Create a Comprehensive BPM Strategy for Successful Process Automation
Avoid project failure by keeping the “B” in BPM.
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Your Challenge
- Today’s hyper-competitive and dynamic business environment is forcing organizations to adopt new technologies to improve the efficiency of existing processes.
- The business must create the structural capabilities required to maintain their competitive edge and execute innovative ideas.
- Despite the recognized importance of leveraging process automation, many organizations fail to first create a comprehensive strategy.
- Too often, a shiny new BPM tool is procured but then sits on the shelf.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Shift from focusing on an isolated BPM and process improvement project to a sustainable, enterprise-wide process transformation program.
- Take an iterative approach to BPM. Big-bang approaches have failed in the past.
- Enhance overall maturity before deciding to automate. Immature processes will have trouble supporting the vast change and complications BPM will impose.
Impact and Result
- IT is essential in engaging business stakeholders to drive the BPM initiative. IT needs to be a support mechanism and assist with technology, but otherwise needs to facilitate the business with managing their own processes.
- Before you can begin BPM, assess the organization for appropriateness and readiness through people, process, and technological maturity.
- Don’t just dive in: identify the appropriate organization level (team, departmental, business unit, or enterprise-wide) for which you should initiate your BPM initiative.
Contributors
- British Sugar
- Kemley Design
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Structure the project
Determine the BPM strategy goals, objectives, and scope, identify the project participants, and assign roles.
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Gather requirements
Gather information from business stakeholders to identify the goals and objectives for the BPM strategy, and collaborate with stakeholders to identify the processes and sub-processes that are relevant to the business objectives.
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Analyze current capabilities
Identify the gaps between the current and future maturity that may prevent you from successful process automation, and review recommendations for enhancing maturity.
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Create a roadmap
Select and prioritize BPM automation initiatives.
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Make the business case
Effectively sell the value of a BPM automation strategy to obtain approval to proceed with implementation.
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Implement the strategy
Learn how to communicate initiatives with stakeholders that will be affected by change.
Guided Implementation
This guided implementation is a five call advisory process.
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Call #1: Structure the project
Get off to a productive start: establish the rationale for building a BPM automation strategy and structure the project: validate scope, stakeholders, assumptions, and constraints, and set metrics to measure success.
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Call #2: Gather requirements
Discuss the business goals mapping to processes. Review process owner interviews and information gathered around processes for automation. Review the results of the Process Automation Appropriateness Assessment.
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Call #3: Identify current capabilities
Review results of the current state maturity assessment and interpret gaps between current and target states. Review initiatives to fill gaps.
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Call #4: Develop the strategic roadmap
Review the prioritization of initiatives. Discuss dependencies. Review results of the TCO calculator and potential benefits, and implementation alternative selection.
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Call #5: Review the business case and implementation plan
Review the business case and provide insight into selling the case to senior management. Assist with plans for securing resources, communicating initiatives, and implementing the strategy.
Onsite Workshop
Module 1: Evaluate Current State and Gap Analysis
The Purpose
- Understand why the project is important.
- Alignment of business drivers with issues and pain points.
- Identification of project goals, scope, risks, participants, and metrics.
- Identification of stakeholders.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Set the context of a BPM integration strategy within our organization.
- Gain approval to move ahead with the project.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | BPM fireside chat |
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| 1.2 | Identify project team and roles |
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| 1.3 | Address project management elements |
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| 1.4 | Establish baseline metrics |
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Module 2: Gather BPM Requirements
The Purpose
- Identification of high-level processes that can meet business goals.
- List of processes that are suited for BPM automation.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Best methods and practices for analyzing and gathering process requirements.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Map processes to business goals |
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| 2.2 | Gather process automation requirements |
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| 2.3 | Analyze processes |
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| 2.4 | BPM Appropriateness Assessment Tool |
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Module 3: Identify Capabilities
The Purpose
- Identification of your current state and the gaps to fill in order to reach target state.
- Prioritized initiatives.
- Comprehensive roadmap.
- Roles that are needed for each project phase.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Fit-for-purpose strategic roadmap.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Assess current capabilities |
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| 3.2 | Conduct a gap analysis |
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| 3.3 | Prioritize initiatives |
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| 3.4 | Identify dependencies |
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| 3.5 | Ensure the right roles are available |
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Module 4: Make the Business Case
The Purpose
- The business value generated from a BPM automation strategy.
- Audience for the business case.
- Best practices for communication.
- Determine the authority and who can make changes to the BPM strategy.
- Metrics.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Define best methods and practices for communicating initiatives and changes with stakeholders.
- Establish metrics.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | Make the case for BPM |
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| 4.2 | Learn your audience |
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| 4.3 | Identify communication methods |
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| 4.4 | Determine costs/benefits |
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| 4.5 | Create a communication plan |
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| 4.6 | Govern your strategy |
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| 4.7 | Establish metrics |
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Book Your Workshop
Onsite Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn’t enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our Project Workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a road map in place to complete your project successfully.
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Search Code: 74702
Published: April 21, 2014
Last Revised: October 9, 2014
