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To enable Enterprise Process Management (EPM), there must be a mindset shift in top-management and a new set of leadership behavior. EPM involves the transition from communicating strategy in general or fiscal terms into observable and measureable terms of business processes.

The shift in top-management mindset must understand that the foundation of its fiscal goals is the collaboration and cumulative results of the enterprise business processes functionality. Strategy is not transformed into action without a clear and shared understanding of the accountability for advancement to the enterprise business processes. Hence, this leads to an established governance of business processes within the enterprise.

The governance of the processes will provide a stage to solidly communicate the enterprise process view, provide key accountability owners and high-level goals that all members of the enterprise will engage.

Understand that EPM does not replace functional units focus; it adds an additional tool for top-management practices that emphasize the way in which the enterprise create value for it customers.

EPM Benefits

What a ‘Process’ Is

An enterprise can solve many problems by defining their operational concepts properly. Improper definitions will make for poor operations of the enterprise.

Every enterprise operates to achieve objectives. For example:

• Sales of goods and/or services
• Hiring of personnel
• The prototyping and design of new products
• Presentation of goods and/or services to market
• Collection of capital for goods and/or services sold

These are all ‘processes’ of an enterprise. The ‘processes’ have units of ‘activates’, ‘tasks’, and ‘events’ that embody the enterprise operations. These units provide certain outcomes of the ‘processes.’ The above objectives may have the following outcomes:

• Sales – to respond to a market demand
• Hiring – to obtain skilled personnel for operational elements of the enterprise
• Prototyping and Design – to create new products/services for changing markets
• Marketing – to capture market share for the enterprise good and/or services
• Finances – to ensure capital income from good and/or services

So the essentials of a ‘process’ are personnel and/or equipment that accomplish things. A ‘process’ outcome is people and/or equipment working together. In particular this is about collaborated ‘activities’, ‘tasks’, and ‘events’ of the enterprise. A ‘process’ has an outcome: which is intended to achieve the objectives of the enterprise.

Here is the Wikipedia definition of a ‘business process’:

A business process or business method is a collection of interrelated ‘tasks’, which accomplish a particular goal.

There are three types of business processes:

• Management processes, the processes that govern the operation of a system. Typical management processes include “Corporate Governance” and “Strategic Management”
• Operational processes, processes that constitute the core business and create the primary value stream. Typical operational processes are Purchasing, Manufacturing, Marketing, and Sales
• Supporting processes, which support the core processes. Examples include Accounting, Recruitment, and Technical support

A business process begins with a customer’s need and ends with a customer’s need fulfillment. Process oriented organizations break down the barriers of structural departments and try to avoid functional silos.

A business process can be decomposed into several sub-processes, which have their own attributes, but also contribute to achieving the goal of the super-process. The analysis of business processes typically includes the mapping of processes and sub-processes down to activity level.

Business Processes are designed to add value for the customer and should not include unnecessary activities. The outcome of a well-designed business process is increased effectiveness (value for the customer) and increased efficiency (less costs for the company).

Business Processes can be modeled through a large number of methods and techniques. For instance, the Business Process Modeling Notation is a Business Process Modeling technique that can be used for drawing business processes in a workflow.

Contact dotNet Framework Solutions for your BPM consultation

Is your BPM Solution Audited?

So you have implemented a BPM solution and are receiving the desired ROI. So how do you ensure that the BPM continues to deliver optimal results? You do so by means of audits.Auditing of your BPM solution involves a detail look at the overall performance of the solution in the following areas:

·   The notation element

·   Business processes encapsulation

·   Business activity monitoring (BAM) metrics and reports

·   Enterprise planning and BPM integration

Audit of the Notation Element

Auditing of the Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) element involves reviewing the current version of the BPMN. In order to create “healthy” and effective processes modules that will the model the process correctly you must ensure that your BPM solution has the most current version of BPMN. The lasted version of BPMN is 1.0.Audit of the Processes Encapsulation

Auditing of processes encapsulation involves reviewing the physical business processes and how they are/were interpreted for input to the BPMN element of the solution. As the business grows, the processes that created that growth have changed. The changed processes may not be reflective in the BPM solutions which will deteriorate its performance. It is necessary to ensure that the physical processes and the BPM solution grow together.

Audit of the BAM Auditing of the Business Activity Monitoring element of the BPM solution involves review of each process element and the desired performance of that element. The preferred performance is then examined against the BAM metrics results and reports which is then evaluated for alignment.

Audit of the EAP and BPM Integration

Auditing of the enterprise planning and the integration gates to the BPM solution is a primary concern of the enterprise. The EAP is what provides growth, agility, and stability for the enterprise. When integrated into the BPM solution the plan implements action through processes. Since the EAP is a living plan the BPM solution MUST continuously remain consistent with the requirements of the plan. In Summary

The Enterprise Architect The primary responsibility of the Enterprise Architect is the management and implementation of the “Enterprise Architecture Plan.” In most company structures the Enterprise Architect reports to the CIO and has a staff of both technical and business knowledgeable members. 

The primary responsibility of the Enterprise Architect is the management and implementation of the “Enterprise Architecture Plan.” In most company structures the Enterprise Architect reports to the CIO and has a staff of both technical and business knowledgeable members. 

Since the Enterprise Architecture Plan (EAP) is a living methodology the Enterprise Architect is constantly monitoring and enhancing the EAP. The Enterprise Architect is the liaison between top management, stakeholders and end users of the “How’s,” “Why’s,” “What’s,” “Where’s,” and “When’s” of the EAP.

Since the EAP is not implemented as a pure technology or business methodology the Enterprise Architect must be able to communicate in an understandable language throughout the enterprise at any given moment.  They must wear the hat of a technologist, business strategist, business analyst, project manager, product manager, and end user. They must be creative in thought, innovative in implementations, very organized, energetic, and most of all – a people person.

In today’s construct of businesses the Enterprise Architect serves a vital role in the continues success and growth of the enterprise. Statistics show that companies without an EAP lag behind those which do in performance and growth.

Are you building a track home – where the architect just moves rooms to provide a different look; or are you building a custom home – where the architect builds for growth and renovation?  

Contact dotNet Framework Solutions for your Enterprise Architecture consultation

Selling the CRM Vision
For an enterprise to be successful with the implementation of a “Customer Relationship Management” (CRM) methodology it most be “sold” by top management to the entire enterprise. Top management MUST fully engross the philosophy of – customer relations – as the driving element of obtaining customer awareness, quality, and loyalty.

Top management must create an internal strategy that will foster a “buy-in” of each and every employee of the enterprise to the CRM solution. It is essential that this strategy define the responsibilities of each and every employee’s contribution to the CRM methodology. A CRM system IS NOT created equal for each and every enterprise or vertical market.  The CRM is definitely defined by the culture of the enterprise. The enterprise culture depiction is captured during the creation of the Enterprise Architecture Plan (EAP) development. Top management should utilize the EAP to facilitate the creation of the CRM methodology. The Buy-in