Speaking to The C-Suite About BPM

SPEAKING TO THE C‐SUITE ABOUT BPM

Speaking to the C-suite
about BPM
What’s at the top of the C-level agenda
and how BPM added value aligns to strategic vision
By Ruth Cernes Fagebaume
VP Sales and Alliances, BonitaSoft

©Bonitasoft 2013 www.bonitasoft.com | 1


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3
1. BPM provides powerful company-wide governance capability .......................................................... 4
2. The company ERP can’t cover everything! ........................................................................................ 4
3. BPM helps fill gaps ........................................................................................................................... 5
4. When operational excellence helps your company differentiate ......................................................... 6
5. When agility is a key success factor for development........................................................................ 6
6. Boosting employee motivation .......................................................................................................... 8
7. If risk management and mitigation is at the top of the CFO’s agenda ................................................ 9
8. Do employees collaborate or are they “silo-ed”? ............................................................................ 10
9. When your business demands flexibility.......................................................................................... 11
10. What if your company doesn’t have an ERP? ............................................................................... 11
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 12



Introduction
Business Process Management, or BPM,
can be seen in different ways. “BPM”
What’s at the top of the C‐level agenda?
can refer to both a methodology to
improve efficiency through better day‐ Governance & sustainability
to‐day processes, and also to an IT tool Quality of service & customer satisfaction
to automate and monitor those
Operational excellence & productivity
processes
Business agility
What BPM can achieve Employee motivation & collaboration
When done right, BPM involves
Risk management
business process analysis (methodology
side) together with the implementation
of business process management
software (tool side).
In this paper, the term BPM refers to both – the methodology and the IT tool— to enable a global
approach. This tight interconnection is the key to answer to the core needs of business activities.

This is why BPM is known as the game changer – it can provide a real competitive advantage.
BPM implementation in a company can be imposed from the top down, from upper management,
but it can also begin and grow locally. BPM is an empowering tool for workers in all levels of an
organization. The middle and lower rungs of an organization gain direct benefit and are often
pushing the BPM agenda.
Yet wide‐spread adoption needs the buy‐in of top management.
How to talk to the C‐Suite about BPM?
By addressing the issues that the CEO, COO, CMO, CFO, CTO, CIO, and other top managers are
concerned with: the ways that BPM can be specifically applied in an organization to improve
governance and sustainability through improvement of operational performance.
In this paper, we’ll look at the following and provide examples of the strategic value of BPM.
• Quality of service & customer satisfaction
• Operational excellence & productivity
• Business agility
• Employee motivation & collaboration
• Risk management

3 | www.bonitasoft.com ©Bonitasoft 2013


1. BPM provides powerful company-wide governance capability
Value from BPM implementation comes from continuously planning, doing, measuring, learning
and improving. It’s an iterative process, where your company can repeat cycles as required.
You can compare it to the PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) management method made popular by Dr. W.
Edwards Deming, and widely adopted in many industries, or the DMAIC (Define Measure Analyze
Improve Control) cycle in the Six Sigma methodology.
Like these approaches, BPM as a methodology can be applied to any organization or process
within the company, from the smallest to the largest, from the simplest to the most complex, from
technical to business. The difference is that BPM can also be applied directly as an IT tool.
The company can imply BPM incrementally to make the entire
organization lean. As process after process improves, your company
saves costs and improves operational performance, bottom line; but “ROI is maximized,
also top line, with increased quality of service leading to higher leveraging
customer satisfaction and more sales. BPM solutions provide the 3 dimensions:
means to actually monitor efficiency of all the processes in an cost, revenue
organization, to identify bottlenecks, and to report the and motivation”
improvements made in efficiency, easily and clearly with actual
measurements.
BPM gives employees the right tools to be more efficient. They can focus on added‐value, hence
more interesting activities and projects. They feel more empowered and engaged. Return On
Investment is maximized, leveraging all three dimensions of cost, revenue and motivation.

2. The company ERP can’t cover everything!
Today, your company may have an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning system), a CRM (Customer
Relationship Management system), a CMS (Content Management System), an HRIS (Human
Resources Information System) and other – sometimes many other— software applications that
support its business.
Some of these are complex software systems that require expertise, time and money to be
deployed and additional time and money to be fine‐tuned after first release. Most of them, when
not from the same software vendor, don’t even communicate together without a lot of
adjustments and modifications, if at all.
Large, globally deployed systems can also encounter challenges addressing specific or local needs
that are not widely shared in the industry or worldwide. For example, locally relevant information
missing from the company workflow may result in holes that people have to fill with other locally
created or purchased systems, or with home‐made spreadsheets.



