Ed Cornelius
Latest posts by Ed Cornelius (see all)
- No More Firefighting!Transform Your Leadership Team in 5 Steps - August 13, 2015
- Does Your ERP Project Need a Manager or a Leader? - June 29, 2015
- A Simple Solution to a Common Problem on Campus - June 4, 2015
Have you experienced one of these situations on campus or other similar roadblocks?
- Delays in the admissions process that have hurt your enrollment numbers each year
- A Financial Aid office that has one or more bottlenecks in distributing aid to students
- The IT organization promises programming changes, but they are often delayed
- The current SIS or ERP is out of date and often difficult to use without “shadow” systems
While these can become drivers for institutions to look at replacing their current administrative systems, there is a first- and very necessary- step that many schools overlook: changing business processes might be the solution you are seeking.
Why is business process analysis so important?
Every institution wants to, or is being mandated to, be more efficient and effective in delivering results on campus. But there are many common roadblocks to achieving this:
- Business process errors
- Duplications in process steps
- “Bottlenecks” and delays
- Poor timing of decisions
- Long process cycle times
- Ambiguity in roles
- Sources of quality problems
- And many others
Do any of these sound familiar? These roadblocks can plague an institution and cripple its ability to perform with limited resources and achieve the complex vision in higher ed of ‘doing more with less.’
Where does business process analysis (BPA) come in? If executed properly, a BPA effort can identify the source of these problems and roadblocks and ways to streamline processes.
What are the steps in carrying out business process analysis?
Simply put, BPA can be described as a two-step process:
- The first step involves documenting the current process under study, or the “as is” process.
- The second step involves developing improvements to the process, which we typically label as the “to be” process.
Sounds simple, right? It can be, if carried out with the right mix of leadership, vision and engagement.
6 Success Factors for Business Process Analysis
There are six preconditions that must exist for a successful business process analysis effort on campus:
- Senior management commitment and sponsorship are required for the success of the project.
- A shared vision and clear understanding of the business needs and objectives.
- A sufficient budget to fund the BPA project.
- Engagement of stakeholders and subject matter experts who are intimately involved in the process.
- A facilitator who is experienced in delivering BPA projects.
- And, finally, a specific process owner who will be assigned and responsible for the continual improvement of the process.
One Last Note: The Importance of Documentation
The main outcome or deliverable for a business process analysis project is all about the documentation. At a minimum, a successful BPA effort should produce the following:
- Documentation of the current state (“as is”) processes to include detailed process flow or workflow diagrams that identify specific steps, inputs/outputs and connections across departments and other processes.
- Prioritized listing of the ‘roadblocks’ with suggested strategies to resolve these, whether by process change, programmatic change, policy change, or other measures.
- Documentation of the final recommended future state (“to be”) process to detailed process flow or workflow diagrams that identify specific steps, inputs/outputs and connections across departments and other processes.
- Ideally, a final written report summarizing the participants, the goals, the methodology, the results, and a prioritized plan for next steps.
What do you think? Can business process analysis help institutions to better deliver results in the “do more with less” reality that higher education faces today?
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