home Accounting Who studied the principles of business process automation. Business Process Automation - Basics

Who studied the principles of business process automation. Business Process Automation - Basics

Automation of business processes sometimes seems to the head of a magic wand. But how to automate business processes in the best way? In order for the work to be argued, papers not to be lost, regulations to help, the team to act like a well-oiled mechanism?

In the article, we will analyze the nuances of building and automating business processes, consider how to avoid mistakes, what are the goals and objectives of automating business processes, and where to start. If you are thinking about improving business processes and, perhaps, introducing an electronic management system for them, read the article carefully. And take a pencil!

Three whales of chaos in business: how to automate processes that do not exist

Before we talk about what opportunities business process automation opens up, let's think about what difficulties you are facing now.

The three bad "pillars" that keep chaos in business are universal. Most likely, you are also familiar with them:

Regular mistakes. Petrov made a typo, Sidorov endorsed an unverified document, Vasechkina sent an invoice with incorrect details. Such mistakes bring temporary and financial losses, twitchy eyes and work at night.
Downtime. The document is being approved for a week, then the second, the work is worth it. A key employee is on vacation or quit without handing over the case.
General confusion. Where did the paperwork go? Why did the secretary in the pile of sheets not notice the urgent document? Where should a specialist run when a client contacts him, if the right person is not available? This confusion and running around the corridors with bundles of papers is annoying and certainly does not contribute to productive work.

Even 10 years ago, business process modeling seemed expensive, time-consuming and therefore unnecessary to most companies. Some people think so even now, after reading horror stories about unfinished projects and millions spent, or even approaching automation from the wrong side. But it turned out that companies working on business process automation grow faster, overcome times of crisis better and outperform competitors. In such companies, employees feel more comfortable, which creates the right working atmosphere in the team. Examples are the stories of Toyota, Amazon, McDonalds, as well as our customers, whose feedback on business process automation.

Today, the ability to build business processes and know how to automate them are becoming an important competitive advantage.

Business processes: what do we automate, comrades?

Sometimes the management of the company, busy strategic issues, is delusional: everything is fine with us. But if Petrov knows that in the event of a marketing task, you need to contact Ivanova, this is not a business process. But a specific action map that universally describes the steps that employees go through to achieve a specific result, this already looks like a business process.

An activity scheme, in order to call it a business process, must take into account three factors:

The stability of the described relationships: multiplicity of choice of actions, transitions, conditions are taken into account.
Regulation of actions during the process: calls, letters, attachments, appeals, sightings.
Logical completion: specific achievable goal.

A clearly modeled business process will allow you to see the result and control the work at all stages in order to prevent losses and errors “at a low start”.

Depending on the occurrence of “thin spots”, the business process is changed, its stages are adjusted, and they look at which links are weak. If you have any difficulties with the development of algorithms, we are ready to help you. After all, the development of business processes is preparation for the project of their automation.

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The main goal of business process development is the magical transformation of chaotically woven chains of intercompany interactions into ordered, consistent and understandable algorithms. Let there be order in work, office, in the minds of employees and in the minds of managers!

Uri, where's the button? Goals of Business Process Automation

Now the question is: how to manage all this? Well, you need a whole staff of employees - to keep your finger on the pulse and carefully monitor the "thin places", "weak links" and the execution of everything that should be performed!

A quarter of companies are following this path, deploying quality departments, expanding managerial and secretarial staff. But it is much more useful to ask yourself how to automate business processes and transfer the control function over them to one space. Such a business process management system will be both a constructor, a monitoring mechanism, and a controller that gives signals when something does not go according to plan. But to " magic button” has earned, you still have to work hard.

Of course, the goals of business process automation are not only a convenient way to control. As a result, the use of an automated business process management system will help:

Organize regular tasks.
Minimize the human factor.
Clearly separate areas of responsibility within processes.
Keep all the details of the process under control.
Include in the customer interaction scheme.
Create a unified IT infrastructure with different access rights.
Save time, yours and your employees.
As a result - to save money on the management of the company.

As you can see, the goals of business process automation are in many ways the same as yours!

Business process management - a system of one company

To make it even clearer, let's analyze the specific functions of the business process management system - "1C: Document Management 8" - using examples.

We have clearly seen how an automated business process differs from a “written on the knee” one. It remains to understand how to come to this level of automation.

The Secret Ingredient: How to Automate Business Processes Losslessly

You've probably heard stories about Company N, which implemented a super system, fiddled with it, and spitting back to Excel. This is what happens when a company encounters unforeseen difficulties. That employees sabotage the unusual way of working. That the settled processes do not give in to regulation in any way. That the implementation budget is beyond the desired. Then the system itself is heavy and incomprehensible, but it is necessary that “there is a button here, I press it, and everything works.”

Managers often forget the rule: the first stage, from which business process automation is built, is tasks. The document management system has a huge functionality that can satisfy the requirements of the most whimsical business. But first, these requirements must be presented.

Our research confirms that 70% of business difficulties arise just at the stage of fixing requirements and results. Therefore, we provide initial consultations, as well as offer a pre-project study service. This step helps:

identify "thin spots" in the company,
determine what goals are automation system,
understand whether the standard functionality is suitable for the company or whether changes need to be made,
find out what set of functions will be optimal for business,
determine which processes to automate in the first place, and which can be postponed. For example, areas that slow down the work of the entire company should be prioritized, even if the work on them is not the easiest.

Properly capturing system requirements and results is the secret ingredient to the success of an automation project. Sometimes at this stage it becomes clear that there is a problem with business processes. Then you need to modify them or build from scratch.

