Transforming the organisation and initiating a shift in mindset in order to establish a culture of cooperation and seamless customer service, among other advantages, begins with a clear end state and entails several critical elements.
The objectives of a business process enterprise have to be identified. These include: minimising risk and exposure by processing end-to-end, standardising and improving existing processes across all divisions, centralised processing and the achievement of economies of scale, delivery of products and services that result in real benefits to customers, accurately measurement of performance across the value chain and elimination of the duplication of work.
Becoming a business process enterprise involves a fundamental mindset shift. The organisation is no longer measured on the success of individual activities, but on the entire process and what is important to the customer.
The key question is: how do you transform your organisation to get to this point? Additionally, can you change your people to embrace a new way of thinking?
While people, processes and systems are all core elements in an organisation`s make-up, should any one of them change, the most important aspect to consider is people.
Be prepared - people will be lost as you embark on this transformation initiative. It is therefore recommended that 60% of your change efforts focus on the organisation`s human capital component.
Successful transition starts with a clear end state. At enterprise level the organisation needs to know how it will appear regarding the desired culture, structure, communication requirements, human resources and change management, rewards, processes, information systems, future principles, and roles and responsibilities.
The elements of change
Once the end state has been defined, several elements, based on communication, structural and logistical considerations, become critical to the change implementation.
While there are undoubtedly several fundamental components to the transformation process, there is no magic formula for change.
Gys Hyman, consulting services director, Ovations
* Develop a roadmap for change: A clear roadmap, addressing all aspects of the business process enterprise and showing how the organisation will get from one state to another, must be developed. Agree on delivery dates, realign existing projects and clarify roles.
* Communicate the desired end state: Employees need to understand why the organisation wants the end state and what this means. The transition has to be about reaching clear business objectives that are defined and explained before the change process begins. It is important to identify the core and non-core processes that will be changed. Some may be changed over time because not all processes can be halted simultaneously. Achieving the end state will involve a culture transformation that makes the organisation performance-based, transparent, work within service level agreements, process-centric, paperless, mobile and customer-focused.
* Look at best practice models: Reviewing best practice models offers insight into how other organisations are becoming business process enterprises and provide a benchmark for success. Using "neutral" best practice examples also eliminates the risk that one silo will not buy into a process developed by another silo.
* Drive change from the top: A successful transformation hinges on executive buy-in. The change process needs to be driven from the top so that when resistance is encountered - and be assured there will be resistance - those at the top will be able to say: "You will change." Top-level buy-in is also required to halt projects that do not contribute to the overall end state.
* Measure the change: The end state and each area undergoing change have a value proposition. Develop a clearly defined business benefits measurement process to identify, quantify, deliver and monitor planned benefits.
* Assign process managers: Process managers and process owners must be assigned upfront. Process owners must be strong individuals who do not have a silo mentality. They must be innovative and drive change.
* Establish a process centre of excellence to manage processes and create skills within the organisation. The centre of excellence provides a coordinated group approach, lives the ethos of client-centricity and becomes a resource pool for current and future delivery teams. It also ensures key skills acquired during the programme implementation are retained.
* Achieve a balance between short- and long-term projects: To manage burning business issues, the organisation will be required to implement both short- and long-term projects during the transformation. The business must have a shared vision of the future while recognising that long-term success is as important as results delivered today.
* Develop the systems architecture around the total solution: In a business process enterprise the systems architecture focuses on the total solution. A common front-end that serves as the presentation layer for the enterprise must be developed. Constructing the systems architecture involves defining key attributes, characteristics and requirements for each architectural component and selecting the best-fit solution to support the organisation`s future end state. Despite the importance of systems, a business process enterprise initiative must be driven by the business and not by technology. The objective of the project should never be to implement the workflow, front-end, content, business intelligence and/or rules system; instead the focus must be on benefit rather than capability.
* Place the right skill in the right place: Appoint experienced resources in key positions within the programme. These key positions are also mentor positions, and a dedicated shadow programme can be initiated to effectively transfer critical business process knowledge. It is important to assess skills levels upfront, determine potential gaps and ensure appropriate training is conducted timeously.
While there are undoubtedly several fundamental components to the transformation process, there is no magic formula for change. Although a structured phased approach with rapid execution forms the basis for change, successful transformation ultimately depends on how quickly - and how badly - the organisation wants to achieve its desired end state.
Ovations sponsors ITWeb`s workflow and BPM portal. Workflow applications originally set out to automate routing of documents to the users responsible for working on them. They have now become "glueware" by evolving into underlying business operations systems - while BPM occupies an enterprise-wide space. Click here to find out more.
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