- Obtaining a holistic picture of the life of the organization, coordinating different points of view on the constantly developing and changing business.
- Ensuring mutual understanding at all levels of the organization, bridging the gap between the managing and performing parties.
- Ensuring the reduction of production costs and the improvement of quality and service levels.
In the process of business modeling, there is a transition from the concept of “what” should be done to the concept of “how” should be done. The output of the simulation should be a document that gives the development team a clear understanding of the scope of the project, as well as the customer's software and hardware. The received data is reflected in the project specification, which may include the following sections:
- description of the main data entities of the application;
- a formal description of the application specification;
- business logic and business rules;
- functional requirements;
- non-functional requirements;
- application form/page templates;
- glossary or list of abbreviations;
- help charts.
Business modeling tools and their evolution
To create business models, information systems design tools and their corresponding description languages are used (the most famous among them is UML - Unified Modeling Language). With the help of such languages, graphical models and diagrams are built that demonstrate the structure of the organization's business processes, the organization of interaction between people and the necessary changes to improve the performance of the organization as a whole. Business modeling tools are in constant development. Initially, with the help of such tools, it was possible to describe only the business functions (work) of the company and the movement of data in the process of their implementation. Moreover, if the same business function was used when executing various kinds works, it was difficult to understand whether it was the same business function or a different one. The inability to explicitly define the hierarchy of business processes (for example, "value chain", "business process", "sub-process", "work", "function") created problems when using such descriptions. The descriptions themselves were just a collection of pictures. Later, tools began to appear that made it possible to describe the organization not only from the side of business functions, but also from other sides. So, it became possible to create separate diagrams that reflect the organizational structure of the company, data flows in the organization, the sequence of business functions that make up a single business process, with the ability to use logic symbols, etc. Due to the ever-increasing requirements for business modeling tools, it has become more and more diagrams appeared to describe various aspects of the organization's activities, which made the creation of a model more and more complicated. In this regard, the next important stage in the development of business modeling tools is associated with the idea of using a single repository (storage) of objects and the idea of possible reuse of objects in different diagrams. Whatever tool is chosen, it is required to ensure the interaction of local information systems with each other. To date, the most modern and at the same time generally accepted standard for organizing business process management is BPEL (Business Process Execution Language). Based on this product, you can create a single integration platform for all your applications. After modeling processes in one of the modeling tools, special translators are used to bring the model to the BPEL standard.
Examples of business modeling and its results
- Cost reduction. The business model will give an idea of where you can avoid unnecessary costs and how to optimize the use of resources. Based on the business model, a functional cost analysis is carried out to calculate the cost of a product or service, and a budget management system is built that allows you to control the costs of the enterprise.
- Improving efficiency. The ability to reduce the cost of adaptation and training of staff. Regulatory documentation based on the prepared business model corresponds to the current state of affairs of the organization, distributes responsibilities, builds a hierarchical system of career growth.
- Expanding the sphere of influence, increasing the network, organizing branches. The presence of a business model will reduce costs and make it possible to describe the structure of the arrangement of new branches of the enterprise.
- Adequacy of investment. With the help of business modeling, it is possible to determine the amount of capital investments with a sufficient degree of accuracy, reduce risks and financial losses at the start-up stage of a new project.
- Implementation of EDMS. The business model of an enterprise standardizes the composition of enterprise documents and establishes routes for the movement of documents.
- Automation and implementation of systems of class ERP, SCM, CRM or other software. Based on the business model, you can formulate better requirements for the system and choose the solution that is optimal in terms of cost and functionality.
- Certification of the quality management system. Development business models enterprise allows you to significantly reduce the time and costs for the development, implementation and certification of a quality management system and obtain a set of necessary documents for successful certification, reduce the cost of maintaining a quality management system.
Features of business modeling
Creating, implementing and maintaining a business model is expensive investment project. And like any project, the creation of a business model must be preceded by an analysis of the feasibility and feasibility of its implementation. Large projects require powerful business modeling tools with well-developed functionality: with the ability to store information in a single repository, collaborate on a modeling project and check the created model for integrity, semi-automatic diagram generation, integration with other software, analysis and model documentation - while in small projects, for cost reasons, it would be wiser to use less functional tools. For performance analysis, development existing structure you should initially build an adequate business model. That is, initially the theory, and only after - its implementation.
Solutions
Today there are a large number of software products that are designed to describe the architecture of an organization. According to the reports of the analytical company Gartner, the following companies can be attributed to the leaders of this segment.
As promised a few months ago, we are returning to the topic of business process modeling, offering you a series of articles on the tools with which this type of activity is carried out. In this cycle, we will consider tools from leading manufacturers that Russian companies can use to solve the problems of modeling and improving business processes without significant risks. But before proceeding to the first of the tools, I would like to clarify what exactly the phrase “without significant risks” means (and, therefore, what are the criteria for including certain tools in this series of articles).
On the criteria for the success of modeling tools in the world and Russian markets
On a global scale (primarily for multinational companies and in some cases - for American companies), one of the most serious criteria for choosing software for a particular type of activity is a high evaluation of the product by analytical companies such as Gartner Group, Forrester Research, IDC and Metagroup.
For national markets (including the Russian one), the criteria for choosing corporate software are somewhat different. In this case, when deciding on the use of the product, factors such as the availability on the national market of both the product itself and the services for maintenance, technical support, training in the national language, and in the case of products intended for end users (modeling tools business processes belong to this category), - also the presence of a localized version. In the conditions of our country, these factors turn out to be more significant than the recognition of analysts, because, unlike relatively small European countries, we are not so closely connected with the global community to require users to be fluent in foreign languages, organize training on the use of the tool for end users abroad and communicate with an English-speaking technical support service located in Europe or the USA - the cost of all of the above, even for a very successful Russian corporation from the financial, extractive or energy industries may be too high. Therefore, manufacturers of modeling tools that are by no means world leaders can become very successful on the Russian market. It is with such tools that I would like to begin our review.
