ANALYSING business processes is key to achieving operational efficiency and business success. This emerged at the recent ITWeb BPM Summit and Excellence Awards in Johannesburg.
The event, addressed by several industry experts, examined the importance of BPM and its role in enterprise architecture.
Mark McGregor, process performance author, coach and mentor, told delegates that most organisations don't analyse their business processes, which is a fundamental building block in order to achieve operations efficiency and business success. "If we haven't even learnt how to walk, how can we possibly learn to run?"
He emphasised the importance for companies to use business process modelling and mapping tools to gain insight into their business processes.
When aligned with an enterprise architecture (EA) strategy, business process management enables business agility, added Andre Jordaan, manager of business performance improvement at Santam.
Jordaan argued that BPM needs to be placed as a business philosophy first to drive the requirement for EA. He cited Gartner research, which found that 40% of EA programmes fail because companies don't properly define what value they're looking for.
Jordaan said: "EA improves the business change life cycle. BPM as a management practice comes first, and then EA."
The business case for BPM
BPM is something everybody buys into on a conceptual level; however, when it comes to implementing the solution, companies are hesitant. This is because the decision-makers are business executives who are not primarily concerned with business processes, said Julian Labuschagne, associate director at PWC Advisory SA.
To achieve successful BPM initiatives, Labuschagne advised the following key considerations when pitching to business executives: "Identify the right process and pain point targets for the BPM initiative, analyse the specific benefits for this process, and, most importantly, offer a return on investment model."
Making it work
There is no silver bullet in the business process management journey. It requires complete buy-in from top management and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodologies can be used as the weapon to solve problems BPM uncovers, said David Lyneham-Brown, BPT Group CEO and event chairman. "LSS and BPM are about creating a new culture and a new way of working that doesn't rely on the fractured, political relationship of departments, but rather on the back of people who understand from a customer perspective what is needed for customer fulfilment.
"That will never happen if you lack a business vision. When we get that philosophy in place, the business will see greater value." Richard Aldous, head of sales and marketing for Rethink, added: "It's everybody's accountability to make BPM successful and the business needs to show the BPM success early on in the journey. If you can get that low-hanging fruit on a monthly basis you can get that buy-in quickly from the entire organisation."
Tony Cohn, business development director at EG Operations Management Solutions, concluded that technology alone cannot address business problems.
"Even if you're going on a LSS/BPM journey, the mere implementation of a BPM platform is not going to change management. Team leaders and managers should schedule work and plan use of resources, allocate work according to skills, and train according to business need," he said.
Case study: A combined approach
Tina Manyapelo, business architect from the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) and Octavia Khumalo, EA consultant from Real IRM, delivered a case study at the event. They outlined the PBMR's EA strategy, which was implemented by Real IRM.
“The solution that Real IRM came up with was a BPM approach,” said Manyapelo. Real IRM developed a model and conceptual framework that identified the risks involved in the 24-month EA initiative and what controls needed to be implemented. Khumalo said: “Some of the obstacles that we had was the lack of executive sponsorship and support, lack of commitment from resources, we didn't get a clear mandate from the committee and there were budget constraints.
“We are now doing the architecture work in the information, data application and technology space. We are going through a process where we capture all the models and views identified in the stakeholder analysis. However, this is still an ongoing journey with PBMR and it's by no means completed.”
BPM excellence rewarded
ZURICH SA/OVATIONS walked away with the Grand Prix Award for BPM Excellence, sponsored by K2, at the ITWeb BPM awards event in Johannesburg.
It was one of three companies ITWeb presented with excellence awards for their achievements in business process management (BPM) project implementation and success. The award was given to Zurich SA/Ovations for the enhancement of Zurich SA's BPM environment and the replacement of its software solution. This resulted in process improvements and greater management visibility and capability in the company environment, bringing centralised processes, increased flexibility, reduced costs and improved efficiencies.
The BPM Excellence Award sponsored by IMB was awarded to MediHelp's MediChron Department, for implementing a BPM solution that supplies wall-to-wall automated workflow processes for each of the main MediHelp departments. This enabled the organisation to cope with the enormous volume of paper-based submissions and applications.
Vodacom was awarded the Metastorm-sponsored BPM Excellence Award for the implementation of a BPM platform and system that enables automated workflow processes for strategic areas of the business. It rationalises selected business processes in targeted operational and service-oriented departments in the organisation, realising a 30% improvement in processing responses.
Ranka Jovanovic, editorial director at ITWeb, says these awards came as a result of the huge interest in BPM in the industry, and a need to recognise, highlight and reward the good news. "As the media, we usually only highlight the bad things, so it was time to reward and recognise the good things that companies are doing."
The winners were chosen from a shortlist that also included:
* Glacier Financial Services
* Nedbank Personal Loans
* PruHealth.
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