Having decided on the tasks that face the automation of business processes, we proceed to the formation of a project team and to the implementation of the project.

Do you want to know what results your business can achieve? Contact us for a free consultation - let's talk!

At the present level of development, process automation is one of the approaches to process management based on the use of information technology. This approach enables the management of operations, data, information and resources through the use of computers and software that reduce or eliminate human involvement in the process.

The main purpose of automation is to improve the quality of process execution. An automated process has more stable characteristics than a process performed in manual mode. In many cases, process automation can increase productivity, reduce process time, reduce costs, increase accuracy, and increase stability of operations.

To date, process automation has covered many industries and areas of activity: from production processes to shopping in stores. Regardless of the size and scope of the organization, almost every company has automated processes. The process approach provides for the same principles of automation for all processes.

Despite the fact that process automation can be performed at different levels, the principles of automation for all levels and all types of processes will remain the same. This is general principles, which set the conditions for the efficient execution of processes in automatic mode and establish rules automatic control processes.

The main principles of process automation are:

consistency principle. All actions in an automated process must be coordinated with each other and with the inputs and outputs of the process. In the event of a mismatch of actions, a violation of the process may occur.
principle of integration. The automated process must be able to integrate into the overall environment of the organization. At different levels of automation, integration is performed differently, but the essence of the principle remains the same. Process automation should ensure the interaction of the automated process with external environment(in relation to this process).
principle of independence of execution. An automated process should be performed independently, without human intervention, or with minimal human control. A person should not interfere in the process if the process is carried out in accordance with the established requirements.

These general principles are detailed depending on the level of automation considered and specific processes. For example, the automation of production processes includes such principles as the principle of specialization, the principle of proportionality, the principle of continuity, etc.

Levels of process automation

Process automation is essential to support management at all levels of a company's hierarchy. In this regard, automation levels are determined depending on the control level at which process automation is performed.

Management levels are usually divided into operational, tactical and strategic.

In accordance with these levels, the levels of automation are also distinguished:

lower level of automation or level of performers. At this level, automation of regularly running processes is carried out. Process automation is aimed at performing operational tasks (for example, executing a production process), maintaining established parameters (for example, autopilot operation), maintaining certain operating modes (for example, temperature conditions in a gas boiler).
production management level or tactical level. Automation of processes of this level ensures the distribution of tasks between different processes of the lower level. Examples of such processes are production management processes (production planning, service planning), resource management processes, document management processes, etc.
enterprise management level or strategic level. Automation of enterprise management level processes provides the solution of analytical and predictive tasks. This level of automation is necessary to support the work of the top management of the organization. It is aimed at financial, economic and strategic management.

Automation of processes at each of these levels is ensured through the use of various systems automation (CRM systems, ERP systems, OLAP systems, etc.). All automation systems can be divided into three basic types.

Types of automation systems include:

immutable systems. These are systems in which the sequence of actions is determined by the equipment configuration or process conditions and cannot be changed during the process.
programmable systems. These are systems in which the sequence of actions can vary depending on the given program and process configuration. The choice of the necessary sequence of actions is carried out due to a set of instructions that can be read and interpreted by the system.
flexible (self-tuning) systems. These are systems that are able to select the necessary actions in the process of work. Changing the process configuration (sequence and conditions for performing operations) is carried out on the basis of information about the progress of the process.

These types of systems can be used at all levels of process automation individually or as part of a combined system.

Types of automated processes

In every sector of the economy, there are enterprises and organizations that produce products or provide services. All these enterprises can be divided into three groups, depending on their “remoteness” in the natural resource processing chain.

The first group of enterprises are enterprises extracting or producing natural resources. Such enterprises include, for example, agricultural producers, oil and gas companies.

The second group of enterprises are enterprises that process natural raw materials. They make products from raw materials mined or produced by the enterprises of the first group. Such enterprises include, for example, enterprises in the automotive industry, steel enterprises, enterprises in the electronics industry, power plants, and the like.

The third group is the service sector enterprises. Such organizations include, for example, banks, educational institutions, medical institutions, restaurants, etc.

For all enterprises, it is possible to single out general groups of processes associated with the production of products or the provision of services.

These processes include:

business processes are processes that ensure interaction within the organization and with external stakeholders (customers, suppliers, regulatory authorities, etc.). This category of processes includes the processes of marketing and sales, interaction with consumers, the processes of financial, personnel, material planning and accounting, etc.
design and development processes All processes involved in the development of a product or service. These processes include the processes of development planning, collection and preparation of initial data, project implementation, control and analysis of design results, etc.
production processes are the processes necessary to produce a product or provide a service. This group includes all production and technological processes. They also include requirements planning and capacity planning processes, logistics processes, and service processes.
control and analysis processes- this group of processes is associated with the collection and processing of information about the execution of processes. These processes include quality control processes, operational management, inventory control processes, etc.

Most of the processes belonging to these groups can be automated. To date, there are classes of systems that provide automation of these processes.

TOR for the "Warehouses" subsystem is an example of the Terms of Reference for automation of enterprise warehouse management.

This document is an example of a real Terms of Reference, on the basis of which an automation system was selected and implemented warehousing industrial enterprise.

The document includes 26 pages. Document Format - Microsoft Word 2002. Compatible with all versions of MS Word. The document allows editing and making changes.

TOR for the "Document Management" subsystem is an example of a Terms of Reference for automating the management of the document management process.

This document is an example of a real Terms of Reference, on the basis of which a workflow automation system for an industrial enterprise was selected and implemented.

