I was fortunate to receive an invitation to ARIS ProcessDay in Split, Croatia. Let me start this way. It’s the perfect location to do an event. Not only were the surroundings (mountains/ ocean/ sun) extraordinary, but also the presentations. I especially enjoyed the presentation from Rob Davis. He is a Principal BPM Consultant at British Telecom.
Rob basically started BPM at British Telecom. Especially during the privatization of this organization with some 150,000 employees, the management of business processes was crucial. Rob structured his lecture in line with the 7 pillars of BPM:
- Culture and Strategy
- Architecture & Business Models
- Ownership & Governance
- Tools & Methods
- Performance Management
- The Implementation Challenge
- Systems and Processes
I just want to cover shortly one chapter which I found extremely valuable – Ownership & Governance. An end-to-end order to cash business processes usually spans different units: Marketing -> Sales -> Supply -> Production -> Delivery -> Finance -> Maintenance. Of course, each of these units have a manager. But even the best-managed production unit will fail if cooperation with the supply or/and delivery unit does not work properly. The key question is: Who manages the overall process? Rob calls this person the process owner.
The process owner has to define key performance indicators (KPIs) which allow him to see if the end-to-end process is being performed in the defined frame of time, cost and quality measures. Doing this might not be easy because you have to discuss the process with all the involved unit managers. If they think business process, they will understand the need. If they think unit, they won’t. This is exactly where an executive sponsor could help. I really liked one statement from Rob: The business process is not there to describe your business. The business process is your business. You should take care of it.
I shouldn’t forget one other important aspect of ARIS ProcessDay in Split. The IDS Scheer Table Soccer Championship held another local tournament. The winning team got a free ticket to ARIS UserDay in Berlin. There we will hold the finals of this cross-European tournament. My summary: A great event at an excellent location with interesting presentations and some thrilling table soccer matches.
Tomorrow I will give you a review on the Process Intelligence Conference which takes place today in Split.
Read more about BPM: www.aris.com/bpm
