Business Process

Business process modeling is essentially conducted to examine how data and decisions flow among various internal entities, and increasingly also with parties external to an organization. Simple flow charts of processes would have sufficed in the past, but business processes have become far more complex with introduction of computers. Advances in speed and scope of digital computers now allow a lot of processes to work concurrently and interactively in real-time, rather than as slow independent, individual processes.

For example, business work rules can now be captured in software so that people can be taken out of the loop and computers interact in quick successions with computers in complex business operations collaborations, and also users with mobile devices can selectively push or pull alerts that would allow timely and appropriate human interventions when needed. Computerisation of business processes gives the corporation a chance to re-look the manner it operates and allows it to exploit new ways of doing things afforded by information and communication technologies. In particular, many of an enterprise's internal operations and management processes can now be outsourced because of the pervasiveness, availability, security and speed of digital communications.

This in a sense turns the corporation inside out since it has to work closely in many ways with external partners and customers as if they are integral part of their organization. This phenomena really started when corporations became globally dispersed so that its component parts are no longer in the same building, city or country any more. They took the lessons learned working with internal parties that are dispersed worldwide and started applying them with external parties, like suppliers and customers. Later, with more focus on core competencies, non-critical functions become contracted out to better and cheaper partners.

More sophisticated concepts and tools are becoming available to make process mapping far less tedious and can even be interesting and engaging, using computerised animation and three-dimensional graphics. Though process modeling appears to be suitable for low level, finely detailed modeling of business operations, the great opportunity lies in applying it to alter strategically the nature of the business or provide competitive advantages to the company. Corporations no longer just compete on the design of their products but now also in design of their processes, giving it better ability to leverage on their partners' strengths and provide closer and more personalised relationship with customers.

Dell, for example, showed that having an efficient supply chain gives it an advantage in the market place and by its existence reinvented a significant part of the IT industry. Since many external partners are involved in this, an exploratory modeling approach and incremental iterative implementation work well in ironing out points of conflict and disagreement, and building confidence in each others' capabilities and trustworthiness. Uber is yet another example of how changing business processes can disrupt the competitive environment. Business process modeling is therefore an on-going task, rather than a one-off irregular exercise. The ability to smoothly, quickly, and continually evolve the interrelationship of process components and people involved may just be your organisation's next competitive battle-front.