Business Process When Implementing UC is not a One & Done Project

UCStrategies defines UC as “Communications integrated to optimize business processes.”

You just spent 10 years investing in technology to automate and streamline your core business functions: CRM, ERP, HR, ECM, etc. Within each department of your business, the work is smooth and automated, and internal data is largely integrated. But suddenly that’s not good enough, because how your customers and trading partners see you no longer depends on operations confined within a single department. Your externally facing business processes cut across those boundaries, and that’s where the problems start. The handoffs between departments mean delays, errors, and incompatible data. Often you have no way of even measuring business performance end-to-end, much less managing or improving it.

Management and improvement of end-to-end business processes is difficult and requires more than a simple, one-time effort. Continuous process improvement means a fundamental shift in leadership values and disciplined measurement and management of the value that processes create for customers and shareholders. IT pros must think in terms of how technology enables performance as opposed to considering only siloed applications.

Those companies implementing business process management have learned that it can compress cycle times, reduce cost and improve responsiveness. But if you treat BPM as a once-and-done project, you run the risk of suboptimal gains or the gradual erosion of initial gains. If you cut costs by automating the customer-inquiry process, for example, but don't go on to analyze, redesign and manage the larger order-to-cash process, you'll miss further gains simply because the root causes of many customer complaints stem from the larger, end-to-end process. Similarly, if an insurance firm improves a process, such as claims handling, but then fails to continuously monitor, measure and manage that process, the initial gains will erode over time as staff, technology and business conditions change.

What's at stake? Nothing less than the ability to optimize performance. Sustainable process management demands a customer-centric leadership perspective, continuous measurements of what matters to customers, ongoing monitoring of process performance and executive accountability for improving key processes. Those who keep moving typically double their cost savings and efficiencies. In an era of commoditization and global competition, continuous process improvement is the difference between surviving and thriving.

Many companies have taken the first step toward business process management by documenting existing processes and designing and implementing automated and streamlined approaches. Yet only about one-third of self-proclaimed "process-oriented" companies go beyond these basics. BPM is not a once-and-done project; it is an ongoing discipline of continuous process improvement.

So for the record: Measure and manage your business processes.