The document includes 17 pages. Document format - Microsoft Word 2002. Compatible with all versions of MS Word. The document allows editing and making changes.

TOR for the "Purchasing" subsystem is an example of a Terms of Reference for automating procurement and supplier management processes.

This document is an example of a real Terms of Reference, on the basis of which a procurement automation and supplier management system for an industrial enterprise was selected and implemented.

The document includes 23 pages. Document format - Microsoft Word 2002. Compatible with all versions of MS Word. The document allows editing and making changes.

Process Automation Strategy

Process automation is a complex and time-consuming task. To successfully solve this problem, it is necessary to adhere to a certain automation strategy. It allows you to improve processes and get a number of significant benefits from automation.

Briefly, the strategy can be formulated as follows:

process understanding. In order to automate a process, it is necessary to understand the existing process in all its details. The process must be fully analyzed. The inputs and outputs of the process, the sequence of actions, the relationship with other processes, the composition of the process resources, etc., must be defined.
process simplification. Once the process analysis has been carried out, it is necessary to simplify the process. Extra operations that do not bring value should be reduced. Individual operations can be combined or run in parallel. Other technologies for its execution can be proposed to improve the process.
process automation. Process automation can only be performed after the process has been simplified as much as possible. The simpler the order of the process, the easier it is to automate and the more efficient it will work. automated process.

Benefits of process automation

Automation of processes can significantly improve the quality of management and product quality. When implementing a QMS, automation has a significant effect and enables the organization to significantly improve its work. However, before deciding to automate processes, it is necessary to evaluate the benefits of running processes in automatic mode.

Typically, process automation provides the following benefits:

increases the speed of performing repetitive tasks. Due automatic mode the same tasks can be completed faster because automated systems are more accurate in their actions and are not subject to a decrease in performance from the time of work.
improving the quality of work. The elimination of the human factor significantly reduces the variations in the execution of the process, which leads to a decrease in the number of errors and, accordingly, increases the stability and quality of the process.
increased control accuracy. Through the application information technologies in automated systems, it becomes possible to store and take into account more process data than with manual control.
parallel execution of tasks. Automated systems allow you to perform several actions at the same time without loss of quality and accuracy of work. This speeds up the process and improves the quality of the results.
quick decision making in typical situations. In automated systems, decisions related to typical situations are made much faster than with manual control. This improves process performance and avoids inconsistencies in subsequent steps.

Despite the obvious advantages, process automation is not always appropriate. After analysis and optimization, it may turn out that process automation is not required or economically unprofitable.

In a number of situations, manual execution of processes may be preferable to automation:

process operations are difficult to automate. From a technological or economic point of view, some process steps can be very difficult to automate.
short product life cycle. If a product must be developed and implemented in a short period of time, or the duration of its existence on the market is short, then process automation may not be appropriate. Manual execution of processes will be less expensive and faster than automation.
unique or one-of-a-kind products. When a consumer needs a product with unique manual characteristics, such a product can only be released if the processes are performed manually.
sharp fluctuations in demand. A change in the demand for a product requires a change in the volume of production. Such changes are more easily performed by manually executing the process.

Modern business to some extent differs from the business of previous generations, if we talk about the world as a whole, and fundamentally, radically - from entrepreneurial activity in our country, where it was enough just to do your job and produce a certain “planned” product, without regard to internal efficiency. But the change in the political situation in the country, global technological progress, together with competition, have changed the vector of building companies, in fact, forcing entrepreneurs of a new era to focus their efforts, first of all, on work productivity. There have been several major transformations of business, business tools and business systems at once, one of which was the emergence of such concepts as process management and business processes.

About why process management today is the most productive method of managing business chains within a company, what role business processes and their automation play in companies, how, in fact, it is possible to automate processes, and what the business process automation system gives in terms of effectiveness companies - let's talk in today's material.

Development of business processes in the modern world

In a sense, business processes have existed since the dawn of entrepreneurship. Intuitively, people who were involved in trading were already building some ordered sets of sequential actions in order to achieve some result in terms of economic efficiency. Then for them, most likely, it looked just a logical or convenient way to organize their business activities. Therefore, the term "business process" came into use, meaning something understandable on an intuitive level to anyone who is engaged in business.

Initially, business processes were actually instructions that fixed the most correct description of how certain actions should be performed. Technically, these were disparate regulations on how a company performs certain procedures. Later, entrepreneurs realized the need to work with these documents at a deeper level. This was the first experience of researching business processes in order to increase their productivity.

In the 20s of the XX century, processes began to be described not only in words and sequence, but in the simplest flowcharts with graphic design relationships on the similarity: "if you do this, this will be; if you do otherwise, that will be." Then came the time of related algorithms, along with which business processes, as an element of performance management and the enterprise as a whole, are increasingly formalized and consolidated as a MUST HAVE in all business sectors.

With the advent of the computer era and the discovery of new opportunities in terms of technical support for business processes, attempts began to translate business processes in electronic form, the formation of stable horizontal and vertical links between various processes, and with it the first attempts to automate small areas of activity.

All this was the progenitor of the future total automation of business processes, aimed at increasing the efficiency of the company. Subsequently, a number of developers who saw the potential of business automation and the possibility of developing a solution that can be implemented virtually an unlimited number of times in different companies entered the automation market and began to offer business various solutions in the field of business processes applicable to any functional levels of business.

Total modeling of business processes has begun, there have appeared electronic systems control and accounting, quality, procedures for standardization and regulation of normative indicators and ways to minimize deviations from them have developed.

