Business Process Management is more effective at achieving organizational goals because it address the entire cross functional process rather than just problems within a single cost center or department.

Let's look at a real example taken from a large telecommunications company. department.

The CFO complained to us that the costs of the call center were rising quickly. He was concerned that these costs were out of control. He was frustrated because the call center costs kept rising and he could not get a good explanation why.

Looking at this problems traditionally, management would focus on the call center itself. They would focus on questions like:

• Did we move the call center to an area where wages are higher?
• Are we over staffing the call center?
• Are we using too many full time employees rather than more part time employees for high call volume time periods?
• Are representatives spending too much time resolving issues?
• Are representatives not trained properly?
• Are we hiring the wrong type of people who don't have the basic skills required for call center work?
• Are people signed off from the phones more time than they should be?
• Do we have too many supervisors?

These are all legitimate questions that need to be asked to improve the process.

However, these questions would not have discovered the real reason the call center costs were increasing so rapidly.

Only by looking at the entire process were they able to discover the major cost driver for rapidly increasing call center costs.

The expanded thinking to a cross functional business process management approach was to start with the reasons for the calls.

• Add service
• Stop service
• Change banks
• Change billing address
• Make payment
• Discuss turning service back on
• Explain marketing literature they were mailed

It turned out that the major source of increased calls was that marketing was mailing promotions to customers that were not clear. Customers were calling to better understand their options for these promotions.

Since there was no cross functional business process management focus, the call center just tried to do its best answering whatever calls came in. Only when the telecommunications company took a cross functional business process management approach, did they discover that the major cost driver of this process was unclear marketing literature.

Since marketing was not informed, marketing thought the literature was clear. Once marketing received this feedback from the call center, marketing could makes its mailings more clear. Clearer mailing would reduce calls to the call center and thus reduce call center costs.

Every organization needs to
take a cross functional business process management approach
if they want to be excellent and achieve their goals.

The links to the right will give you more information about individual aspects of Business Process Management.

Call John Antos or Jim Brimson at 972-980-7407 to find out how Business Process Management can help you reach your goals and give you peace of mind