The Value Behind Conducting a Business Process Analysis
What is a Business Process Analysis?
A business process analysis, abbreviated as BPA, examines process performance in relation to reaching company objectives. Business process analysis is an important component of business process management.
Every business benefits from process improvement that ideally uses available resources, ranging from human capital to financial investments. In a global market, business process management is necessary to stay competitive.
Business analysis provides management with valuable information about how efficiently business processes are functioning. Additionally, a business process analysis determines how successfully processes are contributing to company objectives.
A business process analysis helps identify the root cause of process performance issues. Using the vast amount of data that a business process analysis produces, the root cause of process performance issues is not only identifiable but also much easier for management to eliminate.
The common root cause of issues discovered by a business process analysis include-
1. Repetition- Unnecessarily duplicative tasks slow down process efficiency. Make sure that each action explicitly adds value to the business process overall.
2. Incompatibility- New systems can be a challenge to integrate with existing systems. Incompatibility can cause huge business process issues.
3. Disorganization- When employees are blindly carrying out tasks without understanding their importance a business is much less likely to be organized. When onboarding new employees and developing current employees, make sure every employee has a clear understanding of their roles and how they contribute to overall business objectives.
4. Bottleneck- Slowing down a business process or stopping it completely creates a bottleneck. There are many types of bottlenecks, ranging from human errors to resource waste.
5. Overcomplication- When processes become too complex it becomes increasingly difficult to analyze business processes effectively. Avoid over-complication and make sure to properly scale processes as your business grows.
Both process mapping and process modeling outline the progress necessary between current and future planned processes. While process mapping focuses on roles and procedures, process modeling focuses on economics and business rules.
A process model and process map are both great tools for visualizing process flow and facilitating improvements. When you analyze process progression and improvement you may also learn how to better optimize other processes.
When business processes are as ideal as possible, customer satisfaction rates are higher. When customer satisfaction rates are raised, both customer retention rates and bottom line profitability are positively affected.
Additionally, as your business grows as a result of the increase in revenue and solidified customer base, your business processes can be scaled appropriately. Using process mapping and process modeling your business can more seamlessly transition into larger markets using optimized business processes.
The Benefits of a Business Process Analysis
A proper business process analysis not only leads to process improvement but can completely transform your business operations and boost your bottom line profitability. Various benefits of a business process analysis include-
1. Historical data- A business process analysis creates historical data that is crucial for future review and reference. Especially in larger companies, this data is useful for understanding performance and process trends.
2. Compliance- With the vast amount of data produced by process analysis your business can easily provide compliance documentation when requested. If you do not already have the documentation readily available your business process management software can effortlessly and swiftly produce it upon request.
3. Onboarding- When every business process is explicitly documented and understood by employees, onboarding becomes much more seamless and uniform. Instead of each new hire receiving different information about business processes, each process step and its importance can be clearly communicated.
4. Customer relationship- Customer satisfaction makes a huge difference in bottom line profitability and overall business success. After all, your loyal customers are who keep your business running.
When customer satisfaction rates are optimized, your customers are much more likely to provide free marketing through positive third party reviews as well as recommend you to their personal network.
Additionally, higher customer satisfaction rates lead to higher customer retention rates. Considering it is much more expensive to acquire a new customer than retain an existing customer, your business will save a lot of money in the long run by investing in the improved experience of your existing customers.
5. Key performance indicators- Meeting various strategic key performance indicators both horizontally and vertically is a challenge every business faces. An organized business with outstanding process analysis will be much better equipped to meet and exceed key performance indicators.
6. Root cause identification- Deviations can cause huge issues in your process management and business process success. Process analysis helps identify the root cause of issues so that management business professionals can address problems promptly and effectively.
7. Digital transformation success- When a business is looking into investing in digital transformation it is very helpful to have a great understanding of business processes beforehand. Not only will the digital transformation likely be more successful but your business may also save a lot of money in troubleshooting and integration issues.
8. Decision making- A common mistake made in the business world are employee layoffs with the intention to cut business operational costs. Business analysis is necessary to better understand both the individual performance of a specific employee as well as the effects their layoff may have on existing business processes overall.
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