While it is not an issue to have both ERP and stand‐alone systems coexisting, getting them to
communicate is often challenging. Implementing yet another module or developing customized
changes in your company’s ERP would probably be costly and time‐consuming; stand‐alone
systems are often single purpose and may not be easily leveraged to support other tasks.
After a few years, the company is dependent on many
different applications and databases. Employees start
“After a few years…
complaining that the various systems do not
you end up with a system   communicate smoothly and they need to complete
like a Rube Goldberg more and more manual steps and data extracts and
contraption! compilation. Your company ends up with a system like
a Rube Goldberg contraption!

This is where Business Process Management comes into play
BPM is a business management approach that helps your company gain visibility into how your
company truly operates in the field. You can quickly see:
• what’s covered by current systems like the ERP and CRM,
• what is addressed through stand‐alone systems, and
• where the “holes” are.
This overall knowledge of operating processes allows top
management to make shrewd, prudent decisions more With increased visibility,
quickly, increasing business efficiency and operational management has
results. better control, and
can make good decisions
What if you don’t have an ERP? This doesn’t mean that
more quickly.
BPM isn’t useful to you. See Section 10, What if you don’t
have an ERP?

3. BPM helps fill gaps
Through BPM, all stakeholders work together at mapping processes. Some tasks will be handled
within existing tools like ERP, CRM, and so on. Some tasks can be automated. Some tasks will
continue to be done manually – because your differentiation, where it depends on unstructured
processes, is also key to improving business results.
But they will all be linked and will start communicating together, enabling end‐to‐end traceability
and continuity.  C‐level management keeps control of what is happening in the company.



4. When operational excellence helps your company differentiate
When an organization is achieving results – good or bad –you can retrace how those results are
obtained by using BPM. You can easily replicate successful processes in other organizations or
subsidiaries. Where there are issues, you can quickly identify bottlenecks, understand root causes
and apply fixes.
Thanks to this continuous improvement loop, your company’s processes can be optimized to best
serve your markets at any time, leading to great operational efficiency and higher customer
satisfaction.
CMO and COO teams can review, simplify and structure processes, focusing on value delivery and
removing everything else. At the same time, they can identify the processes that lead to business
differentiation and increase customer knowledge.

BPM is the path to Replicating the company’s best practices ensures internal
Customer Value Delivery   coherence and consistent delivery to the customer,
& Operational Excellence whenever and wherever it happens. This is the path to
operational excellence.
In addition, your company becomes a learning and agile organization, able to quickly adapt to the
changing environment we all live in today.

5. When agility is a key success factor for development
In our global economy, new competitors are popping up
everywhere with new business models. This can happen seemingly
overnight, breaking former rules and habits and changing the BPM improves your
paradigm. To remain competitive and survive, your company needs Speed‐to‐Market.
to be able to anticipate these changes and act before competitors.
If your processes are clear, robust and efficient, your company will
be better prepared to tackle tomorrow’s market challenges.
With its solid framework and clearly‐defined steps, owners and interactions, BPM puts you in an
ideal position to catch new business opportunities.



Business Example
Imagine your company is the leader in high-end cars.
Your company’s vision is to “provide elegant, safe, high quality cars to our customers” and
to “provide excellent customer assistance in case of any problem.”

In the event of a break‐down, customers call your help line. You have management directive
to act quickly; for example, to figure out that a tow truck is needed and to get it out to the
customer as fast as possible.

However, despite consistently fast service, top management has learned that customers are
not finding the after‐sales service for problems to be very satisfactory at all. This is now
driving down sales. A shift in vision is needed.

The company’s new vision is to “make the customer’s life easier
while taking care of their car if something happens.” You now have   BPM is
to align the help line call center’s processes to match the new   a change enabler
strategic vision for your company.

You propose to shift focus to making help line calls the best interaction possible with your
brand, whatever the duration. Before sending assistance, the service rep can find out more
about the specific situation, which better pinpoint a better solution than an automatic call
to a mechanic– perhaps the rep can explain some action that the customer can take to get
driving again, without the need to wait for a tow.

The rep can empathize with stranded customer’s plight, give them real‐time status on what
help is coming and when it will arrive, and offer additional services and perhaps a gift to
compensate for the unpleasant experience.

How easy will it be to implement these changes?
Mapping inter‐related processes – internally with sales, after‐sales, the call center, and with
external partners such as tow services and mechanics– allows you to collaboratively design
a process that the company can execute quickly. For example, after the tow service has
electronically accepted the service call, they can also confirm the dispatch and arrival of the
tow truck. BPM will allow you to implement the processes with all involved stakeholders, to
collect data from tracking each customer event and supplier commitment, and to report
results. All this can be done in incremental steps, to aid adoption by building on success.
Change is made easier.

