Examining IT’s role in business process change

Roundtable participants: Tom Atkins (moderator), President, The Tramore Group; Maria Aiello, CIO, Morguard Investments; Steve Hatami, VP, Information Services, Nestlé Canada; Barry Hillier, CIO, Pinty’s Delicious Foods; William Ip, CTO, Wardrop; Andrew Wood, CIO, Aon Reed Stenhouse

ATKINS: In what manner are business process improvements initiated in your enterprise?

WOOD: Globally we have an objective that’s defined as operational excellence – any initiative that can improve the operational efficiency of the organisation is recognised, put forward, and measured based on potential impact. Within the Canadian organisation we initiate through a newly created post of Executive Vice President, National Operations. This is an individual from out of industry and the intent is to challenge the traditional way in which things are performed within the organisation, to take an external best practice view. All major projects are being identified and/or ratified by this individual, looking at the overall goals and objectives we have as an organisation, both from a growth and a cost-management perspective. We’ve also taken on process specialists and we are mapping all key processes, breaking activities down to the constituent level. From an overall BPM viewpoint, we’re building a national repository so that components can be reused across the company. We are then aligning our IT strategy, which is services based, to these components.

IP: Improving business processes is a fairly new initiative at Wardrop. A key issue for us has been to understand what our business processes are in the first place, and then getting our business lines to understand the difference between their micro-processes and the macro-processes that drive the company. We have identified owners of business processes and it’s incumbent on them to identify those micro- versus the macro-processes. These business process owners are responsible for overseeing the macro-process for the company and it’s incumbent on them to drive down to the business lines, drive down to the smaller areas, to define what the micro-processes are and how they match up to the macro-process.

ATKINS: How important is collaboration between the business and IM/IT in implementing a new or revised business process, and what does that collaboration look like?

HATAMI: Initiatives that involve significant business process change require an appropriate level of business sponsorship and ownership. Often, such changes may require even greater dependencies on the enabling technologies. As such, it is critical to keep the business process and corresponding technology changes as aligned and harmonized as possible. There’s a significant degree of co-dependency, and recognition of this fact is critical to a successful and lasting business change. In my experience those initiatives that have been successful were those that realized the need for a unified set of objectives/plans and effectively mobilized business and technical resources in a collaborative fashion.

AIELLO: I firmly believe that a collaborative relationship between IT and the business must exist in order to effect change positively and enable it to be successful in the longer term. The model that looks best in my mind is IT or the CIO playing a role in all the key strategic relationships of an organisation’s hierarchy. There are a lot of people who look at IT and think, “Oh no, we need to spend more money on technology”, so you really have to take that technology hat off in those meetings and present the opportunities for process improvement that may be leveraged with existing tools.

ATKINS: What would you describe as the best example of a successful business process change initiative in your organisation, and what were the keys to its successful implementation?

HILLIER: Our biggest success this year has been our “Inventory Accuracy” project. Strong support from the executive group and the dedication of the project team were key factors in the initiative’s success. Early on the executive committed to the board to improve the organisation’s inventory control practices. This increased visibility helped garner support from the entire management team. The project team really bought into the vision and dedicated themselves to making the process changes happen. Of course there were obstacles, but support from the top enabled the team to overcome them and actually exceed original expectations of the initiative.

AIELLO: Talent Management is a major initiative that came out of our Operational Efficiencies Initiatives committee and was implemented last year. One of the areas where the company has focused is the human capital within the organisation. With the acceleration in the company’s growth, Morguard has realized that in order to adequately grow and mentor our internal staff, we need to manage the talent pool. Talent Management was designed to address these issues. There were several key success factors that supported the initiative. First, the senior management support of the process changes was imperative. Second, the emphasis and reinforcement of accountability, because without reinforcement there is no compliance and no adoption. Third, a structured follow up to measure compliance and capture feedback and suggestions for improvement.

ATKINS: How important is it to take a holistic view – people, process, and technology – in planning business process improvements?