The A to Z Guide of

Business Process Management

The A-Z Guide of Business Process Management was designed to answer frequently asked questions
on Business Process Management and improvement from ‘What is Business Process Management?’ to
‘how do I implement a BPM system in my organisation?’

Consider this your personal BPM A-Z handbook. In it we have broken down and catalogued a standard
Business Process Management Journey into 5 sub-sections containing 24 articles - designed so you
can jump to the information you need whether you are an absolute beginner or further along in your
process improvement journey.

The information is presented in the form of short, self-contained articles. If you don’t find your specific
query contained here, please contact us at: info@triaster.co.uk, explain what your question is and we
will happily answer it for you.

Now, in the first section I will start from the very beginning and explain exactly what BPM is, some of
the confusing terms associated with it and how you can find the system that’s best for you.

Contents

Chapter 1 Chapter 2
What is BPM? What Can BPM do
for You and Your
Business?
Page 3 Page 19

Chapter 3 Chapter 4
What You Need to How to Manage
Know before You Buy a Successful BPM
Implementation
Page 46 Page 72

Chapter 5 End Note

Using Your BPM Resources to Help
Software to Deliver You with Your Next
Improvement - Steps
5 Useful Tutorials
Page 89 Page 107
The A to Z Guide of
Business Process Management

Full Contents

Chapter 1 - What is BPM 3

What is Business Process Management (BPM)? 4
Business Process Management Terminology: 39 Essential Terms Explained 7
Business Management Systems: 4 Steps to Finding the Right One for You 13
Business Process Management vs Quality Management vs Enterprise Architecture vs Workflow Management 16

Chapter 2 - What Can BPM do for You and Your Business? 19

How Business Process Management Can Break Down Silos in Your Business 20
How Can a BPM System Help me to Achieve Continuous Improvement? 24
10 Ways Business Process Management Software Can Improve Your Business 28
How a Process Library Can Solve Business Efficiency Problems 31
Return on Investment: Why BPM is the Gift That Keeps on Giving 38
How to Stop Wasting Money in Your Business: 10 Actions to Take 40
What Are the 7 Wastes That Are Killing Business Efficiency? 43

Chapter 3 - What You Need to Know Before You Buy 46

Before You Buy Business Process Management Software: 7 Key Questions 47
Evaluating Business Process Management Systems: Meeting Customers 50
Business Improvement: Pros and Cons of a Process Approach 51
The Dangers of Implementing Process Management Systems: An Analysis 55
How Much Time Does it Take to Implement a Business Process Management Software System? 59
How Much Does Business Process Management (BPM) Software Cost? 62
Costs You Too Can Save With Business Process Management [A Customer Case study] 69

Chapter 4 - How to Manage a Successful BPM Implementation 72

How to Prepare for Your BPM System Implementation: Tips for Success 73
How to Ensure That Your Business Process Management (BPM) System Will be Used: 10 Key Steps 76
Establishing a Business Improvement Team: 4 Must do Actions 82
The Process Library Checklist: Integrate Your Team With Your Process Software 87

Chapter 5 - Using Your BPM Software to Deliver Improvement - 5 Useful Tutorials 89

How to Calculate Return on Investment With Business Process Management 90
Business Process Modelling: How to Capture Cost, Effort and Time 95
Process Costing: A Simple Method to Find How Much Your Processes Cost 99
How to Build Your Own Process Improvement Project Plan - An Analysis 103
5 Steps You Should Build Any Improvement Project Plan Around 105

End Note - Resources to Help You with Your Next Steps 107
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Chapter 1 - What is BPM?

This section will cover

What is Business Process Management (BPM)? 4

Business Process Management Terminology: 39 Essential Terms Explained 7

Business Management Systems: 4 Steps to Finding the Right One for You 13

Business Process Management vs Quality Management vs Enterprise Architecture vs Workflow

Management 16

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What is Business Process Management

(BPM)?

If you Google, “What is Business Process Management?” a variety of definitions are returned; we believe
that two of the most useful are:

“Business Process Management (BPM) is a field in operations management that focuses on improving

corporate performance by managing and optimising a company’s business processes.” Theodore
Panagacos (25 September 2012) - The Ultimate Guide to Business Process Management: Everything You Need
to Know and How to Apply It to Your Organization.

and

“The discipline of managing processes (rather than tasks) as the means for improving business
performance outcomes and operational agility. Processes span organisational boundaries, linking
together people, information flows, systems and other assets to create and deliver value to customers
and constituents.” Gartner, “Business process management (BPM)”.

So that explains it all; except not in plain English.

So let’s break it down.

What is a Business Process?

The word ‘process’ is defined by ISO (the International Organisation for Standardisation) as ‘a set of
interrelated or interacting activities that transforms inputs into outputs.’

Perhaps a simpler way of putting this is to say, a business process is a series of actions or steps taken in
order to achieve a particular end. Certainly in ISO’s definition, ’transformation’ is the key word.

Processes are most easily recognisable in manufacturing, where it is easy to see raw materials (inputs)
being transformed into goods (outputs). For example, metal (the input) being transformed into cars (the
output).

What is Management?
‘Management’ means dealing with or controlling things or people. It is an activity, something that is done.

The Whole is More Than the Sum of the Parts

Putting these three word together into the term Business Process Management also assumes an end
objective. Therefore the sum goes:

Business Process + Management = Improvement

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Business Process Management in Layman’s Terms

So, Business Process Management is something that is done to control the actions or steps taken in the
course of producing something (either a product or a service), in order to improve the value added by
doing those actions.

Business Process Management is a pretty broad term and herein lies the difficulty in understanding what
it means. It is ‘something that is done’ , a practice, an approach, a discipline perhaps. It is not a prescribed
way of doing things.

Two Key Elements of a BPM Approach

To take a BPM approach however, two key elements must be present:

1. The ‘things that are done’ must deliver improvement to the business or organisation where they are
being done.
2. The approach considers the multiple inter-related processes of an organisation and as such takes a
holistic look at its business activities. This is a key difference between BPM and other approaches
where individual business functions are improved – by automation perhaps.

Delivering Improvement
Improvement must be the key objective and deliverable of any BPM project. Achieving improvement is
the sole reason for undertaking a Business Process Management project. However, that improvement can
take many forms. For example:

• Improved Access to Information - about how to do a process

• Consistent Delivery of Processes - throughout the organisation
• Adherence to Processes - by those responsible for doing them
• More Efficient Processes - with duplicated or unnecessary steps removed
• Better Quality - end product (good or service)
• A Less Risky Process
• Better Customer Service

A Holistic Look at Business Activities

Many of the improvements to be gained in a business are achieved by looking at the handover
points between functions. This is where the biggest delays and inefficiencies occur. For example, one
department may be producing something for another department but not quite in the format that
they need it, or within the optimal time frame. Often once the interconnection between processes is
understood, small adjustments can deliver big improvement.

How to do Business Process Management

Well, here is the thing...there is no one way.
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However, given that BPM is about process improvement, it is a requirement that the start point
is documenting your processes so that you understand what they are, how they are interrelated, who is
responsible for doing what …

Process Mapping
Documenting your processes can be done in many ways, but the most common approach is called
Process Mapping.

Process mapping is an exercise to identify all the steps and decisions in a process in diagrammatic form
which:

• Describes the flow of materials, information and documents

• Shows the various tasks contained within the process
• Clearly shows that the tasks (activity and deliverable) transform inputs into outputs
• Indicates the decisions that need to be made along the chain
• Demonstrates the essential interrelationships and interdependence between the process steps; and
reminds us that the strength of a chain depends upon its weakest link

There are multiple process mapping software tools that enable this. It is not essential to use a software
tool, but doing so generally makes documenting processes a great deal easier.

BPM Software Systems

As soon as your processes are documented, they can be controlled and improved. There are many ways to
approach this and many software systems to support you.

Which one you should choose is a different question entirely that will be looked at a little later on.

Next up, we have provided 39 common BPM terms and what they mean. This will be a great resource to head
back to later if you are unsure about some of the terms that are explained in this e-book...

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Business Process Management Terminology:

39 Essential Terms Explained

When you’re trying to understand the ins and outs 3. Bottlenecks

of Business Process Management Terminology, a simple
definition is not always the answer - however 39 A bottleneck is one process in a chain of processes that,
definitions might get the point across. In this article, we if limited in any way, will cause further limitations to
will explain 39 of the phrases and associated definitions subsequent processes in the chain. Bottlenecks can be
that are often encountered when either researching either short-term or long-term and are most often seen
a new BPM system or undertaking a Business Process in supply chain and manufacturing industries.
Improvement initiative. Bottlenecks can slow down production or the execution
of other processes further down the chain.
1. Activity
4. BPMN
When mapping out a process, there are several different
shapes that can be used. An ‘Activity’ shape is used to BPMN stands for Business Process Model and Notation
describe something you do. and is standard for Business Process Modelling. BPMN
is a graphical representation for specifying business
Activities are the steps of the process and are described processes in a business process model.
using verbs. For example: ‘Update sales order with
customer number’. The main goal of BPMN is to provide a standard
notation that can be easily understood by all business
stakeholders.

5. BPMS
BPMS stands for Business Process Management
Suite (or system). A BPMS is a software tool that
allows processes to be mapped, implemented and
analysed. Business Process Management systems are
often used to aid continual improvement throughout
an organisation, to help them to increase efficiency and
reduce costs.

2. As-Is Process
An As-Is process is a visual representation of a business
process in its current state. As-Is processes must be
mapped before changes and improvements can be
made.
More information on the Triaster BPM Platform
triaster.co.uk/triaster-platform.php

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6. Business Process 11. Decision

A business process is a collection of related activities Process Mapping ‘Decision’ shapes are a type of activity
or tasks that produce a specific service or product. where the decision is usually expressed in the form of
Business processes are often visualised in a flowchart or a question, where only one of the output options is
process map, which allows them to be followed easily produced.
and shared throughout an organisation.
For example, ‘Internal or external customer?’ may then
7. Business Process Improvement branch into two different process pathways depending
on which option is selected.
Business Process Improvement is a project undertaken
to help an organisation optimise and improve
its existing processes. Some key goals of process
improvement include improving productivity,
increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

8. Business Process Management

Business Process Management, or BPM is a systematic
approach to making an organisation’s business
processes more efficient. Some examples of BPM end
goals are:

• Improved productivity
12. Deliverables
• Reduced costs
• Duplication eliminated A Process Mapping ‘Deliverable’ shape is used to
describe something you produce. Deliverables are
the items produced (or ‘delivered’) as each step of the
9. Business Process Modelling Tool process is complete and are described using nouns.

See BPMS

10. Continual/Continuous Improvement

Continual Improvement is the ongoing process
of improving an organisation’s business
processes, products or services. This can deliver
incremental changes over time or break-through
improvement all at once.
The term ‘Continuous
Improvement’ is used
interchangeably with Examples include:
‘Continual Improvement’.
• Customer order form
• Purchase order
• Patient discharge form

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13. DMAIC 16. ERP System

An ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning system is a
type of Business Process Management software that
allows an organisation to collect, manage, store and
interpret data from numerous business activities. ERP
systems provide a real-time overview of core business
processes, enabling information flow across all business
functions or departments.

17. Input
In Process Mapping, an ‘Input‘ shape is the name
sometimes used for a ‘Deliverable’ when it is an input to
DMAIC is a 5-step method for improving processes. an activity.
DMAIC is itself a process and is always described simply
in terms of the Activities involved. These are: A ‘Deliverable’ can be both the ‘Output’ from one
‘Activity’ and the ‘Input’ to another Activity.
• Define
• Measure All Deliverables are described using nouns.
• Analyse
18. IPO Table
• Improve
• Control IPO or Input Process Outputs tables are a simple
mechanism to help determine what is being used and
what is being produced in a process. An IPO table will
To learn more about DMAIC, read our article:
usually have 3 columns to show the following:
DMAIC Process vs Cycle: Why Process Wins Every Time
• Input – The start of the process or the materials
required
14. Document Management System
• Process – The key steps involved
A document management system is a computer or • Output – What is produced at the end
software system used to store, manage and track an
For example:
organisation’s electronic documents. Most systems will
include version control and the ability to track changes
created by different users as standard.

Document management systems are most often used

by organisations looking to achieve certain quality or
Some IPO tables may also include columns for process
standards accreditations.
owner or responsibility, risk and priority.

15. End-to-end Process 19. ISO Standards

An end-to-end (E2E) process describes a business
The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
process from start to finish and comprises all of the
is an independent, non-governmental organisation,
work required to achieve a particular process goal.
which sets standards to aid the creation of safe, reliable
and good quality products and services.

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drilling down on an Activity you move to a deeper level

(Level 2) and so on until the process is complete.

23. Node
Within a process modeller such as Microsoft Visio, Nodes
are containers or frames for process maps which hold the
The ISO 9000 family of standards are most commonly map title and other properties relating to the process.
used for quality management in organisations looking They are described using verbs. When naming a map,
to ensure that their products and services consistently imagine the words ‘how to’ before your title, if it still works
meet and exceed customer requirements. This includes: well then you have named it correctly. Some of the Node
Properties are visible on the Node and some are invisible.
• ISO 9001:2015 - sets out the requirements of a
quality management system
24. Off-Page Connectors
• ISO 9000:2015 - covers the basic concepts and
language Off-page connectors are useful for overcoming the
• ISO 9004:2009 - focuses on how to make a quality practical limitation of page sizes. They allow the process
management system more efficient and effective mapper to produce a logical, large ‘piece of paper’
containing a single end-to-end process map with all the
• ISO 19011:2011 - sets out guidance on internal and Deliverables (outputs to inputs) linked directly to each
external audits of quality management systems. other.

20. KPIs 25. Output

KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are business metrics In Process Mapping, an ‘Output‘ is the name sometimes
that are used to measure factors that are crucial to the used for a ‘Deliverable‘ when it is an Output from an
success of an organisation. KPIs are unique to each ‘Activity‘.
organisation and even each department within the
organisation. A ‘Deliverable‘ can be both the ‘Output‘ from one Activity
and the ‘Input’ to another ‘Activity’.
21. Lean
26. Process
Lean manufacturing (or production) is a systematic
method for the elimination of waste within an A process is a set of interrelated or interacting activities,
organisation’s processes. Lean drives continual which transforms inputs into outputs. This term is often
improvement by looking at value adding and eliminating used interchangeably with an Activity.
non-value adding activities. Learn more about the Lean
Methodology by reading the following article: 27. Process Author
What is Lean Six Sigma? Tools for Process
A Process Author (or process mapper) is someone who
Improvement
draws or creates a process. They often have no control
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over a process or the decision-making powers to change
process-improvement
it. To learn what skills are required to be a successful
22. Map Level process mapper, read this article:

The Map Level is the number assigned to a process map Process Mapping: 5 Key skills you need to have
depending on its position in a process hierarchy. The http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/process-mapping-
initial maps are mapped at a base level (Level 1). When 5-key-skills-you-need-to-have

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28. Process Hierarchy 31. Process Owner

A Process Hierarchy is an overview of the The Process Owner is the person who has overall
relationship between a group of maps, showing both control of a process and the decision-making powers to
higher and lower levels (See Map Level). change it.

29. Process Library 32. RACI

A Process Library is an easy to understand, easy

to use, secure website intelligently presenting an
organisation’s processes, policies, forms and guidance A RACI Matrix divides tasks into four participatory types
documents. assigned to different roles in the project or process.
These make up the acronym RACI:
Click here to view an interactive example of a
Process Library • Responsible - Those who do work to achieve the
tinyurl.com/tri-example-library task.
• Accountable – persons ultimately answerable for
30. Process Map the correct and thorough completion of the task.
• Consulted - Those whose opinions are sought
A process map is a diagram that intends to clearly
(Two-way communication).
identify the main steps involved in completing a
process, with the items used and produced when that • Informed - Those kept up-to-date on progress
process is complete. (One-way communication).

33. SIPOC
A SIPOC table is a form of IPO table that summarises
the inputs and outputs of one or a group of processes.
SIPOC stands for:

• Suppliers
• Inputs
• Process
• Outputs
• Customers
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An example of a SIPOC table is below 38. Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping is a Lean method for analysing
the As-Is process and designing the To-Be. This approach
asks the question, is this Activity value adding, non-value
adding or necessary non-value adding? An example of
34. Six Sigma how the value-stream approach can be used is as follows.

Six Sigma is a set of tools and techniques used in • If a typical customer is willing for the costs of an
process improvement. The principle of Six Sigma Activity to be added to the price of the product they
is to improve the quality of the output of a process purchase, the Activity is probably value-adding.
by identifying and eliminating the causes of defects.
• Non-value adding Activities are those for which the
Six Sigma practices are often combined with the Lean
customer would feel it very unfair to add a direct
method of manufacturing to become Lean Six Sigma.
charge to them.
• Necessary non-value adding Activities are those for
35. Stencil and Template which the customer would feel costs are in some
sense reasonable, but would still feel disgruntled if
In Microsoft Visio, the Stencil is the area used to store
the costs were passed onto them.
a set of shapes that are used when mapping out a
process. The Template is a combination of a Node and Read more about the Value –Stream approach by reading
the stencil and is also used to control page size and this article:
orientation. Both the Stencil and Template can be
customised for consistency with corporate branding Killing Efficiency: How to Identify Your Wasteful
and colours. Processes
tinyurl.com/tri-killing-efficiency

39. Workflow Management Tool

A workflow management tool is a system or software
that contains business processes arranged as a series
of workflows. Most commonly used in manufacturing,
workflow management systems can also be used
to monitor and change the sequence of tasks as part of
36. Swimlane Business Process Management.

