Chapter TEN

BPR AND AUTOMATION

_
_
_

_CONTENTS

_
LEARNING OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................2

BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING (BPR).................................................................................................3

CHOOSING AUTOMATION SOFTWARE....................................................................................................5

Introducing BPA in small and medium scale organizations......................................................................6

CONSIDERATIONS FOR AUTOMATION.........................................................................................................8

PRIORITAZATION FOR AUTOMATION..........................................................................................................9

SUMMARY.................................................................................................................................................11

_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

_
 Understanding BPR and evolution of Business Process Automation (BPA)
 _Considerations for BPA
 _Prioritization criteria for BPA
 _BPA into the Future.
 _
_

INTRODUCTION
_
Thomas Davenport and Michael Hammer working as consultants researched and invented a
brand new concept called Business Process Re-Design which later gained eminence as Business
Process Reengineering or BPR. They stressed on the importance of eliminating ‘non-value
adding work’ which the managers all over the world were trying to automate them without
assessing the use of them.
_
BPR, by the mid-nineties was observed to fall short of its expectations as it failed to deliver
consistently across varied industries. Then was introduced the new hot idea, much to the like of
process mangers, Business Process Management or BPM.
Whereas BPR focused on the elimination of non-value adding processes, BPM aimed at making
business processes more efficient with proper utilization of information technology. In spite of
BPM having a more balanced focus, critics of BPM have pointed out that it marginalizes the
importance of people in knowledge driven companies.
_
BPA balances both approaches and brings in a whole new concept of holistic and inclusive work
methodology by making the processes more efficient without discounting the role of
employees. It takes a people-centric approach where it is not solely reliant on technology.

BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING (BPR)

Business Process Reengineering is a management approach aiming at improvements by means
of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the processes that exist within and across
organizations. The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from a
‘clean slate’ perspective and determine how they can best construct these processes to
improve business operations and processes.
_
BPR has been defined as the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes
to achieve dramatic improvements in critical and contemporary measures of performance, such
as cost, quality, service and speed.
_
Business strategy is the primary driver of BPR initiatives and the other dimensions are governed
by strategy’s encompassing role. The organization dimension reflects the structural elements of
the company, such as hierarchical levels, the composition of organization units, and the
distribution of work between them. Technology is concerned with the use of computer systems
and other forms of communication technology in the business. In BPR, information technology
is generally considered as playing a role as enabler of new forms of organizing and
collaborating, rather than supporting existing business functions.
_
Recommendations for BPR
_
 BPR must be accompanied by strategic planning, which addresses
leveraging IT as a competitive tool.
 _
 Place the customer at the center of the reengineering effort- concentrate
on reengineering fragmented processes that lead to delays or other
negative impacts on customer service.
 _
 BPR must be ’owned’ throughout the organization, not driven by a group
of outside consultants.
 _
 Case teams must be comprised of both managers as well as those will
actually do the work.
 _
 The IT group should be an integral part of the reengineering team from
the start.
o _
 BPR must be sponsored by top executives, who are not about to leave or
retire.
 _
 BPR projects must have a timetable.
 _
 BPR must not ignore corporate culture and must emphasize constant
communication and feedback.
_

_BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION

BPA focuses equally on strategy, people, the process for automation, and technology. A
continuous business improvement initiative with clearly defined business goals is the right way
to adopt for implementing BPA. BPA does not forget the involvement of human intelligence and
efforts that go in to make the whole process a success.
_
Services industries now very much dominate the world economy over product based industries.
It seems pretty clear that the dominance would grow with time. Yet, the recent recessions are
proof that these very industries are hit most. The solution may lie in doing more with less and
BPA is the ideal methodology to adopt in these trying times of business competition.
_
There is no doubt that technology will play even a larger role in the coming years and will
determine the efficiencies of knowledge workers but how technology is going to be used still
seems to be seen.
__

CHOOSING AUTOMATION SOFTWARE

_
The key to making a quick transition from inefficient, paper-based process to efficient,
automated process is selecting the right workflow automation software. There are many to
choose from, ranging from low-cost open source tools to all-encompassing high-end suites from
the large ERP vendors. The bottom line is to choose that software which best suits the
organization's size, budget and requirements. Key requirements:
_
Flexibility. A tool that creates the documents and processes needed, rather than one
that requires changes in basic processes. For e.g., does it let its users create, edit and
format their own forms, or does it just provide standard forms templates.

