Business improvement in the Cloud Era

0. [Business Improvement] is nothing so special

Desire for ‘Business improvement’ is from a hundred years ago.
Even from a thousand years ago, or ten thousand years…

– How can daily [overtime work] be reduced?
– How can the [fraud] in socage can be eliminated?
– How can all tribal members eat fresh fish?

“An organization with no improvement” will be culled. You don’t have to refer to Charles Darwin. (which I never read.) With that said, topics of today are like these…

1. Isn’t the ‘Information Society’ amazing?

1-1. Communications Infrastructure is evolving definitely!

“Postal service” has been provided since 1900’s.
“Telephone” has been spread in 1950’s.
“Facsimile” as well, in 1970’s.
“Email” was spread at a stretch in the 1990s.

The Information communication technology continues to evolve more powerfully and dramatically, even in the 21st century.

We can’t go back to ‘those day’, where there were no cell phone nor Email, anymore. We can interact information ‘instantly at anytime, anywhere’. Sadly, no one can experience for example, a “Love story that waiting for hours in the rain” of the kind, anymore.

1-2. “The amount of work that can be processed” has been increased significantly along with the evolution of the Internet

You can easily send business matters in [Email].
Reports, contacts, requests, or applications… It is the era where you can do your jobs at anytime, even on moving or at home. Come to think of it, I no longer care about data size. We used to say “File attachments more than 5MB is out of common sense” in a decade ago, didn’t we?

Moreover, Chatting tool as [Enterprise Social] is super-convenient.
It will allow you real-time communications such as asking lacking information, or seeking for advice from team fellows. It can be said that it is a very effective tool for inter-branch communication, and also in communication with teleworkers.

Now, it is no exaggeration to say “it is ready to process many times of jobs compared to the times without the internet’.

1-3. On the other hand, “Stagnation of the work” as well…

However, you can’t be just pleased. Intensive use of Email and Enterprise social causes harmful effects.

The first problem is “Lost of job”.
Amount of Email increases day by day, time of chatting becomes longer, so the tracks which to whom what you asked, or from whom what you were asked, will be lost.
For example, fellows in their 60s and 50s would proudly say “I have processed 200 of the emails, today!”. But probably, they couldn’t read them. They should think about abandoning almost the half of them without reading, if that much amount of emails comes in.

“A large amount of information” makes a “dilution of important information”. Certain percentage of work will be gone dead in the process of transaction. (Goodbye)

The second problem is ‘Organizational Silo’.

The time when there were meetings, there was report paper, people had been hanging around with information in their hands, I could know who was doing what,somehow. Also, I was able to somehow understand what kind of situation other departments was in.
Nevertheless, when online tools become convenient and the more information flow increases, the communications between other teams go poor. If you try to promote information sharing with other teams, too much information will be end up in only noises. As a result, each team will be isolated like silos. The Siled of the team, in other words, will lead to a decrease of the operational efficiency of the entire company.

“A large amount of information” causes a “range reduction of information sharing.” No longer be interested in what other sections are doing.

2. Let’s do the ‘Business’ smarter!

2-1. What is ‘Workflow’?

The word “Workflow” has become to come out also “Information Technology Passport Examination” which is popular among students in high school and college, as well as “Examination for Registered Management Consultant”, a national examination of consultants. In plain words, it is “the way to progress Business”.

In IT industry, it mostly means ‘Workflow system’.

A Workflow system / software is a device of computers to deliver [Business data] along ‘the procedure which has made up in advance’. It is put to practical use in the late 1980s, and in 1990s, many products have sold. It might be easy to understand if you image a device that sorting [luggages] in logistics distribution center. When someone finishes his/her processing, a job will be delivered to next person sequentially along operational path.

Indeed, it costs labor to decide operational paths beforehand. However, it is much more reasonable compared to the way in which each individual worker to be going to pass the [business data] to the next worker. You can expect Flow rate increase and the time required reduction. The quality of output also will definitely improve.

It’s something like, if you worked hard to lay “track”, “many of trains” will run over them afterward.

2-2. Does that mean paperless of Document circulation?

In Japan, there is a system (or a culture?, or a custom?) of “RINGI” (proposal paper), as a measure for controlling “Flow of the Business”. That is, instead of holding a meeting, writing matters for decision-making as an organization into paper, and circulate it in hand to grant approval by authorities. And the paper will become records of approval when it is saved. Well, isn’t it convenient? I guess 99% of organizations that have more than 100 workers are employing this system.

Therefore, many people are misunderstanding that “Workflow system is a tool for RINGI”.

Indeed, you can perform this RINGI online in paperless if you have employed a “Workflow system”. However, a Workflow system can be also utilized for Expense reimbursement or Leave request other than RINGI. Moreover, some companies would use it also for Claim handling or Drafting articles, if they were innovative enough. Or else, even “Revising of existing Workflow” might be done on a Workflow. (Complicated…)

A Workflow system is a mechanism which various Flow of business to be defined, and Individual Issue data to flow along with the definition.

2-3. Now, being disseminated to small and medium-sized enterprises with the Cloud technology

Software products to be installed on in-house servers were standard of “Workflow system” until around 2010. These had been managed by people in Information Technology department or IT specialists.

However, it is in this Cloud era (Cloud computing era), services available via the Internet (SaaS: Software as a Service) has increased at a stretch. Thus, you can introduce a workflow system without an IT specialist. That means, it has become to be able to be introduced immediately by even a small sized enterprises or a partial of large enterprise.