A Swimlane is a visual grid applied to a process map to A workflow may be either:

depict what or who is working on a particular subset
of a process. Lanes are arranged either horizontally or • Manual – tasks undertaken by an individual or group
vertically, and are labelled to show how the chart is of individuals.
organised. • Automated – tasks undertaken by a computer
programme or machine.
37. To-Be Process
Knowing the terminology is a great start to
A To-Be process occurs as a result of an analysis of understanding what Business Process Management is
an As-Is process and should show the changes and all about, but not so great for helping you to identify the
improvements made to the original process. It may right system for your organisation. The following article
be necessary to create multiple To-Be processes for offers four quick steps that will help you to identify the
business analysis and for use in process metrics.
right management system.
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Business Management Systems: 4 Steps to

Finding the Right One for You

Not all Business Management Systems (BMS) are created equal and although one might be a perfect fit
for one company, that doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

Every organisation has its own particular needs and like a piece of clothing, any solution is not going
to be one size fits all. You might be larger or smaller than another business or need different support
in different areas – In the world of Business Management Systems there are many factors you need to
consider before you even ‘step into the shop and start trying things on’.

 1. The Price is Right

The first consideration is price. Are you looking for a cheaper option for a small business that can map
and house processes but has less functionality? Or are you looking to really get into the intricate process
improvement tools that records time, effort and cost data which measures and then models continual
improvement going forward? The price you are willing to pay alone will cancel out many options in the
market.

Bear in mind that when pricing a BMS, you may not find costs listed on the websites of some suppliers
– this is becuase BMS solutions that have greater functionality will be tailored specifically for each
customer and as such, it’s difficult to provide an accurate quote.

2. What Kind of BMS Are You Looking for?

Today, most Business Management Systems are software based and we believe that, these are the ones
that will allow you to achieve the best ROI.

That’s because software systems allow you to calculate how efficient your work processes really are. Each
task in your organisation has a cost in time and in money. By calculating the cost of the task, you can
finally measure the cost of the activity against the actual delivered outcome. If you want to read a more
in-depth article on calculating ROI for a Business Process Management software system, click here:

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Calculating Return on Investment (ROI) on Business Process Management (BPM)

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If you’re still using a paper based management system, some sort of hybrid or you’re using an automated
system but it’s not quite what the doctor ordered, then you should seriously consider the type of impact
that a BPM system could have in your organisation.

If you are still working from a paper based Business Management System, this article is for you:

How to move away from a paper-based Business Management System

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3. The Process Approach:

At Triaster, we use a process approach to business improvement. This includes our own capture, share,
use and improve methodology (see triaster.co.uk/capture-share-use-improve.php). By implementing
a process management and improvement initiative, your organisation can capture processes through
process mapping, create a standardised way of working by sharing processes throughout the
organisation with the management system and model continuous improvements for the processes that
already exist.

Improvements are identified by equating everything in your organisation to a series of ‘Inputs’ and
‘Outputs’ - this simplicity allows your organisation to identify process steps that add value and those that
are just wasteful.

Let’s take a look at one example of process capture.

Say you want to bake a cake. First you’ll need ingredients (Inputs) then, after the baking’s done you have
a cake (Output) and in order to get to the finished product you’ll need a recipe (process). We put this
information into a Process Map that looks like this:

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This makes it easier for you and your employees to find the right process when you need it and not waste
time sifting through a whole manual on the subject. If more information is needed however, you can still
find that by going to the supporting procedure, and you could even look up your specific job role in the
system and each process that is associated with your specific role.

If you want a more in-depth explanation on Process Mapping and how it could be beneficial for your
business, read this article:

Six Major Benefits of Process Mapping

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It all sounds relatively simple doesn’t it? That is the point of process improvement, however it’s not all
smooth sailing because our last point is where the rubber really meets the road…

4. Know What You’re Getting Into

Remember how we just said that the Business Process Management is simple and effective? Well the
process approach certainly is, but the implementation can be another story.

Most of the implementation involved

with Business Process Management
can be outsourced, but not everything
can. You can hire professionals to come
into your business and run Process
Mapping workshops (see: tinyurl.com/tri-
workshops), but you’re still going to have
to actually create a team of people who
collectively understand the processes of
your organisation and can map them out
accordingly.

You’ll also may have to liaise with the IT team to implement software, unless you go for an online system.
The planning stage can take time and you will also need to re-evaluate your processes in order to
improve them, but the benefits of BPM still far outweigh the negatives.

Improving the processes of an organisation does take time, and you will find that you’ll have to make it
a major focus of your organisation, but the words ‘process Improvement’ tend to go hand-in-hand with
the words ‘increased income’ - which is why the BPM is so important to organisations wanting business
improvement.

But is Business Process Management even the best type of management system out there for you? There are
some that may fit your organisation better depending on what exactly you are looking to do
in your organisation.

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Business Process Management vs Quality

Management vs Enterprise Architecture vs
Workflow Management

Business Process Management isn’t the only type of Business Management System out there. Because
of the large amount of choice, you would be forgiven for wondering which one would be the most
suitable for your organisation. This article will explore four different approaches which support a wide
range of different business objectives.

When considering any big Business Management System purchase, it is important to outline what
you are planning to achieve and be clear of what your organisation will be using the system for. It
is paramount that the system you choose will support your organisation to achieve its business objectives
rather than the business needing to adjust to the system - as can happen.

What is Business Process Management (BPM)?

Business Process Management is an approach that focuses predominantly on capturing and improving
business processes to help an organisation work more efficiently. This is achieved through capturing and
documenting an organisation’s current-state end-to-end processes.

Once a department’s processes (or even the organisation as a whole) have been documented in a
process map, you can begin to identify where the inefficiencies and bottlenecks lie. This will allow you
to make data driven changes to each process to help reduce costs and improve efficiency or eliminate
waste for example.

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What is a Quality Management System (QMS)?

A Quality Management System houses the processes,
policies and procedures that are required to help an
organisation achieve one or a number of quality standards.
These standards are put in place to ensure that a level
of quality is consistently achieved or that customer
requirements are met.

The majority of Quality Management systems are geared to

support achieving ISO accreditations (see: http://info.triaster.
co.uk/white-paper-how-to-achieve-iso-9001-2015).

You can read about some of the different ISO standards here:

Achieving ISO 9001:2015 with Business Process Management (BPM)  

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/achieving-iso-90012015-business-process-management-bpm

As covered in this article, in most instances, quality management can be achieved with a BPM system,
although there are software systems available that focus solely on Total Quality Management. The
following article sets out what a QMS should deliver:

The Top 10 things your Quality Management System (QMS) must deliver
http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/the-top-10-things-your-quality-management-system-qms-must-deliver

The key thing about quality is that to be effective it must sit at the heart of your organisation and this is
something that a BPM system can really help you with.

A common issue with implementing a quality initiative to achieve a certification, is that the focus shifts
from running your business to achieving the certification.  There are some helpful tips on how to avoid
this in the following article:

How to stop ISO Certification running your business

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/stop-iso-certification-running-business

What is Enterprise Architecture (EA)?

Enterprise Architecture is a detailed overview of a business’ processes and their interactions and
relationship with the core IT infrastructure. An EA system houses and manages everything a business
does, how it does it and the systems it uses. These are very complex systems, which ultimately allow
an organisation to plan and execute new strategies effectively and with little impact on the rest of the
business.

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To help you understand the differences between EA and BPM software, we’ve put together this useful
comparison including some of the pros and cons of each system:

Business Process Management vs Enterprise Architecture: Pros, Cons & Comparisons

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/bpm-vs-ea-pros-cons-benefits-drawbacks

What is a Workflow Management System? (WFMS)

A Workflow Management System is a tool that allows an organisation to create and monitor a set
sequence of tasks - usually in the form of a flow diagram. These diagrams are not usually detailed but give
enough information for someone to follow the instructions and perform the task correctly.

Workflow management is an excellent entry point to start looking at and capturing what your business
does; however, it does tend to be more focused on the people carrying out the tasks than your business
processes. To help you decide if workflow management software is suitable for your business, we’ve
written a clear comparison with BPM software, showing the similarities and differences, which you can
read here:

Workflow Management vs Business Process Management: Which one is for You?

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/wfms-vs-bpm-similarities-differences

BPM, QMS, EA or WFMS, Which One Should I be Using?

When it comes to making a decision on what system you should be using, any Business Management
System is going to cost time and money. We understand that you won’t want to take this decision lightly.
Furthermore, implementing such a system will require serious commitment and a cultural shift, and this
needs to come from the top down.

Whichever system you choose – success will not happen overnight, and this is something that you will
need to keep at the forefront of your decision making process.

Understanding that the success of the system ultimately depends on how much you put in, will help you
to stay focused, not only during that initial decision phase, but also throughout the implementation of
your new system.

Here ends section 1. Section 2 gets more specific. It explains what Business Process Management can offer your
organisation, by analysing Triaster’s method of continuous improvement and how it can help you save time,
effort and cost in your business processes...

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Chapter 2 - What Can BPM do for You and

Your Business?

This section will cover

How Business Process Management Can Break Down Silos in Your Business 20

How Can a BPM System Help me to Achieve Continuous Improvement? 24

10 Ways Business Process Management Software Can Improve Your Business 28

How a Process Library Can Solve Business Efficiency Problems 31

Return on Investment: Why BPM is the Gift That Keeps on Giving 38

How to Stop Wasting Money in Your Business: 10 Actions to Take 40

What Are the 7 Wastes That Are Killing Business Efficiency? 43

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How Business Process Management Can Break

Down Silos in Your Business

How do we start to connect the various areas of our organisation, so that they work together rather than
in silos? How do we get a holistic view of our end-to-end processes, but show the handoffs between
different areas/departments? These are both very important questions that have been asked of Triaster
over the years and although they are very different questions, there is largely one answer to both…

One System at the Heart of the Organisation

The starting point for addressing both of the questions above, is for the whole organisation to agree to
use one Business Management System. Your organisation may call it a Business Management System
(BMS) Quality Management System (QMS) or Information Management System (IMS), but the key thing
is that the whole organisation agrees to use one system for capturing and understanding what the
organisation does.

How Process Mapping Can Unify Your Departments

Taking a BPM approach starts with capturing your organisation’s end-to-end processes as a process map.

A process is a transformation. It transforms inputs into outputs. So a process map shows the steps taken
by your organisation to deliver to its customers. Because it is set out in diagrammatic form, it sets out the
steps very clearly and without too much detail.

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It is important that the whole organisation uses one consistent set of process mapping shapes and one
process mapping methodology. Without this, different department’s process maps will be presented
differently and won’t be easily joined together or understood by the rest of the organisation.

To enable this consistency, Triaster restricts the process mapping shapes available in our process mapping
toolset to the key shapes required: Inputs, Outputs, Activities and Decisions.

Triaster also promotes a process mapping methodology – Noun-Verb process mapping (see: http://blog.
triaster.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-noun-verb-methodology-of-process-mapping) – which an organisation
can easily adopt without extensive process mapping training.

Other process mapping systems have their own ways of approaching this.

To read more about process mapping shapes, please have a look at:

Common Process Mapping shapes and their Definitions

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/common-process-mapping-shapes-and-their-definitions

It is also important that the process maps link together to show the end-to-end processes – likely to be
many A4 pages long. This should be easy to do and easy to follow.

Placing Your BPM System at the Heart of Your Organisation

Once captured, the process maps must be shared by the whole organisation.

This is where the ‘one system at the heart of the organisation’ comes in.

To give a holistic view of your organisation, the process maps capturing the end-to-end processes must

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be accessible by the whole organisation. If intelligently housed and presented in one centralised BPM
system, this view (or model) - will start to transform the culture of your organisation.

How BPM Systems Can Break Down Silos

Being able to access a model of your organisation, which is focused on what is delivered to the customer
will really help to break down silos in an organisation. It reminds each department that they are part of a
larger whole and also gives clarity to what the rest of the organisation is doing. In mapping the end-to-
end processes, departments will need to speak to each other, particularly as the maps are linked together.
This starts to break down barriers between departments and creates a holistic view of the organisation’s
end-to-end processes.

BPM System Functionality

It is important that as well as being easily accessible – from the intranet for example- the system is easy to
use. Really good Search functionality is crucial as well as good navigation.

Good Navigation
Good navigation will enable the end user to follow the flow of the process through, from one department
to another, without feeling that they have strayed into ‘someone else’s territory’. It will also encourage
cross departmental use. This is key to breaking down silos.

BPM Structure
It is really tempting to structure the menu options according to departments, but to break down silos it is
important to structure it according to products or services delivered to the customer - as with the systems
shown below:

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It also helps to show common processes – i.e. not affiliated to any one department or unit. For more
information on this please read:

Business Process Management (BPM) system structure: Core vs business unit processes
http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/bpm-system-structure-core-processes

It’s Not All About the System

This is where the answer to the two original questions starts to diverge.

Implementing a centralised BPM system does indeed deliver a holistic view of your end-to-end processes
and show the handoffs between different areas/departments.

However, on its own it won’t result in your business working together rather than in silos. It is however a
key component to achieving this. With this in place, a cultural change can gradually be implemented and
supported by the system.

Cultural changes need on-going communication and above all vocal senior support and there is no short
cutting this. But with a great BPM system to back it up, you will, in time, be able to break down silos and
leverage the whole business working together.

Breaking down silos in your organisation plays an extremely important role in achieving your continuous
improvement objectives. Make this a priority during the planning stage and you’ll already have taken a
massive step towards the next topic we are going to address, namely…

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How Can a BPM System Help me to Achieve

Continuous Improvement?

Companies implement Business Process Management (BPM) systems for many reasons. Whether the sole
purpose is to demonstrate compliance to regulation and standardisation authorities (such as ISO9001,
ISO14001, Sarbanes Oxley…) or to completely overhaul the business’s quality manual - there is no doubt
that your business will improve by completing these objectives.

This section will focus on how a BPM system will enable you to achieve continuous improvement in a
consistent, incremental manner.

Using Data (or Properties) to Achieve Continuous Improvement

One way in which a BPM system can enable you to achieve continuous improvement is in the collection
and use of process related data.

A BPM System Should Not Only be a Place to Store and Share Business Process Maps
ISO’s definition of a process is ‘a set of interrelated or interacting activities that transforms inputs into
outputs’. If you process map according to this definition, you will use shapes for each of the activities
taking place throughout your organisation, but why stop there?

Triaster highly advocates storing data behind each of these shapes, to add value to the process maps.

Your BPM system should allow for easy capture of data behind the shapes, and quick reporting to
retrieve the data. The capturing, sharing and reporting on this data can really accelerate continuous
improvement. Below is an example showing how:

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Reporting on Time, Effort and Cost to Achieve Continuous Improvement

A Triaster BPM system enables you to quickly and easily calculate:

• how much a process costs to execute

• how long it takes to carry out the process
• the process cycle efficiency
• as well as a whole host of other data

With the ability to quickly and easily cost a process, you can start looking at where in the process there is
excess cost and the ways to improve the process to reduce cost.

An example report can be viewed here.

Reporting on RACI to Achieve Continuous Improvement

Most BPM systems also allow for easy capturing and sharing of RACI data (Responsible, Accountable,
Consulted and Informed).

It is then clear who throughout the business should be carrying out what task, who should be held
accountable in the event of a process failure and anybody who needs to be consulted or informed.
This is very useful for new starters, as well as current employees.

The RACI Matrix behind your process maps can be built into your induction process. This will set
beginners on the way to getting things right first time.

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Reporting on Risk to Achieve Continuous Improvement

Identifying risks throughout your business’s end-to-end processes is extremely important, not only for
Continuous Improvement, but for the survival of your business (see: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/
managing-risk-in-business-how-can-i-manage-risk-and-avoid-quality-failure).

Therefore, recording and reporting on where those risks exist at an activity level is key.
Furthermore, visually representing risk in your process maps alerts your end users to the risks of deviating
from the agreed process.

Triaster’s BPM platform enables users to report on all risks within the business and sort them according
to severity. The highest risk is a great start point for continuous improvement around risk mitigation and
business continuity.

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Reporting on Systems Interfaces to Achieve Continuous Improvement

Understanding the systems used throughout a business is key to business improvement.

Your BPM system should show as standard which systems are used or updated throughout any end-to-
end process. This is useful information for:

• Anyone Doing the Process – it shows the system(s) they need to be updating at specific points
• Understanding Any Different Systems the Business is Using - and at which point and for what
purpose

This is really helpful for continuous improvement as it highlights any duplications, so that you can start to
think about the potential for combining systems, eliminate redundant systems or if there is a requirement
for a new system, and shows the processes that will be impacted if a system is updated, replaced or
scrapped.

