As companies grow, they eventually
start to struggle against their own
operational models. Most companies are built around a functional organizational approach, with several key individuals
who know what they want the business to
be. This is a good model at first, but eventually it runs up against two barriers.
“One barrier is that all the knowledge is
carried in the heads of that select group of
individuals, rarely down on paper, and,
therefore, difficult to leverage,” says Bill
Russell, executive vice president of
Allegient. “Second, functions tend to get
siloed over time as they grow, creating pain
in the interactions between functions.”
Smart Business spoke with Russell
about the importance of process mapping.
If the business is functioning well, should it
still map its processes?
The challenge is how to build on that success. Business is typically functionally based,
like sales and marketing or operations. But,
business processes tend to be cross-function
focused. Whether you have a functional or
business unit orientation, you still need to
understand and map your business processes. It protects against ‘key man syndrome,’
where you stand to lose your undocumented
intellectual property. If the company is not
doing well, it’s likely it is facing several constraints. A common constraint is that the
company’s operations are often represented
solely in people and can’t be leveraged. A key
way to leverage that knowledge is to better
understand your business processes. Then
the company can scale mapped documentation by applying technology.
What companies should consider mapping?
Mapping is truly emerging as a focus for
every company to document their business
processes and leverage them for growth,
improved performance and lower costs. It
should become a core competency for all
mid-size companies and smaller companies
that want to grow. If they wish to accelerate
their growth, they’ve got to embrace a business process strategy, and mapping is a vehicle to that.
What are the benefits of process mapping?
Establishing a baseline for how the business processes work tells a company how
the business actually runs. This baseline provides a platform for improvement and
automation. You tend to make much better
choices and be more prepared for new software and technology if you truly understand
your business processes. Finally, this analysis
becomes a great platform for training and
growing new resources and new employees.
What process improvements can be found?
The most common is business worker ad
hoc behavior or highly inefficient handoffs.
Knowledge workers who go off and do their
own thing — manual steps, meetings and
unstructured technology use like e-mail,
attachments, etc. — typically represent inefficient processes. Other examples are bad
handoffs. Most business processes suggest
the flow of work between different subject
matter experts (SMEs), and those handoffs
may be very sloppy and nonstandard.
Can software assist in mapping projects?
Absolutely. The simplest program may be a
desktop package from Microsoft called Visio.
It is representative of a class of software
called business process modelers. These
packages use standard flow-charting procedures to graphically display how a business
process is operating. The emerging standard
that’s being driven into the industry is called
Business Process Modeling Notation
(BPMN). Another class of software actually
uses the BPMN models, converts them into a
business process executable language standard (BPEL), and then can even build software code from them.
Should outside resources be utilized?
Nobody knows how a company is operating better than the people inside it. SMEs
have to be involved to identify and help articulate what these business processes are.
Unfortunately, SMEs are often too busy running the business. Outside experts can come
in to help SMEs translate the intellectual
property into a standard format. When you
get any group of SMEs together, they will disagree as to how that business process truly
operates. Getting to a consensus takes facilitation. Outside experts scale your SMEs and
provide neutrality to get at the true way a
business process is operating.
How do you start a mapping initiative?
Companies should take their functional
organizational chart and try to map against
that. Across the top row, they should list all
functions like sales, manufacturing, operations, delivery, fulfillment and the rest.
Vertically, in column, they should identify the
processes that represent the major ways the
company operates. Normally, there are five
to 10 major business processes that encompass how a company operates. If the company wants to go a step further, it might then
grid its technology systems against these
functions and process axes, looking for gaps,
opportunities for improvements and additional technology needs. Consider external
experts to speed up the effort.
BILL RUSSELL is executive vice president of Allegient. Reach
him at (317) 564-5701 or [email protected].