Author: Benedikt Diekhans, Axon Ivy
To remain competitive in the digital age, companies must automate and digitize their business processes. To do this, they must first analyze their internal processes in order to identify optimization potential. One possible approach is process potential analysis (PPA). In five steps, the analysis quickly provides an overview of all processes, identifies precisely those processes that are best suited for automation, and delivers a rough target concept as well as a return-on-investment (ROI) calculation.
Efficient business processes are crucial to the success of a company. Manual processes can be made leaner, better and faster with the help of automation and digitization. However, when it comes to identifying these processes, many companies don’t even know where to start. In order to determine which business processes are unnecessarily costing time and money, the method of process potential analysis is a good idea. This analysis not only identifies optimization potential, it also provides the basis for the further automation procedure.
Process potential analysis – step by step
The first step in the process potential analysis is to obtain an overview of existing processes such as core processes, support processes and management processes. The resulting process map is used to determine which processes within a company can and should be automated. In particular, cross-company, time-critical, standardizable processes that have a high repetition rate and many interfaces and participants are suitable for automation. These include inquiry processing, complaint management, customer service or quality assurance. At the end of this first step, there is a process portfolio that serves as the basis for further analysis.
Factors influencing the evaluation: KEF, TEF and WF
In steps two to four, the selected processes are subjected to a closer look with regard to different factors: critical success factors (KEFs), technical success factors (TEFs) and soft factors (WFs).
KEFs include:
- Budget
- Resources
- Complexity
- Involvement of customers or users
TEFs are used to assess processes for their suitability for a digital process automation platform. These include:
- Nature of the IT landscape
- Existing process and IT standards
- Processing speed
- Traceability of the processes
Last but not least, WFs are also taken into account:
- Availability of resources
- Acceptance on the part of the specialist departments and IT
- Identification of possible weak points
The factors are first weighted. Then, on a scale from 0 (no influence) to 5 (very great influence), their influence on the processes is evaluated. In this way, weighted sums can be calculated for each process with regard to KEF, TEF and WF and transferred to a three-dimensional matrix: the contribution to the company’s success (KEF) is found on the X-axis, and the technical feasibility (TEF) on the Y-axis. The size of the circles reflects the soft factors (WF).
This matrix shows at a glance which processes best meet the requirements with regard to the success factors and should therefore be prioritized for automation.
ROI calculation: Does automation pay off?
Now that the sequence of processes to be automated has been determined, the fifth step is the ROI calculation. In the course of this, it is determined whether the automation of the prioritized processes pays off. For this purpose, the current status is first analyzed and then the target model is defined after automation. Points such as time savings, required services and necessary investments are considered. On this basis, a precise ROI calculation is made.
Advantages of a process potential analysis
Thanks to PPA, companies gain a quick and transparent overview of their processes and their added value. In addition, they gain knowledge about optimization potential, changes in the case of process automation, and an assessment of the required functional scope of the BPM system to be used.
However, a PPA can do even more than identify and prioritize processes in need of optimization: The detailed analysis can identify and reduce both general business risks and specific project risks in a process automation. Thanks to the ROI calculation, companies also receive a concrete overview of all necessary investments even before a possible automation project.
In addition, close coordination with all stakeholders and people involved in the project ensures that employees successfully adopt possible new processes. If companies opt for a PPA with Axon Ivy, they also receive a “knowledge transfer on the job” and can select the BPMS tool that suits them best according to the modular principle. So a PPA is the ideal starting point for a company that wants to optimize and automate its business processes in order to remain competitive in the future.
Do you have any questions in connection with the digitalisation and automation of business processes?
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This blog article was provided by our technology partner Axon Ivy. Axon Ivy is a process automation platform and is of interest to companies in all industries that want to make their front-end and back-end processes more efficient and improve internal processes across all departments. The platform is one of the top 3 providers in the DACH region and is also highly rated worldwide by leading analysts such as Gartner and Forrester. Axon Ivy is a member of the globally active Ricoh Group.
