Professionally trained consultants conduct Business Process Reviews (BPRs). They analyse a company/department/process from both top-down and bottom-up. Dictated by the need and objectives of the organisation, they will take a closer look at ‘People, Process & Technology’.
The consultant delivers a detailed process map and activity descriptions of the current state. This map is then analysed further for issues, risks, and gaps in process automation.
The consultant reviews the report to develop a future state solution. The report highlights the costs vs benefits and recommends business process automation tools.
Written by Michelle Kermath
Michelle is Head of Consultancy & Technical – ECM at Crown Records Management with years of experience in the field of Enterprise Content Management (ECM).
Here are the top three tips for a successful Business Process Review:
Make life simpler
The people doing the work in a business are the experts. Their knowledge is critical to making any changes. However, these people are also busy doing their day job and often only know their area.
The benefits
The benefit of the BPR is that the consultant can collate this information across the business. It generates a report that provides a 360-degree view. Carrying this out will have little or no disruption to the people’s daily work.
The end-to-end information gained from a BPR makes life simpler by using the current state information to inform a future state solution and propose the steps and milestones to achieve the future state – setting clear and realistic expectations and recommending the type of process automation required. The key players in the process who would benefit shape the future state solution.
For the organisation, the benefits of a more straightforward way of working following a BPR can be:
- Quicker business process automation tools lead to time-saving.
- Achieving regulatory compliance and business process management.
- Reduced risk.
- Identifying process automation and the ability to integrate it without negative consequences.
- Improving the quality of work output with business process management.
- Increased performance and decreased issue handling.
For the employee, the benefits can be:
- Employee satisfaction
- Increased productivity by reducing mundane tasks and adding process automation.
- Increased customer satisfaction
- Flexible working
- Better collaboration and communication
Take away complexity and provide solutions
This role is here to bring all of these strands together and provide a holistic report of the organisation’s current practices, how they are working at all levels, the bottlenecks and issues, gaps and risks, whilst also highlighting the good practices and ensuring they are in any new solution (this is important!). The benefit of having a BPR completed by someone in this role is that they also bring the automation solutions expertise, understand what technology could be applied, and follow any appropriate business process management—allowing for a more thorough end-future state solution proposal.
Understand the data – not the document
Organisations have gone through a journey – paper, scanning, emails, file exchange, business process management and process automation. Now the emphasis is on data rather than documents and how they get that information in and shared.
Customers and end users transact via their phones/tablets, and there is an expectation from the customer now to be able to carry out their business in this way, as it is easier and more convenient.
Organisations that put customer demands at the centre of operational planning will look at how they change how they work to match that demand.
