Software implementation as an opportunity to analyze your business processes

New software implementations are a risky task. Many factors could lead to success or failure: resistance to change from users, software not really adapted to business processes, even a market change in some cases. In this article, we want to concentrate on business process analysis. Doing a good and robust process analysis is certainly useful in many ways, especially to find weak points on current processes. It’s an activity that should be done nonetheless, but in case of new software implementation it’s the most ironclad method to make things work as expected. You will not have 100% probability of success, but at least you will increase your awareness of problems and critical points in your organization.

Various advisory companies usually propose a process analysis before starting the real software implementation. It’s a standard and accepted practice, and potentially it reduces risks of failure. However, in most cases this job could be done internally, because real business knowledge is located inside the firm. An external company can point out fresh ideas (and for this reason should be taken into consideration), but in case of reduced budget, it could be accomplished with internal resources. Pay particular attention to the team structure and composition as the job should be done by the people that are not directly involved in the analyzed process: it is important that a neutral point of view is taken to represent the situation without distortion.

We can divide the procedure in two phases: “as is” analysis and “to be” process design. After these steps, you should be ready to choose the right software. Software implementation becomes a matter of execution, following the guidelines of the process analysis. Of course, implementation is never meant to be considered an easy task, but certainly with all things done, risk of failure should be consistently reduced.

As is business process analysis

It all starts with the “as is” process analysis, which consists of mapping the current situation of the processes the new software should integrate. One piece of good advice is to interview the people at work (not the boss), and that’s because real knowledge of the process is where the job is effectively done. It’s incredible how much knowledge is uncovered with this process. You should ask people about their daily job: where they feel are doing well and where they think they are wasting time. You should create a list of these “weak spots” and identify the points where the process is not working as expected. Again, you should ask them for a solution, or what they would do the make things more efficient. It’s not only an “organizational” problem: this phase should also be used to identify the points where the current software lacks features. There could be parts of the process not supported by any automated software, and other parts where multiple types of software do the same thing. It’s important to take note of these problems, as they will be instrumental to choose the right software to implement.

There are various sources on the Internet that should help you designing business processes. In my experience as business consultant, I can say that normal office suites (for example, Microsoft Office or Libreoffice) should be enough to create a good library of business processes. It’s important to design processes using clear representation: actors and tasks should be correlated, and tasks should be connected in a sequential way. In other words, it’s a flow chart method.

Below is an example of “as is” analysis:

Note that every step is numerated. In this way, you can create a table where to point out problems, weak spots and proposed solutions, linked to a specific step. See below for an example of this

Where applicable, the analysis should consider current software deficiencies, and where new features could be valuable to the process.

To be process design

Designing new processes or updating new ones represent a significant and important choice. Here we are entering the ground of “organizational science”, and therefore discussing it sounds a little simplistic in this context. However, consider that new software implementation is an opportunity to create or update your processes, increasing your efficiency and effectiveness.

Here is a simple matrix that describes advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches “evolutionary” and “new processes”.

Implementation of new software is a significant investment, with the upfront cost expected to yield substantial returns in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in the long term. However, without proper process analysis the returns could be less than expected or even fail to eventuate at all in the case of failure. Also, if new software implemented follows the same weak spots currently present in the organization, then organizations risk returning to the “old” software after a few months.

Process design should be considered as a great opportunity that offers a significant return on your initial effort. You would be well-advised to take the time to properly review and design your processes before embedding them in a new system.