Competitive Advantage in an Era of Change:

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One of the hallmarks of today’s business environment is a rising tide of aggressive new competitors. BPM can help any organization improve its strength in this tough new environment. 7
Most organizations experienced strong pressure to reduce costs during the most recent recession—and now that the upturn has commenced, ongoing cost reduction has become woven into the fabric of many businesses, especially those with global customers and competitors. BPM’s process models and repositories allow these businesses to conduct a systematic analysis of their processes, finding opportunities to reduce costs and boost efficiency. In particular, BPM can help companies reduce the number of handoffs between individuals and functions within a process, eliminate non-value-added steps, improve data quality and thereby eliminate redundancies and unnecessary work, replace sequential activities with parallel work streams and, most importantly, simulate the positive and negative impact of these changes. Once organizations have identified the right process changes to drive the most substantial and sustainable cost savings, strong BPM governance can ensure those changes are executed as consistently as possible. Establishment of a BPM Unit The CIO of an insurance company had heard about the power of BPM. He wanted to benefit from that approach and appointed a Vice President to build such a BPM capability. In order to make that quickly and effectively happen they decided to use the BPM capability blueprint and the integrated process of process management as a basis. They developed a systematic roadmap to BPM that allowed the delivery of immediate benefits while establishing lasting capabilities. This roadmap has been executed step by step and revised on a yearly basis. Given the benefits of BPM to global organizations, it comes as no surprise that many currently seek to establish in-house BPM capabilities and centers of excellence. This can be achieved by establishing a “process of process management.” A company can use BPM to design, implement and control this process of process management—in essence, applying BPM to itself. Core Systems Implementation A large utility company had decided to standardize most of their operations based on a leading ERP system. Instead of making this a purely technical exercise they decided to integrate BPM as an enabler to real business value. They used the Accenture BPM reference model for utilities in a process repository tool to define their end-to-end processes. The process models were loaded into the implementation component of the ERP system, allowing a process-oriented configuration. Then they used the same models to design the test scenarios and in training their staff. The result was a systemic implementation of processes and a realization of the previously defined goals. Then they built a BPM organization that kept on updating and using the process models for general improvement initiatives or to benefit from ERP upgrades. Major technology implementations—for example, the rollout of a new ERP system— can consume vast amounts of time, energy, resources, and organizational focus. And without tight linkages to the business and a strong process orientation, such implementations can suffer from scope creep, constantly shifting requirements, and an insufficient focus on business value. Conversely, organizations that apply their BPM capabilities to core systems implementations can structure configuration and technical work around key business processes and outcomes, as well as take advantage of execution environments to keep projects on time, within budget, and fully aligned with business goals and processes. The end result: greater business value. Major Transformation Programs A major global services company decided to transform itself to have an even stronger customer focus while reducing their cost through a massive system consolidation. They used BPM to identify core processes and prioritize the system consolidation by applying a repository based modeling approach. The same process models, capturing knowledge about their existing and new processes were used to train and educate people on an ongoing basis. Business and IT Transformation are major steps an organization must take to move to the next level of performance. Failure is not an option – it would most likely put the organization out of business. BPM can help to reduce that risk to a minimum and make sure that the results of the transformation are really long lasting and not just temporary. A BPM roadmap defines how the various BPM components are used during the transformation. The process models in a repository allow whatif analysis, upfront simulations and after the transformation, a way for continuous management and improvement. The right BPM governance organization helps move the transformation forward and execute an ongoing improvement approach. Compliance Initiatives A major pharmaceutical company needed an even more thorough approach to safety and compliance. They integrated compliance procedures as detailed process models in their process repository and linked key documents to those models. The flow of data and documents were supported through a simple workflow system. The result was a powerful compliance management process based on BPM. In many industries—for instance, financial services, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and energy—compliance with regulatory mandates consumes considerable time, attention and resources. As governments increasingly seek to protect economies, consumers and the environment from unscrupulous business practices, such global organizations find themselves ensnared in a complex web of changing rules and regulations. In such cases, a mature BPM capability allows an organization to build, publish, enforce and revise safety and compliance processes, thus ensuring that its operations stay within rules and guidelines, regardless of how complex or dynamic. In sum, BPM typically has value in most large-scale business and IT initiatives as well as in smaller incremental improvement environments. Therefore, an increasing number of organizations have started building sustainable BPM capabilities and rolling out BPM as a management discipline. 8
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