Thus, the idea of the need to build a result-oriented business based on certain standards was formed and continued to develop. In fact, it was a response to the challenge of the time and the need to increase one's competitiveness, it is a "response to the challenge of consumers" and a logical development of companies and the market.

Business process as a key to success

Any commercial company focuses on a single result - making money. To achieve this goal, the company, depending on its scope and size, carries out a certain number of actions. At the same time, all of them must have a certain final result, and the totality of these results ultimately leads the company to the implementation of the task and profit. Therefore, any company, regardless of its type of business, industry, geography and other characteristics, will be a system of interrelated business processes, regardless of what this company does.

Any business process in the company, in turn, has owners and a chain of participants, teamwork which, within the framework of a certain planned standard, ensures the achievement of a normative result. In addition, each process has predetermined control points by which process owners can monitor intermediate results and, if necessary, take managerial corrective actions.

It is in the totality of the results of various processes of the company that the purpose of the main activity lies.

Today, business process management has become not just an important, but rather an integral part of the business of efficient enterprises. It is difficult to imagine a truly progressive and cost-effective company, the organization system of which would not be based on a process approach to business. Components business processes are regulated by standard production indicators, the cost of financial and production resources, staff productivity and the actual economic potential of the enterprise.

In parallel, business processes began to perform another important function: neutralizing the influence of the human factor. Regardless of the degree of technical equipment of the company or the level technical progress companies still employ people, not robots, so at a certain organizational level, the influence of the human factor manifests itself in any case. In order to create the possibility of regulatory control of the actions of personnel, business processes are prescribed key indicators efficiency for the company's employees, the degree of their responsibility and actual productivity within the framework of the process under consideration. Thus, the organic functioning of the system is ensured, in which “everything is in its place” and control is carried out not only over the final effectiveness of the process, but also over the contribution to the process of each link of the business chain included in it.

From an analytical point of view, the business process system becomes a source of indicators, metrics and knowledge for the organization's management, since it allows not only to control the current status, but also to generate forecasts and scenarios to improve the company's efficiency in the future. Business process analytics, or as it is commonly called in the economic literature - the study of business processes, allows you to consider the business in the most detailed way from the point of view of a focus on productivity. Management with the right approach to process modernization can gradually improve almost all key company indicators:

Improve the production process in terms of its speed, cost and product quality;
To increase the productivity and efficiency of personnel, as well as the resulting issues of personal financial motivation and the general fund of labor costs for personnel;
Optimize the administrative block of processes and operational costs;
To improve the quality of the internal structure, document flow and internal operational discipline in the company;
Improve the quality of external and internal communications companies.

In general, the process approach involves constant improvement and the desire for endless optimization of companies, so it is impossible to list all the functional centers whose work can be improved based on the analytics of the processes of these centers. Therefore, it is necessary, first of all, to be guided by logic and focus on the specifics of a particular organization, sensibly assessing the real ceiling for improving a particular process. Improvement for the sake of improvement does not make any sense from the point of view of increasing economic efficiency. Individual characteristics specific business will much better determine the need and the right way for optimization than template improvements imbued with the philosophy of infinite efficiency improvement.

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Automation of business processes as a way to the future

Era digital economy gave businesses many new opportunities to improve their own process efficiency. Leading business analysts have been actively working on the development of the topic of process management and business process optimization in the last ten years. Many different approaches and principles for managing companies based on the methodology of business processes have been developed, and each of them deserves special attention (in particular, it also implies the possibility of managing business processes). They may have varying degrees of efficiency for a particular company, since to some extent they depend on the type of business, scale and other characteristics of the enterprise's economy, but all of them allow us to conclude that business process automation is the shortest path to a predictable management and development model. business.

Along this path, business process automation makes it possible to increase competitiveness by increasing the productivity of a specific section of the business chain, facilitating a number of completely standard operating procedures:

Automation will simplify the issues of accounting and reporting, primary accounting, input of large amounts of information, control of commodity balances and other mathematical / computational procedures, which are traditionally a predominantly manual block of labor-intensive operations. Most often, this is achieved by introducing into practice the use of automated IT technologies focused on document processing and independent operations, replacing data input with various scanning elements and other simplifications of such routine procedures.
Automation of processes allows you to reduce or optimize the main costs of the enterprise. The main expenditure items are traditionally the production process and the company's personnel, and process automation will make it possible to highlight the main narrow places and key underperforming parts of the workforce, as well as achieve cost savings by eliminating these components from operations.
Automation of processes makes it possible to improve the quality of products through compliance with regulatory requirements and the implementation of internal control measures.
Automation of processes makes it possible to free up the intellectual resource of the managerial level and key specialists companies, redirecting their efforts from performing labor-intensive and routine manual operations to the development of the company.

The main principle of any automation is that it must be integrated at all levels of the organizational structure associated with a given (automated) business process. It is impossible to automate the workflow process without including courier service companies and the secretariat. Or, for example, to automate any cycle of the production process, but not automate logistics or work with customer complaints. If accountants continue to count payments with their hands on a calculator, having an automated process of reconciling invoices and approving payments, then the business process can be considered incompletely automated. And this, to some extent, deprives it of any sense at all, because in the event of an error (human factor), it will not be possible to track it in time, and it will affect subsequent processes.

Companies face different challenges in automating business processes depending on their internal characteristics.

For example, maintaining manual bookkeeping and disparate tabular financial accounting, in fact, also has a certain number of processes within its structure, but the introduction of complex automation in this working field will cause certain problems, due not only technical features but also opposition from staff.

