| Fevzi ÖZTÜRK – Operations Director |
As a manager, you probably often witness discussions in your organization about “business process improvement” and “business process design”. Before joining these discussions, it helps to understand exactly what these concepts mean. Below you will find a few definitions of these concepts that we believe may be useful. Of course, these are just one of the possible definitions of business processes. Processes can be defined differently at different levels.
Inputs, Activities, Outputs
Technically, a business process can be defined as a series of business activities aimed at creating value for customers. A process has 3 simple components.
1. Inputs: Inputs start the process. For example, if you want to bake a cake, your inputs will be flour, sugar, eggs, milk, oil, baking powder and other ingredients that add flavor depending on the type of cake.
2. Activities: Activities turn inputs into the desired output. To make your cake, you will first need to mix the ingredients in order and then bake it in the oven at the right temperature.
3. Outputs: Outputs are the result of the activities performed with the inputs. In this example, the delicious cake you made is the output of the activities you performed with the inputs.
We can understand processes more easily through physical, tangible examples. But processes exist in every organization, not just in those that make physical products. For example, a company providing Human Resources consulting also has inputs (the consultant's knowledge and experience), activities (for example, an employee satisfaction survey carried out at the client) and outputs (for example, a plan to increase employee satisfaction).
People, Technology and Information
We can think of business processes as a series of work that brings together people, technology and information to achieve outputs that create value for the organization. To picture this, take a moment to look around your office.
. You will notice that the people around you are working to carry out the activities of business processes, such as meeting customer requests. You will also see that they use their knowledge, skills and experience as additional inputs to these activities.
. These people most likely use technology (for example, computer software, the internet, etc.) to carry out these activities. These technologies help them carry out business processes more easily and quickly (such as sending an email to a customer or viewing customer/stock information).
. Information, meanwhile, is intertwined with every activity performed: in computer programs, in what the customer communicates or in people's minds.
In short, business processes cover all the activities, that is, all the work, an organization carries out using people, technology and information to reach its goals. Business processes determine the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization's customer experience, internal operations and financial results.
Every organization has many business processes. Some are simple processes that start and end within a single department, while others are complex processes that span all company units.
Standard Processes and Undefined Processes
Processes vary greatly in their degree of standardization. Some processes are fully defined as standard, while others are completely undefined. In fact, with undefined processes, employees are usually not even aware that a process exists. Here is an example of a non-standard, undefined process.
A customer you have worked with for a long time called and asked whether you could give a discount on the purchase price if they placed an order twice the usual size. You have no rule that defines whether you can give a discount in such a case or what rate you can offer. In the end, you gave the customer the discount. In doing so, you created an undefined process. Your company has no document that defines how you will act in which situations and which steps it will follow. A customer discount program exists, at least for now, only in your head.
Here is an example of a standard process.
You are a customer service manager and your team handles a large number of requests that come from customers by phone or online. Together with your team, you prepared a set of documents on how to handle incoming customer requests. You handle and close incoming requests as described in these documents. You also train new team members on how to handle and close requests before they join the team. In this case, you have defined and are running a standard business process.
In organizations, some business processes start out undefined and are standardized later. For example, you decided to interview candidates recommended by your employees for open positions. Hiring through employee referrals was so successful that you decided to use this method as a standard hiring process. You decided to interview candidates recommended by your employees first for open positions, and even to pay your employees a set bonus in return if the position is filled successfully. In doing so, you turned a process that started out undefined into a standard one.
Process Problems
Everyone in your organization, including you, takes part in corporate business processes every day. But because business processes are invisible, many people do not consciously think about them or realize their impact on organizational performance. When a problem occurs, such as a customer order being entered incorrectly, people usually look for someone to blame. Managers spend time and money replacing the staff who made the mistake. Or they invest in expensive technologies to overcome such problems. Still, many managers realize that these methods do not actually solve the problem. In the end, the same problem keeps coming up. When you look back at what is happening, it turns out that the problem stems from faulty processes rather than from people or the technologies in use. Once such errors in processes are seen and understood, you can easily fix the processes to meet your organization's expectations.
Conclusion
There are many reasons that prevent organizations from working efficiently. Some point to changing customer expectations, driven by innovative technologies, that keep pushing organizations to deliver more. Others point to ever-increasing regulations (such as KVKK, the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law) that bring stricter controls to how organizations do business and limit the agility needed to adapt to changing conditions.
While both of these reasons are valid in their own right, an organization's success is directly related to how it is organized and how it works. If an organization is structured correctly on solid foundations, changing customer expectations and the innovations brought by new technologies will not have much effect. As long as organizations have standard processes defined across their people, technology, information and governance structures, they can maintain and increase their efficiency by adapting to changing conditions.
Sources
https://camunda.com/blog/2024/04/what-is-business-process-management/
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/workflow
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/workflow-automation
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