Knowledge Sharing to Achieve Continuous Improvement

Engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant W. Edwards Deming
famously said, “It is not enough to do your best, you must know what to do, and then do your best.”

At Triaster, we are all about sharing accurate knowledge, which enables an entire organisation to get
things done right first time. We believe that within a few clicks of a mouse an employee should be
embedded within a process along with all the supporting information they need to correctly and
accurately carry out their job.

The ideal situation for any business is to be constantly evolving towards improvement. It’s easy to think of a
destination and say ‘I want to go there’, what’s less certain is the best way to actually get there. Let’s take a
look at 10 separate ways a BPM System can save you time, money and effort while transporting you to the
destination of continual improvement...

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10 Ways Business Process Management

Software Can Improve Your Business

Business Process Management vendors often have if you don’t have the tools to define and measure a
a problem communicating exactly why you should process?
care about BPM - even though one of the big benefits
is return on investment. The first step is to capture your processes
through process mapping (see: https://www.lucidchart.
In fact, according to a Gartner survey, 80% of com/pages/process-mapping), find the wasteful or
organisations conducting Business Process broken processes and work backwards from there .
Management (see: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-
releases/80-per-cent-of-enterprises-using-bpm-will- 2. BPM Supports Employee Succession
experience-an-internal-rate-of-return-better-than-15-
per-cent-71179882.html) (BPM) projects will experience
Planning and Knowledge Capture
an internal rate of return better than 15%
Although you’d probably love to retain all your
staff, people move on for different reasons and when
The problem is that although many organisations are in
they do, you’ll want as smooth a transition as possible.
need of a Business Management System, few are aware
BPM offers a clear method to capture and store
of the improvement capabilities that a good system can
important information.
deliver.
With process mapping, you can capture every area of
So, next follows ten reasons why a BPM system is
the organisation and the tasks that are carried out so
necessary to any contemporary organisation:
the knowledge transfer is as smooth as possible.

Documenting information in this way allows you

to easily share processes, policies and guidance
documents among your workforce, which is the best
way to make sure that business knowledge remains in
your organisation.

3. It Provides a Framework for Continuous

Improvement
Here’s another question for you, are you able to
1. Business Process Management Improves easily define the core tasks you need to perform daily
in your company for others? The harder question is can
Efficiency
you define the tasks performed by other employees?
Here’s a question for you; when a process is broken
When you can’t identify what you do, you can’t identify
or wasteful in your organisation, do you know how to
the problems and when you can’t do that, you cannot
identify it?
achieve your improvement objectives. A good BPM
system will provide organisation-wide oversight,
There are certainly processes in your organisation that
bring clarity to your job role and other roles that were
could be improved, some may be wasteful and others
previously isolated.
may be completely broken – but how will you know

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6. It Will Help Your Organisation to Eliminate

Silos
Most employees in an organisation won’t know the
specifics of their colleagues’ job roles from a bar of soap.
When a process from one area overlaps into another,
employees will certainly need to identify the other
department responsible instead of living in a land of
continual confusion.
 4. You Can Retire Your Paper-based System
The great thing about BPM is that it creates linkages
Many organisations are still using paper-based between departments. By identifying the key
systems to manage their documents, forms, manuals processes in the key areas, capturing them via process
and processes. maps and sharing them in a usable way so that all staff
can know what they need to and who they need to talk
The problem with this is that when your business to in order to perform their tasks (thus saving time and
starts to grow, you will eventually need to file and money).
manage thousands of documents. How user friendly
is that? How easy is it for employees to find the
right process for health and safety? How easy is it
to find step-by-step guides for specific processes?
This situation can quickly become a management
nightmare.

BPM can transfer all your paper-based documentation

into process maps available on one searchable
system and makes finding it as simple as typing in a
query to bring up the appropriate captured process -
this saves your employees time and makes sure crucial
guidelines and standards are upheld.

5. BPM Supports the Implementation of Other

IT Systems 7. It Will Help You to Establish an Effective
Quality Strategy
The implementation of a new software system can
cause problems between IT and the rest of the Quality is becoming more and more important
business, especially if communication surrounding for contemporary businesses. Customers want it,
the implementation is poor. BPM can support other employees want it and your marketing department is
systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - as probably quietly praying for it.
it allows you to have a complete overview of everything
your business does. The risk of quality failure includes:

It is crucial that any BPM system you purchase will • Loss of Trust and Brand Loyality
support the specific needs of the business beforehand
– there’s nothing worse than purchasing a management • Costly Penalties - from regulatory bodies
system that doesn’t have the flexibility to cover all your • Wasteful Processes - that suck time and money
business needs (so do your BPM research, see: http:// from your organisation.
blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/how-can-process-mapping-
• A Sub-standard Product or Service
help-with-the-implementation-of-an-erp-system).
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8. Your Change Initiatives Will be Supported From there, it’s important to document what you want
your employees to do; make it easy for them to access it
The ability to model change before you implement (on a daily basis if necessary) and follow it.
it is reason enough to have a BPM system. Modelling
change (see: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/business- However, for this to be effective, you must ensure that
processes-change-success) allows you to measure the there is a change in culture (see: http://blog.triaster.
possible outcomes of any improvement project. Being co.uk/blog/inconsistent-working-how-can-i-get-
able to eliminate failure before it happens is the golden people-to-work-consistently) to support this, otherwise,
goose that keeps on giving. you may risk impacting the long-term sustainability of
such a project.
9. Business Processes Management Systems
Increase Employee Engagement Essential Elements to the Success of Your BPM
System Before You Even Start
BPM provides an excellent framework and support
structure to help employees adjust to, and engage with, A BPM system will only be successful in your business if:
a new way of working.
• Senior stakeholders support the project from the
In order for your Business Process Management system start.
to be successful, you need employee buy-in from • Your system is user-friendly and used by your
the start – you can’t map out your organisation’s employees consistently.
processes without listening to how those processes are
performed by those who actually perform them.
Improving efficiency is key for any organisation that is
The upside to this necessary first step is that you have
attempting to save time and money. For any organisation
employee engagement from day one. An employee
who is involved with the implementation of the new looking to standardise their business processes and
process, is more likely to use it and more likely to want make sure that those processes are used throughout the
to see it succeed. organisation, they will need a process library. The next
article looks at how you can achieve business efficiency
by implementing a single way of working for your
organisation...

10. It supports and Underpins a Consistent

Working Culture
Inconsistent working can result in inefficiencies
and an inconsistency of outcome in business. BPM
systems ensure that your business processes are made
accessible to the whole organisation.

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How a Process Library Can Solve Business

Efficiency Problems

If your organisation is having business efficiency problems or you just want to improve what you already
have, you need to consider getting a process library. Having a Process Library ensures that employees are
performing the same process using the same process methods.

A great misconception in business today is that efficiency problems are largely due to a lack of employee
engagement, but if you don’t have a standard way of working, the same task will be perfomed in ten
different ways by ten different people.

It is a necessity for any organisation wanting to improve efficiency to achieve process standardisation. If
you don’t have this, you can and will get different results from employees carrying out the same process.
In this article, we take a look at what a process library is, how a process library can store documents,
help you standardise your way of working and dramatically enhance your business efficiency (using an
interactive Process Library example).

What is a Process Library?

A process library is a Business Management System. However it is far more than just a place to store
documents. Process Libraries contain process maps that describe:

• The Tasks to be Performed - in the form of policies, guides or process maps

• The Deliverables Produced - the outputs captured using templates provided
• The Process Workflow - the inherent dependencies
• How the Work is to be Performed - techniques used
• The tools - that will be used to perform the work
• Employee Roles and Responsibilities
• Metrics - used for improving the process
Process libraries can be easily searched and report on the information that they hold in ways that support
business efficiency, for example with RACI reports and reports on how much each process costs.

What Problems Can be Solved With a Process Library?

Many organisations don’t understand how much they need a document management system - a process
library. Of the frequently asked questions I receive most at Triaster, the 15 most common ones are:

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If you’d like to take a more in-depth look at the solution for each of these problems, visit the Problems We
Solve page (see: https://info.triaster.co.uk/problems-triaster-solve) on our website.

All these problems can all be solved by implementing a process library and making sure that the process
library is useful, usable and used in an organisation.

Put it another way, think about your own organisation. How many problems could be solved by creating
a single way of working for all processes? How many business efficiency problems could be solved by
making processes easily accessible to the staff that need them throughout the organisation? Process
Libraries don’t just store documents, they change organisational culture.

If you would like to see how New Charter managed to save £350K per annum with their process library,
take a look at:

New Charter case study

https://info.triaster.co.uk/case-study-new-charter-group

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How Can a Process Library Help an Organisation?

Implementing a process library could help any organisation to:

• Break down silos

• Keep knowledge in the organisation, not in the person - when key people leave their knowledge
should stay in the organisation
• Grant access to specific employees to documents that impact their process areas
• Support culture change and business efficiency
• Create greater employee responsibility and ownership of processes as a result
• Document processes within a library to capture a current process as it is so you can identify
improvement opportunities
• Ensure your business management system is useful and used.
• Make sure process changes are useful and deliver improvement

It is especially important to cater to the last two points because if your process library doesn’t look great
and feel easy to use then it won’t get used.

Process Libraries > Cultural Change > Continual Improvement = Business Efficiency
Process Libraries
If you take a look at some of the organisations we have worked with, each one collaborated with our
designers to produce a unique management system structured in such a way that it would be useful to
their employees.

• Skanska UK implemented Our Way of Working to adopt a single interface for nine operating
companies
• New Charter wanted a design that had broad appeal and offered a simple, clean and quality feel - as
their library is their sole reference for their way of working
• Equifax UK implemented their Process Library HUB so that staff could find key information in as few
clicks as possible
• Lockheed Martin’s QMS design on their Touchstone process library separates core processes from
supporting functions with a library resources section on the right of the page.
• The University of Winchester used their student centre building as the main focal point for their
library and the functionality is designed around the question ‘How do I?’ as in ‘how do I register for a
new course?’
• Interserve FM’s process library, PRISM, serves as the gateway to four sub-libraries, developed by each
of Interserve’s business units (Defence, Industrial Services, Civil Government and commercial)

To see all of the process library designs that we have created for many different organisations, take a look at
the Triaster process library showcase (see: triaster.co.uk/showcase.php); and to see how the organisations
above implemented business efficiency in greater detail, download the Business Improvement E-book
(see: http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-problems-we-solve-ebook) which chronicles the improvement
journey of 8 organisations and how they went from business problem to business improvement.
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Cultural Change
To deliver the benefits explained above, a process library must sit at the heart of the organisation
because if it is seen as an optional add-on then they won’t get used and they won’t create any sort of
change.

This is why our customers work with our designers to create a process library that presents their
organisation’s unique business management structure in a library that will have broad appeal and
usability throughout their organisation.

Simplicity, structure and layout are key for employees to work efficiently and adopt a management
system as a standard way of working.

Continual Improvement
You cannot improve processes before:

• You know What They Are - if you don’t know how a process is broken or inefficient then you won’t be
able to fix it.
• You Have a Standard Way of Working - you can create the most efficient and least wasteful process
on the planet but unless it’s being used by employees who actually carry out the process then it’s just
a big waste of time and energy.

Continual improvement only exists where the process is

captured, shared, used and improved - this is known as Read our article on the 4 pillars
the 4 pillars of continual improvement. For more on this: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/4-
pillars-of-continual-improvement
Interactive Process Library Example

Take a look at the interactive process library example (see: tinyurl.com/tri-example-library) in the image
above. When we click on ‘Process Library’, it takes us to...

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the process library page displaying different processes for different departments. If we click on the
‘Customer Success’ department it takes us to...

the Customer Success page displaying the process types for the customer success team. If we then click
on ‘Support’...

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We are taken to the Support page which houses all the processes that exist in the Support folder.

The structure of the process library exists so that employees can easily and quickly find what they are
looking for in a structured, interactive and engaging way.

If we then click on ‘Escalate an Issue’ it will take us to the corresponding process map.

Each process has a process map displaying how the employee should perform that specific process. In
this case, the process is ‘Escalate an Issue’. If we zoom in a little closer...

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you can see how a process is captured (using the Triaster Noun-Verb methodology - see: http://blog.
triaster.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-noun-verb-methodology-of-process-mapping) and how a process should
be performed. The shapes within the process map are different for a reason. Each shape represents either
an activity, deliverable or a decision (all three are shown in the picture below).

This makes it easy to understand which steps in the process add value (see: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/
blog/value-stream-mapping-bpm-system) and which do not. You can calculate the value within the
process steps (shown as shapes above) by clicking on the specific shape required and recording cost,
effort, frequency of occurrence, risk, queue time and the value stream status of each activity which is
shown in the image below.

This recording will allow you to understand the value adding, non value adding and necessary non value
adding steps in the process chain.

Take a look at this interactive process library example (see: tinyurl.com/tri-example-library) to get the
full scope of what process libraries can do. This is the same library we have taken all of the above images
from. You can either follow the steps we have just described above or have a play around and look at
other areas (which contain other processes, policies and forms).

One thing that has been mentioned, but not examined, is the potential return on investment from employing a BPM
system. In the next article, we look at why purchasing a BPM Software System offers great return on investment...

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Return on Investment: Why BPM is the Gift

That Keeps on Giving

There are perhaps no three words sweeter to a business All the processes in your company are effectively a
improvement professional’s ears than, ‘return on series of ‘Inputs’ turned into ‘Outputs’ by ‘Activities‘.
investment’. The sooner you start analysing them that way and
measuring the ‘cost’ of each business process, the
Many budding entrepreneurs hope to find the ‘magic sooner you can begin to improve them and achieve a
beans’ that will turn a small investment into a much better ROI.
larger one. In their pursuit of that magical ROI however,
they may have neglected the measurable results of the If you are thinking about jumping into the giant BPM
ever-producing cow for the unrealised potential of the pool, just remember that everyone learns to swim in
magic beans. different ways. There is no single formula or model
that will map BPM related ROI. That’s because not only
are the benefits multi-dimensional, but calculating
ROI is also dependent on a case-by-case, business-by-
business basis where judgement plays a big part.

Business Process Management – Direct and

Indirect Benefits
If you’re going to try and estimate ROI, then you’ll need
to focus on calculating both the direct and indirect
benefits. The benefits are as follows:

If you are pursuing ROI on business improvement Direct Benefits

projects then the process approach needs to be your
focus. This is because the approach to measuring • Improvement of organisational structure
process value within your organisation will help you • Reduction in failed or malfunctioning systems
to create a Continuous Improvement cycle that will
produce future ROI benefits. • A more productive workforce
• Cost savings
What Can the Process Approach do for my • Increases in profit
Return on Investment? • Increase in efficiency

Let’s start with an overview of how the process

approach can help your ROI. Indirect Benefits
A process approach effectively targets each process • Regulatory and compliance benefits
in your organisation and then proceeds to measure it
• One location for your documents and procedures
based on factors such as time, money and effort spent
on that process. Then, by also measuring the returns, • Reducing risk and avoiding quality failure
you’ll be able to see if that process is offering you the • Quality improvement
best ROI.
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Now if you are struggling to convince the higher-ups at your business that Business Process Management
is worth their time and money, you should run a calculation for potential cost savings.

Some benefits to ROI from BPM that you may not have thought of are:

• Reduction in auditing costs

• Quality
• Efficiency
• Compliance
• Auditing

An easy way to justify spending on a BPM system right off the bat is in the reduction of auditing costs.
Skanska UK is one of our customers and they have saved £40K in annual audit fees since 2012 just from
their ISO assessment.

Quality
Then we come to the undervalued but highly important returns that quality bring to your business. A
lot of businesses see quality as a needless cost but there is no substitute for being seen as a brand that
produces quality products and services. The trust of your customers is hard to achieve and can be lost in
an instant; that’s why it’s so important to run quality processes.

Efficiency
Efficiency is also a key, direct result of BPM and will help you save. Analysing your processes and making
them more efficient is all about cutting out the waste, driving down cost and by extension, increasing
your ROI.

Compliance
Achieving regulatory compliance for your industry is extremely important. Customers want to do
business with companies that are viewed as safe, trustworthy and are producers of quality products/
services. The moment you fail to achieve regulatory compliance is the moment you will fail to attract new
customers and find it difficult to keep your existing ones.

The bigger the organisation, the harder it is to cut out business waste. But whether you’re big or small, there
are ways available to stop waste from emptying the business coffers...

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How to Stop Wasting Money in Your Business:

10 Actions to Take

So, how do we stop wasting money in business? This is literally the million-dollar question often asked by
the leadership team in both lean and goods times.

All too often though, the action most organisations take to answer this question is to cut back on
something that looks wasteful without really understanding the impact. This can mean that something is
cut that results in additional costs elsewhere - which far outweigh the initial saving.

