Context

The current business environment is characterized by the liberalization of economic sectors and the strengthening or the reform of the IT systems. Enterprises that manage networks in all sectors (banking, energy, transport…) share some common features. Indeed the complexity of organizations that manage a high number of recurrent tasks made by a high number of people makes it difficult to identify (determine) the impacts of changes.  This situation makes the mastering of processes a key strategic challenge for these big companies.

A two step-approach has to be put in place in order to master processes:

-The “process design” which consists in documenting processes. Our definition of “processes” is as follows: relations between persons, activities, information, events, means and other processes;

- The “process management” which consists in using follow-up mechanisms, management and improvement of processes.

Process design

In a company of 1.000 persons, there is an average of 20 to 40 key processes.  Each of them can be divided into 4 to 8 operational “end-to-end” channels (sub-processes). On the basis of these very few figures, a first conclusion can be drawn: without common tools and practices, to document 100 to 200 sub-processes will not create the expected transparency. On the contrary, the most motivated people may create a dynamics of conflicts by imposing non-coherent and too quick changes for the organization.

A methodological framework for the management of processes must then be defined. It will have five aspects:

Process architecture: the design of processes requires different levels of details, like the scale of a map. An architecture (meaning a coherent “cutting out” of processes) is a precondition for documenting them in a consistent manner, i.e. without overlaps and “grey areas” between them, and with the same level of details between processes at a given level.

Design conventions: the design of processes with flowcharts is currently supported by a number of softwares. Each of them has its own symbols and methodology in order to “map” processes. The diversity of the possible alternatives is enormous in terms of structure (levels of design), ergonomic & technical orientations… Depending on the type of organization and of documentation you want (centralized/decentralized), you will go either for a “stand alone” light tool or for a tool with a database.

Governance: two major types of role can describe “who does what” in process management. The first one deals with “business roles”; their owners are responsible for the content and performance of the processes (process sponsors, owners, managers, etc.). The second one deals with the management of the process documentation (process architects, designers, etc.).

A methodology to document and change processes: once the roles have been designed and allocated, modalities are formalized in order to produce, validate, change, and improve… processes. Once your actors have been informed, the production of the “best in class” documentation of your processes can take place.

Process library: you then have to make these documents available to your staff through a library which will ideally be located on the intranet of you organization.

Process management

To design processes is of strong interest when you have to stimulate process alinment (e.g. after a merge or acquisition) or to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the participants in a process. However in general, it will only be the first step of your pathway to improvement. Different tools and techniques will therefore be used in order to improve the management or the performance of a process.

ISO 9001/2000 Certificate – Audit and quality management : to define “centralized” guidelines and then to communicate them will not be sufficient for a company whose similar activities of production –including administrative production- are performed in different places. The motto which says “what is not controlled is not performed” is too often right in such circumstances.  Efforts made to conceptualize best in class ways of working may not be translated in operational terms; comfort and “business as usual” behavior may hamper any change… In order to reach the expected improvement, a quality system based on audits (internal and/or external) gives a perfect answer to find out non proper processes.  The added-value of such a system lies in the alternative (and neutral) way it gives to the hierarchy when specific points or operational weaknesses (sometimes unknown) have to be raised.

System of capacity management: Basically, three mechanisms can help you evaluate if the resources allocated to a specific duties are correct.
- Benchmarking compares the resources of similar enterprises allocated to similar activities. The problem? No information is given on the gaps which have been detected…
- Surveys on the execution times of internal sub-processes give estimated timings.  Multiplying these timings with the corresponding volumes give estimated workloads. The problem? Estimations are not reliable and fine-tuned enough.
- Time measurement for the most time-consuming activities gives standard timings. These timings… give standardized estimations. The problem? This methodology is cumbersome. And cannot be implemented in each and every organization. Gate-16 has developed its own methodology which combines different approaches in a logical way in order to precisely estimate your staff needs.

Process performance management: for some companies to draw a “KPI- Tree” is particularly complex. But when you have a process (and sub-process) architecture combined with comprehensive governance, you may have the answer to your need. The traditional mapping of strategic objectives with the different processes frames the definition of KPI that make reference to undoubtedly identified operations and responsibilities.

Process automation: last but not least, the automation of processes is not the least interesting way to improve the performance of a process.  All big organizations are dealing with long and recurrent information flows that are too weakly supported by IT systems. On the basis of the 'As Is' situation, our consultants will design your future processes and identify underlying information (and their state of play as well). From this point, a conceptual description of the future solution (IT + process) will be done in close collaboration with your “business”. The functional and technical documentation of the IT system will be established with your IT staff. If necessary, Gate-16 may provide experimented project managers for such a traject from the first analysis until the implementation.