At coffee this week, Terry Schurter, Chris Williams and I were talking about business process management.
We acknowledged that BPM software is designed to manage ‘business’ processes, but that most of the processes that are being managed by BPM software are not what you would call critical. Typical processes that are managed include things like new hires, termination, salary adjustments, purchase order requests, capital acquisitions, claims processing, customer service, etc.
What is a critical process, you ask? Before today, I would have said that ingredients for a critical process include: A process that spans departments; A process that takes a good deal of time [too long]; A process that is expensive to manage; and/or A process that is very expensive if a mistake is made. After this week’s conversation, I would acknowledge that the customer process [experience] is likely the real key process because without customers, you have no business.
Our Thoughts…
Today, as companies begin to manage their business processes, they will likely run through a process similar to this: Identify the process; Document the process; Repeat the process to make sure that it is ‘real’; Measure it; Improve it; and Measure again to make sure they have improved it.
As I mentioned last week, Terry pointed out a different way to look at processes: Moments of truth [places where your business processes touch the customer or the customer touches your business process], Break points [hand-offs] and Business rules [how your company does business].
I think that companies looking to improve their processes tend to look only at their business rules. I think that they should also analyze the Break points. And, I think that they should not only analyze their Moments of truth, but realize that the customer process [experience] should be a key driver of improvements that will be made.
With your customer process in mind, you can make better process decisions: If it improves the customer experience, it is a good choice – If it doesn’t improve the customer experience, it is a bad choice.
Your Thoughts…
We acknowledged that BPM software is designed to manage ‘business’ processes, but that most of the processes that are being managed by BPM software are not what you would call critical. Typical processes that are managed include things like new hires, termination, salary adjustments, purchase order requests, capital acquisitions, claims processing, customer service, etc.
What is a critical process, you ask? Before today, I would have said that ingredients for a critical process include: A process that spans departments; A process that takes a good deal of time [too long]; A process that is expensive to manage; and/or A process that is very expensive if a mistake is made. After this week’s conversation, I would acknowledge that the customer process [experience] is likely the real key process because without customers, you have no business.
Our Thoughts…
Today, as companies begin to manage their business processes, they will likely run through a process similar to this: Identify the process; Document the process; Repeat the process to make sure that it is ‘real’; Measure it; Improve it; and Measure again to make sure they have improved it.
As I mentioned last week, Terry pointed out a different way to look at processes: Moments of truth [places where your business processes touch the customer or the customer touches your business process], Break points [hand-offs] and Business rules [how your company does business].
I think that companies looking to improve their processes tend to look only at their business rules. I think that they should also analyze the Break points. And, I think that they should not only analyze their Moments of truth, but realize that the customer process [experience] should be a key driver of improvements that will be made.
With your customer process in mind, you can make better process decisions: If it improves the customer experience, it is a good choice – If it doesn’t improve the customer experience, it is a bad choice.
Your Thoughts…
posted by Scott Cleveland at 9:50 AM
2 Comments:
Scott,
I think you are missing the value of
automating processes, such as new
hires, ... These processes are very
important to a company in two ways.
First, they represent a drain on the
company's resources, both in terms
of capital and time. If you can
reduce the workload associated with
these tasks, you free up capital by
not needing staff and of more value
is that you free up the company's
talent to support the customer.
I would further suggest that a
critical process is any process that impedes your supporting the
customer and their needs. Please
consider the case for a military
fighting force. You can greatly
improve its effectiveness without
changing it in any way by improving
the logistics that supplies it. You
can also cripple it just as quickly
by not having that logistics support in place. I won't bore you
with the countless times that a
battle has been lost not by the
fighting force, but by the lack of
logistics. A modern business is
not much different.
I do agree that improving the
customer experience should be one
of a company's major goals, but
tying process decisions directly
to customer experience, does not
allow for the secondary and much
larger benefit of self-improvement
to be considered.
I think that we are saying the same thing. In my attempt to keep these 'ideas' short - I am thinking about a company attempting to manage their 'first' process. That process will be the one causing them the greatest pain and costing them the most dollars. Then, as they are looking to automate it, I am suggesting that they use the customer experience as the tie breaker.
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