Business process management (BPM) and Lean Six Sigma are business strategies which seek to improve the quality of process outputs by removing organisational deficiencies and minimising variability.
Although these approaches stem from a culture of continuous improvement first devised within the Japanese manufacturing sector, this dedication to driving out defects and improving quality has permeated almost every industry in its own way.
Naturally, Ovations' client base within the financial services market has come to expect the same experience. It's certainly no secret that an efficient service offering which is free of shortcomings or imperfection can drive up customer acquisition and retention.
It is for this reason that Ovations' approach to business process modelling focuses on effecting internal change by partnering technical products with a holistic understanding of both the business and its key functions.
In doing so, Ovations is able to re-engineer internal processes to drive efficiency while ensuring employee buy-in at all levels.
During this phase, organisations often find that legacy applications and systems have gradually become unfit for purpose, and seek to update these assets by investing in costly replacement strategies or rewrites.
Although this offers a short term solution to the challenge, additional development cycles will ultimately be required at a later date as the business matures.
Although identifying the processes which truly define business efforts can be a challenging task, this approach will allow the organisation to build out a platform which allows swift and easy response to market demands as it matures.
Put more simply, by focusing on the process, rather than the technical aspects associated with internal workflow, businesses can implement a strategy which supports and encourages variation - rather than restricting it.
This approach is in stark contrast to more traditional methods, which typically focus on hard coded logic and change cycles that have their roots in data capture, ERP or CRM-type systems.
It is quite a paradigm shift - which is perhaps why business process management is still a relatively small but growing niche in the application development and enterprise solution landscape.
Process projects should begin with a detailed understanding and mapping of the functions which drive the business.
By capturing these into a format which can be simply 'dropped' into process engines, the organisation can ensure that internal methods are reinforced in the correct manner.
Ideally, when a business step or process changes, internal tools should quickly and efficiently expedite the shift. Not the other way around.
As the late Steven Covey famously uttered, "start with the end in mind".
If a business goal is to eradicate inconsistency while swiftly responding to shifting consumer demand, it is worth having a clear understanding of where a business needs to be before investing in costly implementations that offer no guarantee of long-term success.
This does not rule out traditional methods. If an organisation can truly afford to build a static application, a technologically focused approach may be better suited to the need.
Join Ovations in a conversation about business process management. Contact Associate Director Craig Leppan on 011 658 8500 for more information.
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