Business Process Analysis
What is a business process? A business process is a set of logically related business activities that combine to deliver something of value (e.g. products, goods, services or information) to a customer. A typical high-level business process, such as "Develop market" or "Sell to customer", describes the means by which the organization provides value to its customers, without regard to the individual functional departments (e.g. the accounting department) that might be involved. As a result, business processes represent an alternative – and in many ways more powerful – way of looking at an organization and what it does beyond the traditional departmental or functional view. Business processes can be seen individually, as discrete steps in a business cycle, or collectively as the set of activities that create the value chain of an organization and associate that value chain with the requirements of the customer. It is important to recognize that the "customer" of a business process can be several different things, according to the process’s position in the business cycle. For example, the customer of one process could be the next process in the cycle (in which case the output from one process is input to the next, "customer" process). Equally, the customer can be the end purchaser of a product. |
|
Coalescent Technologies business process experts provide on-site business process analysis work sessions using industry standard and specialized methodologies. During the work sessions, the team works with the customer to identify and confirm business objectives and analyze the business processes that support those objectives. The team then analyzes operational processes in step-by-step detail to identify areas where change (to process or technology) could be valuable. Once the current processes have been analyzed and documented, participants work together to build a vision of the ideal environment. Finally, the team identifies changes that should be made to move from the current environment to the vision environment, determines the impact of each change, and identifies the expected benefits in terms of cost and time savings. When the data collection work sessions are complete, the team analyzes the information from several perspectives, including process, technology, organization, business, and financial. The team then compiles a comprehensive needs analysis report that details the findings, conclusions, and recommendations. This preliminary report is iterated with the customer to produce a final report that provides suggestions (with cost and return on investment implications) for defining new system requirements and improving business processes to help achieve the customer's objectives. Coalescent Technologies further recognizes the demands for continuous business process improvement require a rethinking of how asset management systems are designed and constructed. It is no longer sufficient to produce fixed solutions to fixed business problems. Information systems, like the business systems they support, must be adaptive in nature. They must be capable of sustained, graceful change in response to evolving business requirements. Therefore, it is essential for the team to assess current trends and understand projections related to the specific business model. |
