7 Key Ways A Business Process Analyst Can Improve Your Company’s Output

As a company owner, you face a lot.

While striving to gain prominence in the market, you also struggle to gain the attention you deserve.

To remain significant as a business, you need to make existing processes efficient and lean. Of course, processes are inherent in every organization, but they can be cumbersome and not achieve their set goals if not executed the right way, you don't have the required resources to spearhead process change efforts or inefficient workarounds have been instituted in performing key business functions.

According to the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), a business process is a set of defined adhoc or sequenced collaborative activities performed in a repeatable fashion by an organization.

Hence, a business process must:

-      Be defined

-      Be specific, and

-      Achieve a target goal

Why You Should Consider Business Process Analysis

If you’re serious about improving the Return on Investment (ROI) for your company, then you shouldn’t take Business Process Analysis with levity.

By analyzing your business processes, you improve your company by achieving the following benefits:

• Meet customer demands: You’re in business to serve your customers better, and work towards ensuring their demands are met. To achieve this, you must take your processes seriously.
• Achieve business goals more effectively: All businesses have goals. This could be short, medium or long-term goals. In order to achieve these goals, analysing your business processes with the aim of delivering superior insights for achieving these goals is key.
• Transform your company’s performance: Of course, increasing performance is one of the major aims of your company. To ensure that this occurs, process improvement is key.
• Address the root causes of your company’s process: With Business Process Reengineering, you are able to identify the deficiencies of your company’s processes, and find a lasting solution to them.

Reasons For Business Process Analysis Failures:

Many companies try out business process analysis without achieving the desired results. There are many reasons for this, which include:

1. Lack of adequate education: To be able to achieve success with Business Process Analysis, you must be adequately educated. To be succinct, if you don’t have a background in Economics, Statistics, Information Technology and Business, you will struggle. Most companies fail this litmus test, and at the end of the day perform woefully. To address this issue, companies should seek out business process management training, especially, if they don’t have the required resources to implement the project or execute new process designs as they are made.
2. A work force that is well-educated on the principles of business process management is better positioned to realize and sustain its benefits than one that is not.
3. Nobody to champion the cause: Without a top executive of the company to champion this noble cause, it’s likely to fail
4. Dearth of communication skills: If you can’t communicate effectively with members of your team and company, your chances of succeeding at this are slim. Most companies don’t have an expert who’s been trained in this regard, and the result is usually abysmal
5. Technical barriers: Without Information Technology, it can be challenging to deliver superior process improvement benefits organization-wide. This does not however, imply that process improvements cannot be achieved without technology. Small wins in relevant business areas can still be achieved, without technology.

Enter A Business Process Analyst

According to this report, a Business Process Analyst (BPA) works with business departments and IT departments to identify areas that need improvement, and design solutions to potential problems.

Hence, a BPA is an exceptional intellectual who helps businesses grow. He or she reviews and examines business processes and systems, models data, organizes activities with stakeholders, and develops business strategies.

To improve your company’s business processes, having a BPA on board is crucial.

Here are the 7 (seven) ways you can supercharge your company’s processes with this professional:

1.  Identify and analyze business rules: There are rules of engagement in every company. These are fundamental to growth and development. One task the BPA is involved in is to identify these rules and analyze them. When you analyze them, you’re able to group and decipher them effectively. This eliminates redundancy, and brings about efficiency in the business

2.  Draw inferences from process details: After identifying and analyzing processes, the BPA goes ahead to draw inferences from them. This could necessitate adding steps to a process, or making drastic changes. It gives the company leeway to achieve better results

3.  Document procedures and processes: The BPA documents the company’s processes and procedures. By doing this, he or she is able to know what the company has achieved in the past, milestones that have been crossed, and goals to be achieved. Likewise, the company’s processes are also documented.

4.  Examine processes holistically: After documenting the procedures and processes, the BPA examines it holistically. This step is crucial as it helps the professional understand the (As-is) process, and know what must be done to ensure that outstanding results are achieved as defined in the “To-be” process.

5.  Interpret business requirements: The BPA also interprets the necessities of the business. This is essential for the business to be aware of how, when and where it needs to make relevant changes.

6.  Map out new process designs: Having interpreted business requirements, the BPA maps out new process designs that can aid the business to achieve better results. This is important because with new and optimized process designs that deliver key business benefits, you are better poised to satisfy your customers, make more returns on your investments and outrank potential competitors.

7.  Facilitate process workshops: At the end of it all, the BPA facilitates process workshops that enlighten team members and stakeholders on the issues that have been identified so far, and the solutions proffered. This gets everyone on their toes, and willing to work for the progress of the company, once their buy-in is secured.

On A Final Note:

As a company, you have goals. Despite this, you have fears and concerns. One major concern of most businesses is the state of their business processes. If you miss the step, you’ll face a lot of challenges on the long run.

So, if you want to achieve results quickly and effectively for your company, a business process analyst is worth adding to your team.

AUTHOR

This guest post is courtesy of Owen McGab Enaohwo