Business Process Re-Engineering

Often talked about but rarely done. Tim, the founder of TCB, is a keen business process engineer. He has 25 years experience in it and was a pioneer of the technique when he worked on worldwide projects for the BOC Group. Ideally Business Process Engineering is the process that should happen on a regular basis as companies restructure, change their business focus or just take a good hard look at themselves to see where they could improve things. The idea is that before making changes, you understand in detail what the business currently does and use models to try out ideas for changing the business rather than making changes in isolation and hoping for the best. There is no point in automating a process that is inefficient or not fit for purpose. First fix the processes then consider automation.

It usually takes the form of talking to business principals and the people who work closest to the area of the business under scrutiny. We then work together to model the current business. Then we go about modelling the business as you want it to look and finally put together an action plan to get there. On the way, you get a chance to have an overview of the impact of the changes and by the nature of the process you get buy in from the key people in the business. Don’t worry that this is a complicated and expensive process. It can be if the subject is extremely complex but it can also be as simple as an hour’s discussion. The action plan may or may not involve building software solutions. Often this process will show that shiny, expensive software is not the answer. In some cases, a clipboard is far more effective.