Business process management (BPM) is defined as a systematic approach to making an organisation’s workflow more effective, more efficient and more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment.

Most industries will have an understanding of what BPM is and that it is important to their businesses. But which industries are managing their business processes most effectively?

The goal of BPM is to reduce human error and miscommunication and focus stakeholders on the requirements of their roles. BPM is a subset of infrastructure management, an administrative area concerned with maintaining and optimising an organisation’s equipment and core operations.

Higher education institutions in the UK are facing a transformative period, institutional leaders and educators charged with setting the standard for the next generation of learners will need to embrace technology imaginatively to drive transformative change. But do we fully understand how the application of that technology and the extent to which it is embraced can drive improvement?

Through the creative application of technology, higher education institutions can achieve operational excellence. That means working more efficiently and cost-effectively toward shared goals, leveraging technology and tools to accomplish tasks, and knowing that your institution is flexible enough to accommodate new challenges and new ventures.

Leaders should take time to adequately reflect on how business processes are currently operating within and between different departments, carefully critiquing where gaps or unused technical and human capacity exist, then visioning how they could be improved both as stand-alone processes as well as end-to-end processes.

Approach the task with a team of individuals that are wise enough to see what is good for the stakeholder/customer and the institution from the high level.

For example, they should ask themselves what do good services look like, as well as evaluating and analysing the discrete steps, their necessary inputs and the downstream affects of the processes.

Don’t allow yourselves to get caught up in Analysis Paralysis, but do take time to vet assumptions and engage creative and critical thinkers in the exercise.

Accomplish these tasks with the following in mind:

  1. As a starting point, collect clear and current documentation of what is done and how it is done. Do not be surprised when you learn that little exists which describes the existing process – part of the reason for the exercise in the first place! You may have to do mini ‘time and motion’ studies to better understand and describe the current state.
  2. Make connections with and use the expertise of all stakeholders who touch, affect or are affected by the process. Cast a wide net to gather the greatest range of perspectives and then get to thinking about a new way to approach the old tasks. Get these stakeholders in a room together and give each of them time to voice what they see to each other. Synergise!
  3. Keep an eye toward simplifying processing and minimising hand-offs between varied people and offices in all processes.
  4. Make maximum use of technological resources – especially ‘hidden’ functionality – so as to free up human resources for priority tasks that fall outside the range of repeatable, routine and automate-able tasks. Your human resources can then be serving customers in a more direct and personal way.
  5. Augment any process changes with clear objectives for improved performance, service, or decreased processing time, errors, etc. That is, set performance indicators within the business process – this can reinforce the positive results and help staff currently stuck in the mire with the ability to trust and engage in change efforts.

John Butler, VP Europe, Ellucian.