Therefore, business process automation projects are almost always developed from scratch, since it is impossible, without plunging into the specifics of the company, to identify those problems that may emerge in a single organization. There are situations when management decides on automation, not taking into account that the company is simply not ready for it, and it is not possible to implement the project in principle. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to clearly represent the goal that needs to be achieved as a result of automation, determine what resources are needed to achieve the goal, what personnel will be involved in the implementation of the automated business process, and what market trends may affect the business process in the short term. .

Only a well-thought-out process automation strategy can ensure the end result and eliminate the risk of work for the sake of work. Everyone knows examples of complete inoperability of business processes after their “automation” or situations when it is impossible to complete automation projects due to internal factors. Therefore, let us dwell a little on the typical problems faced by companies involved in business processes:

If the business managed to overcome the above mistakes, since the problem situations were worked out in advance, it will face the question of how to properly adjust the automated business process. Consider the properties of such business processes in more detail:

Based on the above, it is obvious that the automation of business processes, regardless of location, industry, market or line of business, that is, for any company, is a fundamentally new level of doing business. It is impossible to overestimate the benefits of implementing automated business processes, since in an era of fierce competition and the digital economy, they become an absolute necessity for those companies that want to maintain and increase their market share. By introducing automated business processes, a company not only gets a certain set of obvious advantages over its competitors, but also brings its business to a fundamentally new level of doing business. In part, this process can be called a worldview focused on internal performance and efficiency improvement. In the twenty-first century, manual labor is no longer the backbone of the economy, and companies can accelerate their growth, increase their productivity and speed, improve service quality, or reduce costs through the intellectual achievements of mankind in the field of business process automation.

Automation of business processes is a very important task for every company that is focused on continuous growth and development. The criteria that determine when it is time to automate certain processes, develop or integrate existing IT solutions depend on the size of the company and the stage of its development. At the first step, most companies implement CRM, then ERP, and when the business grows up, they think about BPM. What is hidden behind these abbreviations and at what point should each of the solutions be applied in your company?

Build relationships with clients

A CRM system is perhaps one of the first IT solutions that a company selling goods or services to customers should implement. If your business is not a shawarma stall near the metro or production company with a single customer, CRM will definitely come in handy. good sign what came - the fact that you can no longer keep in your head all the agreements and interactions with current customers.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, so it's not just a database with addresses and phone numbers of clients and transaction amounts. First of all, it is a system that helps build stable relationships with your users. And this includes not only leading the client through the sales funnel - from application to transaction - but also the participation of the entire user base in email marketing, trigger mailings, special promotions and, as a result, repeat sales.

Without a CRM system, a business can grow “in breadth” within certain limits (due to the influx of new customers), but it will be quite difficult for it to increase the average check, profit per customer and increase the base of loyal users.

“We have a phased approach to automation: as the number of orders increased, we standardized and automated business processes using ready-made solutions on the market. First of all, we automated the work with clients as much as possible so as not to waste time searching important information and respond as quickly as possible to our customers' requests. We have implemented a CRM system to see and constantly analyze the history of relations with the client - calls, orders, correspondence, Feedback. If suddenly you need to quickly raise the order history, and the responsible manager falls ill, these systems make life very easy. If you need to transfer cases to a new employee, then this is also not a problem.", - says Evgeny Nepeyvoda, managing partner of the Kinodoctor company.

Automate processes within the company
During the first months and even years of its life, a company can grow and develop spontaneously: new departments and functional divisions appear, tasks are split up, the workload is redistributed among different employees. At this point, confusion can arise: who is responsible for which tasks? When should this work be completed?

If such questions have become relevant for your company, then it's time to automate processes within the organization. For this use ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning - enterprise resource management). ERP helps to integrate all departments and functions of the company into a single system. As a result, all employees work with a single database, it is easier for them to exchange various kinds of information, distribute tasks (both within a department and between different departments).

“A signal that it’s time to start automating resources within the company is problems with the organization of processes at the department level and between departments: the process may not be followed, slowed down or be incomprehensible to the performers and management”, - Maxim Kainer, business analyst at DIRECTUM, says.

Dive deep into business processes

If the main task of ERP is to optimize business processes in a company by reducing material and time costs, then systems BPM (Business Performance Management) solve higher level problems. We can say that ERP systems are geared towards solving tactical issues, while BPM is more about strategy. While ERP is based on resources and the current state of the business, BPM helps to look deep into business processes. A BPM system is needed when a company has several non-trivial business processes (which can constantly change), and there is a need to speed them up, make them more standardized and transparent.

“Business automation is simply necessary at the stage of active growth of the company. Without it, you will be tied to your company with a thick rope, moreover, it will be difficult to achieve significant business scale.
Two of my companies are now fully automated. This means that without me, both sales and marketing functions and managerial functions making decisions, including strategic ones.
You can implement automation of this level when you already know your business thoroughly. When should it be done?
● When the company starts to grow and it becomes impossible to manage it in a "manual" mode
● When there is a need to free up your time or the time of managing managers
● When you began to feel depressed and completely unwilling to further develop this business on your own
● When you want to run new project
● When you need time to figure out how to explode your current business
In order to correctly implement automation, it is necessary to understand very clearly all business processes, the sequence of actions that need to be automated - which is why you first need to go through the path of "manual" work. But it is important not to “hang” in the stage of manual labor for a long time. Corresponding habits and norms are so ingrained within the business and the team that automation becomes alien and difficult to implement., - says the founder of the network of photo schools Like and the network of urban cafes "Sweater" Galia Berdnikova.