_
Web Services and Database Integration. It enables seamless transfer of data and can
integrate with the database of relevant third-party applications at the form level. Even
better are tools that offer pre-built, out-of-the-box integration with the enterprise
software packages the business is already using.
 _
Ease of Use. A workflow automation tool should not require specialist technical skills to
operate. A tool that’s easy and intuitive to use is preferred as it does not require
extensive user training. If it’s a web-based tool, then it should be properly architected
for a web environment, and not just an old client/server package with a web front end.
_
_
Vendor Reliability. Long-term viability of the vendor is a must. There are many benefits
to cloud-based software, for example, but there are also risks: what would happen to
workflows and data if the company hosting them in the cloud went under? Open source
software provides an implicit guarantee: you can be sure that whatever happens, the
code will always be available.

Introducing BPA in small and medium scale organizations

_
Across the public and private sectors, most organizations are held back by processes that take
too long. The reasons for the inefficiency vary.
_
In reality, many inefficient processes can be streamlined quickly and effectively using
inexpensive business process and workflow automation tools. This is particularly true for paper-
based processes that involve a lot of human intervention. A common example is expenses
reporting, which is still frequently carried out on paper forms that must be passed from person
to person for approval and processing. But every industry and organization can cite its own
examples too: insurance underwriting, engineering change requests, return merchandise
authorization for faulty goods, and many more.
_
Two steps are recommended to start process automation in an organization. First, one
relatively simple process is selected as a pilot project. Second, the scope of the project is
properly assessed before starting by writing a comprehensive statement of work that describes
in detail how the process is to be automated. This will ensure the automation process runs
faster and more smoothly and it is a necessary step to clarifying your organization’s thinking
about the process itself.
_
The cost of the process is worked out before automation and compared afterwards to gauge
the benefits. While the exact benefits will vary depending on the nature of the process
addressed, organizations with manual, paper-based processes typically see a reduction of 30-
40% in the time taken to complete them after they have been automated – from which they are
generally able to extrapolate a measurable cost saving too. Establishing quantifiable benefits
from the pilot project is extremely useful if you want to prepare a business case for extending
process automation into other areas of the enterprise.
_
Above all, realize that business process automation need not be a difficult, expensive or time-
consuming undertaking. No matter how large or small the business is, or how complex or
simple the processes you want to automate, there are tools available that can help you to do
the job quickly, efficiently and inexpensively.
_
BPA has five key advantages which are:
Business Goals Alignment: BPA enables real and fast returns on investments by
integrating technology and manpower with effective cost cutting techniques. It
emphasizes on the fact that cost and revenue objectives may not be mutually exclusive.
It allows organizations to produce same output with fewer resources.

Participation of Right People: BPA involves all internal stakeholders in multiple

departments of the organization. With IT support, it aims at driving the business
orientation in the right way.

Identifies Right Processes for Automation: BPA aims at involving people rather than
making them just enablers for the process. It has proved a lot beneficial in eliminating
 highly redundant and multi-step processes that relies heavily on communication
between people across departments and projects.

Incremental Approach: BPA works best when applied incrementally to critical processes.

Ensures Right Technology Selection: BPA helps in the selection of the most suitable
technology for a particular firm by aligning its objectives with resources.
_