About QPR
The Finnish company QPR has been present on the world market for a long time - it was founded in 1991 with the aim of creating interactive software that significantly improves the decision-making process at any organizational level. QPR is currently engaged in the research and development of software designed to manage the performance of an organization.
A few years ago, QPR was named by Gartner Group as one of the world's leading simulation tools with a market vision and vision, thanks in large part to its support for the BSC (Balanced Scorecard) concept, very popular in the field of strategic planning. However, we will talk about BSC support in QPR products a little later.
QPR ProcessGuide - modeling and documentation of business processes
Supported notations
For business process modeling, QPR brings the QPR ProcessGuide solution to the market. This product allows you to create multi-level business process models in a notation similar to the Swim Lane notation and workflow diagrams - functions (or, in other terminology, process steps) are located on the so-called role tracks. In this case, each function of the process can be detailed into an independent sub-process, described by a separate diagram, and the number of levels of detail is not limited in any way.
On the one hand, the presence of a multi-level system of diagrams (it is a set of diagrams in QPR terminology that is called a model) allows you to create consistent descriptions of the activities of companies and, of course, is a sign of the maturity of the modeling tool - not every tool used in this area has support for such sets of diagrams on storage layer.
Process Model in QPR ProcessGuide
On the other hand, this modeling tool does not feature many different types of diagrams like those available to users of ARIS Business Architect or Microsoft Visio - in fact, this tool has the only type of model that supports the decomposition of process steps. But in fairness, we note that QPR ProccessGuide allows you to expand the library of symbols - elements of business processes, so you can formally comply with any graphic notation, for example, when it is a corporate standard adopted by the company.
Process Documentation
By itself, business process modeling is of little interest to anyone. This type of work is carried out for a specific purpose, mostly in order to find the so-called bottlenecks in the company's processes and, on the basis of this, optimize the processes, thereby increasing the efficiency of the company's activities, as well as ensure their documentation and regulation (the latter is often done during certification company for compliance with one of the quality standards).
The possibilities of documenting processes in QPR ProcessGuide are very wide - this product has a programming interface based on COM technology that allows you to access absolutely any data contained in models, and the built-in programming language is Visual Basic for Applications. The latter fact greatly simplifies the generation of reports in Microsoft Office application formats - if you have office applications installed, you can access the reporting script created for QPR ProcessGuide directly to the Word, Excel, PowerPoint COM interfaces. In addition, the presence of a software interface of this class allows you to create various application solutions based on QPR ProcessGuide, such as tools for exchanging models with other modeling tools, tools for integrating with various information systems, etc.
It should be noted that not every modeling tool has such programming interfaces, although, of course, programming skills are required for their effective use. However, the product package also includes a number of ready-made reporting scripts.
Simulation and Process Improvement
Improvement of business processes with the help of QPR ProcessGuide can be carried out both by quantitative analysis of the characteristics of processes and their steps, and by simulating the execution of processes - simulation tools are included in the product.
Simulation Results in QPR ProcessGuide
Simulation is the process of simulating the execution of different instances of the same process. Before performing simulation modeling, the process model is supplied with the data necessary to perform the simulation, for example, the frequencies of the occurrence of certain events, the probabilities of a particular outcome in the event of a branching of the process execution, the distribution laws for the execution time of various process steps, and other characteristics. In the process of performing simulation modeling, for each instance of the simulated process, random data is generated in accordance with the selected probabilities, distribution laws, and frequencies. If the data for simulation modeling are chosen correctly, the simulation results and the statistical data obtained on their basis are the information based on which decisions can be made on making changes to the process in order to increase its efficiency, optimize time s x costs, expenses Money and resources.
Publishing Models to the Corporate Intranet Portal
QPR ProcessGuide allows you to publish models on intranet portals, while the user is given the opportunity to add and view comments and draw up action plans related to business processes. In fairness, we note that such access is not unlimited - for those users of the portal who create presentations, a system of tasks and comments in it, they are supposed to purchase licenses (though they differ in cost from licenses for model developers).
Publishing Models to the Corporate Intranet Portal
QPR ScoreCard - support for BSC technology
Balanced Scorecard (BSC), or balanced scorecard (BSC), is a management tool developed in 1992 by Harvard University professors Robert Kaplan and David Norton that allows you to transform a company's strategic goals into a clear plan operational activities departments and key employees and evaluate the results of their activities in terms of the implementation of the company's strategy using key performance indicators. The use of a balanced scorecard allows for targeted monitoring of the company's activities, predicting and preventing the emergence of problems, and controlling the most significant financial and non-financial indicators of the company's activities.
The main idea of the BSC is to formulate achievable and quantifiable strategic goals of the company with their gradual detailing and distribution of these goals into groups, also called prospects, as well as taking into account the mutual influence of these goals.
This management tool is actively used by leading Western companies(namely, 402 of the 500 largest organizations in the Financial Times ranking), and in Lately attracts close attention of top managers in Russia. You can read more about BSC technology in a separate article on this issue, which will be published in one of the next issues of our journal.
Company goals tree in QPR ScoreCard
Company strategic map in QPR ScoreCard
To support BSC technology, QPR produces a separate product, QPR ScoreCard, which allows you to build strategy maps, compare planned and actual key performance indicators, and publish the results on the corporate portal.
