Top Management Story

Writen by Hans Bool

A project is like the realization of a dream. At the beginning your team is full of energy that it gained from the picture of a new world. But after a while and after some first difficulties the initial high level of energy is reduced to its normal proportions. And to implement Business Process Management (BPM) you also should scale a rather large project.

BPM came to life in order to measure the performance of business processes. The term is introduced as a solution to the functional approach of organizations. Before the BPM insights, business management was about managing a functional organization. There were various departments and each department was responsible for the function of a certain system; invoicing, debts, new acquisitions, administration, etc.

Before the internet area, this approach was good enough. The client was not able to look in the kitchen and although the result of a client request could take quite long, the client itself was never able to see why this (process) took that long. Nor could the client (easily) notice the fact that department A had a different view on the situation than department B.

With internet, this has changed a lot. Because of new communication channels or medium, the client is able to perceive inconsistencies. And the result was a strengthening of the client relation ship (management). All the various departments ought to be seen as one (from a clients viewpoint) organization.

To facilitate this, business process management could be a solution. But the introduction of BPM is not a minor operation. One of the main challenges for a successful BPM implementation is the optimal granularity of the business designing approach.

A logical first step – before implementing BPM and before going into too much details – would therefore be to start with a simple company profile. this profile shows you the main processes that are at stake. Your consultant will be able to offer you this.

© 2006 Hans Bool