* Three forms of Cloud computing: SaaS, PaaS IaaS (I will tell about the details in another occasion..)

参考）クラウド型ワークフローの価格比較 (2012-12-20)

3. More and more Improvement in the “Flow Diagram”!

◆3-1. 流れ自体を変更したい！

“Introducing of a Workflow system” itself will be a great business improvement, if you have been doing your job with paper and emails.

Whereas, you will be doubtful, if you are using it actually, that “Shall I keep on using this Business flow?”

To-Be of things (a state of a thing should be) changes. So as the flow should be. In fact, there should be changes in an organization or in the business contents. Also, there should be a case that “Preventive measures” must be applied against a scandal, or a case that you become wanting to change the flow of business actively to suit the changes in the market.

“Continual business improvement” is the keyword.

Naturally, you want to manage these revising of flows graphically in “Flow Diagram”. Even how good it has been revised, nobody wants to read a manual that is full of letters as if it is a legal book. It is hard for the designer, as well. Meanwhile, a notation method referred as BPMN has become an international standard in 2009.

*BPMN: Business Process Model and Notation (Previously, Business Process Modeling Notation)

3-2. PDCA Cycle in Workflow Setting

Setting Workflow in “Flow Diagram”

That idea is the fundamental concept for a new category of software, so-called ‘BPM system’ (BPM software). This idea is particularly referred to as “Model-driven Composition”. BPM systems have their feature that “capable of various settings by operating the graphical Model diagram”.

Comparing with the conventional mechanism (which is referred to ‘Parameter-driven apps, although you don’t care…), the difference is obvious. The most advantage is that people who belong to business sector with their business knowledge and work experience are able to participate in the system settings directly”. Certainly, updating of Workflow system will become more flexible if you were able to modify Workflow settings freely with Drag & Drop operation. Expertishly speaking, “BPM cycle turns around efficiently”.

Related Article:BPMS and Workflow

3-3. Understanding the Progress also on the Flow Diagram!

There is a secondary effect in designing in “Flow Diagram”.

That is monitoring of the status quo. It will be easy to understand it if you use a flow Diagram. You will be able to observe “How much amount is being processed currently”, and “Where and what is staying”. Although it is difficult to liken, it could be something like CTC (Centralized Traffic Control).

Related Article:How to Improve the Process?

3-4. Market Category of “BPM Product”

IT research firms, such as Gartner and Forrester, have defined important elements of the “BPM suite products”. If I tried to rewrite in simple words without fear of misunderstanding, the function group that accelerates “Business Process Improvement (BPM Cycle)” will be as follows.

– Function that allows setting of Business flow in graphical tool
– Function for storing the history of Business flows
– Function that continuously monitoring what kind of situation
– Function for assigning jobs to the next operator when the status of Issues changes
– Function for managing business data associated with Issues
– Function for managing organizational information and role information of operators
– Function for communicating data with external system
– Function for analyzing average processing time in each Step
– Function for simulating on the assumption such as when the Issue amount is increased
– Function for managing the common rules across multiple business

By the way, processing of each step is not necessarily to be done by humans. In some cases to be processed in the computer.

Reference:Human-Centric and System-Centric

It doesn’t matter, but individual Issue is simply referred to “Process”. That is, a Process is an object to flow.
It doesn’t matter as well, but a Business flow definition is referred to “Process Model”. That means, a Process flows through a Process Model. (It really doesn’t matter…)

4. Not to Frustrate in the Business Improvement

4-1. Get Intelligence

They say it requires “1 minutes to read, 1 month to draw”.

To read a drawn Business Process Definition, 1 minute will be enough. Even without knowledge of the Notations, anyone can read somehow. It is also possible to point out in various ways looking at a Business Process Diagram written by others. However, it is very difficult to draw.

If you want to draw the business of your team into a Business Process Diagram, you should learn a little about it. Also, it is important to watch various examples.

Related Articles:Golden Rules of Business Process Modeling
Related Articles:Workflow Sample

4-2. Get Mental Toughness

I shouldn’t say this, but improvement activity is tough. It is mentally exhausting.

Business improvement is a football of overall optimization of and local optimization. Or, maybe of Departments and sections. You must coordinate many people who concerns by soothing or coaxing. To persuade ‘how a Business Process Diagram should be’ is very difficult as much as drawing it.
However, you will never get a good result if you left all of modelling and analysis to an external consultant. Business process diagram that matches the business strategy and business plan must be led by nothing else but internal employees. By the way, a person who is responsible to improvement is referred to as “Process owner”.

Reference:I Wonder Why My Boss won’t Draw Workflow Chart

4-3. Lower the Difficultyく

The complexity of a Business Process Definition depends on 1) Organizational structure and 2) Data structure of the Business.

It is as a matter of course, but an organization that is in fast improvement cycle is simple in its ‘Organizational structure’ and ‘Data structure of the business’.
Either of analyzing the status quo (Ai-Is) or discussing about the state should be (To-Be), the simpler is the more efficient.

5. Conclusion, “Enjoy your Routine!”

We draw Business Process Diagrams not for only to submit to the Government.
We draw Business Process Diagrams to improve our business of tomorrow.

– We must clean up the Business Flows around the world in our BPM system!
– We must keep on reducing rework and oversight, with our BPM system! !

Yes! BPM system is indispensable in order to perpetuate the society!!! (Am I gone too far?)

Reference:TAKEO’s Adventure in BPM (Comic)

(Original in Japanese was posted on July, 2013)