Note that QPR ProcessGuide allows you to associate business process steps with key performance indicators created in QPR ScoreCard, and thus provides the company's management with the opportunity to assess the degree of achievement of its strategic goals at the level of individual processes.
Like QPR ProcessGuide, QPR ScoreCard has a convenient programming interface based on COM technology, which allows you to create scripts for generating reports of any complexity, as well as other application solutions based on QPR ScoreCard.
QPR products in Russia
When choosing a business process modeling tool, questions technical support and localization are among the most significant. Unlike IT professionals, who are mostly ready to read English documentation, write letters to European technical support services, and are generally not very capricious, business users involved in describing processes are often extremely unhappy when they see the English interface of an application, with which they have to deal with, and technical support for such users implies the presence of people in it who speak the same language with them.
Russian-language versions of QPR products are available on the Russian market. Their delivery, implementation and support is carried out by Trodos Consulting, the exclusive distributor of QPR Software plc in Russia and the CIS. In addition, this company supplies to the Russian market a number of application solutions created on the basis of these products using data obtained from accounting systems, for example, solutions for automation of management staffing, formation of a system of personnel motivation, budgeting, planning. On the this moment this company has carried out several dozens of successful implementations of both QPR products and their own solutions based on them. This means that companies that decide not only to implement QPR products, but also to integrate them with their existing information systems (and modern business users, as a rule, categorically insist on such integration), will not be left alone with these tasks.
It should also be noted that for QPR users, training in the use of the product in Russian is available for a duration of 2 to 5 days, including the joint creation of a working prototype of the company's activity model together with the customer, which is, in essence, a consulting service.
QPR products are advantageous to purchase with a large number of licenses. So, a QPR Process Guide license package for a small number of developers (2-5) and several dozen users (20-100) with annual technical support costs from 12 to 30 thousand euros, while in the case of several dozen developers (20-40) and several hundred users (200-400) the cost of licenses and annual technical support ranges from 60 to 115 thousand euros. However, the main consumers of products of this class are quite large companies - after all, they are the ones who first of all need specialized tools to help improve business processes.
So, today we reviewed two products for business process modeling and strategic planning support, which, in our opinion, have good positions and support in the Russian market. Note, however, that QPR is far from the only company with such support. Therefore, in subsequent articles this cycle we will talk about simulation tools from other manufacturers.
The VRM offer on the Russian market today is quite complete - both domestic and major foreign developments are presented here, including subsystems of "heavy" complex products of large vendors. While Russian software is still more focused on the description of processes, foreigners gravitate toward execution. Before choosing a product, it is necessary to immediately clarify what needs to be described, to what extent and how the execution will be controlled. Next, the system is selected based on a very different set of criteria - from ergonomics, hardware requirements, software to technical support and cost.
As an enterprise grows, its management system becomes more complex. In organizations, the description of this system and ongoing business processes, if it exists, is presented in most cases in disparate and disparate formats, and is out of date. As a result, employees do not understand what processes generally take place in the organization, and the degree of participation of personnel in these processes decreases. The gap between the real actions of employees and common strategy companies. This leads to a slow response to changes in external conditions, which affects the efficiency of the business and, as a result, its profit. In the current economic situation, this is an unforgivable luxury.
Optimization of such costs is an obvious internal reserve for increasing the efficiency of the organization. And here, modern technologies for describing the activities of an organization, the result of which is an information model, can come to the aid of companies. As a rule, the development of an organization's information model is carried out "top down", starting with the formation of the company's mission, corporate goals, and the development of a strategy that determines the necessary set of functions to achieve the goals. A complete information model becomes a management system for the enterprise.
"BPM offers a methodology and tools that link the built process models with the company's operations, provide mechanisms for controlling and monitoring processes," notes Liana Meliksetyan, director of business development, Software AG in Russia and the CIS (the company recently announced the acquisition of IDS Scheer AG). - The latter is especially valuable when building a quality management system or when improving business processes based on quantitative indicators significantly affects business performance.
niche offer
Today on the Russian market you can find a certain number of software products that help simplify the process of describing the organization's activities. Among the Russian developments here are Business Studio ("Modern Management Technologies"), "Business Engineer" ("Bitek"), "Intalev: Corporate Navigator" ("Intalev"), "ORG-Master Pro" ("Business Engineering Group "). Of the most popular foreign software products, it should be noted ARIS Business Performance Edition (IDS Scheer AG), CA ERWin Process Modeler, formerly BPWin (CA), Hyperion Performance Scorecard (Oracle), IBM WebSphere Business Modeler (IBM), SAP Strategic Enterprise Management (SAP ).
“You should pay attention to the fact that Russian developments are primarily intended to describe / design the company's activities. They, as a rule, provide the ability to describe almost any subject area. Foreign manufacturers are more performance oriented. In most cases, their products are one or more modules in a line of software provided by the manufacturer,” comments Alexey Fedoseev, general manager group of companies "Intalev".
