Business Process Management: Case Study and Recommendations

Table of contents

Page 3…. Executive summary and Introduction

Page 4…… Introduction continued

Page 5……..Proposed Solution

Page 6………. Proposed solution continued

Page 7………… Proposed solution continued and Solution Considerations

Page 8………….. Solution Considerations continued and Recommendations

Page 9……………. Recommendations continued

Page 10……………. References

Executive summary

After providing a report on the current environment, SH Consultancy have reviewed all aspects of the current business structure and processes to provide an in-depth and tailored business report for “3 The Firm” on current business process management within your organization and our recommendations moving forward to implement.

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Through our review, we have found that there is a deficiency in the management of data flow and automation via cross functional business requirements that include accounting, marketing, sales, operations, research and development as well as procurement. SH Consultancy recommend for an effective process management approach is to implement an ERP system that includes customer relationship management (CRM) for sales and marketing, supply chain management (SCM) for formal supplier management and product lifecycle management (PLM) for operations and R+D to manage the end to end process of your equipment. This will enable the ability to manage the flow of information across all departments in real time and more efficient management of your studios that will see more returning customers with an increase to your overall business performance. Later in the report we will go through the ERP system and sub functions in more detail.

At SH Consultancy, we have worked with medium to large sized organizations over the last 25 years to deliver improved profitability and increased efficiency across businesses like 3 The Firm. With our focus not only on process, but the effect it will have on the people in your company as well as your customers, we will passionately deliver you results that will continue to drive the business’ success. We are committed to deliver the recommendations in our report through to fruition. We will provide continuous support to all senior leaders with the implementation of the systems and strategy completing an annual review over the next 5 years as a commitment to our business partnership. The information shared in this report is confidential in nature and not to be shared with any third party without prior consent from SH Consultancy.

Introduction

As touched on in the executive summary, this business report follows our initial report of the current ‘as is’ environment of the business, with this report summarizing our initial findings and providing recommendations of what to implement and why.

With 3 The firm’s annual revenue averaging at $1.8 million, the why to implement our proposed process is simple: increase profitability by implementing processes that will increase growth by an estimated 12.5% due to customer satisfaction, marketing, equipment availability, improved accounting practices, and process improvement. This is estimated to be an additional $260,000 in the first 12 months of sales (12.5% has been generated based on previous year’s growth, available data from audit & competitive market analysis). In our previous report, we provided a business flow of how the current end to end process of the customer’s journey in 3 The firm is, the internal processes for new or fixed equipment, current process of monies tendered and the document flow in the business. I have attached the process flow diagram below for easier reference. 

*Figure 1 – Diagram modelling of 2 high priority current processes in 3 The Firm

In the above diagram, there is a distinct opportunity to comprise a more efficient end to end flow of the customer booking system as well as the equipment management which we have touched on later in the report.

Proposed Solution

SH Consultancy would like to introduce a concept called business process architecture and more importantly how using this concept will provide efficiency and effectiveness in the business.

Business process architecture is an enterprise value chain that can be used in any sized business to enable understanding of it ‘chains’ of cross functional end to end business processes and their value proposition to the company. It is a critical pathway in process modelling and in this case, is focused around documentation and process automation. By implementing said architecture, there is more control rendered in every individual and more importantly back to you, the CEO – whilst linking loose processes to the organizational strategy.

A key attribute to the success of adopting a highly process focused tool is a deep understanding of the businesses overall objective as a systematic process delivering values to its stakeholders.

Below is our proposed value chain (using the porters value chain model) for your reference.

*Figure 2: Porters value chain model applied to 3 The Firm current structure

The above demonstrates your support functions in the business, your primary business units and where to focus your strategic importance to. Whilst all areas are needed to obtain the desired profit for the business, there is much to be learned in the above about allocating responsibilities and understanding each business unit’s requirement to achieve the end goal, which is increased sales and profit for the business. With your 3 core primary activities being sales, operations and R+D, we have reviewed the process amongst others to define the best approach moving forward.

Our proposed solution is to take the intelligence of a cloud based ERP, which is designed to work through business processes at any given scale and complexity without the costs of implementing an integrated ERP system into your existing network.

Included in the proposed solution, it will enable agility and communication across the following function.

Finance, get real-time view of your financial condition, streamline your core accounting process and better manage cash and liquidity via financial and managerial account as well as cash flow management. This will enable reporting and the ability to use customer and supplier transaction data to get real-time visibility into your cash position.

Customer Relationship Management, expertly manage your marketing, sales and service processes and drive customer engagement. Marketing will be able to utilize personalize customer information for more effective campaigns, lead generation and qualification and sales team handovers. Sales will be able to gain complete sales force automation and improve account management, from contact interactions to invoicing with service equipping employees with the tools and insights they need to deliver superior service and boost customer satisfaction.

