2008-11-22

LinkedIn: Does process need to be Re-Branded?

<question group="Business Process Improvement">
Does process need to be Re-Branded?
For those in the BPI/BPM space, the reason that process is in the middle of People, Process and Technology is not just because it sounds better. Process is the meat of the People and Technology sandwich. People and Technology can be very efficient, add a so-so process and you can get greater efficiency.

However, transform the process to drive the business model and you change an efficient process to an effective one.

So after all these years of Six Sigma, Lean, TQM and others why is process management not a top executive level activity.

Is the reason that process and process management have a negative reputation? Say the word process and do you hear response phrases like 'red tape', 'get in the way', 'stifles innovation and creativity' and 'process gets in the way'?

If this is the case, than is it time that we re-brand process.

Seeking your thoughts for or against and if for, ideas on how to re-brand.

</question>

I also noticed that “process management have a negative reputation” but I am not sure that just re-branding will help. I start from education.
(repeating from another discussion) We observed that architecting/implementing BPM systems requires a lot of communication with practically everyone within the enterprise and everyone should be treated as a stakeholder of the BPM system.

Each group of stakeholder has different views, different concerns and different understandings of the BPM system. Those groups are:
• top managers
• business managers
• process owners
• super-users
• users
• project managers
• business analysts
• IT managers
• IT architects
• IT developers
• IT operators

It is mandatory to explain to each stakeholder (not just CxO) how their concerns will be addressed and how their current working practices will be changed for the better. If all subordinates are happy with a new tool, i.e. the BPM system, then CxO has "no choice".
As a first step, I think, this requires “BPM reference model” which can bring a commonly agreed terminology and improve understanding. Certainly, such a model should not come from a vendors-dominated group, but from a customer-advocates group. Does such a group exist?

Thanks,
AS

2 comments:

Alan Crean said...

You can not rebrand it in any significant way.

Outsourcing and business process outsourcing are all built on the very essence of the word.

And another acronym will not help.

Look at the 4 min video on www.processmaster.com to get a view on what to do next

Alex said...

Agree, it is necessary to educate people what process can do for them.

AS