CONSIDERATIONS FOR AUTOMATION

_The factors influencing automation processes are:
 Business Impact
 BPA should have the full support of top management
 Organizational processes too cumbersome to control
 Legacy systems bringing the efficiency down
 Increase in cross functional transactions
_
Business process automation is defined as computer aided coordination of resources, facilities
and human knowledge to achieve the desired results in a way that the process is optimized.
Business process optimization is the ultimate level of automation, where optimum utilization of
resources assures superior quality of output consistently.
_
BPA applies to the whole spectrum of business process tools. It encompasses within it
workflow automation, integration of business processes, process control and improvements
concerning intelligence and expert systems. BPA in its simplest form implies to workflow
automation by facilitating information flow and integrating it across departments. Throughput
is a generic measure for workflow and workflow automation maximizes it. BPA is not simply
computerizing the tasks that are being conducted manually.
It provides a platform to probe and eliminate underlying assumptions in manual transactions.
For example, the assumption of purchase order against indents even for general spares can be
defeated by the realization that spares can be ordered automatically based on the inventory
levels. Automation is an opportunity to simplify workflow and get rid of redundant tasks and
non-value adding activities.

BPA deals with lots of delays in business processes arising because of lack of decision making
ability of people and lack of information. Computerized information flows are deployed to
make routine tasks and decisions faster. This involves the right people and brings decision
making to rightly where it belongs- the frontline.
_
Automation ensures single point of data entry which eliminates erroneous processing of
information. It is most note-worthy to mention here that BPA orients itself around achieving
desired results and not just around tasks and transactions- against the popular notion people
hold of BPA automating only individual tasks.
_
BPA believes that speed and efficiency comes not only from automating individual tasks but
disseminating error free information which facilitates to perform faster and take improved
decisions.
_

PRIORITAZATION FOR AUTOMATION

Suitable and practical symptoms for BPA could include any of the following:
 Repetitive, manual tasks
 Tasks that are duplicated in other processes
 Inefficient or outdated workflow processes
 Processes that span geographical boundaries
 New businesses or IT initiatives
_
The next important step is to prioritize the factors keeping in mind their relevance to the
outcome of organizational processes and functions. The ability to control any process comes
with detailed knowledge of interdependencies and at the appropriate time concerning cost
efficiency utilization of available and resources how measured variables are valid and reliable.
Control is all about making the right amount of changes.

Optimizing any business process takes much more than just control owing to the complex
relationship between different parameters and their impact on the desired results as it requires
lot of quality parameters to be simultaneously optimized.

Process optimization is best described as a five step cycle – Analyze, Identify, Simulate, Validate
and Deploy.
_
 Analyze: Analysis provides insights to how a process is running.
 Identify: Identify the inefficient processes.
 Simulate: It follows a structured process where situational analysis is done.
 Validate: The simulated results are checked and validated to get intended results before
actually enforcing any change.
 Deploy: After verifying the possibility of the changes, BPA is deployed.
_
The benefits of business process optimization are:
 Higher level of throughput
 Consistent quality of the output
 Optimal utilization of resources
 Elimination of abnormalities

_CONCLUSION

Properly designed and tested BPA solutions quickly start improving response times and produce
more effective and efficient workflow processes throughout the organization, thus reducing
costs and improving quality of the offering.
The success of one BPA solution often paves the way for additional automations subsequently
which go a long way in making the organization more productive. Choosing the correct BPA
platform will ensure that as needs expand, the solution will expand with it.
_
Relevant usage training of various BPA tools and software should be given to the potential users
to acculturate them with the changes in working processes. Without proper training, users who
do not understand the new process can quickly derail its success.
_
Economic or time constraints are likely to limit the process to only a few process cycles. This is
often the case when an organization uses the approach for short to medium term objectives
rather than trying to transform the organizational culture. True iterations are only possible
through the collaborative efforts of process participants. In a majority of organizations,
complexity will require enabling technology to support the process participants in these daily
process management challenges.
_
Finally, results should be measured against the stated goals and milestones created at the
outset. Therefore, a standardized metric should be formulated to determine the success
achieved.
_

SUMMARY
__
BPA consists of integrating applications, restructuring labour resources, and using software
applications throughout the organization.
_The important considerations for BPA to be adopted are:
_
 Business Impact
 BPA should have the full support of top management
 Organizational processes too cumbersome to control
  Legacy systems bringing the efficiency down
 Increase in cross functional transactions
 Prioritization for BPA
 Top Management Support
 Available Manpower and Resources

_REFERENCES_

www.wisegeek.com, www.alagse.com
_
_
_