Business process transformation lies at the heart of effective business process management (“BPM”) and the use of business process outsourcing (“BPO”).
Transformation
The goal of any transformation is to convert dross into gold, to create new valuable resources and preserve those “old” valuable resources that continue to serve well. In BPM, the transformation begins from the operational premise that efficiency and productivity support competitiveness. As a corollary, simplicity added value in many hidden ways. Simplicity reduces risk, increases transparency and accountability, facilitates communication of roles and responsibilities and reduces administrative overheads. Transformation that identifies bottlenecks, eliminates confusion as to responsibilities and accelerates transaction processing thus adds value.
What is Transformed?
At a minimum, the transformation applies to the end-to-end processes of a business enterprise.
Who is Transformed?
The transformation process applies to all resources in a business function, including people. In the extended supply chain, the people and other resources of an enterprise are only the first level of process transformation. The enterprise may extend the transformation to its trading partners and customers, integrating with each to deliver the value of others in the chain.
When Does Transformation Begin?
One of the toughest decisions in transformation is when to start. Should the enterprise change its processes first and then consider outsourcing? Or should it consider outsourcing for the purpose of transforming the enterprise? Experience suggests that transformation outsourcing has the highest risks of failure, since a third party is being relied upon and since the incumbent personnel might not be as fully committed to the success after an outsourcing as before. However, the answer to this question depends on process maturity and the degree of automation in the process to begin with.
