…Sounds obvious, but it is more expensive than you know

Interestingly enough, the true cost of poor process is not in doing the process badly.  Clearly there is some cost there, but often it is the knock-on effect that the poor process has on other areas of the company, the downstream of the problem, which is the real cost multiplier. 

However, this is rarely calculated. If you have poorly documented and followed processes, you won’t even be able to identify the potential costs downstream—let alone measure them. (Note: processes must be documented AND followed to be valuable). So, like an iceberg, you only see a small part of the problem at surface level. Assuming an iceberg is a problem is looking at an iceberg from the Titanic’s rather than the penguin’s perspective.

I have spent the last 30 years evangelizing about the importance of well understood processes. We formalized the UPN (Universal Process Notation) approach which was based on SSADM. And we built a process mapping software vendor in the UK which was acquired by US process automation player and I now live in San Francisco where I have become an avid student of “the Silicon Valley way”.  

After a year or two off, I got 3 of the founders back together and we have launched a company which aims at helping the Fortune 5Million, not just the Fortune 500, to do a better job of systems implementation. At the heart of that is better process documentation. And the sweet spot is Salesforce.com implementations.

Why? Because it is a massive market that has an unmet and growing need. We can make a big difference helping every company achieve and maintain operational excellence. And because we can.

Growing pains

Every business analyst and consultant has drawn a flowchart at some point in their career. Many probably still are. 

Type “flowchart” into Google and you get 75 million results. Type “horse and cart” into Google and you get 380 million results. But the car has superseded the horse and cart.

In the same way, flowcharts are now an outdated way of capturing process content. Over the last 5-10 years there is a simpler and more engaging diagramming notation. It is proven in major highly regulated industries right down to innovative startups and small nonprofits. It is called UPN (Universal Process Notation) and it is not proprietary to any company and doesn’t require any specialized software.

Why the change?

Over the last 20 years I’ve been helping companies understand, document and drive adoption of their operational business processes. It is important to recognize there are a number of different and competing personas, each of whom believe it is THEIR process content.  

So to keep things simple, we’ve found it useful to consider the different perspectives and to use hats.  Each of the four groups has (in most cases) valuable inputs and concerns about any given process. But it is important to ensure that the way document the processes supports their differing needs and perspectives.

By May 25, 2018 – less than 100 days away – any company doing business with subjects of the European Union must comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) stringent rules or face fines up to 4% of revenue. Underpinning the regulations is the principle of “Privacy by design” which means compliance cannot be an add-on, but must be baked into the operational DNA of the organization.  It is a process issue as much as a customer data one.