The benefits of process optimisation for business growth

Exemples d’optimisation continue SaaS des processus

One of any manager’s main objectives is obviously to support the growth of the business.

In an economy in a state of perpetual change, a business must be able to adapt quickly and optimise how its existing structures operate, by diversifying its activities, reorganising, streamlining its processes, etc. In making these adjustments, management can unfortunately encounter significant obstacles that curb the impact of the benefits.

What does management gain from continuous process optimisation?

Optimising business processes is based on making improvements to each process, from the broad overall picture (a whole circuit, for example) to each stage in the process and each component in a stage (i.e. the who, what, when and how).

  • For management, it generates productivity and profitability benefits:
  • reduction in costs (of production, purchases, etc.);
  • greater employee satisfaction from more worthwhile work (fewer tasks of no added value, etc.);
  • better integration and value creation with the extended enterprise (partners, subcontractors, customers, etc.);
  • improved brand image with shorter response times and higher quality;
  • and so on…

But it is also a way of gaining organisation-wide strategic vision and capacity for action thanks to the consolidation and analysis of an array of internal and external data. In addition, the identification of processes and ensuring control over them offers greater capacity for adaptation, thereby making your company more agile.

What is business process optimisation for management?

The major stages in optimising business-wide processes are usually:

  • Mapping data streams within your business and with the outside world. This can be viewed as a kind of assessment of your current processes, what works, what could be improved, what needs a complete overhaul, and so on.
  • Modelling processes from a business viewpoint, i.e. not restricted to single departments or limited by IT constraints. Collaboration between all the business departments concerned and IT is crucial for the success of this stage.
  • Identifying areas for optimisation in each process, and implementation of all possible automation. That said, the role played by people must not be overlooked, and should be focused where it adds most value.
  • Implementing the process, in IT terms, and internal change management. Business process optimisation brings about change in an organisation and those affected need support and training.
  • Control, continuous improvement and supervision.  Having a clear vision of the expected results and the KPIs to be monitored is the best way to secure genuine return on investment.

In summary, you need to model the optimum process, automate those parts that can be automated, organise tasks, give those involved responsibility, and supervise. If this picture seems technically focused, process optimisation is also a driver of change management, and the human factor must be included.

The commonest examples of continuous business process optimisation

Firstly, one common example of optimisation is to remedy a lack of communication between the various management applications deployed within a company (ERP, CRM, SCM, CAMM, EDM, etc.) and with partners (whether they be operational, or e.g. the updating of group-level reports for a subsidiary). This lack of cohesion caused by siloed operation of the different applications and, by extension, the business processes related to them, hinders productive interactions between different departments.

Secondly, management suffers from a painful lack of real visibility over the performance of the processes in place, which is why the Blueway platform natively incorporates the business process supervision and coordination functions that are needed to start a continuous improvement process, targeting management’s operational excellence objectives in so doing

What are the benefits and what are the optimisation solutions for the smooth running of the business?

To benefit from improved agility, business processes can be intuitively modelled graphically in our BPM software by functional and IT managers, who can use the module to work together.

To benefit from excellent visibility on how well the business is running, managers can use the Process Governance module to view statistics specifically configured for them to check the proper functioning of business processes through the monitoring of their KPIs. When an irregularity appears, real-time warnings are sent to administrators, who can readily simulate potential resolutions before actually modifying the processes concerned.

Continuous business process performance optimisation had a measurable impact in the first few months with a significant increase in the margins generated, and a positive ROI was generated within the year.

With Blueway, managers finally have all the tools to hand to manage the business.

Other benefits of integrated process optimisation to improve how the business operates

Blueway’s integrated data stream optimisation platform shows its real value to target your objectives as a manager through benefits including:

Improved integration of data between existing applications to avoid wasted time.

Higher data quality to boost the performance of Marketing and Customer Services departments.

Access to the right information at the right time thanks to big data integration for greater collective intelligence.