Think of the journey and its exciting pathways
So, you started an ARIS Elements trial and may be wondering about the value of taking care of your "processes"? We know that not everyone is a process expert - at least yet ;-). Thus, I would like to share some personal views on the value of processes and give some guidance on what can come next.
ARIS has been the leading suite to run business process transformations for many years. Our software is being used across the globe by small to very large commercial and non-profit organizations. So, why did these customers choose ARIS and what makes or made them successful?
Processes in the early days...
When you just started with mapping and describing your process, you may still wonder why you need that at all. Here are the most important arguments:
Your business is only as good as the processes behind the business: Start mapping processes to actually see what is not working in your organization and design how your business is supposed to be. You may find steps which are inaccurate, being executed redundantly or which simply take too long to perform a task.
Change is not a one-off activity, build a repository that is used across your organization: The biggest mistake that you can do is mapping processes only ad-hoc when you feel it might be relevant for you. Imagine we would have no maps that guide us from A to B, there would be no modern society without the ability to plan and transport ourselves and the goods we need. The processes in your organization need to be mapped as well in order to plan what you need - new products, new services, new applications...
Sharing is key: Imagine you're the only one with a map about the world. Would make you powerful but your p
resence would be pretty lonesome. Similar to the map, you need to share your processes and empower people to design and implement a better organization based on the processes designed. Sharing is caring.
Summing up: Models of processes act as your main communication instrument. A process described in a visual way is like the language we use to speak to each other - but with a business purpose. Process maps are used for organization, business transformation, or compliance purposes.
Once grown up, what is the vision?
Once looking at your processes, you start to see further potential. People might come to ask you for sharing processes or you see patterns in your organization that require a mapping & analysis process as well.
Take the next step: Scope of mapping
Even if we talked above about mapping processes, ARIS allows you to extend the scope of mapping in the most powerful way. You can decide for instance to look at the customer journey and analyzing how your customers perceive your company, what works well and not so well. Or you would like to further map your Enterprise Architecture with a framework like Archimate or describe the rules and decisions that guides your business with DMN (Decision Model and Notation). Or run a strategic workshop with a Business Model Canvas by Osterwalder. ARIS offers you > 100 ways to extend what you want to do and does not lock you into restrictions in the future. You don't have to use it, but you can use it whenever you need it.
ARIS Elements offers all you need to get started: mapping processes with high-level (Process landscape) or detailed process diagrams (BPMN or EPC). Adding organizational charts, system diagrams or data models. If you then decide you need more, ARIS Advanced and ARIS Enterprise offers everything you need to extend the journey.
Take the next step: Report & Analyze
A natural next step in your journey is to run analysis and reports and share these with the various stakeholders in your organization - your management, other departments or even your customers or external parties like auditors that judge on the quality of how you run your business.
ARIS Elements offers all basic capabilities to start with, once you want more you can explore the option of additional standard reports and the ability to create your own in the ARIS Advanced and ARIS Enterprise edition.
Take the next step: Integration
The more valuable information you have the more other parties can benefit from this information, so at some point in time you think of integration of data or the application. Make the UI seamlessly embedded in your intranet - look at the configuration options we allow with the ARIS Enterprise edition. Want to export and import data via API to external systems, even that is possible.
Now it's up to you
It's like with a map. You can use it to navigate from A to B (simple problem) or to plan logistic chains (more complex problem). Both scenarios need the map. Your problem might not be exactly the same like to ones of other companies, but you all benefit from a common approach on describing how things are. This is what ARIS is for. Describing what your business does - what it does now (as-is) and what it is supposed to be. Keep in mind that looking at processes is a journey and it is a rewarding as business processes open you the door to new opportunities around every corner.
