Simplifying Internal Operations Through Integration and Collaboration

Transcription

1 Cincom Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Solutions Simplifying Internal Operations Through Integration and Collaboration SIMPLIFICATION THROUGH INNOVATION TM

2 Fortune 500 companies must face the facts: Their ability to generate shareholder value depends heavily on how effectively they execute business processes. The more efficient their processes, the more revenue and profit they generate; but they face a huge challenge (eai Journal, August 2002). Many organizations have never critically analyzed or mapped their business processes from an internal operations standpoint. Achieving true business process optimization requires a more universal view that will reach beyond the limited boundaries of individual applications. Reaching the highest vantage point in a multi-application environment requires users and vendors to expand and externalize how they visualize, manipulate and store representations of business processes. Indeed, this tactic is needed for documenting enterprise architecture and connecting it to application architecture. However, the foundation for this strategy begins by removing unnecessary processes. This action will provide the simplification and clarity to reveal other areas that can be improved, moving the business to ongoing growth and development. The transformation of your business should include integrating the data, optimizing the data further through applications and then enhancing these business processes by creating an event-enabled environment (Strategic Planning, April 2003). While even the simplest business can benefit from this business process optimization, the rewards for implementing such an initiative increase as the complexity and number of processes increase. This area of high value/high complexity is where business process optimization is at its finest and able to deliver quick ROI and other tangible benefits. The following checklist will help you determine the efficiency of your internal operations through business process optimization. Does your current situation enable you to transform your business by: Integrating multiple systems of record for current data maximization? Optimizing your system-to-system integration to higher levels of automation, enhancing transmission between applications? Evolving conventional business processes and related application systems further by making them event-driven? Delivering an event-enabled environment with the true competitive advantage with access to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are detailed in real time?

3 Integrating Multiple Systems of Record for Maximization of Business Processes A major challenge in any organization is leveraging its intellectual capital (policy and process information, knowledge and business expertise), which has been acquired throughout the years and is unique to its business. But the sheer nature of knowledge raises some critical questions for the modern enterprise. Where does knowledge reside? Is it available to everyone? Is the organization fully benefiting from it? The reality is that knowledge and expertise are contained in multiple storage areas, including filing cabinets, desk drawers and especially in the brains of your many experts. And in many cases, organizations have implemented fragmented automation, with individual systems generating data that may be of little or no use to other departments. For this reason, business processes need to be treated as valuable knowledge capital in and of themselves. An effective business process such as integrating multiple systems of record is a valuable asset a competitive and integrative advantage that boosts the bottom line. When operating at optimum levels, business processes will consistently optimize opportunities to foster growth. For example, with access to complete real-time data, order cancellations or return requests present an opportunity for a company to negotiate with the customer. Perhaps the customer will accept the product at a lower cost, ultimately saving the company the cost of a return shipment, receiving, reimbursement and reselling. Situations such as these can be handled effectively only if customer service representatives are guided through a process, and have access to accurate, real-time and comprehensive data. In addition, as knowledge is constantly changing, organizations must provide a user-friendly way for business users to maintain and update business rules to rapidly adapt to changes in the environment. To generate this type of responsive business environment, you will need to adopt business processes that do the following (eai Journal, August 2002): Effectively capture knowledge in one central repository, making it readily available to all users of the system. Capture and deploy your organization s knowledge, regardless of where it resides. Allow quick, effective implementation of new processes, policies and procedures. Rapidly modify applications to reflect updated changes to business rules, including new product and service offerings, regulations, promotions, etc. Enable business rules to be put into effect immediately, eliminating time-consuming delays that are associated with application re-programming and re-certification. Allow policy content and the rules that govern that content to be defined by the business community. When operating at optimum levels, business processes will consistently optimize opportunities to foster growth.

4 Enhancing Transmission Between Applications Business process inefficiencies typically occur at the intersection points between people, processes and systems. A relevant example relates to the issues that surround silo applications and processes within an organization. Complex business processes span multiple applications that often aren t integrated with each other, and unfortunately, employees turn to manual processes to bridge gaps between the applications, increasing the very levels of complexity that they are working to diminish. To illustrate, one large corporation consolidated several purchasing organizations into one shared service organization. Not wanting to wait for an ERP implementation, personnel from the new organization needed to be trained to perform multiple tasks (i.e., material code look-up, inventory balance verification and purchase-order entry) on multiple systems. As a result of the lack of proficiency with all of the systems in use, incorrect purchase-order entries were made and often not discovered until the goods failed to arrive on the expected delivery date (eai Journal, August 2002). One effective solution would be the systems integration that results from enterprise resource planning. Enterprise resource planning enables organizations to retain and leverage existing systems, consistently providing an accurate representation of business processes. However, according to the Gartner Group, numerous technological difficulties combine to make the integration of systems difficult, including: Differing application paradigms Unstructured and disorganized systems The constant allure of the new over the old Declining maintenance skill sets (i.e., legacy language support and technological incompatibilities) But, the experts/scientists have found ways to mix oil and water. To make the integrated systems optimize (in a merger for example), simply add the right mix of cultures, processes, the people running the departments and the right technology to enable you to make those everyday, critical business decisions. This formula will enable you to: Eliminate expensive or time-consuming processes to access data. Lower costs due to faster implementation, increased developer productivity and ease-of-use, and an integrated infrastructure. Utilize data integration and access tools to leverage existing applications. Create a DBMS that will allow you to build new applications leveraging legacy data. Centralize governance and decentralized implementation. Enhance XML capabilities, for now or the future. The point is to effectively recognize when people s knowledge will add value to business processes, and design processes to leverage this knowledge as effectively as possible. When executed correctly, business process optimization solutions automate the processes and manage exceptions when circumstances fall outside the normal process pushing information to the right people at the right time so they can work efficiently to solve problems and get processes back on track. Business Process Automation strategies strive to remove these tasks and redundancies, so application integration can become an evolutionary process (eai Journal, August 2002).