BPM provides a good way to make the company’s vision clear and understood. It makes strategic
decisions meaningful and concrete to employees and partners who then feel involved and
committed.



6. Boosting employee motivation
Study after study1 around the world has shown that motivation has a positive influence on
financial results. However, companies encounter more and more difficulties to maintain a high
level of employee engagement, at a time they most need to drive strong performance in a more
and more volatile, complex and global environment.
When engagement starts to decline, company
“When engagement   performance and customer satisfaction inevitably drop.
starts to decline,   Most of the time, things are going wrong inside the
company performance and organization. People may be less confident because they
customer satisfaction don’t perceive enough interest coming from above; or
they may think management does not provide them
inevitably drop.”
with the right support and structure, clear roles and
responsibilities, processes and tools. At first, people
tend to compensate for the organization’s lack, but beyond a certain level, they often just …
disengage. When they don’t feel their company (or department) is the best place to work, they
start looking around for other job opportunities

BPM is a motivation enabler
BPM addresses organizational gaps, making operating processes clear, simpler and automated. It
makes work easier and saves time, for employees and for their line of management. And with
more efficient processes and higher customer satisfaction, managers will have fewer problems to
deal with.
Time freed up from “meaningless” tasks performed in an BPM translates
information vacuum can be used wisely to create the energizing your vision
and caring environment employees expect from their into concrete actions
management.
With BPM, people know clearly what’s expected from them and understand how what they do
impacts company goals and performance. It gives their job more meaning, while also helping them
to manage their time and their daily tasks.

1
Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study;
Motivation: The Not‐So‐Secret Ingredient of High Performance
Motivation Is All About the Managers...Duh!



Employees:
• can serve customers more efficiently with less stress and more ownership, thanks to clear
processes, computer‐aided task management and reminders,
• have time freed up to do productive activities such as leading a project or task force, adding
value and interacting more with their coworkers and managers, and
• have better visibility on what others are doing in the company, improving collaboration.
Managers:
• understand and show interest in what their employees are doing, provide more accurate
job descriptions and fact‐based performance evaluation metrics,
• can balance workload in their team, and
• save time that they can reallocate to spend more time with their employees and make their
company a better place to work.

7. If risk management, risk mitigation, and tracking/audit
is at the top of the CFO’s agenda
Depending on your industry, your company may be subject to
more and more complex regulations. By bonding systems more
BPM is
tightly together, BPM formalizes processes, all of them, even the
insurance that
ones between two existing systems. It ensures complete
you’re compliant. traceability, hence better compliance with your industry’s
standards and regulations.
But risk is not only about legal compliance. If your company’s processes are clear, well‐established,
automated and secured with electronic signature for approval, it considerably reduces the risk
that any employee might not follow correct procedure, or forget steps like asking for an approval.
Companies have gotten into trouble because they failed to monitor and control their activities and
processes: materials ordered without proper authorization that are contractually obligated and
can’t be returned; accounts payable surprised by the amount and number of purchases affecting
cash flow, and other such familiar situations.
We all remember the Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill on
the Gulf Coast… Reputation has an
impact on sales.
Companies have gone under because of quality and liability issues.
BPM helps guard
Others have been working very hard for years to rebuild their
against misconduct.
brand after a bad experience, especially on the social or
environmental side.



The company is also better protected against fraud, corruption or ethics violations. What everyone
does is recorded and electronically signed when needed, making it more difficult for someone
with bad intentions to bypass validations and controls.

Relying too much on Another point to consider: when describing, formalizing and
people‐dependent automating processes, the company also ultimately depends less
processes on individual knowledge.
is a risk too! If key employees happen to leave, general expertise stays in the
company and you don’t need to recreate what they knew that
wasn’t captured. New hires can build on past experience and make their contribution from there.
This saves time, preserves core competencies and enables new expertise acquisition.

8. Do employees collaborate or are they “silo-ed”?
Maybe teams used to collaborate well, but after several years of growth or changes, it looks like
their collaboration has been reduced to the bare minimum. People
are working in silos, not seeing the big picture any more, Collaboration leads
generating duplication, rework, or bottlenecks. to efficiency

Does IT need to be closer to your business challenges?
When it comes to IT, the gap may be even bigger, with misunderstanding between IT and business
functions. Business develops requirements and hands them over to IT, who then buys or develops
an application that seems to fit. When it is released and business teams start using it, they report
issues nobody talked about before. Thus begins a ping‐pong match between business and IT.
The way BPM software has been designed invites and reinforces direct collaboration: business and
IT teams work on the same tools, in nearly real time, with graphical tools that make it much easier
for them to talk the same language and avoid misunderstanding or
BPM brings omissions. Feedback is incorporated as they go along together.
homogeneity   More feedback may arise at a later stage, once a specific case is
and scalability encountered. BPM systems are flexible enough to let you implement
changes afterwards without mobilizing a full IT project team.
On the IT side, there is a common architecture for all the company’s specific applications, instead
of many independent stand‐alone systems. This homogeneity makes it possible to leverage
successful processes and applications consistently and across the entire organization, including
subsidiaries, locally or abroad.