Human resources functionality will streamline HR process such as organizational management, workforce administration and other required functions of the HR unit and eliminate the need for the legacy HR system currently being used by the HR manager. The function will include simplifying onboarding of new employees and payroll management.

Procurement, empower employees with self-service procurement capabilities to save time and costs and centralize supplier information. Via sourcing, the ability to maintain a central database of supplier and product information will aid in the management of supplier contracts. Another key element to procurement is streamlining your company’s purchasing activities that will enable more efficiency between research and development as well as procurement.

Supply chain management, improves supply chain effectiveness with better supply-demand matching and increase flexibility by streamlining customer and supplier collaboration. Product development will accelerate time to market and help ensure products requirements meet customer requirements. It will also provide a clear view of your supply networks and layout for supply chain modelling. Planning, control, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics are all included in this feature

Below is a business process and notation diagram for our proposed solution.

*Figure 3 – BPMN Diagram of ‘to be’ process flow, end to end

Solution considerations

Whilst we are confident that implementing an ERP system to unlock much needed process improvement, there are a few considerations that we would like to bring to your attention and consideration when reviewing our proposal. There are:

Time: There will need 4-6 weeks of allocated time to tailor the system and create an online platform to enable all functionality. During this time, there is a format excel document that we will need to be complete with all the customer details from the hard copies so that we can upload all previous customer details when we go live with the ERP system.

Stock take: We require a complete stock take of all inventory to be completed and added to a formatted excel sheet for bulk upload. This will require all equipment to be added to the assets register with allocated numbering. This will take up a considerable amount of time from the procurement team.

Costings: As this is a cloud based solution, we charge a per user license to gain functionality to the platform. Each user license is $200 per month in a fixed 24 month contract. There will need to be an investment into the amount of equipment to uphold your customer requests which we estimate to be at $62,750 based on our audit findings. Lastly, only 7 of your staff have access to computers, there will be a requirement for all staff to have windows 10 capable computers that will have the system installed for the process management to be adopted by all internal stakeholders. Therefore, there will be a requirement to purchase 13 computers for the staff as well as 17 windows 10 licenses.

Training: There are currently 2 literate staff who understand computers and their systems. There would need to be a requirement to upskill your staff of their understanding of computers through a 2-day training course that will cost $250 per staff and can be split over weeks so there is not down time. The instructor can come into your premises to complete the training and we would encourage the HR manager to be the champion due to her detailed understanding or IT operations.

Regarding the implementation of the ERP system, we would look a complete a phased approach looking to cover 3 launch phases.

Phase 1 – collect all relevant data and collate into a readable and bulk upload capable format to input into the ERP (1 week).

Phase 2- Create all log ins and share with senior leaders to go through dashboard capabilities and end to end flow. This will include new approvals allocated to new business units. Set aside a day to train the leaders on the new process from a high level (1 day).

Phase 3- Over the course of a week have training sessions with each department to go through the process. Each person will have a test environment identical to their own to understand the environment before going live (1 week).

Phase 4 – complete a competency test on each business unit to find any understanding gaps and work with the individuals who are not understanding the process (1 day).

Phase 5- go live with complete ERP cloud system. Total time frame, 2 weeks and 2 days to implement.

We are always happy to work through a launch plan that suits your business, our recommendations are based on extensive knowledge and subject expertise in the implementation of the system however we always invite collaboration with the business to make sure all stakeholders are invested on the journey.

Recommendations

To summarize the contents of this report, our recommendations are to implement a system through SH Consultancy to allow easier flow of the inputs and outputs of the business through cross functional business flow via a cloud base ERP system.

We also recommend a restructure of the reporting to reflect the below organizational chart to allocate resources and reporting lines in line with company strategy and goals.

We recommend that functions be centralized under your R+D manager to include operations and procurement with marketing also to move and report into the Sales Manager.

Lastly, we strongly recommend the use of a domain wed page to manage bookings and online payments to integrate with the cloud-based ERP system, without this functionality the entire process map will change and alter the business strategy.

We strongly believe through our recommendations that there will be a significant return of investment, we hope you are able to see the value and continue to partner with SH Consultancy, your trusted business process consultant.

References

• MBA710 Module 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 slide sets, BPM process management
• MBA710 Rubic part B
• Oracle 2019 SaaS and product overview https://cloud.oracle.com/en_US/saas
• Salesforce CRM 2019, Demonstration https://www.salesforce.com/au/form/sem/crm-demo
• Deakin 2019 Client Brief B https://www.deakin.edu.au/apps/dlf/merlin/public/downloads/reports/assingment_pdf_2_MBA710_218734727_SAMANTHA_HEED-(2019-01-27_05-50_PM).pdf