MENU 4 Reasons Why BPM Training Delivers a Better System Upgrade
Maximizing ROI and Minimizing Disruption
Business process improvement is not an activity that just happens between technology and organizational upgrades; it’s an essential part of getting maximum ROI from your new IT. Why? Four big reasons.
1) Don’t Automate Waste – Eliminate It
Every organization has processes that have outlived their usefulness… and essential processes that have non-value-added steps. One government agency Orion worked with had designed a critical process for validating inbound financial data. Ten years prior, this process was vital for accuracy and it eliminated a significant amount of rework. However, in the ensuing years, a new interface was developed. It made validation redundant – yet no one noticed. This now-unnecessary process lived on for years and would have been coded into the new system if not for a thorough process review.
Automation can help you do the “wrong things” more quickly. It’s better to eliminate outdated processes and wasteful steps before building the new system. BPM training will help your team cut waste/costs pre-implementation and save money post-implementation. It is important to note that a third-party systems integrator won’t have the granular knowledge needed to make these decisions at your organization – regardless of how many similar companies they’ve worked at. BPM training is an investment in your organization’s capabilities and harnesses your team’s unique experiences.
2) Less Complexity = Simpler Implementation, Less to Maintain
Once you get rid of unnecessary processes, the resulting system is easier and less expensive to implement and maintain. A business process review prior to an enterprise software implementation at another client reduced the number of “major” business processes from 114 to 64. This was accomplished through consolidation, elimination of exceptions, and realigning business objectives with customer expectations. Imagine how much cheaper it was to the implement the new system… and how much easier is it to maintain that system every year. BPM training helps your analysts simplify your organization and workflows prior to designing the system solution.
3) Getting Business Requirements Right the First Time Saves Time and Money
We have all seen cartoons that depict how hard it is to get the right business requirements from users. Humor aside, one barrier to capturing good requirements is lack of process thinking. When users are asked to provide the requirements on a screen-by-screen basis or without business process context, they struggle to describe critical actions and outcomes. That results in requirements changes, additional development costs, and “you didn’t build what I needed.”
Process maps (top-down flowcharts, logic diagrams, and cross-functional workflows) are great tools to elicit spot-on requirements on the first pass. Properly utilized, these maps:
- Enable accurate “shall” statements
- Reveal necessary (and unnecessary) exceptions
- Inform proper configuration
- Enable test scripts that prove business outcomes – not just that the software “works.”
4) Knowledge Retention and Ongoing Improvement
One of the greatest wastes we’ve observed over the decades is when an organization throws out all its process artifacts after system implementation. 
Those artifacts aren’t just by-products of the IT project; they are gold. Accurate process maps and metrics provide the foundation for a smooth transition to future state operations, for performance management under the new system and for the process improvement initiatives that will follow weeks or months into the future.
Your process maps and business requirements are also repositories for business wisdom. On a day-to-day, month-to-month basis, many nuances of how your business operates exists in the gray matter of your most experienced team members. They are never written down and generally only shared informally. With proper BPM training, your business analysts will make sure this business wisdom is captured and stored in a repository for ongoing use. It will be available when onboarding or promoting employees. It will shorten the time it takes to launch and execute new process improvement projects. And when it comes to ongoing improvement…
If your team has solid BPM skills and experience, your organization will not be reliant on external consultants to resolve future challenges. You can improve from within. BPM training builds self-sufficiency.
Conclusion
Year after year and project after project, BPM training for business analysts and end-users has proven an essential investment to ensure maximum ROI from system upgrades, quicker buy-in for new processes and software workflows, and a smoother transition for customers and employees post-implementation.
BPM Training from Orion