9. When your business demands flexibility
BPM allows top management to implement change quickly and smoothly.
Radical changes and big IT projects take time and always carry some risks. With BPM, you can start
from current processes, improve, implement and automate
“Radical changes and big to achieve first outcomes. This allows a quick win, even while
IT projects take time and preparing the next steps. You see results early and validate
always carry some risks” that things are going in the right direction.
You can then iterate as much as needed. Those multiple
iterations are not disruptive as BPM software is highly flexible and
can deliver fast and frequent changes.
Incremental
implementation
10. What if your company doesn’t have an ERP? is low‐risk
Depending on many criteria, among them size, complexity or
volume, your company may not need to invest in such a large and expensive system. Not all
businesses need a sophisticated ERP, especially if the company is small and doesn’t manufacture
products.
“Our company   But this doesn’t mean you don’t have to formalize and structure
just needs a simple,   the way you operate and deliver to your customers.
yet expandable, tool.” Your company just needs a more simple, yet expandable, tool. A
BPM suite can be that tool. You first describe and refine your
processes with all stakeholders collaborating. Then, you define what needs automation, validation
and tracking. This applies to many processes, such as:
• Quotation to a customer that need to be validated by technical staff for feasibility and
management for pricing. It may also involve several versions before reaching an agreement
and these versions need to be tracked and archived
• Employees’ vacation, with management validation, system recording and linked to payroll
• Invoicing automation, validation, recording and archive
Without having to invest in an expensive and heavy ERP, your company still gets what’s needed to
structure and monitor the business:
• Operational performance and cost reduction
• Quality of service and customer satisfaction
• Visibility, Control and reporting
• Agility and Adaptability
• Team and individual productivity
• Traceability and Compliance



Conclusion
BPM improves the company’s overall efficiency today, so executive management can focus on
the future.
As we’ve seen, BPM can have a positive impact on many aspect of a company, from governance
and sustainability to motivation and change management, to agility and collaboration, to
compliance and risk management.
All these aspects have an influence on business performance and contribute increasing Return on
Investment. It’s not just about cost savings. With BPM the
entire company gets much more.
“There’s a very good
It gets happy employees, happy customers, and a well‐oiled
chance your company
operational machine, optimized for the best outcomes, not
will get a higher ROI
the lowest costs. This is a positive feedback loop where
than your calculations
satisfaction leads to more success, which leads to more
will anticipate.”
profits that can fuel company expansion and stakeholders
satisfaction, and so on.
Is this something that can be quantified? Definitely.
Classic ROI calculation builds upon:
• efficiency models measuring cost savings, lost productivity, rework and duplication, and
• statistical and probabilistic model for risk evaluation.
The good news is there’s a very good chance your company will get a higher return than your
calculations will anticipate. And you will be able to show this with process measurements.
When done properly, with all stakeholders’ involvement and empowerment, and strong
management support, a BPM project – whether company‐wide or at department level – will help
people understand business goals and strategies and mobilize energies towards a common project
serving common purposes. Engagement and motivation will naturally get boosted, and by
rebound, customer satisfaction will increase.
This is the human factor effect. People engagement and motivation are complex and difficult to
link directly to a saving or performance increase, as are word‐of‐mouth and referrals among
customers.
Executives can focus   But we all know it works and can produce real results.
more on strategy   Once the company’s processes are structured, optimized
and less on logistics and automated, management can focus more on defining
and implementing strategy and less on logistics. Teams have
time to get customer insights, and to anticipate and get ready for the next challenges.
The C‐suite and the Board of Directors are better prepared to work on their vision of the future.



HEADQUARTERS
GRENOBLE, FRANCE
32, rue Gustave Eiffel
38000 Grenoble

EMEA, ASIA & LATIN AMERICA
PARIS, FRANCE
73‐77, rue de Sèvres
92100 Boulogne‐Billancourt

NORTH AMERICA
SAN FRANCISCO, USA
51 Federal St. Suite 305
San Francisco, CA 94107


Speaking to The C-Suite About BPM

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

Similaire à Speaking to The C-Suite About BPM

Similaire à Speaking to The C-Suite About BPM (20)

Plus de Bonitasoft

Plus de Bonitasoft (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Speaking to The C-Suite About BPM