Own or factory?

At the automation stage, many companies are faced with a dilemma - should they write their own solution or use the "boxed" one?

Most large IT companies such as Microsoft, SAP and 1C provide ready-made automation systems for business. There are also many smaller vendors that offer out-of-the-box solutions - with smaller scale, you can achieve more customization with these vendors for your business. However, many companies are trying to make do-it-yourself solutions.

« When I worked in a small SEO company, the need for a service for assigning tasks to copywriters, monitoring their execution and tracking time appeared with a staff size of more than five people. Initially, a self-written solution was used. But it became difficult to maintain, and it ran out of functionality after a year and a half, with a staff of 15 people: three account sellers, four programmers and a copywriter department. We purchased an annual subscription to a cloud solution that combines CRM, simple workflow and time tracking.
This is a typical scenario: at first, managers think “we will do everything ourselves”, but then there is an understanding that there are turnkey solutions from vendors who have been developing and improving them for years for a reason.
There are cases when, even with a staff of more than 20 people, firms manage with self-written services, but for this you need your own IT specialist who will constantly work on this solution - this is not cheap, ”says Maxim Kainer.
But still, ready-made factory programs cannot solve all the problems of the customer - you must always understand that they will have to be adapted to your needs.
“Be prepared for the fact that any “box version” of an IT automation product will not be able to take into account all your specifics and will require additional customization for your processes. And the refinement of the system will continue in the future as your business grows and becomes more complex.”, - says Dmitry Arkhipenko, managing partner of the law firm Revera.

How to choose the automation system that suits your business at this stage? Leave your email and we will send you a list of suitable solutions!

In times of crisis in business, in order to prevent all kinds of problems, as well as to make work as a whole more efficient, companies use methods called integrated automation. Using this method, it is possible to achieve a significant reduction in costs, both technological and financial.

What is business process automation

A business process always includes various stages, functions, steps and other actions performed in a certain sequence. The main purpose of applying business processes is the achievement by the enterprise of certain intentions (a set of processes from the moment orders are received to they are fulfilled). The business process includes all participants in the organization interacting with each other. It's about about managers, clients and employees of the firm.

That is, the work of any enterprise can be considered as a set of various business processes interconnected. In companies, all business processes are conditionally divided into three types. This is:

main (key) business processes, aimed at creating the value of a service or goods for buyers and increasing their value at an intermediate stage of creation (for example, installation, production, development);
supporting business processes aimed at providing the necessary key processes resources, as well as provide the infrastructure of the company (we can talk about resource management, information processing and maintenance);
development processes that ensure the improvement of the company's work in the future; within the framework of these business processes, personnel are trained and improve their skills, further activities are planned;
managing business processes aimed at solving the problems of the company through planning, motivation and training of personnel, operational management.

Based on all of the above, we can say that any leader should manage business processes, since the success and prosperity of the company largely depends on this. Any director aims to organize the work of his enterprise in such a way that the implementation of business processes is carried out in accordance with the previously drawn up scheme. At the same time, there should be no disruptions in the company's activities. Ideally, spending time on working with documentation should also be kept to a minimum.

There are many effective ways to organize your business today. Among the most useful and rational, one can single out the integrated automation of business processes based on the development of one's own model. information system or ready-made, but adapted to your enterprise. It should be noted that such an automation system makes it possible to make production more profitable, significantly reducing costs.

The desired result from the automation of business processes should not be expected with the old approach to the organization management model. The traditional production culture, most often, uses a functional business process management model that has been used for quite a long period of time. Until now, she gives managers good opportunities for growth and development. The biggest defect in it is the presence of delays and loss of information. Usually, effective methods impacts are discussed orally. And since such a form tends to distort information, information after the "negotiations" becomes unreliable.

AT modern business and economic practice, many methodologies are used for development. If we consider not global trends, but a single company, we can say about a number of problems and symptoms in which complex automation of technological and business processes is extremely necessary and important. In this article, we will look at everything “from the end”, describing the perfect company from a managerial point of view. So:

The company runs smoothly, employees coordinate actions and carry out activities smoothly.
There are no losses and delays at the enterprise, the information is not distorted.
Performing daily work, the specialists of the enterprise remain, first of all, client-oriented and fulfill the tasks of the company, pushing personal needs and interests to the background.
All employees are well aware of how their activities affect the performance of the organization.
It is clear at the enterprise which employee is responsible for certain functions and goals.
Each task is given a specific amount of time to complete.
The company works in the interests of its customers, and this is precisely what its activities are aimed at.

If all this is present at your enterprise, you do not need to do anything - let the company grow further. If everything is completely different, you should think about automating business processes, since it is this that will make your company more successful and productive.

What is the purpose of enterprise business process automation

Each company conducts its activities in order to solve the tasks, and therefore each of the business processes must be performed to achieve the goals of the company. If this approach is close to you, then your organization is focused on achieving certain goals, like all employees working in it. In an enterprise, all employees, business processes and activities must be productive and pursue the same goal. Only in this case can we talk about the prospects of the company's work in the future.

Currently, many entrepreneurs prefer the automation of technological and business processes. This makes it possible to solve the following tasks:

1. Distribution of responsibility

A certain person should be responsible for each action and business processes separately. It is this person who cares about the effectiveness of the action being performed, can influence the course of events, make adjustments to the activity, if necessary. A business process has certain tasks and functions, and each of them, in turn, has a person who is responsible for their implementation. It is good if the company has an option to distribute functions and tasks between employees using automation. If the system is built correctly, it becomes clear who is responsible for performing certain tasks in the business process.

