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…

Continuing on the theme - BPM is as much about organizational discipline as it is about technology.

Last week, I had coffee with Terry Schurter [a thought leader in business process/performance management]. He runs an international not-for-profit professional community dedicated to the improvement of process for personal, organizational and customer success. His organization provides training and certification for business process management.

Our Thoughts…

As you might imagine, we talked at length about managing business processes. Without giving away the ‘plot’, he identified a couple of business process hot spots.

When reviewing your business processes [a collection of related, structured activities that produce a service or product] he sees several key areas to analyze.

1) Moments of Truth – Any place where your business processes touch the customer or the customer touches the process. Aptly named, any contact with the customer is a Moment of Truth. This almost seems too obvious, but does it get the right amount of attention?

2) Break Points – A break point is a transfer of work, information or data from one person to another within a process. Again aptly named, if something should break this is where it is likely to happen. You have heard the old adage – the squeaky wheel gets the oil; I believe that these break points are usually the squeaky wheel. This is where you will first fell the pain.

3) Business Rules – These are the explicit and implied principles that define how and why your processes function as they do.

I haven’t yet seen this approach to business process management, but I believe it would be extremely insightful.

Your Thoughts…

Oracle wrote a paper on the state of the business process management market 2008. In it they say that BPM is as much about organizational discipline as it is about technology. They say that BPM tools are far less effective without the methodologies and strategies for defining, measuring and improving processes.

Our Thoughts…

I would like to take this one step further; a company can manage their business processes without BPM software tools. If your processes are in disarray, you may be able to make significant improvements by following your methodologies and strategies for process improvement. As you make improvements to this process you will come to a point where improvements may or may not be improvements [the law of diminishing returns].

Using BPM software tools, you can make further significant gains in efficiency by automating your business processes. BPM software tools should provide control over the time a process cycle takes so that you can shorten your process lifecycles. BPM software should provide you with complete visibility into a process – status, documents, reports, etc. so that you can make sure your processes finish on time and that they are complete. BPM software can enhance your six-sigma efforts to improve your processes.

Lastly, change is constant. You will never create the perfect process because change is constant. This will test your methodologies and strategies for defining, measuring and improving processes and it will test whether your BPM solution can keep up. What I am saying is that managing your business processes is an ongoing event – you are never finished.

Your Thoughts…