So, let’s get the answers on how to stop wasting money in your business:

1. Really Understand How Your Business Works

Businesses and organisations are complex. It is this complexity that leads to businesses wasting money.
Inefficiency can creep in, in so many ways:

• Inconsistent working
• Inaccurate working
• Duplication
• Production of redundant outputs

And these are just a few examples. If only a small amount of money is wasted each time, as this is
repeated, the costs mount up.

The only way to identify these inefficiencies is to really understand what is done in your business or how
it works.

It is not a quick job to capture all the end-to-end processes in a business, so it is best to start with an area
of the business which is believed to be inefficient and process map that in the first instance.

Alternatively, start with a process that is repeatedly performed – small efficiency gains in these
processes quickly result in a lot of money saved.

2. Focus on the Outputs

As we have seen, a process is a transformation, it transforms Inputs into Outputs. And it is the Outputs
that really count.

It is very easy for all of us to spend every day busy doing things, but if we aren’t producing anything –
there is no Output – it is very likely that what we are doing is wasteful.

This is very quickly picked up when actually doing the process mapping; keep asking the question - what
is produced?
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3. Ask the Person Who Does the Job

Whilst the person who does the process mapping doesn’t need to be the person who does the job,
their input is really important. They, more than anyone, will know where the inefficiencies are and often
are just waiting to be asked about them. They are also likely to have some pretty good ideas about what
should be changed to make the process more efficient – and save money.

4. Look at the Handover Points

This is often where the most waste arises. One department produces something and it is not quite in the
format that the receiving department needs it, so it needs to be reworked to make it useful.

Alternatively, the receiving department no longer use it at all! Inefficiencies are quickly picked up at the
process handover points, and once addressed, immediately start to save money.

5. Look for the Bottlenecks

If something is waiting to be dealt with at a pinch point or bottleneck, then it’s not delivering any
value during all that time. Ask where the bottlenecks are so that they can be tackled first.

6. Involve the Person Who Owns the Process

The Process Owner is the person who has the authority to change a process. Involve them in the process
mapping and then if a change is to be made, they can say then and there that it is approved.

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7. Implement Best Practice

Very often the same process is delivered in different ways in different parts of the business. Once this
is captured, the best practice process (the one which is most efficient) can be identified and adopted
throughout.

8. Capture Key Data at the Process Level

Using a BPM system which allows you to capture and report on key data at the process level – i.e. attach
data to the shapes in the process maps. This allows less obvious inefficiencies to be identified and
addressed. It also enables you to quantify just how much money has been saved.

9. Model Potential Improvements

Once you have a process model of how your organisation currently works, this will be the start point
for modelling future options. Your BPM system should allow you the capability to model different
scenarios for improvement, enabling you to understand the impacts before they are made, which avoids
a great deal of upheaval and avoids contributing to process inefficiency.

10. Continually Look for Ways to be More Efficient

Identifying inefficiencies should not be a one-off exercise, but a continual exercise of looking at what you
currently do and improving it.

Let’s switch gears now and take a look at waste itself (specifically in the manufacturing industry) with the 7
wastes, discuss what they are exactly and why they could be killing your business...

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What Are the 7 Wastes That Are Killing

Business Efficiency?

The 7 wastes are activities identified (mostly in manufacturing industries) that do not add value but

cost money. It is estimated that only 5% of our time actually adds value to the customer; if this indeed is
true, it means that every company can learn from the 7 wastes to cut out wasteful processes and increase
the percentage of value adding processes.  

The 7 Wastes
The 7 wastes in Lean manufacturing can best be remembered through the acronym TIMWOOD. They are:

1. Transport
2. Inventory
3. Motion
4. Waiting
5. Overproduction
6. Overprocessing
7. Defects

The 7 Wastes of Lean Manufacturing

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From a process improvement perspective, these 7 types of waste are an invaluable tool because simply
by reducing them, one is invariably able to improve process efficiency and display waste within a process.
The problem of improvement therefore becomes not one of ingenuity and creativity to identify new
and better ways of doing things, rather, it is more one of accurate identification of wasteful activities and
identifying the ways they are killing business efficiency.

The reduction of wasteful activities inevitably leads also to a corresponding increase in the proportion
of value-adding activities, and the more visible the value-adding activities become, the easier it is to
then keep improving the process. (The proportion of value-adding activities in a process is referred to
as the Process Cycle Efficiency, a key metric in Lean thinking (see: http://leanmanufacturingtools.org/7-
wastes/) to help understand if a process change is a process improvement.)

The Seven Types of Waste Explained:

Transportation

Each time a product is moved, it stands the risk of being damaged, lost, delayed, etc. as well as being
a cost for no added value. Transportation does not create any transformation to the product that the
consumer is willing to pay for.

Inventory

Inventory, be it in the form of raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), or finished goods, represents
a capital outlay that has not yet produced an income either by the producer or for the consumer. Any of
these three items not being actively processed to add value is waste.

Motion

In contrast to transportation, which refers to damage to products and transaction costs associated with
moving them, motion refers to the damage that the production process inflicts on the entity that creates
the product, either over time (wear and tear for equipment and repetitive strain injuries for workers) or
during discrete events (accidents that damage equipment and/or injure workers).

Waiting

Whenever goods are not in transport or being processed, they are waiting. In traditional processes, a
large part of an individual product’s life is spent waiting to be worked on.

Overprocessing

Overprocessing occurs any time more work is done on a piece other than what is required by the
customer. This also includes using components that are more precise, complex, higher quality or
expensive than absolutely required.

Overproduction

Overproduction occurs when more product is produced than is required at that time by your customers.
One common practice that leads to this muda is the production of large batches, as often the consumer
needs change over the long waiting time large batches require.
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Overproduction is considered by some to be the worst muda because it hides and/or generates all the
others. Overproduction leads to excess inventory, which then requires the expenditure of resources on
storage space and preservation - activities that do not benefit the customer.

Defects

Whenever defects occur, extra costs are incurred such as reworking the part, rescheduling production,
etc. This results in labour costs and more time in the “Work-in-progress”. Defects in practice can
sometimes double the cost of one single product. This should not be passed on to the consumer and
should be taken as a loss.

Those are the 7 manufacturing wastes. If you’d also like to read our article on the 7 wastes of service then
please click here:

The 7 wastes of service

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/the-7-wastes-of-service-killing-efficiency

Here ends section 2. Section 3 will cover choosing the right system for your organisation by working through
the key questions that you will need answered before implementing BPM, how long an implementation will
take, the pros and cons of the process approach...

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Chapter 3 - What You Need to Know Before You Buy

This section will cover

Before You Buy Business Process Management Software: 7 Key Questions 47

Evaluating Business Process Management Systems: Meeting Customers 50

Business Improvement: Pros and Cons of a Process Approach 51

The Dangers of Implementing Process Management Systems: An Analysis 55

How Much Time Does it Take to Implement a Business Process Management Software System? 59

How Much Does Business Process Management (BPM) Software Cost? 62

Costs You Too Can Save With Business Process Management [A Customer Case study] 69

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Before You Buy Business Process Management

Software: 7 Key Questions

Choosing to implement and integrate a Business Process Management system will be one of the biggest
projects many organisations ever undertake. That’s why having the correct information close to hand is
such an important part of making the decision about which system is the right fit for you. Because we
know all about the importance of this stage of the BPM decision making process we have provided you
with the most important questions you need to ask before buying and integrating any BPM software
system.

1. What Are the Main Goals You Want Your Business Process Management Software
System to Accomplish?
Before you start looking for your new BPM system you need to establish what you want to achieve. Do
you want to streamline your business processes to reduce costs and increase efficiency for example? or
will your system be used to help you gain Quality Standards Compliance? Your BPM System should deliver
on your objectives. It should not drive your objectives in any way.

2. What Information Should You Gather About Potential BPM Vendors?

Opting for a system that isn’t suitable is only going to waste your time and money and your project is
unlikely to get off the ground. Lots of the main BPM systems have a ‘one size fits all’ approach and come
with all sorts of bells and whistles as standard and as optional extras, but if this functionality isn’t going to
help you achieve your goals, it isn’t something you should be paying for.
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3. What’s Your Budget?

There are a variety of Business Process Management software systems available that cater to different
needs and as such, costs can vary considerably. You’ll need to think about whether you want an out-
of-the-box solution that you can just plug in your data and go, or if you’d like something that is
completely bespoke to your organisation’s requirements. Don’t forget that any bespoke system is likely to
be more expensive, but the ROI you will gain from using a fully integrated system will be substantial.

Before you approach a vendor, make sure that you have thought about the other costs apart from the
system itself. Will there be additional costs for on-boarding or design customisations? Is training charged
separately? Do they have an expenses policy and will you need to pay for a trial of the system? You’ll also
need to consider how much internal time and resource will be needed to support the implementation of
a new system. It is important to note that if you plan to use your BPM system to improve your business
processes, a good system will likely pay for itself.

4. What’s Your Potential ROI?

Business Process Management software is a big investment, but if implemented and used correctly it
has the potential to generate a very high ROI (See: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/calculating-return-
on-investment-bpm-system). When discussing a solution with your chosen provider, don’t forget to ask
about the potential ROI you could gain with the system and also about the ROI that current clients have
achieved. Most suppliers will have a variety of customer case studies that they would be more than happy
to share with you. Arming yourself with real experiences from existing customers will definitely help you
to get buy-in from your senior management team.

5. What Are Your Implementation Options?

When looking for a new BPM solution, you’ll need to decide whether you want a cloud-based solution
or if you’d prefer for the software to be installed on your company’s servers. Another option would be
to look at hosted servers - but there is likely to be an additional cost. It is also worth discussing the price
differences between cloud-based software or going in-house with your chosen providers. You should
always choose an implementation option that your organisation is comfortable with. If you have always
used your own servers and have the IT resource to support an implementation, you will most likely be
able to save money by going in-house.
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6. How User Friendly is the System?

This is one of the most important questions you need to be asking when comparing different BPM
systems. You will need to make sure that any system you choose will be useful and usable not only by
your end users, but also by the people who will be maintaining the system on a daily basis. Make sure to
discuss the amount of training required to get the system up and running and how this will be provided
by the supplier. If you have a few solution preferences, why not ask your end users which one they would
be more comfortable using. You could even include them in the trial period to get their insights on
the usability and usefulness of different BPM systems.

7. How Can You Get the Most Out of Your System Across the Organisation?
To really get the most out of your BPM system, you’ll want to look at scaling the solution to cover the
processes across all areas of the organisation. This is going to take a lot of time and effort and it is unlikely
that any changes will be seen overnight. The best way to tackle companywide adoption of a new system
is to start in one department and spread out slowly until all business processes have been mapped
and analysed thoroughly. It’s likely that you may want to use your new system for just one area of the
business, so it is worth discussing this with your chosen providers as this will ultimately affect the cost.

These questions cover the most important things you need to be thinking about when looking for a Business
Process Management software system; but one of the most effective ways of discovering how good a BPM
system is, will be when you discuss the system with existing customers...

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Evaluating Business Process Management

Systems: Meeting Customers

Whenever we are asked by anyone evaluating Triaster’s

platform if they can meet or speak with one of our
current customers, the answer is: absolutely!

At Triaster we are delighted to make such introductions,

because:

• Our customers are achieving great things with

the Triaster platform. They are frequently
recognised with formal Awards such as the British
Quality Foundation (BQF) Excellence Awards and IT
Services Management (itSMF UK) Awards.
• Triaster customers are achieving a variety of
benefits from their systems - from new Quality
Management Systems to thousands of pounds of
cost savings identified - but often face very similar
implementation challenges. Evaluating Triaster
• We have a great relationship with our customers
and therefore are very confident for anyone to So, yes, we are very happy for you to meet and speak
speak and meet with any of our customers to hear with our customers if you are considering our solution.
directly their opinion of the Triaster platform, the However, we do ask in the interest of our customers’
Triaster team and how we support them. time that Triaster is at the preferred vendor status prior
to doing so.
• Our customers are very honest and open and happy
to talk about the lessons they have learned along
If you’re at the stage where you are evaluating BPM
the way and share best practice.
systems, but aren’t yet at the preferred vendor stage,
• Our customers are simply the best! They are part you can find out how 8 of our customers are using
of the very friendly Triaster Community (See: the Triaster platform by reading our comprehensive
http://www.triaster.co.uk/community.php) which case study (See: http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-
contributes to our User Group, Customer Focus problems-we-solve-ebook) of customer success stories.
Days, Connector newsletter and many business
process industry events.
• Our customers have agreed on numerous occasions Meeting customers is one way of finding out all the
to be a Triaster reference through a myriad of ways pros and cons of a company and generating as much
- demonstration of their systems, onsite visits, transparency as possible, but it’s also important to learn
telephone conversations, email correspondence, about the pros and cons of any overall approach to
LinkedIn and at events. business improvement, which is why we have laid all the
benefits and the drawbacks of process improvement in the
next article...

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Business Improvement: Pros and Cons of a

Process Approach

There are many different approaches to business improvement; Business Process Management takes a
process approach. In this article we look at the pros and cons of a process approach.

Limitations/Cons of a Process Approach

BPM Projects are Time Consuming

If you take a look at the market, there are plenty of tools out there to help create, manage, improve and
share process maps - although there is no quick way of doing this work. We are asked frequently for tips
on how to make process mapping easier (of which there are many) but ultimately the task will still take
some time. Here is a list of some of the tasks that will need to be carried out:

• You’ll need to conduct process discovery sessions, which involve many brains (and a significant
amount of time) - Take a look at:

Tips on running successful process discovery sessions

https://triaster.co.uk/07-15-best-practice-process-mapping.php

• You’ll then need someone to transform your brain vomit (constructed of sticky notes) into logical,
ordered, digital process maps.
• After that, these process maps will need reviewing, amending and officially approving.
• And then they will need to be shared somehow with the whole organisation.

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Off the back of this work, you’ll need to ensure you have processes in place to continuously review and
improve the processes.

Current State vs. Future State

The ‘current state vs. future state’ issue is one that comes up all the time when carrying out process
discovery. If you’re not careful and don’t have your eyes on the prize, it’s easy to get carried away with
designing how the process should happen rather than mapping what actually takes place. You can ensure
that this doesn’t happen however by focusing on the Deliverables.

Deliverables

As mentioned above you can be pulled off course relatively quickly by people trying to design a ‘future
state’ process map, rather than concentrating on how things currently happen - the use of Deliverables in
your process maps should help with this.

Including Deliverables after each Activity will help the subject matter experts concentrate on what is
produced as a result of carrying out each Activity in the ‘current state’ process maps.

A Deliverable shape is used to describe something you produce. Activities are the steps of the process
and are described using verbs. Deliverables are the items produced (or ‘delivered’) when each step of the
process is complete and are described using nouns.

Sticking to a rigid methodology such as Noun-Verb (See: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-noun-

verb-methodology-of-process-mapping) should help you to stay focused on what is currently happening,
rather than what should be happening, or could be happening in the future.

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Level of Detail

Targeting a specific level of detail is always a good plan when carrying out a process mapping project.
And getting this right is easier said than done. If you get this wrong, it can set you back or even scupper
the whole project.

Every time you create a process map, think to yourself, “who is the intended audience of this map?”
Asking yourself this is crucial as it helps to ensure that the intended user of the map can interpret the
information it contains. A senior manager is unlikely to want to know how to carry out specific tasks but
would much rather see high level steps outlining what is needed to transform the initial input into a
desired output.

Restructuring your process maps into a hierarchy can help with this, ensuring that “doers” within the
organisation can see the in-detail steps within the processes, whereas a member of the management
team can choose to take a higher level view of the processes. Take a look at this article:

How to identify what level of detail you should be mapping your processes to
http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/mapping-business-processes-what-level-should-i-map-to

Benefits/Pros of a Process Approach

Process Improvement

Taking the time to carry out a process mapping project will produce improvement ideas straight away.
Having an open mind and creating a culture where people are able to easily suggest improvement ideas
for their processes will encourage them to come out of the woodwork and suggest improvements that
could save time, money and precious resources.

Sticky notes, Sharpies and brown paper should be your weapons, and your team should be your army.
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The End of Working in Silos?

‘Breaking down the silos’ is a term we hear time and time again
whilst helping businesses with their process mapping projects. A
Silo is essentially groups working on their own little islands not
connecting with each other. Wouldn’t it be better if all of your teams
worked together and communicated more effectively?

It’s important that you have members from all teams interacting

with the specific processes you are mapping to clarify and confirm
handover points. You’d be surprised how many times departments
and teams get confused about what they are supposed to be
handing over to each other.

Engaging the teams in process discovery sessions is a great way

of getting everybody working together, all pulling in the same
direction.

Knowledge Sharing

Demonstrating Compliance to Regulations

When companies need to demonstrate compliance with standards and regulations, they come to us and
we provide them with a tailored Business Process Management approach.

Mapping out your processes makes this much easier. Triaster’s process mapping tool (Process Navigator)
allows users to add meta-data to each shape on the process map. This enables authors to tie specific
clauses from standards and regulations to activities within their process maps. This can then be pulled
out in the form of a report, which makes auditing the processes much more efficient.