2. Ensuring the integrity of information

In almost every organization, there is a problem of functional management associated with the loss, delay or distortion of information. This issue can be solved by automating business processes, since performers can always get detailed information about the implementation of certain tasks. Each user knows what needs to be done and how to achieve the desired result. Tasks can be accompanied by various objects, for example, files Microsoft office(Word, Excel).

It should be noted that when the accounting system is running on the 1C platform, documentation or an invoice for expenses can act as objects. When an employee has received this or that task, he will not waste time searching for the data he needs, since all the information important for carrying out this or that work is attached to the task.

When the task is completed, the employee makes a corresponding note in the system. Further, the automation system begins to transfer information on process control to other employees. This approach makes life much easier for both managers and employees of the company. Information is not distorted, stored, there are no delays. In addition, the risks of non-fulfillment and late delivery of tasks are minimized. Performers do not spend much time searching for the necessary information, and the information itself remains in its original, undistorted form.

3. Deadlines

Companies that use traditional management methods often face missed deadlines. That is why the automation system must exercise precise time management for solving problems. It is very convenient when you can talk about both relative deadlines for solving problems, for example, “within 3 hours after receipt”, and absolute ones - “by 15.00 last day this week." At the same time, the automation system issues reminders and controls the timing of tasks. As a result, the company manager gets the opportunity to control the timing of any task and receive statistics for today and for the past period.

4. The control

The system must be reporting. It is necessary to exercise control over the current state of the company: what processes are performed in this moment. So, for example, from the report you can find out that at the moment employees are fulfilling so many orders for the manufacture of equipment and so many for its installation.

Ideally, the system should also show whether deadlines for completing tasks are being met. The ability to track these business processes allows executives to control who is meeting deadlines and who is not. It is also necessary to analyze the statistics of the execution of business processes for the past periods: what was done, whether there were any failures and postponements. By analyzing these data, the work of the enterprise can be improved, and a number of organizational and personnel decisions can be made by specialists.

What are the benefits of automating business process management for a company?

By automating business processes, a company can significantly improve the level and quality of services provided. Automation of business processes practically eliminates the human factor, which especially affects the work with a large amount of information. By choosing to automate business processes, you will achieve:

Reducing the number of errors.
Increasing the speed of operations within the cycle.
Increasing the productivity of the enterprise.
High accuracy of operations and speed of decision making.
Reduce costs and time spent on work.
Reducing the possible number of outcome options.
Performing multiple operations in parallel.

After you have optimized business processes, analyze options for automating them. In some cases, business process automation will not desired results bringing only losses. This applies in particular to the following situations:

when you automate an operation, you cannot support required level quality;
automation of business processes is a complex event from a technological point of view;
when switching to business process automation, a significant part of employees must either be retrained or fired;
both services and products have a short life cycle;
market demand is unstable, production requires constant adjustments.

In what areas of work is it necessary to automate business processes of an enterprise?

As a rule, automation of business processes begins with long-term routine work, on which both the income and the company's revenue directly depend. The second option is to work on problem areas and gaps in production. So what should be done?

The first is the automation of solving difficult tasks. These include, for example, such activities as accounting for retail turnover, analysis of product movement, planning of financial flows, distribution and accounting of working time, calculation of the cost of goods and services.

Secondly, automation can affect the work of those company employees who perform simple but routine actions. Here you can note logisticians, telemarketers, sales managers. You can also save some workers from performing a number of actions. For example, it is very reasonable for the company's management to keep a record of goods in an online store.

Thirdly, automation of business processes can be used to restore order, in particular, to track inventory in a warehouse, control receivables. You can find out how busy employees are, whether their activities are productive, whether they complete all their tasks. Automation of business processes, all at once, is not needed. If necessary, you can gradually scale up the automation of business processes in the enterprise. Thus the creation unified system management will be gradual. Most importantly, you must remember why you implemented business process automation in your enterprise. This system should be useful and solve certain problems. Otherwise, you will waste time and effort on its implementation.

Expert opinion

What to automate first

Anatoly Zubeyrov,

CEO, Millsystems, Moscow

Automation, first of all, should touch those business processes that require serious labor costs. If we are talking about a large-scale enterprise, you can streamline the circulation of documents within the company regarding deliveries and settlements between its various divisions. The information system should independently track all business processes without involving personnel.

As for medium-sized enterprises, here business process automation should be applied to buyers and suppliers - their interaction with each other. First of all, you should think about automating business processes trading firms with several dozens of nomenclature positions and a large number of contractors. Small companies need to make sure that IT is as easy to work with as possible, while still being as efficient as possible. To conduct all business processes, the enterprise must have a minimum number of employees.

High-quality automation of warehouse logistics, delivery and sales leads firms to reduce costs, and also avoids:

wages for redundant employees working for hire;
inefficient use of transport owned by the company and excess space in warehouses;
loss of goods with a limited shelf life;
overpayments for transport services various enterprises(this will be possible by optimizing tariffs and organizing deliveries).

How to choose software? First of all, it should allow automation of business processes of all chains. It is necessary that the entire operation with all stages can be performed in as soon as possible. It is important that all employees know about the use of business process automation software, even if they do not have enough computer skills.

At what levels is the automation of the company's business processes carried out?

