[This post is a collaboration between Max Milhan and Kevin Feldhus. Kevin graduated from Colorado State University in 1991 with a Masters in Information Systems Management. His experience includes banking, IT, IT consulting and management consulting and he has worked on business process management in several different roles since 1999.]
Following a great Business Process Management presentation by Kevin Feldhus, Director of Perficient’s Company-Wide Business Process Management Practice, I was able to sit down and ask a few questions regarding BPM. Kevin’s track record of 12 years in the BPM industry allowed a real-world view of the mindset, application, implementation and obstacles surrounding Business Process Management.
MM: Would you mind defining business process management for us?
KF: There are multiple definitions in the marketplace that define BPM, however the one I prefer is as follows:
BPM is a disciplined approach that focuses on effectively and efficiently aligning all aspects of an organization, with the vision of constant process improvement, technological integration and increasing customer value.
The key is to focus on increasing customer value.
MM: What is the most significant business process management effort you’ve been involved in?
KF: There are several and some are obviously more satisfying than others, but I have been involved in using BPM to create business requirements for IT projects, in cost cutting projects, in designing world class processes, in developing business process center of excellence, to name a few. Some of the industries I have been involved in include manufacturing, telecommunications, entertainment, federal and state government, banking, insurance and energy utilities. I think the most significant are the projects that have resulted in multi-million dollar savings.
One example of a successful BPM project was to define the current state paper-based process and determine a future business model that relied on automation with visibility into the process, along with clearly defined success metrics. We had to overcome initial hesitation but the subject matter experts bought into the value of BPM and endorsed the process and the focus on the results. One of the all-time best compliments I have heard regarding BPM came from an employee with over 25 years of experience with this organization; she told me, “in all of my 25 years here, I have never been involved in work sessions that were as productive, and we actually accomplished something positive today”.
MM: Where have you seen business process management projects fail or succeed? What are the key drivers or risks?
KF: The key drivers of success, with failure resulting when these are absent, are:
- strong project sponsorship
- defined success goals with a quantifiable result
- organizational support to embrace or at least give the change a chance to succeed
Notice none of these are technology related. If you do not have a strong and engaged Project Sponsor, do not proceed.
MM: In your view, what is the role of technology in business process management or reengineering?
KF: Technology plays two roles.
First as a BPM product to document the current state, create the future state business models and document supporting artifacts that can be easily be used in workshop settings.
Second, once the future state business processes are defined, technology can support the automation of parts of the process or the complete future state process.
MM: What have you found to be effective tools in documenting and changing business processes?
KF: Rather than talk about the benefits or features of one tool over another, I will focus on the characteristics of BPM tools that I have found to be successful. A good BPM tool will be easy to use and will capture information in real-time including activities, information, roles, technologies, and supporting documentation (metrics, definitions, etc.).
MM: In your opinion, what are the biggest roadblocks to a firm looking to improve upon its processes?
KF: Lack of executive buy-in and a fat, dumb and happy company who does not believe they need to change. I am still shocked about how many companies may talk about BPM, but are not willing to commit to it even though the benefits would be significant.
MM: What are some best practices to observe when executing a business process management project?
KF: Plan, communicate and communicate. Start by creating a high-level business model of the activities that are potential candidates for BPM and then develop a roadmap laying out the order of projects, any dependencies and also a clear definition of the success metrics. Communicate the plan to Management and the organizational personnel and keep them posted on progress, challenges and success metric attainment. Also celebrate success and recognize the improvements.
MM: How can companies address employee resistance to business process changes?
KF: We all look at life from the perspective of “what is in it for me?”, so address employee resistance from that perspective. I believe you cannot over-communicate and have witnessed resistance because the employees of an organization did not know what was going on; thus, they were unsure how it was going to affect them. Also, employees may have the perspective of “we have done this before and it failed, so why try again?” Communicate the business reasons for the business process change, e.g. competitive pressure, new technology, regulatory requirements, etc. and if possible, also communicate their jobs may change, but not be lost.
MM: Is there any part of Michael Hammer’s article that rang especially true to you?
KF: Michael Hammer makes two great points that are still true today.
- Break down process silos and look at processes from an end-to-end viewpoint and
- Break patterns of existing work behavior.
Both of these are critical to a successful BPM foundation and are as true today as they were in 1990.
I appreciate his concepts to help “shake things up” and look at business processes from a new perspective. This was a great way to start putting process reengineering at the Executive level.
[Note: this is the second post in a three part series on the topic of process reengineering. We previously covered an introduction to Business Process Reengineering with a look at Michael Hammer’s article “Don’t Automate, Obliterate.” Look forward to the third post, an introduction to the human side of process reengineering, organization change management.]
