Pragmatism Rules
Making gains in the area of process is all about being pragmatic, according to Axa's Campbell. CIOs must appreciate that nothing will get done unless they can improve the knowledge people have about process."You can draw a process diagram with 68 steps but no one is going to follow that," he says. "The processes have to be kept fairly simple. You've got to have people who have clear accountabilities and you've got to have a bunch of people who understand the way they are doing things and what their role is in it. I've seen people take the ITIL basic processes, which you can write fairly simply on a small page, and expand it to 60, 70, 50 or 40 steps, and you just think: 'No, it just doesn't work'," says Campbell.
The KISS principle - keep it simple, stupid - must be the order of the day, he says.
And experts agree it is vital that the organisation be able to tie all re-engineering project goals back to key business objectives and the overall strategic direction for the organisation. The CIO should be able to demonstrate this alignment from the perspective of financial performance, customer service, associate (employee) value and the vision for the organisation.
"Re-engineering projects not in alignment with the company's strategic direction can be counterproductive," the BPR Learning Centre states. "It is not unthinkable that an organisation may make significant investments in an area that is not a core competency for the company, and later this capability be outsourced. Such re-engineering initiatives are wasteful and steal resources from other strategic projects.
"Moreover, without strategic alignment, your key stakeholders and sponsors may find themselves unable to provide the level of support you need in terms of money and resources, especially if there are other projects more critical to the future of the business, and more aligned with the strategic direction."
SIDEBAR: Five Important BPM Issues
Organisations considering business process management (BPM) and ultimately establishing best-practices need to consider the following in a BPM solution.- Flexibility in process design
- Extensibility in connecting current EAI, e-business and legacy infrastructure
- Are the processes based on components that can be shared across the enterprise?
- Future adaptability of usage of Web services
- Ease of use by the business people.
The fifth issue is the most overlooked. Ultimately organisations neglect the fact that the process in place is usually short-circuited by the workers because it's inefficient or simply not possible. The knowledge workers possess is the starting place of BPM. The solution must address the process from the bottom up as much as it addresses the need for the top to achieve the overall goals of the organisation.
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