Business Process Analysis & Improvement
Is your organisation affected by these problems:
- Do you need to reduce operational costs?
- Are customers reporting problems with product or service delivery?
- Have you reduced personnel numbers, only to find that important tasks are falling through the cracks, or remaining staff are overloaded and burned out?
- Are you using outdated software that is not fit for purpose or is no longer supported?
- Are there problems with communications and collaborations between business units?
- Are there undocumented processes that make it hard to train new personnel?
- Are you overly dependent on a few ‘gurus’ who carry everything in their heads?
- Do you sense that personnel are spending too much time on email or in unproductive meetings?
Solving these problems requires a thorough understanding of the root causes. Getting to the root cause requires a thorough analysis of business functions and processes to identify wasteful processes and opportunities for improvement. Solutions usually require redefining workflows, automation using software tools and efficient process documentation.
Elkera provides expert project management and business analysis services to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) review their business processes and workflows and make improvements to achieve sustainable cost reductions while also improving the overall work environment.
The pressures to reduce operational costs
Small and medium businesses (SMEs) are under constant pressure to find ways to reduce operational costs. Contributing factors include fierce competition, rapid technological change, supply chain disruption leading to increased input costs, wage pressures and reduced government support for many in the not for profit sector.
Simply cutting personnel is rarely a sustainable way to cut costs. More likely, it will lead to staff burnout, loss of valuable personnel, broken workflows and dissatisfied customers.
Why review business processes and workflows?
Sustainable cost reduction requires a thorough review of processes and workflows to remove waste and make effective use of software automation. Only in this way, business functions can be achieved with the lowest personnel cost. At the same time it is essential to improve processes in a way that provides a rewarding environment for personnel.
Common business process problems include:
- Existing business processes may be poorly defined and completely undocumented.
- Processes may be undertaken manually using decentralised file based systems in documents and spreadsheets.
- Information may not be conveniently accessible to those who need it.
- Staff may be overly distracted by email or messaging tools.
- Stored information may not be aligned to business needs, up to date or trustworthy.
- Collaborations between work units may be frustrated by siloed systems and attitudes.
Often, it is very difficult for managers to analyse the root causes of these problems and to propose solutions alone. Busy managers may be tempted to take a piecemeal approach without addressing the underlying problems. It is common for important stakeholders to be overlooked.
Sustainable cost reduction requires a top-down analysis of relevant business processes by persons with the necessary skills. It requires that all relevant stakeholders are identified and fairly consulted.