Granted, it is quite time consuming attributing clauses to every activity on your process maps, but it is
well worth it in the long run. One of our customers commented that:

“We can now perform small productive audits within an hour rather than 2 days”.

Training
Each time you take on a new starter, wouldn’t it be great if you could send them to a system that gives
them all the information they need to carry out their day-to-day tasks, with links taking them through
end-to-end processes showing how their work affects colleagues up and down stream?

Access to this information would greatly speed up your induction process, and mapping out your
processes and publishing them to a Triaster BPM system allows this with great ease. You can assign roles
to activities and create a full RACI matrix, then search the maps by job title. Many of our customers have
used this feature as a training tool within their induction process.

Making a pros and cons list is one way to find out the failings of a Business Management System, but how
about a real life case study of failure? That might be worth taking a look at…

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The Dangers of Implementing Process

Management Systems: An Analysis

Recently having spotted an article from BBC News on Hampshire police’s problematic management

system we thought this news story might make a great cautionary tale for other organisations looking to
implement their own management systems.

The news item outlined Hampshire police’s intent to drive needless cost and drive up efficiency. These
two things are obviously important to any business/organisation looking to improve their ROI, but
especially to the public services. 

By changing their process management system and implementing “a centralised approach” called H3

(which also included Hampshire County Council, and Hampshire Fire and Rescue), Hampshire police
inadvertently ran the gauntlet of ‘dangerous organisational change’ and got tangled in a very complicated
web of process problems.

Image sourced from: hampshirepolfed.org.uk

In 2014, an integrated business centre in Winchester was tasked to, “deliver back office efficiencies
through the use of new technology and business processes”, for 80,000 employees - saving £4 million
between the organisations per year. 

Finance, procurement and payroll services for the three bodies was handled jointly from 2014 and there
were problems right from the start (see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-31548976)
as the number of delayed invoice payments of more than 30 days rose by 15%

As no business or organisation aims to have poor processes, the following analysis attempts to identify
what went wrong, why it went wrong and how you can avoid it in future.

The Intent of Hampshire Police

A report from December 2016 noted that, “since 2014, the constabulary [police] has centralised more of
its operation away from a more geographically managed model”. 

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This centralised approach refers to Hampshire Constabulary merging their management system with a

system that covered several local government organisations in order to cut costs.

The Constabulary were attempting to save £1.59 million over three years. 

The intent was good, but let’s take a look at what went wrong.

The Failures of H3

• 41,322 invoices were paid 30 days late or more - a 15% increase

• Difficulties in resolving personal issues and ordering stock
• A long time taken to perform tasks that were previously performed rapidly
• Widespread issues with payroll and expenses
• Misunderstandings of failures in the process as ‘teething’.
• 1,300 police officers receive wrong pay in February 2016
• In 2016, Hampshire Constabulary spend £1 million to fix a “shambolic system”.
• Systematic problems with organising recruitment, and weighing down police with back office
processes led to increased staff sickness.
• ROI did not meet expectations - H3 only saved the Constabulary half of the predicted £1.59 million
over three years (and this probably didn’t take into consideration all of the time and manpower that
was diverted to improve the problems with the system).

Not identifying the Right Management System

Alot of businesses fail at the first hurdle which and do not identify the right process management
system for their organisation. Not all management systems are made equal and not all systems will
be flexible enough to accommodate problems or changes to your organisational structure in the future.

So How do You Avoid this Problem?

Do your research and find out the non-
negotiables that a management system must
provide for your organisation, before you create a
web of systems that will be extremely difficult to
untangle.

It’s also very problematic to describe failing

process management as ‘teething’.
Image sourced from: ibmsystemsmag.com

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Adopting the approach that things will eventually work themselves out with time is to ignore a very
important warning sign that:

A: Your management system hasn’t been implemented properly

B: You haven’t mapped out your processes effectively
C: You haven’t assembled the right team of people to map out your processes effectively

Processes Don’t Improve After You Buy a Management System

Purchasing and installation is only the beginning. A management system is only as good as the people
you’ve got involved with its implementation; as John Apter, Hampshire Police Federation Chairman
realised when he stated with hindsight that “On paper it looked great but in reality it was shambolic and...
the fall-out... has been nothing short of a disgrace.”

You need professionals who understand the process areas being mapped and more importantly, you
need the stakeholders and decision makers supporting the initiative from the beginning.

Former Hampshire PCC Simon Hayes also said that there were problems with the, “IT systems which don’t
talk to each other.”

The breakdown here is obviously due to communication. Your management systems can only do what
you program them to do and if your IT systems aren’t talking to each other, that’s probably because the
organisations involved weren’t either.

Get it Right From the Start

In our experience with improvement projects and working with organisations that have used our
Business Management System, the organisations that really benefit are the ones that take it seriously
from the beginning.

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John Apter stated that the system used by Hampshire Police had been, “poorly conceived, implemented
and delivered”. He’s basically saying it failed at the start, it failed at the middle and it failed at the end.
Do you know which part of the journey is most important? The beginning.

Everything else is impacted by the way you approach your implementation. 

We are not on the inside of the H3 project, but we can deduce that the most likely cause of failure is a lack
of communication, lack of agreement on a consistent way of working and a lack of buy-in organisation
wide.

Approach Failure Like Poison: Treat it Before it Spreads

If you’re running an improvement project or thinking about it, involve the right people from the start.
Changing large organisations is extremely problematic because there are so many moving parts, so there
should be no attempt at change without placing your system at the heart of your organisation. 

Now don’t get us wrong. We are not trying to put the boot into Hampshire Police, because the truth
is these kind of failures happen every day and that’s why it’s important to understand that unless you
prepare well by understanding your implementation, identify those who are responsible and have
employee buy in with a clear RACI Matrix (See: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/raci-matrix-chart-model-
discover-how-to-identify-the-process) then you may befall the same problems.

Efficiency is the key and if the changes you have made are causing less efficiency and a less effective ROI,
than you need to seriously re-examine the process (which is why process maps are necessary) - to
diagnose where something is breaking down.

So I’ve now made you aware of the potential BPM problems but it’s also important to know how long it will
take to implement a system before you jump into the deep end with both feet and your water wings...

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How Much Time Does it Take to Implement a

Business Process Management Software System?

A common question we get asked at Triaster is: “how long will it take to implement a Business Process
Management (BPM) system?”

Of course the answer generally is “it depends”, however, we will aim to give you a more considered answer
in this article.

There are three main streams involved in implementing a BPM software system:

• Technical
• Design
• Training

And they can all be delivered in parallel.

The Triaster deployment process is set out in the process map below.

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Technical Implementation of Your BPM Software System

How long the technical implementation takes depends a great deal on the specific system being
implemented.

If the system is cloud hosted, the time will be significantly reduced. However, it is extremely likely that
some liaison between your BPM supplier and your internal IT will be required in any event.
At Triaster, we find that how long it takes to set up this liaison varies significantly between internal IT
departments. So whilst the actual technical implementation is likely to take no more than a day, even for
on-premises installations, the time delay is usually in the technical due diligence and co-ordination. This
can take several months if your internal IT don’t prioritise your project.

Design Implementation for Your BPM System

How long implementation of the design of your BPM system takes depends on the type of design
adopted.

If a standard design is adopted, this can obviously be quite quickly ‘dropped’ into the system. It might
even be that your chosen BPM system is deployed as is and without the option to choose the design.
At Triaster, we offer a bespoke design for our BPM systems and find that adoption of these helps
significantly to increase usage of the system.

Implementing a bespoke design can take a little time – but it is more than worth it.

The time needed is for liaison with our designer who, amongst other things, will want to explore:

• Your Target Audience:

• Who the system needs to appeal to
• What visual approach will work for that audience
• How you want the users to interact with the system
• Tone of Voice – the style you want to adopt, the key messages that you want to communicate
• Themes – any internal themes that you want to draw upon

The process of developing and delivering a bespoke design takes a couple of weeks. However, the time
frame over which this is delivered usually takes longer than this – because agreeing on a design is a very
subjective business.

If you want to keep the time to a minimum, consult as few people as possible! However, it is important to
get feedback from the intended users, so that you are confident the final design will appeal to them.

Training for BPM Systems

How long this takes depends on the training services that you purchase with your BPM system. It also
depends on whether the training purchased is delivered on-site or by webinar, conference call or
e-learning package.

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Generally it takes longer to arrange on-site delivery of services, but some customers much prefer this.
At Triaster, our basic training services can be delivered in under a week, but we know that it is important
to match the knowledge transferred with the customer’s readiness to receive that information – either in
terms of the other streams of implementation or their level of understanding.

So in summary, it is possible to have a BPM software system designed and implemented within a couple
of weeks – although in practice this usually take much longer.

However, following implementation, two main components of your BPM system will still be outstanding:

• The content
• Communications

Creating the Content for Your BPM System

The content is ultimately the key aspect of the system. However well designed the system is, it will only
be used if it contains accurate, useful information.

There are several ways of creating the content for your BPM system as follows:

• Employ consultants
• Use a specialist process mapping team within your organisation
• Train your employees to process map

At Triaster, we enable all three methods. However, in each case we ensure that the person doing the job
is fully involved in the capture of the processes they deliver. This has several benefits both in terms of
engaging them in the project and ensuring that the process captured is accurate.

How long capturing your system’s content takes really does depend on a number of factors. It is key,
however, not to try and process map your entire organisation all in one go.

Break it down. Set key milestones. Have a plan.

So to answer this question in a nutshell, successful implementation of a BPM system will be a long-term
goal with many stakeholders. If you are trying to make a business case for BPM, we have come to the most
important part; cost...

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How Much Does Business Process Management

(BPM) Software Cost?

If you are reviewing the marketplace for a Business Process Management (BPM) software system, one of
the key questions that you will want answered is: How much does it cost? However, because any BPM
software system is an extremely flexible package, it can and should be tailored to your organisation’s
individual requirements - to meet a set of specific objectives. Accordingly the answer to the question,
‘how much does it cost?’ is almost always, ‘well, it depends on what you want.’

This, of course, does not help when you just want a ballpark figure of what the BMS software cost will be
so that you can determine if an approach is within budget. It also doesn’t help to give you an idea of the
budget needed before you start spending time evaluating the detail of the different systems available.

In this article, we will set out what you might need to think about in order to cost a standard Business
Process Management software system and give pricing for the various systems that Triaster offer.

Triaster system pricing

https://www.triaster.co.uk/triaster-platform.php#systems

A BPM software system is made up of:

• Software
• Support and maintenance
• Services

In determining what you want – and therefore how much it will cost - you need to think about your
requirements for all three.

Software
Before you decide on any of the software features, you will need to decide whether you want an online
system (hosted in the cloud) or an on-premises solution which is hosted on a server and managed
by your organisation. At Triaster, we offer both of these options but recommend going for the online
approach.

Support and Maintenance

Support is help desk support – support
available when you have a query with the
software, either regarding how to use it
or when it isn’t working. Often vendors
separate e-mail from telephone help desk
and charge different costs for each.

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On-Premises
If you are looking for an on-premise option then maintenance is required to keep your software current
and compatible with other software. For example, the minimum system requirements for Triaster’s
software include Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10. These are updated frequently.

Maintenance releases are therefore needed to stay compatible with an on-premise software system.
Maintenance releases also address any software issues.

Maintenance is essential for on-premises Support, but Support is optional – although generally
recommended.

Online
If you are looking at an online option hosted in the cloud this will be updated as standard, without the
need to purchase maintenance. In addition with online Software the implementation is standard and
uniform, which results in a much reduced need for your I.T. team to spend time with the software support
team, when compared with an on-premises implementation.

So for online systems, maintenance is not required and support is optional - although generally
recommended.

BPM Training and Services

This is where the options really start to ramp up and in order to decide what you need, you have to think
both about what you are wanting to achieve and the resources that you have available to enable you to
do so.

It may be that you are purely looking for a software platform, but even so, on-boarding services are often
obligatory or if not, highly recommended.

Most people looking to implement a BPM system are looking for help, not just with installing and
using the software, but with achieving their specific end objectives. These could be perhaps consistent
processes (See: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/inconsistent-working-how-can-i-get-people-to-work-
consistently) or implementation of best practice processes across their organisation.

They are looking for expert advice

on how to achieve this – one
of the very common questions
we are asked at Triaster is, “how
do we ensure that the BPM
system will be used, once it is
implemented?” (See: http://blog.
triaster.co.uk/blog/ensure-bpm-
system-used)

Many Business Process Management

software providers offer services to
directly address this challenge, which
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very many customers purchase - not all however. Another area where customers often require additional
support is process mapping. A key component of any successful BPM system is the content. Do you have
sufficient resource in-house to capture accurate, useful content? If not, you will need process mapping
services and need to factor in the cost of these.

Some of the most common services you might find offered by BPM software companies - which normally
require additional add-on costs include:

BPM System Design:

• Bespoke Front-end (Home page) Design

• Process Map Stencil and Template Customisation
• Data Visualisations

Bespoke Home Page design for the AA

Professional Services:

• Facilitated Discovery Workshops

• Process Mapping Services
• Conversion Mapping Services
• Communications Package

Training:

• Additional Process Mapping Training

Technical:

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• Technical and Integration Consultancy Services

• Report Creation and Customisation
• Analytics Enablement
• Search Customisations and SharePoint Integration

Triaster offers all of these services at an additional cost and this is by no means an exhaustive list.
For the full list of services offered by Triaster please click here:

Triaster system pricing

http://www.triaster.co.uk/triaster-platform.php#collapseOne

Triaster’s Business Process Management System - What Does it Cost?

The best way to determine what a BPM system is likely to cost, is to use our own system as an example.
Obviously, pricing will differ from company-to-company, system-to-system, but the structure, add-ons
and services are not unique and should give you an idea of what you will be looking to pay for a Business
Process Management system, delivered at this level of functionality and offering this level of capability.
Using Triaster’s online Business Process Management system as an example we will lay out the three
different systems we provide, the system costs and the additional add-on information below.

BMS Software Online: Start-Up, Standard & Professional Systems

We do provide an on-premises option, which offers the same systems, services and costs as our online
offering with just a few differences (See: https://www.triaster.co.uk/triaster-platform-on-premises.php).

The Triaster Platform is offered in three online (or in the cloud) systems: Start-Up, Standard and
Professional.

Each system offers, as standard, an easy-to-use secure website presenting all processes, policies, forms
and guidance documents according to the functionality that your organisation needs.

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Each system offers different functionality to deliver on the following requirements:

• Sharing Processes
• Drive-up Process Adoption
• Finding Your Processes
• Controlling Your Processes
• Improving Your Processes

A full and comprehensive list of what each system comprises is broken down on in the System
Comparison matrix (See: https://www.triaster.co.uk/triaster-platform.php#comparison) on the pricing
page. It is quite long, so do make sure to scroll right to the bottom for a full explanation of the process
features that deliver on the requirements mentioned above.

Mobile view of Sungard AS BPM system

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So What is the Cost of BPM Software?

As I hope is clear from what I have already written, this will depend on what you need/want from the
options available – both software and services. But we promised you costs. So we have set out below the
cost for each of Triaster’s Systems for the typical Triaster customer.

All costs net of VAT and expenses

Each system comes with a different managed services package, which you can upgrade or downgrade to
your liking. The cost of the default package is included in the above cost.

Managed BPM Services: Infrastructure & Support Services

The Managed BPM Services packages that are offered, vary according to the System purchased. There are
three Managed BPM Services packages: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

By default:

• Bronze comes with the Start-up system

• Silver comes with the Standard system
• Gold comes with the Professional system

You can upgrade or downgrade the Managed Service package for any of the Systems. An upgrade would
increase the system price and a downgrade would reduce the system price.

There is also a wide variety of additional services including process mapping, design consulting and
implementation, professional services and technical services. For example, if you would like a bespoke
homepage design, tailored towards your specific organisation, this would be an additional cost of
£10,000 per design.You can see all the pricing for these here:

Triaster system pricing

https://www.triaster.co.uk/triaster-platform.php#systems-link

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If you would like a more detailed quote tailored towards your organisation’s business needs or would just
like to understand the pricing information better then please do contact us for a free quote (See: triaster.
co.uk/contact.php).

Get the Most Out of Your Business

I hope that this has helped to at least give you an idea of the cost of a BPM system purchased from
Triaster. Also the factors that you will need to think about in order to estimate pricing when talking to any
other BPM vendor.

Do remember that the costs set out in this article are only the external costs (to your organisation). There
will be internal costs to be calculated too.

A Business Process Management system (if done right) will take time, effort and money to implement but it
will also provide the opportunity for any organisation to save much more time, effort and money in the long
run. Take a look at the New Charter case study below to see how their process improvement initiatives saved
them £350k per annum...

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Costs You Too Can Save With Business Process

Management? [A Customer Case Study]

When looking at purchasing a BPM System, it can be hard to justify the investment when you aren’t sure
of the real potential benefits of Business Process Management software.

Recently, the New Charter Group (one of Triaster’s customers) provided us with their thorough cost
savings analysis - which is why we are now able to show you what a potential organisational cost saving
could look like and demonstrate why Business Process management is important.