Business modeling systems in Russia
Product |
The supplier |
Functionality |
Tools |
Price* |
| Foreign software products | ||||
| IBM WebSphere Business Modeler | IBM | Modeling, simulation, analysis of business processes. Allows you to create a list of KPI indicators, link them to the elements of the business process and predict. Supports more than 40 types of analysis, both static (the structure of the model is analyzed) and dynamic (the model is analyzed during and after simulation). |
Diagrams of the BPMN standard; Crystal Report - creation of any types of reporting on model objects and regulatory reporting, which can be uploaded to MS Word, Excel, pdf, etc. | Cost of one Basic license ~ 1 500 $ , Advanced – ~ 11 500 $ . IBM WebSphere Business Modeler Publishing Server ~ 650 $ . |
| ARIS Business Performance Edition | IDS Scheer | Full cycle of business process management: from strategy description to controlling. ARIS Design Platform module products (ARIS Business Architect, ARIS Business Designer, ARIS Business Publisher, etc.) allow you to model, optimize and publish business processes. Products of the ARIS Strategy Platform module (ARIS BSC, ARIS BSC Portal) allow developing balanced system indicators, link it with the organizational and process structure or other information about the activities of the enterprise. The products of the ARIS Controlling Platform module (ARIS Process Performance Manager, ARIS Risk & Compliance Manager) allow you to control the execution of business processes and analyze the reasons for deviations from planned indicators, as well as check the developed process models for compliance with the requirements of standards and regulations. |
Designing business process diagrams in IDEF, Basic Flowchart, Cross Functional Flowchart, EPC, BPMN, BPEL notations, as well as creating your own types of diagrams. Obtaining a large set of reports on the developed models. All reports can be uploaded to MS Word, Excel, html files, text files, etc. Supports integration with 1C, SAP, Oracle, MS BizTalk Server, DMS (Lotus, Documentum, Web Sphera), Ultimis, as well as with other business process modeling and analysis tools - AllFusion, ERStudio, Power Designer, OracleDesigner, Rational Rose, etc. . Multi-user access to models with different levels of data access, distributed bases data. |
The cost of one license - 2600 €. Technical support is paid additionally and amounts to 22% of the product cost + VAT (18%). |
| CA ERWin Process Modeler | CA | Analysis, documentation and reorganization of complex business processes | Development of business processes in IDEF0 (recommendations of the State Standard of the Russian Federation, US federal standard), IDEF3 (US federal standard) and DFD notations. Built-in regulatory reporting system. Report Template Builder. The developed models can be imported into the Arena simulation environment for real-time analysis. Integrates with CA ERwin Data Modeler, CA ERWin Model Manager, Paradigm Plus, Arena systems. |
From 76 000 before RUB 136,000 |
| Hyperion Performance Scorecard | Oracle | Means of visual analysis of indicators that allow you to simultaneously compare the real achievements of the company with the set goals, the best industry indicators or any other benchmarks, as well as control the dynamics of changes in key indicators over time. | Allows you to organize the import of data from any external systems, including accounting systems, ERP, etc. | The maximum cost of one license for one user is 700 $ Technical support cost 154 $ |
| Russian software products | ||||
| INTALEV: Corporate Navigator | Intalev | Platform and a set of ready-made sets of solutions for management tasks (management templates). Each of the kits is designed to solve a specific business problem: building a strategy, developing a financial structure, etc. The kits are easily integrated with each other, allowing you to develop a unified organization management system: from strategy to job description individual manager. The presence of a separate Configurator module allows you to develop both your own kits and arbitrarily modify standard kits to implement the specifics of a particular organization. The configurator provides the highest level of product flexibility for business modeling and enterprise management systems. | Supports data presentation in various formats (reference books, diagrams), simulation modeling, cost analysis, the ability to develop your own types of diagrams. It is possible to develop routine reports, which can later be exported to MS Word, html-documents Using the web module, it is possible to provide access to the developed models to all interested users. Can be used as a corporate web portal with real-time updates. Using the Security module, you can configure access to editing and viewing data. | The cost of a license for any Kit - 10 000 rub. The cost of the license for the module Configurator - 48 000 rub., per Security module - 29 000 rub. |
| Org-Master Pro | Business Engineering Group | Allows you to develop systems of goals and indicators, a system of business processes, financial, informational, organizational structures, etc. Supports the ability to collect and control key performance indicators. |
When designing, data can be presented in the form of hierarchical directories, projections (reflecting relationships between directories), diagrams. The development of diagrams in IDEF, Cross Functional Flowchart, EPC (Event-Driven Process Chain) notations is supported. The developed diagrams can be analyzed using cost analysis, resource load analysis, and the average process execution time can be calculated. All data developed in the model can be presented as reports that can be uploaded to MS Word, MS Excel, html and text files. | Depending on the version, 3 000 before 5 000 $ |
| business engineer | Bitek | A tool for modeling the activities of an enterprise and developing regulatory documents Supports a full design cycle: from developing a strategy, key indicators and business processes to analyzing and optimizing the organizational structure, improving the efficiency of personnel, projects, building a quality management system, finance and an enterprise information system. | The system allows you to develop business models, generate analytical reports and regulatory documentation on their basis in various areas: strategy, business processes, personnel, etc. Allows you to present data in the form of diagrams, directories, build responsibility matrices. Integrated with MS Office products. | License cost (Profi version 2.0) - 22 000 rub. |
* Prices are correct as of May 2009.
Source: Abis Soft, CNews Analytics, 2009
How to choose a system for business modeling
Before you start choosing a software product, you need to understand three main points: what needs to be described; to what extent; how performance will be monitored. When answering the first question, it is necessary to determine which areas of the management system are to be described, whether a comprehensive description of the entire system is necessary. The answer to the second question should give an idea of whether the management system will be described for an individual business, department, or for the entire organization as a whole. The third question will define the restrictions that may be imposed on the software product in order to further integrate it with the executive system.
Having answers to these questions, you can significantly narrow the range of possible software products. Next, you should choose a product based on such criteria as the possibility of multi-user work, methods of presenting results, interface and ergonomics, availability of documentation and technical support, hardware and software requirements, and cost.
An Overview of the Capabilities of Some Business Modeling Systems*
* - The table below indicates only the presence / absence of a particular functionality. It should be taken into account that the declared functionality is implemented in various products with varying degrees of development.
