It should be noted, that while increased market share and sales is one way in which a competitive edge can be achieved, the benefit is not linear. i.e. one dollr in additonal sales usually achieves considerably less than one dollar in extra profit, depending on the cost of ataining that increase in sales and the cost of the sale itself.
However, each dollar saved in the costs of operating the business reflects directly as one more dollar in profit on the bottom line of the Operating statement (Profit/Loss report). Thus benefits resulting from business process improvements and reduction of operating costs are a very effective means of developing a competitive edge.
The ICARIS project is studying the business benefits of business process automation, the problems associated with its implementation and control and the practical methods by which it can be achieved. Here is a brief introduction to our thinking.
Currently, a piece of paper is received containing the transaction attributes. An operator calls up a data entry application program (implementing a business process) from a menu on a computer screen and proceeds to key that information into the computer. This initiates the responding processes required to perform that transaction initiated by another business process - either on the same computer, a remote machine or a human.
With BSI in place, the operator's actions are completely eliminated - the interoperation process itself initiating the responding process. At the same time, the cost of manual keying and the cost and disruption caused by the attendant errors (detection and correction) are also eliminated.
With computerised business processes being triggered automatically, the elimination of processing delays while operators complete other tasks is an additional benefit.
No matter how intelligent the programming of a computer might be in implementing a business process, there are always many exceptions that need human intervention. For instance, a purchasing process operated by a computer might be able to determine how many of what item to order from which supplier and when without any human assistance. But if all the suppliers known to that business process (i.e. are identified as alternate suppliers on the database) are out of stock, a human has to track down an alternative source or determine an alternative action.
In a smoothly running operation, these exception requiring human intervention are infrequent. So the human effort is now directed into the solving of problems in a more dedicated manner rather attempting to solve them on the fly in order to complete the data entry and get on with the next task.
The role of the human has changed from data entry specialist to problem solving specialist. This change in focus can only enhance the effectiveness of the organisation and reduce operating costs.
With the business processes automated as described above, staff absences can have a much less immediate effect because the computerised business processes continue to operate automatically without human intervention. However, if problems requiring human intervention continue to remain unsolved, e.g. because of absences or overload, then the same consequences could result, even though the timing may not be as crucial as in the unautomated scenario.
So, is it possible that the staff allocation to the various computerised processes could be held on the business database and the process automatically direct a problem to a specific person or a specific group of people?
Is it possible another business process could monitor the progress of the solution to those problems and if any remain unsolved after a specified time period, advise the supervisor of the delay for action?
Is it possible to go one step further and that business process redirect the problem to another member of staff, perhaps even a person assigned to a different process, but noted as capable of handling the one involved?
These questions are leading to a determination of the feasibility of actually automating the workflow management processes including staff allocation. Perhaps even preparing staffing schedules and advising department managers on overall optimised staffing requirements for overseeing the computerised automatic business processes.