Your company’s operational processes keep your business afloat. From employee onboarding to the policies surrounding leave applications for human resources, organisations cannot function if their internal processes are not performing efficiently.
There are several methods you can use to improve your business’s model. However, of them all, a business process analysis is the most effective solution, especially for small businesses and medium-sized companies.
A business process analysis can help you re-evaluate your organisation’s existing processes for increased productivity and responsiveness.
What is a business process analysis (BPA)?
A BPA is when an enterprise identifies the processes that keep it operational and examines them for weaknesses. It is a branch of business process management (BPM) and is an effective way of enhancing your business’s process improvement strategies for greater efficiency and productivity.
It is a versatile approach to organisational improvement because it can study any process, regardless of its nature or the type of business it exists within.
A BPA can be helpful in situations such as:
- Identifying trends that reflect poorly on your business’s daily procedures. For example, when and why you may be losing people in the customer service chain.
- When you are about to adopt business process automation policies and solutions (digital transformations).
- If you notice a significant drop in valuable data from one area of your organisation.
- Add another layer of detail to your company’s procedures for root cause analysis (RCA).
A BPA is essential for business growth, and all organisations can benefit from regular examinations. If you do not consistently evaluate your business or you choose to turn a blind eye to its shortcomings, you can damage your company’s reputation and lose revenue.
How does BPA differ from business analysis?
A BPA is not like a business analysis (BA). The purpose of a BA is to investigate larger areas that make up an organisation, such as its budget. A BPA requires you to examine specific business activities and processes.
While both aim to improve your company’s efficiency and boost your agility, a BPA is more detailed and intrinsic.
Why is BPA essential for business success?
Your day-to-day processes help your company stay resilient and maintain control over the market. They also improve your employees’ efficiency, ensuring they can complete critical business services and not waste time on unnecessary activities.
Well-defined, regularly updated procedures help create consistency in your company, making everyone (including stakeholders, customers, and employees) feel more comfortable doing business with you.
However, problems and oversights are common occurrences in business and can appear when you least expect them to. All organisations have weaknesses that hold them back from achieving their business goals. A BPA can help you identify these weaknesses and develop foolproof strategies to overcome them. It determines your company’s ability to adapt to changing landscapes and remain innovative in the face of adversity.
How to conduct a BPA
A comprehensive BPA is a team effort that requires time and a critical eye for your business and its models. When conducting a BPA, you must be thorough in your analysis and be honest with your findings.
Depending on your situation, a BPA may look slightly different for every process. However, you should approach each analysis with the following steps:
- Establish a set of objectives – after choosing the process you want to study, consider what you hope to learn from the BPA and whether it matches your key performance indicators (KPIs). At this stage, you should enlist any solutions that can store collected data and measure the efficacy of the analysis.
- Examine the process as-is – observe the procedure’s current form and the quality of the information being exchanged. This can remind you of the process and provide context for people’s issues.
- Gather information on the procedure – once you have seen the issues first-hand, research the problem by interviewing staff and stakeholders. More information means a better analysis.
- Process modelling – collate your information into a diagram or map representing the process. You can use it as a reference throughout the BPA.
- Analyse the procedure – you can use various analysis techniques to study the process. But to keep this simple, ask yourself questions such as, “When and where does the issue happen the most?” and, “Who frequently encounters the problem? Why?”
- Create solutions and implement them – using the information you have gathered throughout the BPA, devise solutions that overcome the problems you have witnessed. After sharing them with your company and deploying them, regularly check in with employees and stakeholders for updates.
A BPA provides a worthwhile opportunity to reconnect with your organisation’s innate processes and re-examine them for improvement. Your business has experienced much growth since you first dreamed about it, and it should not have to suffer from out-of-date procedures.
Enhance your business’s operations with a BPA
A BPA is a valuable asset that ensures that a business’s processes are efficient and relevant for any day and age. Organisations who regularly analyse their models and look for ways to improve can anticipate and avoid problems, perform better under pressure, and grow by attracting new customers.
The business support services at Muscatech marry technical expertise with corporate ingenuity to help companies like yours overcome their problems and grow into profitable institutions. If you are experiencing setbacks with your processes or need some advice on what technologies can streamline your operations, talk to the team today and achieve great success.
