Clean the Clutter Out of Your Business Processes

Its amazing how quickly a garage, attic, or closet can fill up with clutter. When you go
to clean them out, you find things such as old shoes you used to wear on the weekends or
exterior window screens you havent used in years. These items, as necessary as they
once were, have now become obstacles. They get in your way when you look for the
shoes you want to wear today, and make it difficult to get the bikes out for a bike ride. In
order to shorten the time and make todays tasks easier, you need to clean out the clutter.
Business processes work in a similar way. Changes in business conditions, tactical
tweaks in response to customer fire drills, and entrenched company policy/culture have
caused adjustments to business processes. In some cases, technology has been applied in
an attempt to fix ailing processes. Often, this has forced many organizations to add
resources and develop workarounds in order to even implement the technology. Like
the garage or closet, the process has become cluttered, inefficient, and stale.

Three Major Elements

To successfully reclaim time and reduce costs, a business process requires a practical
approach, considering three key elements: people, workflow (steps), and technology.
When solving a business need, the critical first step is to understand your people and
workflow. These two areas are most under your control, and focus the process change
efforts on critical business elements (this is especially true of your people resources). For
this reason, adjustments here are faster to implement, provide the lowest overall cost to
change, and deliver the quickest return on investment (ROI). Once these two elements
are documented and analyzed, then you can determine if technology additions are
necessary to further maximize your process.
When considering technology investments, there is one basic rule: technology will not
solve all of your problems. Technology is only a part of a business process and solves
only portions of process improvement. When technology alone drives a business
solution, the solution either fails or tends to not fit within the scope of doing business
with a customer. Gartner Group has reported that approximately 40% of technology
projects fail. Attempts to salvage a project typically create workarounds that add cost
and time yet add minimal benefit to the overall process. Business requirements should
define technology solutions. This gives technology a guideline or roadmap to follow and
begins the identification of key performance indicators (KPI) to measure process change
impact.

SILAS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

200 East First Street Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27101 336.748.5600 Fax 336.748.5665

Balancing Act
When thinking about process improvement, remember this equation:
People + Workflow + Technology = Business Process
Typical approaches tend to focus either on the technology or the people elements of the
equation. Attaining Process Balance illustrates a typical technologydriven approach,
causing unbalance.

Balance is achieved by using a practical approach that reviews each process activity.
Successful companies continuously improve their processes by keeping an eye on process
metrics and using a proven, practical approach. First, create a core team that is sponsored
by executive management. Next, document the process metrics time, cost, volumes,
and people. Then gather improvement ideas and industry best practices. Compare the
existing process to the team-designed process alternatives. Finally, conduct a cost/benefit
analysis and collaboratively implement the changes. If technology is involved, craft
business requirements for the technology components. On the surface these steps are
deceptively simple; however successful navigation requires a disciplined approach. Each
step requires the appropriate depth and breadth to prevent scattered, piece part
outcomes. Ongoing analysis of the KPI metrics provides critical input for achieving
continuous process improvement.

Why bother with process metrics?

The approach of waiting to deal with a problem after it occurs is no longer acceptable or
practical. Knowing the metrics of a business process is key to managing costs, measuring
the impact of a process change, and providing outstanding customer service. Typical
project requests now require financial validation and analysis (ROI, breakeven, etc.) for
use in project selection. Similarly, managing a process requires metrics how else does
one prove that the process is effective and efficient?

SILAS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

200 East First Street Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27101 336.748.5600 Fax 336.748.5665

Todays management style requires the tools and information to proactively address
potential problems. Process metrics can provide alarms before negative customer
reactions occur and quick fix, high-dollar solutions are implemented. A process metric
can communicate management expectations down and across organization levels. When
balancing a business process, metrics should be key to managing your business not just
an end-of-project afterthought.
Numerous benefits are achieved by addressing the people and workflow portion of the
previous equation:
! A faster and more efficient way of conducting customer business.
! Higher employee moral - peoples ideas are shared, acknowledged, and become part
of the new process improvements.
! Improved cross-departmental communication.
! End-to-end understanding of the complete process by all constituents.
! Documented process metrics cost, time, and people.
! A common vehicle to review projects and assist in project selection.
! Rapid, quantifiable financial savings.
! The ability to validate subsequent changes to the process prior to implementation.
! The internal knowledge to conduct continuous process improvement.
! Technology is matched with business requirements.
! Process metrics to monitor the health of the process and a benchmark for subsequent
improvement projects.
Cleaning out a business process is the quickest way to recapture time and cost, with the
smallest amount of investment. It is the foundation of the business case for technology
projects, increasing the likelihood of project approval and matching technology solutions
with business activities. Instead of continually reacting to customer and business climate
driven changes, process metrics give you the advantage of proactively leading your
employees, suppliers, and customers.

SILAS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

200 East First Street Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27101 336.748.5600 Fax 336.748.5665