5 Evolving Conventional Business Processes and Related Systems A key difference between conventional business processes and a new generation of improved business processes is that the new processes are event-driven. Enterprises have always been event-driven, but most of their business processes and application systems historically were not. The need is there for this event-enabled environment that addresses the needs of organizations that typically have business processes that span multiple systems of record, multiple technical architectures and platforms, and users that may include employees, customers, suppliers and partners. Orchestrating these business processes results in the reduction and elimination of costly and error-prone manual steps (Strategic Planning, July 2003). Connect systems, people and trading partners through manageable business processes. Provide information workers with a real-time view of running business processes, utilizing common office software applications. Create a standardized method of carrying out a business operation, typically involving a number of tasks, people and in many cases, multiple applications and systems of record. With the right solution, you can: Develop a system-level task that is required to create, read, update and/or delete a particular instance of data. Enhance interoperability with a wide variety of applications and technologies. Receive incoming documents that conform to a specific document definition, and either log the whole document or any portion of it to a document-tracking database for later analysis. Transform documents to conform to the schema of the target application. Manage adapters in a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Create document definitions as an XML representation of business documents originally defined as flat files, XML or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Graphically create the transformation between two business documents (XSDs) and enable them to be mapped or connected together. Enable an environment that will design, build and execute dynamic business interactions that span organizations, platforms, applications and people.

6 Delivering an Event-Enabled Environment With a Competitive Advantage Finally, you will need a clear picture of your enterprise in real time by combining your integrated, event-enabled environment with a dashboard perspective of Key Performance Indicators. With this tool, your organization will deal more effectively with immediate issues and accurately plan for and implement future strategies. The right solution will enable you to: Build and maintain market advantage by effectively managing constantly changing business processes. Increase productivity by identifying potential shortages or overages and proactively responding to real-time event processing. Maximize your investment by integrating multiple systems of record and process orchestrations that bring the quickest return first, adding others at the pace of your enterprise. Enhance communications by providing secure access to process participants including customers, suppliers and other valued partners. KPIs provide an interactive user interface that provides the ability to correct any suspended or monitor-processed events. It is a single, administrative facility that monitors and manages any application that participates in the orchestration process. The end result is an event-enabled environment that delivers real-time competitive advantage. Once they have the data in a single view, C-level executives can convert their knowledge into a set of business rules that automate complex processes to market, sell and service customers. This enables providers to more effectively respond to each individual s situation while working within parameters that assure appropriate profitability. At the heart of this process is automating a knowledge-based system that allows expertise to be distributed consistently, quickly and cost-effectively throughout all contact channels. Providing continuously updated and accessible information to both direct and indirect salespeople gives you a tremendous competitive advantage. Empowering your sales channels with consistent and accurate information lets you stack the deck, and supports your efforts to be professional, knowledgeable and easy to do business with. The right solution will empower you to: Ensure that customers receive what they need (retention), while increasing your share of profit. Retrieve data from existing systems that can be aggregated and combined with new and updated information to give a comprehensive view for each of your customers. Maintaining real-time access to data across your entire enterprise ensures consistent customer experiences at every touch point. Enhance service quality through automated channels by deploying expert knowledge at the point of customer contact including call centers and the web enabling you to deliver higher quality service and sell more cost-effectively.

7 Sources 1. Strategic Planning, SPA April 2003, J. Comport, J. Sinur, J. Schulman Research Note 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates 2. Key concepts for business process optimization, Phil Gilbert, eai Journal, August The Business Value of Event-Driven Processes, Strategic Planning, SPA , R. Schulte Research July 2003 (Gartner Research) 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates

8 Cincom, the Quadrant Logo, and Simplification Through Innovation are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cincom Systems, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective companies Cincom Systems, Inc. FORM CW /06 Printed in U.S.A. All Rights Reserved World Headquarters Cincinnati, OH USA US CINCOM Fax International