Opportunity |
ARIS BUSINESS PERFORMANCE EDITION |
CA ERWIN PROCESS MODELER |
HYPERION PERFORMANCE SCORECARD |
INTALEV: CORPORATE NAVIGATOR |
ORG-MASTER PRO |
BUSINESS ENGINEER |
|
| Modeled subject areas | |||||||
|
Not | Not | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Not | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Not | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Not | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Not | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Yes | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Yes | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Not | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ways of presenting data | |||||||
|
Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Yes | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Not |
|
Yes | Yes | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Not |
| Not | Yes | Yes | Not | Not | Yes | Not | |
|
Not | Yes | Not | Not | Not | Not | Not |
|
Not | Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Not |
|
Not | Yes | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Not |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Not |
| Yes | Yes | Not | Not | Not | Not | Not | |
|
Not | Yes | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Not |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
Not | Not | Not | Yes | Yes | Not | Not |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Opportunities for obtaining regulatory reporting | |||||||
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Not | Not |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Not |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | Not | Yes | Yes | Not |
|
Yes | Not | Yes | Not | Not | Yes | Not |
|
Yes | ||||||
02/14/2017, Tue, 16:00, Moscow time , Text: Andrey Koptelov
There are many tools for describing the company's business processes, you just need to choose the right one. How they differ from each other and how not to make a mistake with the choice is described in this article.The introduction of process management in companies, as a rule, is accompanied by the identification of key business processes and their subsequent description, analysis and optimization. Many performers from different departments participate in business processes, many documents are created, and most importantly, there is a complex logic of interaction between performers, which requires displaying the process in a format that is convenient for perception and analysis.
Description of the existing state of the business process in the "as is" status allows not only to fix the state of affairs, but also to conduct a primary analysis of the business process. Whereas the description of the business process in the “as it should be” status allows you to formalize and, most importantly, regulate the new state of the business process for its subsequent implementation into the company’s practice.
Text format for describing a business process
There are many examples of business process regulations that reach hundreds of sheets, however, the larger such a document, the less likely it is to be read, and the more they will be executed. That is why it is necessary to describe business processes in extremely short structured text documents, focusing on who does what and in what time frame.
At the initial stages of business process management
text description allows you to conduct a primary analysis of business processes in the company,
and also fix their target state in the form of an approved regulation
The secret of describing business processes in the form of a structured text is to follow a clear structure: first, it is fixed who and when performs the operation, and then in the subparagraph, the level below, the actions themselves are described, after which it is indicated to whom and in which case the result is transmitted.
Thus, the entire business process is described step by step, indicating the list of documents that are transferred through the process, and the information systems that are used to perform a particular operation.
In practice, even very “large-scale” business processes can be easily described in such a structure, while the advantage of the text approach is its simplicity and accessibility not only to business analysts, but also to any employee of the company. Using these simple rules for structuring text in a company, you can easily create a system of regulations that standardize key business processes.
The disadvantage of a textual description is the ability to “hide” in it innuendo and inaccuracies in the business process, which can only be detected by carefully reading the resulting document. However, despite the shortcomings, at the initial stages of business process management, a structured textual description allows for a primary analysis of business processes in a company, as well as fixing their target state in the form of an approved regulation.
Tabular format for describing a business process
Regarding the option of describing processes in text format, the use of a tabular form adds “structuredness” to the created description of a business process.
The business process is described in the form of a table, where the lines describe the operations in the business process, while each line contains not only the number and name of the operation, but also incoming and outgoing documents, time standards for execution, the performer, the information systems used and the logic of further actions. In fact, when describing a business process in a tabular form, technological maps are created that describe in detail all the necessary actions, indicating their environment.
Depending on the tasks set, the tabular description can display various elements of the business process environment, for example, if the company is working with operational risks, you can add an additional column in which to indicate the existing operational risks with their link to the process operations.
Using a single table template and simple instructions for filling it out, it is quite easy to describe the key business processes in the company by the employees of business units, while the quality of the resulting description will certainly be higher than in text format, but the result will have insufficient visualization regarding the description of the process as a graphic model.
The only drawback of the tabular form is the complexity of displaying the logic of the business process, since for each operation in the table it is necessary to describe in which case what action is performed, for example, “if the document is approved, then operation 5 is performed, and if it is not agreed, then operation 6 is performed ”, which is not always convenient for understanding the features of a business process and its analysis.
Graphical business process model
Recently, many companies describe business processes in the format of graphical models. It can be a diagram drawn on a flipchart, or it can be a model created in a special tool, in accordance with the notation approved by the company.
For most companies that describe processes in graphical form, the business process modeling tool is MS Visio or MS PowerPoint. These tools are included in the standard office suite, which allows you to create business process models for a wide range of people.
In addition to existing tools, cloud-based free business process modeling tools have recently appeared in which you can draw a model in the browser, while saving the result, either on disk or in cloud storage.
Given that cloud-based business process modeling tools are free and easy to get started, they are quickly gaining fans among business analysts and IT professionals, as well as among employees and company leaders.
With the help of a graphical model, a business process can be described in the most qualitative way, because it can reflect not only all the necessary environment of operations, but also visualize the business process logic itself using logical operators and events.
True, in the case of using a graphical form of business process modeling, the number of employees in a company creating business process models can seriously decrease, as some of them will be repelled by the complexity of the toolkit and additional labor costs for creating graphical models, relative to the text and tabular description.
To be among those who model business processes in the company. there were as many representatives of business units as possible, it is necessary to choose modeling tools with a convenient and simple interface, as well as use the simplest notations to display processes.
