Optimizing Processes for Innovation and Agility

June 18 from CIO Update – “Working from current process models, process analysts and domain experts collaborate to generate to-be models that can satisfy the aims of business model scenarios. Next, they perform a gap analysis between the current process model and each to-be model to determine which processes need to be eliminated, streamlined, automated, or outsourced and to anticipate the potential impact of these changes on supporting applications and systems.”

180 View – We disagree with creating “to-be models” unless the organization plans to make any necessary system changes themselves or has unique requirements. We recommend understanding the problems with the existing business processes, but rather than creating the ultimate “to-be” process, we think organizations should work with their vendors, VARs or solution providers. There are usually multiple ways to get the job done. It is not necessary to always create a unique business process. Take advantage of existing or embedded business process for the routine work. You may need to do a little tweaking for some unique business processes. It only makes sense to build the "to-be" from scratch if the business process is not only unique but also contributes to an organization's value proposition, which describes the unique mix of product and services, customer relations, and corporate image a company offers or what defines differentiation.