"We have already spent millions on IT," said with a sigh, is a common reaction by business people when they hear of yet another new technology that is promising so much again. Behind this is the recognition that to really improve business performance they need to get their processes, and related parts of the business right, rather than just throw expensive technology at the problem.
An example of this is someone we know who applied for a mortgage for a flat and was told by the building society that they would send a surveyor round to value the property. After 4 weeks of hearing nothing, the applicant rang the building society only to find they had forgotten to inform the surveyor. This was a large building society that had spent, yes, millions on its computers, yet failed to supply a simple reliable service.
Despite having already spent the millions on IT, it can still be possible to carry out beneficial BPR on what you already have. It is not as good as doing it at the time the technology was introduced but there can still be benefits because some of the opportunities can be independent of technology.
An example we encountered was Finance being slow at paying bills to optimise cash, so suppliers stopped supplying. This caused a slowdown in Production so business could not be completed. The loss of business and extra production costs vastly exceeded the money saved by Finance hanging on to the cash. This was a policy problem, nothing to do with IT, and illustrates the classic BPR opportunity to remove functional optimisation that causes sub-optimisation in the business as a whole.
Another possibility is to test out new processes in a manual form first, iron out the bugs, and then consider automation.
Take an example of a proposed workflow system for a complaint's process. By analysing the complaint's process beforehand, we realised that just putting in a workflow system would not have solved the problem of the slow response to complaints. This was because the Directors of the various functions were the bottleneck, due to their reluctance to delegate the work. All the workflow system would have done initially, would be to highlight this. But the problem would not have been solved until a change in the business structure or policy caused the needed delegation.
The above example is often the ideal way to use BPR, i.e. at the same time new technology is being introduced. Doing it then can also make all the difference to the business case. For example, for one company we saved an estimated £100,000 p.a. by speeding up their cash flow and £6,000 p.a. of this within 5 days of starting the work.
Another example is the building society forgetting to inform the surveyor, which was mentioned above. While BPR may have helped, BPR with the application of workflow technology would most likely be the best solution, provided it made a business case.
We have found BPR to be one of the most valuable things a company can do, with studies yielding large estimated savings and increases in business performance. Our experience over a range of sectors such as Manufacturing, Travel, Education, Transport and Legal, is that ideas from one sector can often be usefully applied to another.
Rather than looking at just Processes, People and Technology, we consider the organisation as a complete system. This includes; the organisation structure, policy, culture, money, time and business performance.
Project management that establishes quick and tight control of a project and then proceeds in manageable and low risk stages, is an integral part of the service. Related to this is the production of clear documentation, which aids analysis and design and promotes good communication with the client.
Finally, to hide the new business benefits under a bushel by keeping the knowledge within the company can mean a loss of potential benefits. While there may be good commercial reasons for keeping such developments confidential, in other cases the organisation can benefit by publicising them. The extra business from such publicity becomes an additional benefit to those already gained from the project. We can help here by using our knowledge of the press and the new processes to get effective press coverage.
To contact us:-
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8573 3911
Email: vlilley@lilleyinfosys.co.uk