Business Process Modeling, Issues And Solutions

Issues in Current Business Processes

The business process modeling is considered as the development of conceptual or logical models of business processes. These models are generated for understanding the organization processes in a better way. The business process models can be generated using the Business Process Model Notation and Unified Modeling Language mainly. These models are referred to as the visual representation of the current or proposed business process in an organization.

The study includes the description of the issues in current business process and approaches to solve the problems. The developed as is process provided a good understanding of the current processes in The Coaching Specialists. After analyzing the As-Is model, the issues have been identified and the To-Be model have been generated. A section of the To-Be model has been selected for developing the logical model of automated business processing.

1.1 Corrected Level 1 As-Is Business Process Diagram:

 

Figure 1: Modified Level 1 BPMN

(Source: Created by Author)

 

Figure 2: Client Data Existence Checking Sub Process in Modified Diagram

(Source: Created by Author)

1.2 Level 2 As-Is BPMN Diagram:

 

Figure 3: Level 2 As-Is Business Process Diagram

(Source: Created by Author)

 

Figure 4: Search Coach Sub Process As-Is Level 2 Diagram

(Source: Created by Author)

1.3 To-Be Business Process Model:

 

Figure 5: To-Be Level 2 Diagram

(Source: Created by Author)

 

Figure 6: Search Coach Sub Process To-Be Level 2 Diagram

(Source: Created by Author)

 

Figure 8: Coach Registration Sub Process To-Be Level 2 Diagram

(Source: Created by Author)

2.1 Solution to Key Problems:

The key problem in the present business is manual processing. The operator has to communicate with the client to get the proper information about the request and also about the student. The operator also need to find whether the client is registered in the existing system or not. This process of asking for valid information continues until the operator receives all the necessary data.

Another issue in the current process is confirming the assignment. After the assignment is scheduled, the scheduler contacts with the coach and the client to confirm that both are available at scheduled time. In order to do that, the verifier contacts both the coach and client. They verify that whether they are available on that date or not. If the client is not available on that time, the client can cancel the assignment. This has a great impact on the customer satisfaction. It is because, the client will be approached for the conformation after coach is confirmed. This way the value of the customer is degraded.

Effective Solutions using Best Practices

The solution to the first issues can be developed using two best practices together.  These two best practices are Activity Automation and Outsourcing. The Coaching Specialist will contact with a Web and Mobile application solution provider. Organization already has an existing system. The client will be accessing the web or mobile application. They can register themselves. At the time of registration, the system will gather most of the relevant information about the client. Rest of the information will be collected during request submission.

Integration is another best practice that will be used for providing solution to the communication issue. The system will be modified by the organization. After the internal system is upgraded, the web and mobile app will be integrated into the system. This way, the organization employee will be able to see all the client and request related data.

In order to eliminate the next issue, the internal system of The Coaching Specialist will ask the coach too register. At the time of registration, the coach will provide the preferred time. Based on their preferred time, the system will generate most suitable matches. This way, only the filtered data will be sent to the client. This way, the scheduler will not need to wait for coach’s response for confirming the assignment. This way Activity Elimination is the best practice for the solving the issues.

2.2 Recommendations:

Stakeholder Interviews: Stakeholder interviews are a drill-down of workflow and related processes in an organization. The goal is to identify any unique practices or workflows and capture stakeholder feedback relative to key issues and concerns, as well as improvement recommendations. Without stakeholder interviews, there is no BPR.

Current State Assessment: With current state assessment, enterprises can review processes to develop metrics of complexity, redundancy and close variations. With current state assessment, a deep and complete review of work processes is tackled, providing a benchmark of results against peer organizations, including, for example, components such as business processes, e-signature use by fiduciaries and a number and variety of client statement packages.

Future State Definition & Gap Analysis: This step is vital to defining and documenting current state opportunities for improvement. BPR cannot be successful without a definition of the target workflow, including process flows and organizational readiness. By performing a gap analysis against existing workflows, change requirements are better defined and managed accordingly.

Implementation Roadmap: Where would BPR be without an implementation roadmap? The step of defining logical phasing approach for prioritized workflow improvements and rationalizing recommendation options based on business impacts with corresponding investment impacts – the production of an aligned strategy with agreed priorities.

Stakeholder Interviews

Improving Business Agility: It has always been a necessity to make modifications to an organization’s best practices in order to stay abreast with the changing conditions in the market. An efficient BPM permits the business owner to make pauses in its business processes, implement changes and re-execute it. With this, process will have the unique ability to stay on track and implement changes or redefine the tasks of its process users. The end result is a higher level of adaptability to unstable situations.

Greater control and agility allows organizations to alter workflows and re-use or customize them as necessary. Through this, business processes become more responsive through the structure that entails precise documentation of the steps involved in a certain process. The defined knowledge allows organizations to comprehend the possible impact of change on business processes. An organization that has knowledge of the effects of process modifications is more open to options that could improve profitability.

Reduced Costs and Higher Revenues: Implementing the right BPM suite in an organization can trim down the costs associated to business process execution. More enhanced processes and productivity of the workforce makes it possible. Hence, employing the right BPM in the organization can significantly deliver positive results.

