You Want to Start Small

Every company has its own reasons for starting BPM. They may stem from problems, like preventing internal corruption or reducing the number of personnel needed for recruiting duties, or centered on emphasizing strengths, like wanting to respond to estimate inquiries faster or calculate daily sales figures every morning.

In any case, what we don’twant to do is start with a large-scale business process, because this just lowers the possibility of a smooth start. The best way to go is to start BPM activities with familiar processes—for instance, the process of proposing, reviewing and approving campaign plans.

The “Estimate” Process Is a Popular One

You may be interested in BPM, but clueless about which business process to work on. One place that may improve with workflow management is internal applications; that is, those forms employees have to submit for work leave, reimbursement and the likes. But the company doesn’t always benefit from “continuously” improving these workflows.

So we suggest setting customer-oriented BPM goals, like, “submitting estimates within three days after an inquiry,” or, “ensuring support desk responds to questions within two hours.” You’ll want to apply the PDCA cycle to these workflows, set a schedule, and probably establish a regular kaizen meeting.

Business Rule

"I still can not memorize business rules… To be honest, I’m afraid that I won’t have memorized them even 5 years later."

Since business flow diagrams are displayed, everyone can easily understand the business flow. In addition, tasks can be completed by simply entering artifacts based on directions displayed on the screen, so even newcomers are quickly oriented to the business.

Tasks in Mailer

"I’ve got tons of task offers by Email. But, weirdly, I’m pretty sure that I haven’t replied to all of them."

Everyone can clearly see the tasks allocated to him/her. In addition, tasks offered to the entire team can also be managed, which enables appropriate responses.

Employee Performance

"I am wondering what the supervisors evaluate in an achievement-oriented system… Maybe it’s OK if I can make a big one."

The number of business processes processed can be clearly reported on a monthly or weekly basis. By quantitatively checking achievements of colleagues and distant workers, everyone is encouraged to try to improve by learning from others.

Files as Output

"If I could divert the senior worker’s proposal to mine, my work would be done easily. But, I can’t find him and his files anywhere."

Artifacts of the processes are centrally managed. Thus, everyone can easily access the artifacts of projects completed in the past.

Techniques for BPM Activity / How to Draw Business Flow Chart

Templates  (400+)