Three Initial Problems New Charter Faced

In early 2016, the New Charter Group was confronted with three major challenges...

• After summer 2015 the housing associations were prohibited from raising the rents on their
properties by the rate of inflation plus one percent. Regarding the fact that inflation continues to
exist, New Charter calculated that they had to reach a 15% reduction in revenue by 2019/2020.
• This translated into a general reshuffling and restructuring procedure, meaning that the company
was lacking resources to stick with the prior, paper-based tenancy process.
• The Service Improvement team wanted to improve client satisfaction and develop an easily accessible
customer training guide.

Clearly, these three problems required urgent action and smart problem solving skills. Until then, New
Charter had only used BPM on an ad-hoc basis, and the team was lacking significant process mapping
experience. Emma Woodrow recites that what gave them the push they so urgently required was the
BPM trial with Triaster, after which they decided to purchase the software.

Next thing they knew, the team found themselves back at the drawing board, process mapping the entire
tenancy procedure from ‘keys-to-keys’.

The Business Process Mapping Journey

Rather than just mapping out individual processes, New Charter’s Service Improvement Team wanted to
map the entire process, broken down in manageable sections.

After holding an initial workshop, they recalled from prior experience that high-end process maps could
suffer from a lack of real-world application. Overlooking the Law of Unintended Consequences (See:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/pam-ferderbar/the-law-of-unintended-con_4_b_13897396.html) could
have been a severe mistake – what if there were secondary inputs and outputs not yet included in the
primary process maps?

Thus, they invited all the key stakeholders of the Keys–to-Keys process to a process capture workshop and
the team went on job-shadowing excursions to ensure that the processes as mapped were what actually
happened in reality.
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Looking at it from a process improvement perspective, they were able to determine the data behind
every activity, including properties such as:

• Duration
• Frequency
• Required Resources
• Pay Band

Using a bespoke properties file developed by Triaster, they were able to automatically calculate the cost
of every activity.

Having mapped the AS-IS of the entire Keys-to-Keys process in about 280 process maps, many process
improvement opportunities became visible. There were a great many handoffs and complexities in the
process, giving rise for potential inefficiencies.

Starting to model the TO-BE, the Service Improvement team looked at ways of replacing paper-based
processes with mobile applications, which they designed and specified to address the Trust’s key
challenges and deliver reduced cost, reduced time and improved service.

The Benefits of Business Process Management

To date, three processes have been re-engineered, supported by new mobile applications and the results
measured...

While the first two processes were mapped using

both Microsoft Visio and the Triaster software,
with the Visio maps imported into Triaster, the
surveyor’s inspection process was mapped
exclusively using the Triaster software. This
enabled the team to calculate on every single
activity exactly what had been saved.

This constitituted a total saving of...£350k per

annum

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If you’re interested in following the steps of New Charter and saving your organisation money through
business improvement, you can fill out our BPM Challenge Survey (See: http://info.triaster.co.uk/bpm-
challenges) which will help us to provide answers to your specific business problems and perhaps reach
the kind of incredible results that New Charter achieved. The road to Business Improvement isn’t easy - it
takes hard work and long hours to achieve.

It is clearly visible that New Charter devoted themselves to this type of effort and that all the hard work
and long hours were worth it in the end. “It’s been a steep learning curve”, Emma Woodrow recalls, “which
is why we bought Triaster E-learning at the beginning of 2017 – we just wanted to make sure that we
could get as much help as we needed.”

Continuing Continuous Improvement

In light of such fantastic savings, it might have been easy to stop right then and there. Fortunately, the
New Charter Service Improvement team have not. They have revisited the voids process and identified
another £36,000 of savings per annum.

In addition, another six mobile applications are being developed to enable another six re-engineered
processes to be rolled out, meaning that significant additional savings per annum are in the pipeline.

It is fair to say that this was one of the best decisions they have
ever made: the New Charter Group identified the advantages of
Business Process Management and after only 18 months in the
saddle of quality and business improvement, New Charter was
not only rewarded with astonishing return on investment but
also the Digital Technological Leaders Award 2017 for ‘Digital
Team of the Year’.

We are delighted that Emma Woodrow, the manager of the New Charter’s Service Improvement team,
took the time to provide an honest and detailed account of New Charter Group’s success story.

Here ends section 3. Section 4 will cover the implementation stage of Business Process Management and what
you need to know to make it as successful as possible...

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Chapter 4 - How to Manage a Successful BPM

Implementation

This section will cover

How to Prepare for Your BPM System Implementation: Tips for Success 73

How to Ensure That Your Business Process Management (BPM) System Will be Used: 10 Key Steps 76

Establishing a Business Improvement Team: 4 Must do Actions 82

The Process Library Checklist: Integrate Your Team With Your Process Software 87

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How to Prepare for Your BPM System

Implementation: Tips for Success

There are six key steps to take when preparing for a BPM implementation - in order to best ensure its
success. These are as follows:

1. Set Clear Objectives and Outcomes for Each Stage of the BPM Implementation
Usually when the decision is made to implement a BPM system, the overall objective is clear such as:

• Needing one source of accurate information

• Requiring support for a quality or industry accreditation
• To help with the implementation of a new quality or HSE system
• Needing to achieve cost savings

It is important however, to break this overall objective down into prioritised stages.

Not everything can be achieved at once, so a key preparation step is to break the objective into smaller
chunks and set realistic targets for when each one is going to be achieved.

This is important for several reasons:

• A BPM implementation is a significant undertaking and can only be achieved in stages.

• Once into the detail of a BPM implementation it is easy to lose sight of the endgame. A structured
plan, with clear targets will keep you on track.
• A BPM implementation can support many objectives; it is important to define what a successful
implementation will look like for your organisation.
• Celebrating successes as staging posts are reached will keep everyone involved motivated and on-
board.

2. Secure Senior Stakeholder Buy-in to the BPM Implementation

As with any project, stakeholder support for a BPM implementation is crucial.

The stakeholders are those who are either inside or outside of your organisation with an interest in the
outcome of the implementation. Over the lifetime of the project the stakeholders will be…

• Senior Executives
• IT
• Project Team

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• Process Experts
• Process Mappers
• End Users

An important part of any BPM implementation will be to secure the buy-in of all of the stakeholders – but
it is key to start with your senior executive.

A successful BPM system implementation has a major impact on an organisation and this can only be
achieved with core senior support.

This is best achieved by linking the objectives for your BPM system implementation with the strategic
corporate objectives for your organisation.

Start with the language that is familiar to your senior executives – the language of your corporate
strategy - and keep focused on the targets and goals that are important to them. Explain how the BPM
implementation is going to help achieve these – and of course, make sure that this really is the case. If
not, re-examine your objectives.

3. Choose Your BPM System Wisely

Having established your BPM objectives, keep these firmly in mind when choosing your BPM software
system. Don’t get distracted by the bells and whistles of any BPM system; they aren’t useful if they don’t
help you to achieve your objectives.

Also, if you involve others in the decision – which is a good way of getting stakeholders on board –
ensure that they too make their appraisal according to the agreed objectives. Don’t let their personal
agendas steer you off-course.

Consider trialling the system - a really good way of ensuring that it will deliver what you need.

4. Get IT On-board With Your Chosen BPM System

When buying any software system, it is important to have IT on board as early as possible. This is
becoming less crucial as more and more software is cloud hosted, but it is still very important. Some
organisations have a blanket policy of denying the purchase of cloud hosted software and even where
this is not the case, IT will almost certainly have to authorise the purchase.

This can take time, so it is important to start the process early. Then when IT approvals are in place, you
are ready to move forward any IT support that you need, will be available when you need it.

5. Check Out Your Purchasing Processes

Depending on the purchasing processes at your organisation, buying a BPM system could involve your
purchasing department, the formal set up of the vendor on your purchasing system and a formal legal
review of the vendor’s terms and conditions - all of which can take quite a bit of time.

The key thing is to be clear on what the purchasing process is and how long it will take so that it is started
in good time.
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6. Assemble a Great BPM Team

As with any project, having the right team in place to implement a BPM system is crucial.
At Triaster, we recommend establishing a Process Council which should include:

• Your senior sponsor

• IT support
• Project manager
• Process mappers
• BPM system administrator
• Business analysts

Obviously, the senior sponsor and IT support will not be full-time members of the team. However,
it is helpful to identify them as members of the team and it formalises their support for the BPM
implementation. Also if they leave the organisation, the project manager is alerted to replace them as
team members at that point - rather than only thinking about this when you need their support.

The Project Manager is often the BPM system administrator, but not always. The BPM system
administrator is often a process mapper too, but again not always. Not all process mappers are always
included in the team – particularly if the process mapping involves a lot of people – but there are usually
a couple of full time process mappers.

Business Analysts may or may not be included on the team, depending on the objectives for the BPM
implementation.

The first task for the team will be to agree some ground rules for your working approach – these will very
much depend on the objectives for your BPM implementation, but they will absolutely save you a great
deal of time later.

An important part of implementation is also in making sure that the system will be used once it’s
implemented. The preparation for this begins before the implementation has started and is crucial to run in
parallel with your BPM implementation, creating awareness and getting buy-in...

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How to Ensure That Your Business Process

Management (BPM) System Will be Used: 10 Key
Steps

All organisations and teams investing a great deal of time and money in their Business Process
Management system want to know that it will be used by its intended end users.

We have set out 10 key steps to take during implementation, to help ensure that it will be.

1. Be Clear on the Purpose of Your Business Process Management System

In order to achieve your objective for your BPM system, you need to be clear on what it is.

This is the foundation stone for all else.

You, your team and your senior sponsors must all be able to answer the questions:

• “What is the purpose of our BPM system?”

• “What objective do we want it to achieve?”
• “What problem(s) is it going to solve?”

This has already been mentioned previously, but we can’t overstate the importance of this step to the
implementation process.

2. Get the BPM System Structure Right

The structure of the system must support the agreed end objective.

Will the system support just one part

of your organisation? Or the whole
organisation?

The most common benefits are derived

from one common BPM system supporting
the whole organisation. This gives one
central source of accurate information,
accessible to the whole organisation.

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With a full company BPM system, it may

seem as if the obvious way to structure
it is department by department. But
when thinking a bit more about the end
objective, it may well in fact be by product
or service. The more that you can structure
your BPM system to support an end-to-
end process view (the customer view) the
better - as this will best promote whole
company thinking.

In any event, the BPM should certainly be structured to show common processes such as HR and
Finance separately from the departments or business units that they support.

Most importantly, the structure must support the core purpose of your BPM system and make sense to its
end users.

3. Think About the Target Audience of Your BPM System

There will be certain things that are common to everyone working in your organisation. They will be
familiar with:

• Your corporate branding

• Your website
• Other core systems

This knowledge should be used to design an interface for your BPM system that will be recognisable and
appealing to its end users.

Adherence to corporate branding guidelines is particularly key – not least in obtaining sign off on your
BPM system designs!

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4. Use an Intuitive Navigation

At Triaster, we offer our customers two types of homepage architecture for their BPM systems: Click and
Hover.

• The Hover Interface - is a traditional web menu hierarchical structure, which is controlled by moving
your mouse over the navigation options. Top level options can be accompanied by an image
• The Click Interface - is a scene-by-scene based architecture. Users move through the (typically 3
level) hierarchy by clicking through a storyboarded customised environment.

We find that customers in industries such as engineering, construction and defence generally adopt the
Hover interface, whilst customers in education, the public sector and customer service industries tend to
prefer the Click interface.

We also find that generally if users like the Hover type for example, they will hate the Click interface and
vice versa! Choosing the right approach for your end users is key to their use of your BPM system. To see
other Triaster customer homepage designs please click here:

Triaster customer homepage designs

http://www.triaster.co.uk/showcase.php

5. Get the ‘Tone of Voice’ Correct

Whilst developing the design of your chosen homepage, be that Click or Hover, think about the key
messages that you want to communicate. Although subtle, getting this correct (or not) can have a
marked effect on BPM system usage.

The message to be conveyed will depend on the objective for the system. It will also depend on how
heavily you want to replicate the design of another system or resource - such as your intranet. If your
intranet is well designed, used and liked, replicating its approach may promote usage of your BPM
system.

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Triaster’s customer Interserve FM designed their system ’PRISM’ in line with their intranet, ‘IRIS’. Both now
have a strong brand and image which end users like. Click here to see the PRISM design:

PRISM Design
https://www.triaster.co.uk/showcase-interservefm.php

6. Agree a Theme That Will Appeal

Sometimes agreeing a theme that will appeal is hard. Sometimes it is obvious. The place to start is with
the system name and logo.

Sungard Availability Services call their Triaster system Ask PAT. PAT stands for Process Application Tool and
is also the first name of the well known Director, who has ultimate responsibility for the system. With the
name in place the development of a strong logo and theme was fairly straight forward.

A strong theme best enables development of an identity for the system.

7. Develop an Identity for Your BPM System

To best ensure usage of your BPM system,
its identity should extend well beyond the
system itself. Spread the word about it by
using the name, logo and theme as widely
as possible. If budget permits, promote the
system with useful giveaways.

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Even with limited budget, the system’s identity can be promoted by leveraging the theme with
‘opportunities to see’.

It is also important to explain the reasons for the system’s implementation and how employees will
benefit from using it.

8. Involve End Users

It is natural to be suspicious of new things. All of the steps set out so far have been to make something
new, seem as familiar and intuitive as possible.

Alongside this, involve as many people as possible in the capture of the content for the system. When
involved in its development, people will be much happier to use it.

9. Ensure the Content is Accurate

Of course even the best structured system, with a well-loved theme won’t be used if the information
it contains is out of date or inaccurate. Ensure that all content published to your BPM system has
been reviewed and signed off as accurate.

Where there are gaps in content, make it clear when it is intended that these will be filled.

10. Communication, Communication, Communication

Generally, people won’t use a system unless they both know about it and understand how using it will
benefit them.

So tell them.

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Leverage your theme, the system’s identity and tell them about it. Use all your organisation’s usual
communication channels to get the word out there. For example:

• Newsletters
• Bulletins
• E-mails
• Electronic notice boards
• Meetings…

Get your senior sponsors as involved as possible. Ask them to cascade the message, explain their
objectives for the system and how these align with the corporate strategy.

Before you even think about implementing a Business Process Management system, you’re going to want to
think about establishing a business improvement team, which will speed up any implementation and ensure
that the captured processes are accurate...

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Establishing a Business Improvement Team: 4

Must Do Actions Steps

When establishing any new team there is a lot to do and it is sometimes hard to decide what the
priority actions should be. Having worked with hundreds of business improvement teams, Triaster have
learnt that there are 4 key activities that should be at the top of the list for any newly formed Business
Improvement team as they will:

1. Save masses of time later on

2. Ensure successful results

Let’s examine each in turn.

1. Agree the Business Improvement Team’s Objectives

This activity may seem a little superfluous for a Business Improvement team – the objective is
improvement right?

Well yes, but improvement is a wide remit. It will need narrowing down a little. Ideally the team’s
objectives should align with the overall corporate objectives and hence the focus of the team will align
with the corporate strategy.

However, whilst corporate strategy is usually quite broad, the objectives for the improvement team
should be broken down into realistic and achievable targets over a defined time period.

This is important for a couple of reasons:

1. The team should be aiming at success from the start. Success is much more likely if you both know
what it looks like and that it is in fact actually achievable.

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2. Senior Executive support is key to achieving business improvement and much more forthcoming if
senior management can see how your team is contributing to achieving the corporate strategy.

A couple of illustrations to explain what we mean:

If your company is in a high growth phase, establish the objectives for the Business Improvement team to
show how they will support this high growth. Then break these down into achievable targets - such as a
system to support and improve new customer on-boarding.

If the organisation is well established, with a large customer base, an excellent reputation and its strategic
objective is to modernise; the objective of the business improvement team may well be to maintain
quality (and that excellent reputation) whilst new systems are being implemented. Targets should be
time based and linked to this objective.

2. Agree the Business Improvement Approach

Having established their objectives, the team needs to agree on the approach they intend to take to
achieve these – over the long term.

Keep firmly in mind what you want to do and choose the approach that will best enable you to do this.
Don’t let the tail wag the dog – either in choosing a business improvement methodology or a software
system.

Most teams will look for a software system to help them achieve their objectives.

There are many different software systems offering many different approaches to business improvement.

Some offer Workflow Management, some offer Enterprise Architecture; others offer Enterprise Resource
Planning. Triaster offers a Business Process Management (BPM) platform.

Which one is right for your team will depend on your objectives.

Always start with your objectives and requirements and see which system delivers what you need (rather
than the other way round).

Think long term; this is not a decision that you will want to revisit every few years – on either a time or
cost basis.

3. Establish a Governance Framework

Having established the approach that you are going to take to business improvement and the system
that you plan to implement - set out some ground rules.

These ground rules should set out how everyone is going to work on a day-to-day basis in order to work
towards the team’s objectives. They are commonly called a Governance Framework.

Establishing a Governance Framework can seem rather hard work, but if properly thought through and
adopted, a Governance Framework is invaluable.

