Harnessing the Potential of Business Enterprise Mapping for Your Company

Business enterprise mapping is an invaluable tool for executives who want to gain a clearer understanding of their organization and make more informed decisions about its future. By creating a visual representation of all areas in the organization, it helps decision-makers identify potential risks and opportunities while streamlining operations and optimizing resources. With business enterprise mapping, companies can unlock new levels of efficiency that will put them on the path toward success.

In today’s post-pandemic world, it’s more important than ever for businesses to make sure that they are using their resources in the smartest and most efficient way possible. By leveraging business enterprise mapping, companies can gain a holistic understanding of their organization while also taking advantage of opportunities that may otherwise have gone unnoticed. It is an indispensable tool that every executive should consider when looking to improve their operations.

In this article, we’ll explain what business enterprise mapping is and why it’s so valuable for companies. We will also provide an overview of how it works and the many benefits that it can bring to your organization.

Orion Development Group is an experienced and knowledgeable partner that specializes in business enterprise mapping. We have worked with a wide range of clients to help them understand the potential of their organizations and unlock new levels of efficiency. If you need help with enterprise mapping, our team of experts is here to guide you every step of the way. Contact us to learn more.

What Is Business Enterprise Mapping

Business enterprise mapping is the process of designing and documenting the structure, processes, and relationships of an organization from a strategic perspective. It involves creating a visual representation of all areas in the organization, including departments, processes, roles, technology, and products.

It is used by executives to understand their complex business operations and make informed decisions about how to improve them. Instead of relying on gut-feel or anecdotal evidence, business enterprise mapping allows organizations to make data-driven decisions that are based on a clear understanding of their operations.

Below is a sample system map where you can see how suppliers and other inputs affect customers.

Benefits of Business Enterprise Mapping

Business enterprise mapping can provide companies with numerous benefits, such as:

Know Where You Stand

When you take the time to identify and analyze your business’s core processes, it provides clarity and understanding that can be invaluable in making well-informed decisions. By understanding the inner workings of any current organization, those in charge can implement changes that will benefit both individual workers and the company as a whole.

Core processes are the fundamental activities or groups of activities that are so critical to an organization’s success and failure to perform them will result in the deterioration of the organization.

For example, in the airline industry, one of the core processes is flight bookings. This involves managing bookings from the moment customers search for flights to the moment they check-in and board the plane.  Many departments and roles are involved in this core process.

If there are delays in a certain flight or trouble with luggage, it can back up the entire booking process, impacting customer experience and causing delays in other areas such as ticketing.  By mapping out this process, you can identify any potential risks or opportunities and make decisions accordingly.

Identify Potential Risks and Opportunities

Business enterprise mapping allows you to identify potential risks and opportunities across all departments. By understanding the process flow, you can quickly identify areas that need improvement or where more resources are needed.

Using a different example, let’s say you are in the retail industry. When mapping out your core processes, you may be able to identify areas where customers or employees are having difficulty with specific processes or tasks. For instance, if customer service representatives have a hard time dealing with returns, this could indicate a need for better training or more resources in that department.

You could be facing inventory or supply chain issues. You can’t sell anything if you don’t have anything to sell. By mapping out your supplier relationships, by using enterprise mapping, you can see that your inventory comes from just one supplier. If they can’t fulfill the shipment, then you’re in trouble.

Develop Plans for Future Growth

Once you have identified potential risks and opportunities, you can use this knowledge to develop plans for future growth. For instance, if you have identified an opportunity to automate a certain process, you could use this insight to create a roadmap for automation.

Similarly, if you have identified areas where resources are lacking or processes are inefficient, like relying on a single supplier, you can use this knowledge to make decisions on finding new suppliers to spread out your risk.

By leveraging business enterprise mapping, companies can gain a holistic understanding of their organization while also taking advantage of opportunities that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.

How Business Enterprise Mapping Works

Business enterprise mapping is a powerful tool that allows companies to gain a holistic understanding of their organization while also taking advantage of opportunities that may otherwise have gone unnoticed. The process typically involves three main steps:

Identifying Core Value Chains

The first step in business enterprise mapping is to identify the core value chains within an organization. These are the business processes that are most critical to an organization’s success. By identifying and mapping out these chains, companies can gain a better understanding of how their organization works and where areas may need improvement.

As mentioned above, these core processes are critical in the success and failure of the business. That’s why it’s important to business leaders that these processes be identified and mapped out.

Without knowing what’s involved in the processes that deliver value for the business, you can’t reasonably make improvements or even determine if something is wrong.

Consolidating Redundant and/or Outdated Operations

The next step in business enterprise mapping is to consolidate redundant and/or outdated operations. This can involve streamlining processes, eliminating redundancies, and finding new ways to do things that are more efficient. By doing this, companies can save money and increase profitability.

Using Orion’s Staircase Model,  you can quickly identify processes that are not beneficial and make the necessary changes. By removing redundancies and streamlining processes, you can improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Establishing Governance

The final step in business enterprise mapping is to establish governance. This involves selecting process owners and setting metrics. Process owners have the responsibility of ensuring that processes are running smoothly. They will also be responsible for making any necessary changes to ensure the process is up-to-date and efficient.

By setting metrics, like SLAs (service level agreements) or KPIs (key performance indicators), you can measure how well processes are performing. This allows businesses to identify areas that need improvement and make the necessary changes to ensure successful outcomes.

Need Help With Business Enterprise Mapping?

Business enterprise mapping is a powerful tool that can help companies gain insight into their organization and identify areas for improvement. However, it can be a complex process and many companies may need help with the implementation.

By leveraging Orion’s Staircase Model, businesses can quickly identify processes that are not beneficial and make necessary changes to improve efficiency and reduce costs. With the right governance structure in place, businesses can measure performance through key performance indicators or service level agreements.

If you need assistance with business enterprise mapping, contact Orion today! Our experts will work with you to develop a comprehensive plan that meets your needs and helps drive success for your company.