by Paul Marrero
23. April 2010 11:26
As a consultant, I have been in many situations where a department or organizational units required a custom solution. Almost all projects that I have worked with had some kind of process already in place. I documented the current process, looked at how it would fit into the new solution and, in most cases, it was just a matter of improving the current process to automate it and make it more efficient. After all, can you actually build and use software when you don’t know what the heck is going on?
Business Process Management (BPM) is different where you are forced to review, modify or create your processes even when your processes are… how should I say this? Bad. It’s a discipline, a framework, perhaps. Business Process Management cannot be looked at as a project, as we know it, but a much more expansive spectrum. It takes management commitment, core competency, transparency, overcoming cultural resistance, effective leadership, funding and the right tool.
Hey, I think I just mentioned why quite a bit of BPM implementations fail.
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So what can you do to prevent failure?
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Overcome the cultural resistance by creating a process improvement team made up of key individuals from each of the areas involved in the process.
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Do not lose attention to the key objectives of the implementation.
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Create, expand and nurture an organizational change management policy. It begins with analysis, monitoring, communication and effective training to create a smooth transition.
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Create awareness, gain buy in and acceptance.
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Identify key improvement areas.
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Engage and involve people from different organizational units.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but some points to consider. Implementing BPM can see great returns if done correctly. A BPM implementation will not be a trivial process and you will not see the return on investment if the attention to detail is gleaned over.
What do you think?
Learn more about CAASPRE Consulting at our website www.caaspreconsulting.com.
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