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The ground rules needed when implementing a BPM system need to cover the following as a minimum:

1. The Process Mapping methodology

2. A Review and Approvals process
3. Data Capture

The Process Mapping Methodology

Implementing a Business Process Management (BPM) system starts with creating process maps of
business processes.

For information on process mapping, please read the following articles:

Process Mapping: Who does it and why? Six Major Benefits of Process Mapping
http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/process-mapping- http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/six-major-benefits-
who-does-it-and-why process-mapping

However, Process mapping can be done in lots of different ways, using lots of different shapes. Without
some ground rules, the end result can easily be very inconsistent and unhelpful. Especially where several
people are doing the process mapping.

It is therefore important to establish a common approach to process mapping at the outset - that
everyone adopts. If this is done, all the benefits of process mapping will be achieved. Without it, a lot of
rework is needed and masses of time can be wasted. For information on Triaster’s approach to consistent
process mapping, please read this article:

What is the Noun-verb methodology of Process Mapping?

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/what-is-the-noun-verb-methodology-of-process-mapping

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Review and Approvals Process

Process maps are only useful if they are accurate.

Process Mapping enables Business Improvement by capturing the current business processes. If the
process maps are inaccurate, determining where improvements can and should be made becomes very
difficult. Accordingly, a review and approvals process for all process maps is essential.

Many BPM software systems support a process map review and approvals process. Key decisions such as
who will be doing the review should be taken as early as possible to best ensure that all process maps are
as accurate as possible.

Data Capture

Any team looking to make business improvements will need to capture data about the business. The data
that needs to be captured will depend on team objectives. For example, if a team objective is to achieve
corporate visibility of who is responsible for certain processes, capturing that data is essential.

The key thing is to decide what data will be needed to achieve your objectives and capture it - as part of
the process mapping exercise.

So often, teams decide to come back later and capture the data, or don’t think about what data they will
need, so don’t collect it. However, any time saved at the outset is spent doubly later on. For information
on data capture, please read the following article:

How can a BPM system enable me to achieve Continuous Improvement? Methods and Examples
http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/bpm-system-enable-continuous-improvement

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4. Plan to Implement Cultural Change

This activity is absolutely essential to any Business Improvement team and the one that is most
overlooked.

It is likely that at some stage, in order to achieve your objectives as a team, you will be implementing
change to the organisation.

People dislike change. So implementing change is hard.

However, it will be a great deal easier to implement if it’s part of an ongoing dialogue. So start the
dialogue right at the outset. Introduce your team; explain what you are planning to do and why - get
people involved.

And keep doing so.

Remember, your success as a team will depend on your ability to persuade the rest of the organisation to
change. For information on implementing cultural change, please read the following article:

Problems with Business Process Management (BPM): Getting employees to follow the process
http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/problems-with-business-process-management-employees-follow-process

After you’ve got your business improvement team all aboard, you’ll want to set up your process library. Rome
wasn’t built in a day and it took more than one Roman so you’re going to need your crack team to accomplish
the lofty goal of organisational change...

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The Process Library Checklist: Integrate Your Team

With Your Process Software

Triaster customers find our Process Library Go Live checklists (See: http://info.triaster.co.uk/getting-to-

go-live-checklist) very useful. They know that for their Business Management System (BMS) to deliver the
most value it must have what we call the 3 ‘U’s (Useful, Usable and Used).

This article explores the 3’U’s concept and how it supports a process culture.

To find out more on the 3 ‘U’s download the white paper explaining it in further detail:

The 3Us of Great Process Libraries

http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-3us-great-process-libraries

A Usable, Workable Philosophy for Managing Processes

• Useful - Your Library must contain accurate and complete information that actually helps your staff to
perform their tasks better - a process library should meet your requirements before you purchase it.
• Usable - The information must be easily understood, easily accessed (ideally quicker than the usual
practice) with an interface requiring very little or no training to use. Everyone in your organisation
needs to be able to gain access to the process library and find the information they need within 3
clicks.
• Used - Staff must use their process library as part of business as usual with core processes stored
there and referred to often. Management must regularly review processes in the library together with
the staff responsible for carrying those tasks out and ensure the information remains up-to-date and
accurate.

When your process library is ticking the boxes with all three of these terms then you will have made a
significant step towards adopting a process culture in your organisation. There is obviously still more to
do, but this is the key foundation step.

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The above and below pictures are both examples of Triaster Process Library designs. We tailor these to the
needs of each individual customer; both in the look, feel and capability of the Process Library.
 

If you are interested in taking a tour through the different Process Library designs we have created for our
customers please click here.

Process Library Designs

http://www.triaster.co.uk/showcase.php
 
Is it Useful, Useable and Used? The Checklist
If you are thinking about getting a Triaster system, this Go Live checklist (See: http://info.triaster.co.uk/
getting-to-go-live-checklist) is a perfect step-by-step guide to making sure that your Triaster Process
Library is Useful, Usable and Used. There are three lists, each has one of the 3 ‘U’s as a heading to make
sure your system will be as integrated into your organisation as possible on the day you go live with it.

Here ends section 4. Section 5 will take you through some tutorials on how to use your BPM software after you
have successfully implemented your BPM system...

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Chapter 5 - Using Your BPM Software to

Deliver Improvement - 5 Useful Tutorials

This section will cover

How to Calculate Return on Investment With Business Process Management 90

Business Process Modelling: How to Capture Cost, Effort and Time 95

Process Costing: A Simple Method to Find How Much Your Processes Cost 99

How to Build Your Own Process Improvement Project Plan - An Analysis 103

5 Steps You Should Build Any Improvement Project Plan Around 105

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How to Calculate Return on Investment With

Business Process Management

A recent Gartner research note states that 80% of organisations conducting Business Process
Management (BPM) projects will experience an internal rate of return better than 15%.

Of the 20 companies who responded to their survey, 55% had returns in the $100,000 to $500,000 range
per BPM project.

You may be thinking that 20 companies is not a very large number of respondents. To be fair those 20
companies had completed 154 BPM projects between them, which is of course a far larger sample.

However, we suspect that one of the reasons that the number of respondents was quite small is due to
the difficulty of calculating return on investment on Business Process Management projects.

Why is Calculating ROI on BPM Projects Difficult?

Return on investment in a BPM project can arise in two ways: Directly and Indirectly.

Direct ROI is reasonably straightforward to calculate, but still requires a judgement to be made on what
can be directly attributed to a BPM project.

Indirect ROI is much harder to quantify.

This means that often the ROI on BPM projects just isn’t quantified. This is a real shame because, as
Gartner reported, the returns are generally excellent.

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Calculating Direct ROI From BPM

To calculate the direct ROI on any given BPM project, the cost of the BPM project is compared with any
cost savings made or increases in profit.

Determining the Cost of a BPM Project

Firstly, the cost of the project needs to be calculated. This is pretty straightforward.

It includes the external costs for the BPM software system (both initial and ongoing) and the cost of
external consultancy and training services purchased to support the project.

It also includes the cost of any internal resource used on the project. This will mostly be the time people
need to spend on the project, not only those in the BPM or process improvement teams, but the subject
matter experts’ time and the time of anyone else connected with the project (such as the leadership team
and marketing).

Calculating the cost of time requires a judgement to be made on how any given employee’s time is
costed. Most organisations have already agreed hourly charging rates for differing bands of employees -
taking into account gross salary and an overhead charge.

If yours hasn’t, don’t make this too complicated. Just calculate three cost bands for junior, senior and
middle salaried employees, based on average gross (including employers NI) salary and a sensible
overhead charge for each band.

Determining Cost Savings Made or Increases in Profit

Generally, calculating direct cost saving and increases in profit is reasonably straightforward to calculate.
A difficulty that sometimes arises however, is how to agree how much of an increase in profits say is
attributable to a BPM project, rather than to other factors.

Increases In Profit
If, for example, you have used your BPM system to support your bid processes, you will be able to
attribute any increased profit to BPM; how much is a matter of judgement.

Taking a BPM approach, using the Triaster platform, Interserve have developed a mobilisation tool
specifically to ensure that new business can be won and delivered to a reliable margin, whilst delivering a
better service to Interserve’s customers. For more on this please read this case study:

Interserve - Winning more business, reducing costs and delivering more value
https://www.triaster.co.uk/07-15-interserve-winning-more-business.php

For Interserve, calculating the increased profits attributable to BPM is a matter of calculating the positive
impact of their mobilisation tool on cost containment and the time taken to mobilise. This is possible, but
certainly needed discussion, judgement and general agreement with the bid and mobilisation teams.

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Other Triaster customers have set up specific ‘bid BPM systems’ to support large tenders. These
demonstrate most effectively that they have the processes in place to support their bids and ensures
that their BPM systems are ready to go as soon as they win the projects. This is particularly key for joint
ventures.

Which is exactly what Balfour Beatty found some years ago when they were awarded a £ 414 million
contract by Bord Gais Networks in the Republic of Ireland, in a joint venture with CLG Developments
Ltd. Calculating the ROI here was a matter of deciding how much of the profit from this project was
attributable to their bid BPM system.

Cost Savings
When it comes to direct cost reductions, these are most obviously seen by Triaster customers in a
reduction in audit costs. Since 2012, Skanska UK has saved £40K in annual audit fees, for their ISO
assessment. This is an easy ROI to calculate.

Then we come onto how a BPM system

drives efficiency. Every time a process
is improved to cut out a wasteful step,
costs are saved. Every time duplication is
removed from a process, costs are saved.
These can be quite difficult to calculate
- unless your BPM system enables you
to capture and report on time, effort,
resources etc and reports on these.

This is key in fact, not just for calculating

ROI but also to enable you to model the
savings if various potential changes are
made and thereby determine the optimal
root forward - before making the changes.

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To view an example Triaster system report please click here:

Example Triaster system report

http://triasterwqd.cloudapp.net/Documents/BusinessAnalysis/PCR.pdf

Often a small saving repeated many time results in a cost saving much bigger than expected. Have a look
at an example of this by clicking here:

How can Triaster save your organisation money?

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/cost-savings-benefits-of-business-process-management

One cost saving that it is very difficult to calculate, but which is likely to add up to many hundreds of
thousands of pounds for large organisations, is the cost saving every time an employee is able to quickly
and efficiently find documentation or how to do something just by going to the BPM system.

It is worth at least trying to make an assessment on this based on every employee saving 15 minutes time
a day. See how much that adds up to in cost savings over a year; over five years.

Calculating Indirect ROI From BPM

Indirect ROI from BPM is much harder to calculate, but the benefits should not be ignored.

ROI From Reducing Risk

Reducing risk so that a quality failure is avoided and the reputation of the brand is protected could be
said to be priceless.

Unfortunately, the cost of a quality failure is usually not measured unless a quality failure has already
taken place. Then the figures are eye watering.

A BBC news report in December 2015 entitled, ‘Volkswagen: The scandal explained’ stated that:
‘With VW recalling millions of cars worldwide from early next year, it has set aside €6.7bn (£4.8bn)to cover
costs. That resulted in the company posting its first quarterly loss for 15 years of €2.5bn in late October.

But that’s unlikely to be the end of the financial impact. The EPA has the power to fine a company up to
$37,500 for each vehicle that breaches standards – a maximum fine of about $18bn.’

For more on this please read this article:

Managing Risk in Business: How can I manage risk and avoid quality failure?
http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/managing-risk-in-business-how-can-i-manage-risk-and-avoid-quality-failure

The ROI on any BPM project which avoided this would have been huge, but very unlikely ever to have
been calculated or attributed. Which is a shame, as I am sure that if it had been, the project would have
immediately got budget.

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ROI From Regulatory Compliance

Achieving regulatory compliance with ISO, Sarbanes Oxley , the FCA, HEFCE or whoever regulates your
industry sector, obviously delivers a great deal of value - particularly if it is a statutory requirement. Even if
it isn’t, it will be a quality mark that your customers and potential customers will look out for.

Again this is one where the ROI is hardly ever calculated. But particularly if you are trying to get
budget for a BPM project to support this, make a rough calculation of what the results would be if key
compliances aren’t achieved next year. Make some assumptions and state these clearly and base your
calculations on these. For example, reductions in profit attributable to x customers lost and x new
customers not won. The ROI is likely to surprise you.

ROI From Quality

Just as with addressing risk and achieving regulatory compliance, quality improvements are usually
classified by organisations as a cost.

However, ROI can be calculated if you set out issues that might arise if quality is not improved or
deteriorates. For example, inconstant working in a customer services team will deliver an inconsistent
quality of service, which can damage trust and ultimately lose customers.

Set out some working assumptions about the realistic damage that could be done/has been averted and
attribute some figures against these. You will be amazed at the results, especially when calculated for the
expected lifetime of any customer.

Next up, let’s take a look at Business Process Modelling. This is incredibly valuable for showing projected
changes in an organisation before you actually make them and can help you to model improvements to
inefficient processes which cost a great deal of time, effort and cost to an organisation…

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Business Process Modelling: How to Capture Cost,

Effort and Time

Business Process Modelling is a surprisingly complex topic in Business Process Management(BPM) with

many different approaches. In this step-by-step, easy-to-follow guide we will try to remove the
complexity and also explore one approach that many Triaster customers have found useful.

The potential application areas of this approach and the nature of the business challenges that can be
addressed are wide. Do you want to reduce costs? Strip out waste? Improve quality? Do you need to
increase efficiency to compete? Or maybe staff are tired of ineffective processes and you need to improve
morale...

Many of these challenges can be addressed with Business Process Modelling tools and analysis; let’s start
with looking at Time and Effort…

Capturing Time and Effort in Process Maps

Suppose John says at 10am on Monday, “that report will take me a couple of hours to finish.”

What does he mean? When will he finish the report? Noon on Monday?

He then goes on to say, “but I’m a bit tied up at the moment and can’t get to it until 2pm on Thursday.”

OK, so he will finish by 4pm on Thursday?

“Don’t forget though”, he says, “we have that team building exercise on Thursday at 3 which will take the
rest of the day, and I’m in late on Friday around 10am.”

OK, so 11am on Friday?

“And the other thing is, I’ll need to get a sign-off on section A of the report from Mary before I can
complete section B. Looks like Mary goes on leave for a couple of weeks on Friday….”

OK, so the report won’t be finished for at least 3 weeks, even though John starts with the truthful, but
highly misleading statement: “that’ll take me a couple of hours.”

What do we Mean by Time, Effort and Resources?

We need to separate out elements of time and effort and define them in the process if we are to be
accurate.

A typical model will identify at least 3 time metrics as follows:

• Effort – the actual time spent doing the work; also called Processing Time. This is John’s 2 hours.

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• Queuing Time – the time delay before work begins; also called Buffer Time. This is John’s “I’m tied up
until Thursday.”
• Interruption Time – the time between starting a task and finishing it during which no Effort is
performed;  also called Delay Time or Wait Time. This is John’s break for the team building and waiting
on Mary’s sign-off.

Resources are the number of people that can perform the work.

A simplifying assumption, but one that is commonly made in modelling, is that the actual clock time to
complete a task is the Effort divided by the number of Resources.

In John’s case, there is 1 resource writing the report, so it takes 2 hours of clock time. If there were 6
resources, the same 2 hours of effort would only take 20 minutes of clock time.

The total time taken from beginning to end is often called the Cycle Time, End-to-End Process Time or
Elapsed Time. It is: (Effort/Resources) + Queuing Time + Interruption Time.

Clearly, Queuing Time and Interruption Time are always non-value adding.

There are other aspects of Time measurement that are commonly included. For example, Transit Time
is often modelled, this being the time taken for John’s report (once finished) to find its way back to the
requester. If the report were hard copy and had to be couriered or posted, it adds days to the Cycle Time.

Specifying Time Units in Business Process Modelling

“That’ll take 4 days” says John.

What does he mean?

Is it 96 hours of effort? Or is it 30 hours of effort?

Does he mean to include Saturday and Sunday, or working days only?

It is important to be clear on what units are being used whenever a time period or an amount of effort is
being specified.

Typical units of time in process maps are Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Working Day (7.5 Hours), Calendar Day
(24 Hours) and so on. Whenever a time is specified, so should the units.

Specifying Cost Units in Process Modelling

Costs are generally labour costs (those associated with effort) and Other Costs.

Labour costs are often converted to an hourly cost according to some multiple of annual salaries. The
specific method of doing this matters less than its consistent application.

For example, it could be modelled on the basis of 260 working days per annum and 7.5 hours per working
day. So, annual salary is divided by 260*7.5=1950 to give an hourly rate.

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Another model can be based on the 52 weeks per The more you can break your data down into the
annum and 40 hours per week, giving a divisor of 2080. atomic data fields, the easier it will be to maintain and
Each organisation views these things differently, update your model.
so each organisation needs to be able to define the
precise Business Process Model to meet its needs. Modelling Business Processes: How Can
Other Costs can arise from a whole host of Triaster Help?
considerations. For example, suppose you are
modelling a University Enrolment process that sends Triaster have a completely flexible data modelling
letters to all enrolled students, and you are trying to environment; literally every field you want can be
identify cost savings from going down an email only added. Calculated fields can be defined (and re-defined
route. In this case you will need to model postage and as needed).
printing costs.
For example, in the image below there are a variety of
By and large, any cost line should have a unit cost field basic properties most customers capture routinely.
and a quantity field – for example 12,000 letters at a
unit cost of 8p to print and 78p to post.

