One thing I like about ProcessWorld is the fact that you get to know companies you never heard of before. CWS-Boco is a good example. At least I didn't know them before. They describe themselves as "one-stop textile service". For example, their carpets can be found in hotels. Also, business fashion worn at the hotel reception might be their product. The presentation is done by Mr. Petersson.
Before initiating their BPM effort, they had several key challenges. For example, they had very diverse processes and they want to standardise them. Also, they didn't want company specific solutions for process management but instead one global solution based on ARIS.
Main objectives were greater process transparency in the organisation thanks to an international template, shorter process cycle times, improved process quality, creating platform for future IT projects, and encouraging integrative way of working across departmental boundaries. The boiled that down to 3 key principles:
- The process drives IT requirements
- A dedicated process owner is responsible for the quality of processes
- Design and implementation of common to-be processes is done in ARIS for CWS-Boco
Mr. Petersson introduced the different roles involved in their BPM program. The central BPM committee is responsible for defining global standards. On the other hand, a process owner is responsible for the quality of process content. For example, the process owner must ensure consistency within processes.
Mr. Petersson gives an example how to integrate process design and implementation. For example, in case of customer relationship management, they use Salesforce.com. At the same time while implementing it, they document and optimise the processes in ARIS, strongly influencing how they customised their Salesforce instance. The advantage is clear: instead of working in sequence, they try to parallelize tasks.
Integration means several things to him like:
- integration of processes across national borders
- integration of user department process requirements with IT
- integration across departmental boundaries
- technical integration, e.g. SAP Solution Manager sync or Salesforce.com
- integration with other topics like business rules, master data, KPIs, organisation
In their repository, they use 5 levels. The top 5 levels use value-added chain diagrams and the 2 below contain EPC models. The process owner first creates the process documentation and optimises it. Central process management team reviews the design, before it gets rolled out to all employees using ARIS' publishing functionality. They are using a lane model of EPC (horizontal layout), looking very similar to BPMN.
For every end-to-end process they define, they first define a target service level agreement (SLA). For example, for the order to delivery process they defined a value for reduced lead time. Now, after capturing the as-is process, they also measure the current value of the SLA. If it doesn't meet the target SLA, they identify how to improve the process and initiate change projects accordingly. At the beginning they are facing many change requests, but after a few cycles, the change request rate decreases significantly.
Some success factors:
- senior management support
- overcoming resistance to change
- clear responsibilities
- people are responsible for their processes as process owners
- process owners can take decisions
- ...
Everything presented by Mr. Petersson looks already very promising, but he still sees possibilities to improve their BPM practices. Basically, they look at rolling out the BPM program in more divisions or departments, covering more processes and further aligning business and IT.
So far they documented 500 processes, about 60% of them being published in their intranet. They focus on core processes and 10% of all processes are implemented so far. They also intend to put process monitoring in place.
CWS-Boco might not be as advanced in their BPM effort as for example LandesBank Berlin, but I think they found a unique way to parallelise tasks. By doing so, they move quickly becoming an advanced BPM user.
Note: At the end, the moderator announced an additional talk by Ms. Ann Rosenberg of SAP. She will present tomorrow the latest integration features of ARIS and SAP. If you want to go there, make sure to inform yourself on the information desk about the room and also make sure to be on time as the room should not be that big.
