Business Process Mapping
Business Process Mapping is a method to visualize a business by capturing all its core processes, breaking down functions into components, defining the owner of each process, and establishing a relationship between different processes. This allows an organization to better understand their business. This powerful tool plays a key role in organizations to help them achieve their objectives.
Among the many benefits of Business Process Mapping for organizations, five of them are discussed below:
Clear Current Picture of the Organization
Initiating with the “as-is” model and capturing current process flow throughout the organization, Business Process Mapping aids in visualizing all the current end-to-end processes, identifying triggers and assigning key players/teams to said processes. This provides a clear picture of cross-functional process flow within an organization.
Business Process Mapping allows for a better understanding of individual processes with the help of key stakeholders and ensures that processes have a logical flow between them. It provides visibility on the roles and ownership of each process/task involved in the running of a business.
Identify Gaps and Opportunity
Once the current or “as-is” model is developed, it becomes easier to identify gaps and to pinpoint the redundancies in the system. Business Process Mapping also facilitates the diagnosis of problems and the analysis of several alternatives for different tasks.
There are also some areas or processes where there are chances of new opportunities and increased improvement for the business to be more effective and/or efficient. Business Process Mapping helps facilitate the identification of these gaps and opportunities. It also helps the organizations increase their agility and enables them to adapt or introduce new processes/innovation quickly.
Alignment of Functions
Creating a “to-be” model is the second phase of the Business Process Mapping which ensures the establishment of a more robust and complete process flow based on the end-goals set out by the organization. This model allows management to ensure that different functions of the business are in fact working in harmony and their processes should reflect a shared objective and uniform approach. For instance, if there are two teams that have a similar process that they undertake, Business Process Mapping will help identify redundancies or differences in approach that may need to be rectified.
It will also help the management understand the different perspectives from each function and the business value they are able to provide to the organization. It will allow management to prioritize, remove or re-align processes if needed.
Streamlining Operations
Business Process Mapping helps businesses establish enhanced organizational rules and standardized control over each process. It also endorses consistency throughout the organization by setting benchmarks for the processes. Thus, it helps clarify and manage the roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities, provides simplicity to the functions, and creates consistency throughout the organization. For example, repeatable and manual tasks can be easily identified and automated while complementary tasks can be brought together in one process.
Informed Decisions and Continuous Improvement
With a clear process flow map developed, it becomes easier for organizations to make informed decisions. Business Process Mapping makes it possible to identify business priorities and constitute SMART goals to help achieve these. By keeping these process flows updated, management can embrace continuous improvement as new opportunities for growth and progression present themselves. It also makes change management easier as new innovations are added to business processes.
In conclusion, Business Process Mapping promotes transparency and creates a simpler, clearer picture of all the processes within the organization. Build meticulously with input from all the right teams, this tool helps identify the needs, simplifies complicated procedures, and helps the organization in making informed and timely decisions to achieve their organizational objectives.