The decline in operational costs, post-BPM deployment, may not be visible right away, but eradicating bottlenecks would cause remarkable improvements. For instance, this could reduce lead time that can have a positive effect on how the organization sells the products. This may also mean that consumers will have more access to the services and products in unity to their needs within the shortest time possible. Thus, organizations will have more market demand, which is followed by more elevated sales and improvement in terms of revenue. In line with this, organizations can also improve efficiency and profitability through the reduction of waste. BPM involves allocating and tracking resources to avoid wastage. Plus, customary evaluations of performance can lead to determination of inefficiency, wastage and conduct actions to address these problems.

2.3 Summary of Approach to Problems and Solutions:

Issue	Best Practice	Application Description and/Solution Explanation	Advantages	Disadvantages
Client data collection	Activity Automation and Outsourcing	The Coaching Specialist will contact with a Web and Mobile application solution provider. Organization already has an existing system. The client will be accessing the web or mobile application. They can register themselves. At the time of registration, the system will gather most of the relevant information about the client. Rest of the information will be collected during request submission.	First advantage is that the operator will not need to communicate with the client directly. This will allow operator opportunity to concentrate on core works. The second solution is that the organization staff will have the client related updated data all the time. The third solution is that client will not be harassed will continuous request for submitting data. This will increase customer satisfaction.	The first disadvantage is that the organization will not have updated data if the client does not update his/her personal data. The second, disadvantage is that error in the system can damage the business processs
Request Data Collection	Activity Automation and Outsourcing	Same as above	The fist advantage is that the system will be able to accept request from the client any time. The customer can have specific idea about what information is needed to be provided	The biggest disadvantage is that if a client is unable to understand what is to be provided then the user cannot get any assistance. This will result into loss in business for the organization
Coach preferred time data availability	Activity Elimination	In order to eliminate the next issue, the internal system of The Coaching Specialist will ask the coach too register. At the time of registration, the coach will provide the preferred time. Based on their preferred time, the system will generate most suitable matches. This way, only the filtered data will be sent to the client. This way, the scheduler will not need to wait for coach’s response for confirming the assignment.	The biggest advantage is that organization will have every details of individual coaches The system can automatically check client preferred time and coach preferred time. After finding possible solution to scheduler	The disadvantage is that if the coach does not update preferred time then the system will continue processing the request in inadequate way.
Assignment Confirmation	Integration	The system will be modified by the organization. After the internal system is upgraded, the web and mobile app will be integrated into the system. This way, the organization employee will be able to see all the client and request related data.	The advantage of the solution is that the database will hold the assignment confirmation data. The student will also get proper details of the assignment through web or mobile application	The disadvantage is that in case data is corrupted, the process will get delayed.

 2.4 Discussion on If Automation is Future Solution with Justification:

Business process automation (BPA) is the technology-enabled automation of activities or services that accomplish a specific function or workflow. Business processes can be determined for many different segments of company activities, including sales, management, operations, supply chain, human resources and information technology.

The automation is the future as this concept covers all the following benefits.

Current State Assessment

Quick Turnover Time: Manually, there is a limit to how fast business processes can be completed. Automation can reduce this time significantly since it allows tasks to be completely simultaneously, constantly progressing, and prompting where deadlines occur. Unnecessary tasks can increase the overall time that it takes to complete business processes, however BPA uses modelling to get rid of these tasks and optimise the flow of information. This allows companies to realign their priorities and streamline their day to day operations. This decreases the overall time that it takes to complete vital business processes.

Monitoring: Businesses have to make estimates based on common sense, rather than incorporating the necessary data and being presented with greater, more accurate information to utilise. The problem with manual process flow is that it is unable to automatically monitor data taken from application, leaving it incomplete. For this reason, one area that is increasingly attracting investment is Business Intelligence Software. This is able to make smart decisions based on data generated from business information gathered. Process automation routinely collects and processes data. This data is then available to businesses for monitoring and analysis, giving companies the ability to make better decisions. BPO enhances the way management can report on regular activity as records are automatically collected and interpreted.

Eliminating Human Intervention Error: People will always make mistakes when working manually, particularly when workload is heavy. A key benefit of BPA is that it helps reduce human error by making checks and performing high-quality tasks regularly behind the scenes. There is no room for human error within individual stages of work because each stage is automated. It gives computer aided data to check for logical errors, leading to up to a 40% improvement in human error.

Reduced Work Load: Businesses can experience growth issues due to manually completed work which can take an unreasonably long time, particularly when it is complex. It makes sense to decrease the manual workload of employees to best utilise their skills and focus on their core competencies. Application software allows information to be gathered quickly from difference sources and systems, collaborated to automatically generate reports. From spell checking to complex calculations, application software can help employees to get the work done, but BPA software frees them completely to undertake different responsibilities and work more efficiently within the business.

All the above mentioned benefits of automation is desired by all the organization. The Automation will allow The Coaching Specialists to grow their business opportunity buy eliminating issues in business. Thus from the above justification, it can be stated that automation is future.

2.5 Assumptions and Limitations:

At the time of developing the solutions to the possible issues, it has been assumed that the organization is able to implement the proposed systems. The web and mobile applications are costly approach. It has been assumed that the owner of the CEO will be interested in improving the technology of the organization.

The main limitation of the solution is that it does not reflect any expansion in business. The solution only deals with the issues that are present in internal processing. The solution mainly eliminates the paper based manual works and introduces automated process. The solution does not state about improving business quality and attracting new customer.

 

Figure 9: Automated Process Logical Model

(Source: Created by Author)

Conclusion:

From the above study it can be concluded that the business process automation can be the solution to issues of The Coaching Specialist organization. The As-Is level 1 model has presented the general idea about the current processes in The Coaching Specialists.

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