of business processes. Once the investigation is complete these records are stored and allowed to decay or are destroyed. Even if the process is automated it does not imply that it never changes in the future. EPM regards a process map, or better still the repository of the integrated process map, as an information asset that needs to be conserved. The current status of the process needs to be maintained indefinitely.
The TQM, BPR and Business Transformation revolutions were all based on an intense analysis of the business processes to find opportunities for improvement. The scale and depth of evaluation increased and intensified with each wave, being directly linked to the scale of benefits sought. The investment of effort to discover the opportunities was translated into a solution that may have been implemented, but in every case the information used in the analysis was not maintained. Each subsequent investigation starts with an analysis of the process again, usually with a different approach and in a different format, and the cycle may be repeated several times. The EPM approach leverages the value in creating a robust and integrated set of process maps that serve as a natural platform to enable any `As Is` or `To Be` analysis.
All change initiatives require a reliable information platform. Whether improving an established business, working with a start-up or designing new processes, a robust and accepted view of the process is required as the basis for all decision making. The traditional approach requires extensive collaboration across a wide range of people. Once captured in the process map repository and maintained, the single view of the world serves to accelerate sound decision-making. A stable information asset also saves on the cost of analysis because the maps and information in the repository are constantly maintained and used for ongoing operational management as well as to support strategic decisions.
Current major clients that we are assisting in this approach include Cell C, Multichoice, Road Accident Fund, Old Mutual and MTN.
For further information, please contact Kem Tissiman at tel. 082 413 6044; fax (011) 285 0054; e-mail kem@rethink.co.za.
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