Flexibility in Data Definition is the Key

The important thing is to be able to model whatever
metrics you need in order to find the answers you are
looking for - and to be able to refine the model when
the business analysis needs to become clearer.

Atomic Data and Calculated Fields

Atomic data are the indivisible data fields, i.e. those that
cannot be inferred from other data.
Clearly then, non-atomic data can always be computed.

For example, Labour Cost = Wage Cost per Hour * Hours

of Effort. Labour Cost is a computed field, and the other
2 fields are the atomic data.
For Time and Resources, Triaster has been configured
In a modelling environment, one should always seek to to model Effort, Wait Time and Queue Time. Note the
only store the atomic data, and let the system compute Pay Band field which is used instead of a cost per unit of
the calculated fields. In the above example, Labour Cost effort.
should never be entered directly.

Taking this example a little further, Wage Cost per Hour

could also be a computed field as follows:
Wage Cost per Hour = Pay Band Median / 1950.

In other words, the Pay Band is the atomic data and the
salary is inferred from the pay band information and
not entered directly.

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There is a section devoted to the cost of consumables…

Having entered the atomic data shown above, the system can then start to calculate the various lines of
cost and cycle time…

Triaster can then also compute end-to-

end costings and total process cycle time
through its dynamic simulation engine.

Visit this PDF for a more in-depth

explanation on the subject as a whole.  

An Introduction to Business
Process Modelling
http://cs.ulb.ac.be/conferences/
ebiss2012/files/vaisman_
ebiss2012.pdf

Are you feeling ready to improve yet? Even if you’re only feeling 50% ready that’s great considering we are only
half way into the final section. If you need to find out how much your processes cost, then the next article is the
one you’re looking for…

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Process Costing: A Simple Method to Find How

Much Your Processes Cost

In virtually every organization, one of the key aims is to save your business money through process
costing and the identification of more efficient processes.

Cost is one example of a quantitative metric and the advice outlined in this article applies equally to any
quantitative metric. For example, one could just as easily focus on the amount of effort involved, the
number of people, elapsed time from start to finish, the amount of defects introduced, the amount of
customer complaints received and so on...

What we really need is a simple method for working out how much this process is costing us, and to then
compare it with the alternatives.”

To work with quantitative metrics is straightforward, but it has to be rigorous. In this article I’ll cover the
ground on some of the underlying theory and definitions, and also look at what is process costing with
examples. First though, we need to understand several concepts:

1. The Noun-Verb method and how it relates to metrics

2. Atomic and non-atomic data
3. End-to-end processes
4. The process hierarchy seabed

Make sure you also download the Business Analysis white

paper for an in-depth explanation as to how you can model Business Analysis White Paper
time, effort and cost-data in your business. http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-
paper-business-analysis-report
Quantitative Metrics and the Noun-Verb Method
In the Noun-Verb process mapping method, Activities are described using a verb, and Deliverables (the
outcome of performing an Activity) are described using Nouns.

When working out process costs in an attempt to save your company money, the costs should always
be exclusively associated with the Activities. Activities represent work performed and genuinely reflect
where costs are incurred in a process. Deliverables on the other hand represent the benefit of performing
work - they are in some sense the opposite of a cost. They are the return on investment of the cost of the
producing Activity.
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As shall be explained in the next section, cost need not be a fixed value; it can be a formula referencing
other more basic information. This is good practice wherever possible.

Only attach cost values to Activities (or Decisions), never to Deliverables.

Atomic and Non-Atomic Data

Atomic Data are values that cannot be broken down or derived from other atomic values (hence atomic
or atom-like meaning indivisible). As an aside, this is an unfortunate historical use of the term from the
days when it was believed an atom could not be subdivided - how wrong we were!

My age, for example, might appear to be atomic, but on closer inspection my age can be derived from my
date of birth. My date of birth is therefore atomic; my age is non-atomic. My weight on the other hand is
atomic - it is not possible to work out my weight from any other values.

When dealing with process costs, it is important to understand when to simply attach costs to a process
as if cost were an atomic value, and when to derive the cost from other data. More often than not, it is
desirable to derive cost.

For example, suppose I am trying to calculate the labour cost of a process that involves 3 people working
for 6 hours at a rate of £8 per hour and a supervisor’s time of 1 hour at a rate of £16 per hour. The atomic
data in this example are the number of hours worked and the rate per hour. The cost can be derived from
these values and therefore, cost should not be recorded as an atomic data value in this process, but as
a derived value from other data.

On the other hand, suppose I am trying to work out the labour cost of a process where the number of
hours worked is not known (nor the rate per hour) but a contract is in place with an outsourced business
to perform the process at a cost of £800 per day. In this instance, cost is an atomic data value and it
should therefore be recorded as a data value in the process.

Wherever possible, use atomic data and then derive costs rather than enter a fixed cost.
 
End-to-End Process Costing
Anyone familiar with a Process Library will know it is possible to view a process as a sequence of Activities
beginning with an Input and ending with an Output. The end-to-end process cost is simply the average
cost of performing the end-to-end process many times over. It does sound simple but please note the use
of the word ‘average’ in that sentence.

It is necessary to consider the concept of an average because processes sometimes have branch points
in them. On one execution of the process the branch will go one way and on another it will go the other
way. Sometimes there are exceptional circumstances that require an exception process to be performed.

Not only are there branch points, sometimes there are loopbacks and on a single run of a process the
same process element can be executed many times over - each of which adds to actual cost.

An end-to-end process cost therefore isn’t simply the sum of the cost of each Activity in the process, it is
defined more precisely as:

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The end-to-end process cost is the sum of the cost of each process element multiplied by the expected
number of times that process element is executed. The Expected number of times can be any number
from 0 upwards, and fractions are allowed.

Let’s take a few simple examples.

We shall start with a simple end-to-end process with no branches or loopbacks. An example can be found
here in the Execute Project Analysis process. 

Because each execution of the process must use every Activity, and does so only once, then the end-to-
end process cost is simply the sum of the four Activity costs (in the interactive version control-click to see
the cost of each Activity).

At the time of writing, that gives an end-to-end process cost of £72,850. In the interactive version,
control-click on the text ‘Execute Project Analysis’ to see the Aggregate Cost of the whole process.

As a second example, please refer to the IT Life Cycle process shown below:

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The end-to-end process branch contains 2 decision The cost of an Activity that is itself a summary of
points, both of which are also loopbacks. So in this Activities on more detailed levels is therefore non-
process we need to take into account the branch atomic and is always derived and must be equal to
likelihood when calculating the cost because re-work the cost of the end-to-end process it summarises or
will happen from time to time. drills-down to. Of course, any given level in a process
hierarchy itself also can be considered as a set of end-
In the case of a loop back, the relationship between the to-end processes; so in the computation of costs at a
probability of a branch being executed and the number higher level, one simply applies the rules outlined in the
of times the loop executes (N) is given by: previous section regarding how to compute the end-to-
end process costing.
N = p/(1-p)
Only enter cost information into the seabed layer of
where p is the branch probability. So, in the IT Life the process, i.e. on Activities that have no drill-down.
Cycle, the loopback occurs 20% of the time, N is For every map, store the Aggregate Cost in the Node
therefore 0.2/0.8 = 0.25, i.e. the loop occurs on average of the Map - this can then be used automatically as the
1 in 4 instances of the process. If the probability were Activity cost on higher levels.
say 95%, then N is 0.95/0.05 = 19, i.e. the loop executes
on average 19 times. Automation and Data Managers
The cost of the end-to-end process therefore should Most business process modelling tools will have the
contain an additional N * loop cost whenever there is a ability to automate all of these considerations to some
loopback. degree or other. With the Triaster solution, to ensure
complete customer control over costing and ease of
In the example, the repeated step is Initiate use, we have produced Excel-based Data Manager files
Development which costs £121,700. A quarter of that provide automated computation of costs (end-to-
this is £30,425, but as both decisions loop to it the end and hierarchical) and the ability to fine tune the
contribution to cost is taken from both loops and we calculations.
therefore double the contribution to £60,850. The total
cost of this process is therefore the total cost of the
Activities in the process plus a further £60,850 - a grand
Now that your head is positively buckling under the weight
total in this instance of £278,025.
of all that improvement knowledge, we will finish with
an article that deals with how to build your own process
Process Hierarchy and Process Seabed Costs
improvement project plan using an example of techniques
It will be understood that end-to-end is the sense of used by one of our own customers to achieve process
running from left to right from a set of Inputs to a set excellence…
of Outputs. Any end-to-end process can therefore
be modelled as a single Activity with the initial set of
Inputs and final set of Outputs - even if the Activity
itself is representing tens or even hundreds of more
detailed Activities found in the end-to-end process.

This grouping is generally modelled across several

vertical levels so that on any given level the Activities
represent a sensible grouping of Activities on the
level beneath - one can then ‘drill-down’ and ‘drill-up’
between higher level summaries and their lower level
more detailed expansions.

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How to Build Your Own Process Improvement

Project Plan - An Analysis

So, you want to improve your business processes Laying the Foundation of Your Process
but you’re in need of a process improvement project
plan? Having a plan is very important for understanding
Improvement Project Plan
the tools you need, the steps to take and the changes
to make. Luckily, we have laid these out for you to
follow.

For your benefit, I have included a process

improvement analysis from many customer surveys and
industry best practices in order to provide you with
the best way to build your own successful process
improvement project.

What is BPM Most Often Used For? 

Recently, we conducted a survey where we asked
customers to tell us the number one reason they
purchased a Business Process Management Software:

• 45% of customers purchased a BPM software

in order to create a single process library that
standardised processes across the company.
• 30% purchased BPM so they could easily
capture their business processes or because they Stakeholder Involvement and Support
needed a tool that could identify those processes in
the first place. Getting organisation-wide buy-in and input is the most
important part of this whole process. Without this, any
• 15% purchased the product in order to achieve
future improvement project will be incomplete and any
organisation-wide buy-in from staff into the
process mapping ineffective.
management system.
• 10% wanted a tool for creating process maps and When Lockheed Martin decided to move from a paper-
sharing them with others in the company. based business management approach to a more
structured Business Management System, they needed
In order to build your own successful improvement to get the rest of the team on-board and as it was a
project, you’ll ideally want a management system that big cultural change for the company, they needed a
can do all of those things listed above. For more on the process library that would be modern and easy to use.
current trends in BPM click here: They also needed a campaign that would communicate
the benefits of change to come later that would
outweigh any change pains now.
Current trends in BPM
https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/
business-management-trends/

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To read more on the practicalities of securing stakeholder support, take a look at our video blog (See:
http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/employee-engagement-is-critical-before-the-bms-implementation-stage)
where we describe exactly what actions are needed to secure buy-in from employees and communicate
the system changes.

Implement an Internal Management System

This needs to be capable of mapping, modelling and sharing processes throughout your entire
organisation to create a standardised foundation for any future improvement projects.

To help you navigate the potentially dangerous waters of process improvement, we’ve included 5 steps that
you really should adhere to in order to ensure a successful organisational improvement plan...

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5 Steps You Should Build Any Improvement

Project Plan Around

1. Map Your Processes A short-term bottleneck is temporary and will usually

not cause any significant problems. An example would
Once you have a system that is capable of capturing, be a skilled employee taking a few days off. Long-
sharing, using and improving your processes (a term bottlenecks occur more frequently and can slow
dedicated Business Process Management System for down production or the execution of other processes
instance), you will need to map your processes. further down the chain. An example of a long-term
bottleneck would be a machine that is not working
You can create a process mapping team (See: http:// efficiently and is therefore causing long production
blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/how-to-run-a-process- queues.
mapping-workshop), assign one person to run process However, it is not only bottlenecks that you should look
mapping workshops (See: http://blog.triaster.co.uk/ for, but also opportunities to make processes more
blog/capturing-a-business-process-tips-for-process- efficient - although you should always…
discovery-workshops)  or conduct one-on-one
interviews. May I suggest that you look at our extensive 4. Start With the Big Issues and Work Your
process mapping blogs and our videos (See: http:// Way Down
www.triaster.co.uk/triaster-video.php) before you
attempt this method - as getting it wrong could cost If one of your children is ill, you’re not going to
you considerable time, resources and block employee take another one for a check-up first are you? In
engagement on future projects. life, priorities are everything and your priority for
any improvement initiative will be to diagnose the
2. Understand Your AS-IS key problem points first and move on from there.

An AS-IS process is a visual representation of Once you’ve dealt with the most problematic processes,
a business process in its current state. AS-IS then you can start dealing with other improvement
processes must be mapped, and the current state opportunities and if these are handled correctly, it will
of the business understood, before changes and eventually lead to operational excellence.
improvements can be made. Use a process mapping
tool to capture your AS-IS processes so that you can 5. Model the Potential Options For
identify...
Improvement
3. Bottlenecks and Opportunities  This one is about analysing the risk of any potential
change. If you are able to model any potential
A bottleneck is one process in a chain of processes that improvement, you can analyse the risk of a potential
if limited in any way, will cause further limitations to change before you implement that change. This way,
subsequent processes in the chain. Bottlenecks can be you minimise the risk involved with any improvement
either short-term or long-term and are most often seen project - to understand process modelling in more
in supply chain and manufacturing industries. detail visit this article:

Visit our process modelling article

http://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/business-process-
modelling-cost-effort-time

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University of Winchester’s Process Improvement Project Plan Example

The University of Winchester’s Process Improvement Team approach the task of process improvement as

follows: 

Always beginning with a clear objective

• The current process (AS-IS) is captured using the Triaster process mapping tool
• The mapped process is published to their Process Library where it is reviewed and approved
• Bottlenecks are highlighted
• Options for alternative processes are identified and analysed and the future (To-Be) process
is modelled - this may incorporate, for example, the use of new technology or perhaps just a few small
changes
• An action plan for implementation is formulated
• The project team presents the proposed process to management and colleagues
• The new process is agreed and implemented
• Short follow-up events are typically held at 15, 30, 60, 90 days and at one year to embed the new
process as business as usual and review the return on investment.

That brings us to the end of Section 5.

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End Note: Resources to Help You with Your

Next Steps

If you like what you’ve read so far then do please ensure that you check out exactly what the
Triaster BPM systems have to offer by visiting the Triaster platform page (See: http://www.triaster.
co.uk/triaster-platform.php). This sets out all the features and pricing on our Start-up, Standard and
Professional packages.

We have also included links to every Triaster white paper. If you wish to download any of our white
papers, please read the list below and click on the link provided.

All Triaster White Papers

The Business Improvement E-book: 8 Customer Case Studies From Problem to Improvement
http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-problems-we-solve-ebook

How to Achieve ISO 9001: 2015 Explained by an Expert

http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-how-to-achieve-iso-9001-2015

Process Mapping Report: Find Out How Process Mapping Can Save Time and Drive Down
Cost in Your Organisation
http://info.triaster.co.uk/alb-process-mapping-report

Microsoft Visio and Sharepoint vs the Triaster Platform - a Comparison

http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-microsoft-visio-sharepoint-vs-triaster

Process Mapping Shapes: What Shapes Are Most Commonly Used in Process Mapping?
http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-process-mapping-shapes

Business Analysis Report: Quantify the Possible Benefit of Process Improvement in Your Organisation
http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-business-analysis-report

The 3 ‘U’s of Great Process Libraries: How to Make Your Process Library Useful, Usable and Used
http://info.triaster.co.uk/white-paper-3us-great-process-libraries

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FAQs
If you haven’t found what you are looking for by now, then perhaps you’ll find your query answered in the
frequently asked questions section. All questions are shown below – you will find an answer to all of these
questions here:

Frequently Asked Questions

http://info.triaster.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions

• What licences are included with each Triaster system

• Are Triaster licences perpetual or term licences?
• What is the minimum term of a Triaster licence?
• Can Process Navigator licences be transferred from one users to another?
• Is there a fee for use of Process Library sites?
• Does the number of viewers of a Process Library affect the fee charged?
• Is there a fee for use of the Triaster Server?
• Do host servers require a Triaster Licence?
• What services are offered with each Triaster system?
• What can be achieved with the ‘Start-Up’ system?
• Who should purchase the ‘Professional’ system?
• Why is the ‘Standard’ system the most popular?
• How much do each of the Triaster systems cost?
• How do I get a quote for a Triaster system?
• Can I trial a Triaster system?
• How do I purchase a Triaster system?
• What are the Triaster licence terms?
• Do Triaster have an Escrow agreement in place?
• Do Process Library sites require a Triaster License?

Go to our FAQ page now for an answer to any one of these questions. Alternatively, if you would like to contact
Triaster about any questions you have or for further information on what has been spoken about in this e-book, we
would love to hear from you. Send us an email to info@triaster.co.uk or call us on +44 (0) 870 402 1234.

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