Business Process Modeling System
Some companies with a large number of employees and high maturity in the field of business process management are moving from the simplest business process modeling tools to Business Process Analysis class systems that allow you to model business processes in a single repository, which allows you to not only create a holistic mutually consistent model description of the organization's activities, but also to receive regulatory documents on its basis using custom reporting.
As a rule, if the number of business process models drawn in a company begins to exceed several thousand, it becomes necessary to ensure their integration with each other, as well as to be able to create regulatory documentation based on the created models, in this case, the use of Business Process Analysis tools is justified.
Working in Business Process Analysis tools requires strict discipline in business process modeling, which is achieved through the normalization of organizational structure reference books, documents and information systems, as well as the approval of the business process modeling notation and auditing the compliance of the created models with the approved notation either at the toolkit level, or with through the approval process.
The use of Business Process Analysis tools also has certain risks associated precisely with the need for strict discipline when creating models and with the complexity of the toolkit interface. This leads to a decrease in the number of business process modelers among representatives of business units. As a result, quite often work in the Business Process Analysis toolkit becomes the prerogative of business analysts and IT specialists, which narrows the possible resources for modeling business processes in a company, and leads either to expanding the staff of business analysts or to attracting external consultants. At the same time, businesses often do not want to work with the resulting models and return to a text or tabular format for describing business processes obtained using reports from the Business Process Analysis toolkit.
From simulation to automation
It is no secret that despite the established business process regulations, company employees often work according to their own rules, because it is not easy to control the correct execution of the regulations, and audits require additional labor.
It is quite logical to shift the control of the correct execution of business processes to automated system, in which to lay all the necessary logic for its execution. When using specialized systems of the Business Process Management Suite class, the business process model becomes executable, and the information system itself manages the business process in accordance with the rules described in the model, assigning operations executors and routing requests in accordance with the logic of the business process.
In this case, the model becomes necessary condition to automate a business process, however, this business process model requires much more detailed study, because it must be “understandable” by the information system that automates the process.
Such a specific "consumer" of the business process model makes its development a difficult task, for which, as a rule, a system analyst or even an IT developer who knows the automation system well is involved. Representatives of business or business analysts in this case can only present a prototype of such a model, after which the agreed prototype must be seriously improved taking into account the features of the BPMS system.
What to choose?
To determine the formats for describing business processes, you need to analyze the size of the organization, its maturity in the field of business process management, and also determine the consumers of the description being created.
In a company of 50 to 500 people, a textual or tabular description of the processes is quite enough to improve and regulate business processes, while the description can be carried out by employees and managers who have undergone specialized training in business process management.
In a company from 500 to 5000 people, you can also limit yourself to a text or tabular description using graphic notations for visualization of especially "tangled" business processes with a large number of participants. In companies of this size, in order to systematize the created description, it is already necessary to maintain a register of business processes and regulations, as well as create templates for both regulations and graphic models.
V large companies with a headcount of 5,000 people, with a developed process office and high maturity in business process management, you can think about using Business Process Analysis tools to model business processes, within which to create a single repository of business process models, and then form on its basis business process regulations and other regulatory documents.
BPMS systems are most effective where the speed and control of the logic of business process execution is important, so they are most often found in those processes where client applications, orders, complaints and contracts are processed, regardless of the size of the company.
Roman Isaev
Organizational development and process management expert
Partner of the State Corporation "Modern Management Technologies"
Head of organizational and corporate development projects
Professional business coach and Business Studio specialist
The article is devoted to tasks and projects from the field of business modeling, business engineering and organizational and corporate development. It systematizes information that should help to better understand the meaning and characteristics of business modeling in organizations, and also shows the role of business modeling for more information. competitive advantage. Various examples, interviews, links to methodologies and practical solutions are given.
Business modeling is a process of developing and implementing various business models of an organization (strategy, business processes, organizational structure, quality, etc.) in order to formalize and optimize its activities. The definition of what a business model is immediately suggests itself.
Business model- this is a formalized description (for example, graphical) of a certain aspect or area of activity of the organization.
There are 4 main ways to develop business models. We list them in descending order of the level of efficiency of building and using business models.
- In the notation (rules) of a specialized business modeling software product: a combination of graphics, tables and text. For more details, see Chapter 8;
- Graphic: tree, block diagram, technological map, etc.;
- Tabular;
- Text.
Many organizations are engaged in business modeling, but each is at different stages of development in this area. Someone has already developed and is actively using a complex business model (a set of models, documents and systems that describe all the activities of the organization). Someone has only graphic models and regulations of several business processes.
The main types of business models that are developed in organizations:
- tree (hierarchical list) of business processes - see Fig. one;
- graphic models of business processes;
- organizational structure model - see fig. 2;
- goal and indicator models (BSC / KPI strategic maps);
- document library models (document tree), information systems models (system architecture) - see Fig. 3;
- product and service models - see fig. 4;
- quality management models and much more.
All these models make it possible to develop professional business modeling software products (BSPs).
For more than 10 years, the author has been using most of the solutions known on the PCBM market in projects and own developments: Business Studio, ARIS, AllFusion Process Modeler (BPWIN), Business Engineer, Microsoft Visio. Each of them has its own functional features, limitations and advantages. You can learn more about the methodology developed by the author for comparing software products in the book Chapter 8.
Rice. 1. Bank business process tree (top level)
Rice. 2. Model of the organizational structure of the bank (upper level)
Rice. 3. Model of the bank document library (fragment)
Rice. 4. Model of products and services of the bank (upper level)
"Gentleman's set" of knowledge and business analytics tools
Let's list a set of basic knowledge and tools that, according to the author, a modern business analyst, a specialist in business modeling, should have. This list may also be useful for young professionals to analyze their strengths and opportunities for development.
