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Business process - Overview

A business process is a set of logically related business activities that combine to deliver something of value (e.g. products, goods, services or information) to a customer.

A typical high-level business process, such as “Develop market” or “Sell to customer”, describes the means by which the organisation provides value to its customers, without regard to the individual functional departments (e.g. the accounting department) that might be involved. As a result, business processes represent an alternative – and in many ways more powerful – way of looking at an organisation and what it does than the traditional departmental or functional view. Business processes can be seen individually, as discrete steps in a business cycle, or collectively as the set of activities that create the value chain of an organisation and associate that value chain with the requirements of the customer. It is important to recognise that the “customer” of a business process can be several different things, according to the process’s position in the business cycle. For example, the customer of one process could be the next process in the cycle (in which case the output from one process is input to the next, “customer” process). Equally, the customer can be the end purchaser of a product.

Business process design/Reengineering - Overview

Business process design is the method by which an organisation understands and defines the business activities that enable it to function. Process design is concerned with designing a business’ processes to ensure that they are optimised, effective, meet customer requirements, and support and sustain organisational development and growth. A well-designed process will improve efficiency and deliver greater productivity.

The most common initiatives behind business process design projects are:

	Customer and supply chain management
	Operational performance improvement
	Business process integration and automation
	Cost reduction
	New business opportunities.

Business process design typically occurs as an early, critical phase in these projects, rather than as an end in itself. The goal of the overall project is to implement business change, whether that change is primarily organisational (improve the business’ operating processes), technical (implement or integrate software systems), or a combination of the two.

In a process improvement project, the focus of the business process design phase is to streamline the process: to understand and measure the requirements, and to eliminate the risk of losing value through inefficient or inappropriate activities. In a technology implementation project, the focus is on understanding the processes that are being automated, and ensuring that the appropriate technology is selected, configured and implemented to support them. In both cases, the process design activities can range from modest (e.g. tweak existing processes and look for some quick wins) to aggressive (e.g. identify major opportunities to increase value or drive down costs through radical process improvement or outsourcing). In short, business process design is a tool that can serve many different kinds of projects.