- Business modeling software products: Business Studio, ARIS, AllFusion Process Modeler (BPWIN), Business Engineer, Microsoft Visio;
- Business modeling notations and business process descriptions: IDEF0, IDEF3, Data Flow Diagram (DFD), extended Event Driven Process Chain (eEPC), Value Added chain Diagram (VAD), Cross Functional Flowchart, etc. modeling has its own set of notations, and they are described in detail in the User's Guide to the software product;
- Techniques and methods of business engineering / management:
- Development and implementation of a balanced scorecard BSC / KPI;
- Description of business processes;
- Analysis, optimization, improvement of the quality of business processes;
- Business process management on a long-term basis;
- Functional cost analysis (FSA) and simulation modeling;
- Description and optimization of the organizational structure, number of personnel;
- Construction of personnel motivation systems;
- Construction and organization of the functioning of the quality management system (ISO 9000);
- Project management (including PMBOK - Project management body of knowledge);
- Building an integrated business model of the organization;
- Benchmarking;
- Lean, 6 Sigma;
- TQM (total quality management);
- Various industry methods and standards, developments consulting companies. Full list and a detailed description of all methods in relation to the banking industry are presented in.
- Typical solutions, examples, developments and materials. In order not to develop most of the materials from scratch and not make mistakes that other specialists have already gone through, a set of standard solutions, models, documents, etc. is needed.
Thus, the following scheme can be formed (see Fig. 5):
Methodology + Standard solutions + Software product = Result
Rice. 5. "Gentleman's" set of knowledge and business intelligence tools
Here Methods and methods show HOW to carry out projects and tasks.
Typical solutions and materials demonstrate WHAT should be the output (result).
With the help of the PCBM, the execution of all tasks and projects is automated. This reduces time by several times and increases the efficiency of work. For example, the Business Studio system allows you to automatically generate regulatory documentation based on the developed business process models at the click of a button, providing significant savings in financial and labor resources.
Business modeling: features of practical application
The main feature of business modeling is that it should be based on business processes. It is the business process management system (BMS) that is the foundation on which a large number of other management systems and technologies are built.
Many organizations have actively implemented and continue to implement various approaches, methods and technologies for management, improvement and optimization.
Practice shows that in some cases these techniques are successful at the initial stage of implementation, but then they gradually lose their effectiveness and are forgotten.
The failure of attempts to improve the work of the organization using these approaches / techniques is often due to the non-systematic and fragmented actions that do not involve deep analysis and fundamental changes in the work of the organization.
The main way to overcome this problem is to introduce a process approach to management in the organization (i.e., building a business process management system) as the basis for the implementation of other methods, management / improvement and optimization technologies.
Complex business modeling techniques that cannot be reduced to simple and understandable actions usually do not work in organizations. After all, in the end, the implementation of these methods and the results of their application fall on the staff and line managers of the organization, who do not always have specialized competencies in the field of modern management techniques and business engineering, and sometimes meet them with hostility.
In order for the methodology (technology) introduced in the organization and the project as a whole to be successful and bring the planned results, it is desirable that they be:
- Inexpensive. This is especially true for medium and small organizations who cannot afford to implement costly solutions;
- Simple and understandable to ordinary employees of the organization;
- Practically directed, to have enough “quick”, and at the same time, long-term results;
- We took into account the specifics of management Russian companies;
- Contained examples and typical solutions.
Here it is also appropriate to give 8 main principles of quality management, which apply to all tasks of business modeling and allow you to ensure their implementation.
- Consumer orientation;
- leader leadership;
- Employee involvement;
- Process approach;
- System approach to management;
- Continuous improvement;
- Fact-based decision making;
- Mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers.
Indeed, non-compliance with even 1-2 principles can have Negative influence for the development of the organization.
Importance of business modeling
Starting to develop business models, organizations allocate certain human and material resources for the implementation of the project. At the same time, the improvements as a result of the work done should exceed these costs. How does the business model ultimately help the functioning of the organization? There are several most noticeable and widely known positive effects that manifest themselves with a competent and systematic description of business processes.
- Increasing transparency, manageability and controllability of the organization's activities at all levels;
- Reducing lead time and costs, improving the quality and efficiency of business processes;
- Ability to replicate the organization's business (create additional client branches, offices, representative offices);
- Integrated and sustainable development of the organization, a systematic approach to decision-making;
- Reducing dependence on personnel, proper selection of employees, increasing the efficiency of personnel and managers;
- Increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction, and, as a result, the reputation of the organization;
- Financial results.
However, there are other aspects that are not so well known to a wide range of business leaders and owners.
Business modeling and related technologies / solutions have a significant impact on the ratings of an organization, which are assigned by rating agencies, including international ones (Fitch, Moody’s, S&P, etc.).
As a result of the analysis of methods for assigning ratings to various international and Russian agencies (including), as well as based on the results of interviews with representatives of agencies, the author managed to find out that many agencies take into account a group of factors under the conditional name "Corporate governance / management" (non-financial assessments) when calculating ratings of organizations ). This setting includes the following factors:
- Adequate and detailed organization strategy;
- Developed risk management system (including operational risk management system);
- The level of regulation (formalization) of business processes;
- Quality of business processes (history of KPI indicators);
- The level of automation of business processes, the state of information systems and technologies (IT);
- Organizational structure (formalization, efficiency, transparency, distribution of responsibility and authority);
- Evolution and function various systems management in the organization (quality management system, system of work and relationships with customers, personnel management system, etc.).
Detailed conditions and estimates depend on the specific agency.
The algorithm for assigning a rating is quite simple and understandable. The auditors of the rating agency study and assess the activities of the organization in accordance with the rules and criteria laid down in the rating methodology. The input information is:
- Normative and reporting documents of the organization;
- Observation of the activities of the organization and interviews.
Therefore, it is important not only to develop a large number of correct and up-to-date documents, but also to bring them to the attention of employees, to ensure the effective execution of business processes and the functioning of management systems in practice.
The scores for all criteria are summed up according to certain rules and, based on the total score, the organization's rating is determined. Each group of criteria can have a different weight, so a large sum of scores for a group of criteria with a small weight will not contribute very much to the final score.
The symbols of assigned ratings (rating scale) may be different depending on the rating agency and the type of rating itself (credit rating, reliability rating, management quality rating, financial stability and etc). For example: the highest level of reliability, a satisfactory level of reliability, a low level of reliability, etc.
- Participation in tenders and accreditations;
- Improving the image (authority) of the organization in the market, among partners and contractors;
- Improving the image (authority) of the organization with public authorities;
- The expansion of the customer base;
- Attracting investors;
- As a consequence of all the above points - an improvement in financial performance.
Thus, for public companies interested in improving international or national ratings, when evaluating the effectiveness of a project to build an integrated business model, it is advisable to take into account additional features to improve rankings. It should be noted that an adequate study of all the factors listed above that affect the rating of an organization certainly requires the use of professional business modeling software products (BPMP).
Additional opportunities in this direction are provided by the use of typical successful industry solutions. As a current example, we can cite the "Comprehensive Standard Business Model of a Commercial Bank", developed in the Business Studio software product. Summarizing the best practices of process management in credit institutions, this model acts as a model on the basis of which companies in the financial sector can improve corporate governance for all of the above options.
The practice of business modeling in financial and credit organizations
The decision to create a business model of an organization can be made in different ways, depending on the management features of certain companies. Sometimes this is the sole decision of the top manager; it is also possible that the owners of the company realize the need for business modeling. In the practice of working with banking organizations, the author had to deal with such examples.
"All bank activities at the click of a button on the computer"
The Chairman of the Board of Bank A at one of the meetings ordered: “It is necessary that all the activities of the bank be formalized so that, by pressing a button on the computer, I can see the work of any employee and any business process of the bank: its goals, indicators, processes, technologies , results, etc.”
To solve this problem, an electronic business model of the bank was developed. A web browser window was placed on the desktop of the computer of the Chairman of the Board. The links located in it allow you to track all activities: The manager can open any document, business process diagram, find out those responsible for business processes and procedures, statistics on business process indicators and current values, a list of projects currently being implemented in the bank and their status , organizational structure of any division and much more.
The Chairman of the Board was very pleased with the work done. It should be noted that the work was completed in a short time: 1.5 years passed from the moment the task was set to the receipt of the final results. high speed The implementation of the project was ensured thanks to the use of a standard solution as a methodological basis - the "Comprehensive Standard Business Model of a Commercial Bank", which is a system of interrelated models, documents and reference books that describe most areas of activity and management systems of a universal commercial bank.
By the way, by the time the project was completed, the Chairman of the Board had already become a shareholder of the bank. The resulting Integrated Bank Business Model provided a systematic approach to bank management, which allows you to quickly make decisions and make any changes in the work of the bank, improves the efficiency and quality of both individual business processes and departments, and the bank as a whole.
"System approach to bank development"
The shareholders of Bank B set the task of developing a comprehensive and long-term strategy for the development of the bank based on modern technologies management. After conducting research and taking part in several business trainings, the bank's organizational and corporate development specialists proposed the following solution to shareholders.
Since the corporate strategy of the bank has already been determined, it is possible to start with the development of a bank's business process management system, since it is business processes that are the essence of all the work of the bank, and customer satisfaction and the bank's profit depend on the results of business processes.
- We will describe all key business processes, create process teams and train them, ensure effective interaction of all participants in business processes so that business processes run faster;
- We will improve (optimize) processes where necessary, then we will organize business process management on permanent basis. Within each business process, we organize strategic planning so that each business process has a strategy based on current market trends, customer requirements and the bank's strategy, as well as goals and indicators;
- When business processes and their management become transparent and streamlined, we will move on to the next task - building a bank quality management system (according to ISO standards 9000) based on process control system. That is, the QMS will be an add-on for the process management system. This will allow the bank to obtain a certificate ISO conformity 9001 and improve your image, both among customers and among partners. Also, thanks to the QMS and ISO 9000 standards, we will significantly reduce the number of customer claims against the bank and the cost of low-quality products and services, minimize operational risks, supplement the bank's activities with new requirements and management methods;
- In parallel with this, we will start automating business processes. We will update and transfer to a qualitatively new level of the system electronic document management and operational management (DocFlow / WorkFlow), interaction with clients (CRM), etc. We will create a single project office that will oversee all projects for the organizational and corporate development of the bank, we will qualitatively improve the management of the bank's personnel so that this activity is a system.
As a result, we will get an integrated bank management system - a modern and effective tool for managing an organization for shareholders and top managers of the bank.
Conclusion
In modern conditions, in a number of markets, a situation is increasingly emerging when the importance of price competition is decreasing, and the low price of goods or services is no longer a key way to attract and retain customers.
For example, in the financial sector, more and more Clients pay attention to the quality and manufacturability of products / services of a credit institution, the convenience of interacting with the bank to resolve all issues and problems, the ability to quickly meet the organization's new needs and requests of Clients. Of great importance are also important parameters as the reliability and stability of the bank, one of the indicators of which is its fairly high rating in domestic and / or international agencies.
Therefore, there is every reason to believe that the need for business modeling, the introduction of business engineering technologies and organizational development will only grow.
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