Business process automation is needed to support management at all levels of the enterprise. It should be said about several levels of management in the company. We are talking about tactical, strategic and operational. Based on this system, it is worth highlighting the following levels of business process automation:

The lower level of automation or the level of performers. Here we are talking about which take place regularly. The purpose of automation in this case is the solution of urgent tasks, for example, production, maintaining the specified parameters and certain operating modes (temperature in the warehouse, etc.).
Production management level or tactical level. at this stage, it allows you to correctly distribute tasks between various processes at the lower level. Examples include production management and related business processes. In particular, this refers to the planning production work, maintenance, management of documents and company resources.
Enterprise management level or strategic level. In this case, it allows solving both predictive and analytical tasks. This level, aimed at strategic and monetary management, is needed to support the work of the top management of the company.

Expert opinion

What is included in the software package for business process management

Alexey Tuleshov,

CEO company "City-Box", Moscow

When implementing business process automation projects, companies often rely on the practices of other firms in their industry and start by optimizing the most important process in their opinion. However, this approach is not justified in all cases. For example, our company has not yet begun to automate the main business process - working with clients. Our company has automated a number of other business processes to the maximum, relying on the experience of Western companies that operate in a similar industry to ours. We were looking for ready-made solutions in Russia, but to no avail. In this regard, we began developing our own software package, which made it possible to manage business processes. This complex consists of three blocks.

Program management accounting makes it possible to exercise control over the provision of services, including additional ( transport logistics, works on loading and unloading, sale of boxes, racks, locks, racks). All these services bring our company about 20% of the total profit.
The CRM system works to maintain interaction with the clientele.
Content Management System (CMS) allows you to manage websites, blogs and other information resources.

To create such a system, we spent about 2.5 million rubles. Of this amount, we allocated 500 thousand rubles for the preparation of technical specifications for development specialists. At the moment, we are finishing testing the system, but the bulk of the work has been completed, and we can already say that it takes about 6 months - one year to implement such a project.

What training does business process automation require?

Automation of business processes involves at least four types of activities.

Step 1. Conduct an audit of business processes

The main objective of the audit is to identify key business processes and persons who are responsible for achieving this goal. You should discuss with the management of all important departments of the enterprise and find out the following points:

Who is responsible for performing a particular task.
Check the team for the presence of employees who could be called "gray cardinals". We are talking about overly ambitious people who, on illegal terms, could come to management, thereby preventing the automation of business processes.

Let business processes in your company be described by invited consultants. This will be the smartest decision as you will get an objective description and information on how effective they are.

Step 2. Appoint a project leader

When appointing an employee responsible for business process automation, please note that you will not succeed in the following cases:

If the project will be managed by a middle manager, since higher-level employees will not follow his instructions.
If the leadership will be carried out by the first person of the enterprise. Typically, typical employees are not interested in business process automation and similar activities.

The most rational decision is to entrust this task to a person who has similar management experience and, in addition, has the necessary leadership and communication skills. Next you should:

make the employee responsible for project management your deputy and give him an office in close proximity to you;
instruct the project manager to tell you about any attempts to "non-reconciliation" with new system in a collective;
entrust him with the development of requirements and instructions necessary for execution by other members of the team.

You must promote your line and tell employees about the need to fulfill all the requirements of the project.

Step 3 Choose an IT solution

There is no need to be led by fairy tales of specialist consultants, and even more so - to buy unverified or recently appeared programs on the market. Ideally you need:

explore Russian companies who work in your field and learn about the solutions they have implemented to automate business processes;
consider only those companies where the implementation of the business process automation system was successful;
to make sure that the automation of business processes took place not only in documents, but also in practice.

It is important to constantly argue with your employees. Listen to subordinates, talk about options. For example, if your company is associated with production activities, dispense with the introduction of an expensive program in production.

Step 4. Determine the premium

Business process automation does not work if the company's employees are not sufficiently motivated. You should discuss with the owner financial questions and agree on the amount that will be directed to the award for the effective implementation of business process automation at the enterprise at each stage.

Calculating the amount of the premium is a very subjective matter. In this case, it is important not to forget about the human factor, since it is he who is the key. If you are the head of an enterprise, then you are well aware of the needs of your subordinates. Someone is quite happy with a small bonus for Good work, and someone is dissatisfied with the annual payment as an incentive.

If the IT system that you are implementing is inexpensive, you do not need to set a large amount of premiums, because you are not interested in increasing the cost of the project. Another question is if you have to work with a complex ERP system that will allow you to completely restructure the activities of the enterprise. Here it is logical to take care of the large size of the bonus fund, and even increase the level of costs for the IT system.

Expert opinion

How to increase the interest of employees in automation

Andrey Kistenev,

CEO of Intoto (Shop-Logistics delivery service), Moscow

It is the employees of your enterprise who will study the interface of the program. In this regard, it is quite logical to listen to their suggestions regarding the image on the screen, the desired design, the buttons on the monitor and other components. If you work closely with your subordinates, you will certainly avoid "rebellion" when introducing business process automation. It seems to me that it is wiser to cooperate in this matter not with the whole team, but with a part of it, specifically with line managers. For example, during the meeting, I voice some customer complaints related to the business process automation system, and consult with subordinates on what to do to avoid similar situations in the future.

During the discussion, we come to a common denominator and determine what is the reason for this or that failure. In this case, I ask the head of the department what needs to be done to avoid similar situations in the future. The leader, in turn, is aware of the problem and suggests the best ways to solve it. Since he is interested in improving the situation, he will personally control the implementation of business process automation and monitor the quality of work of all employees.

Based on the practice of our company, I can say that every department at the enterprise is always sure that the changes will affect it and it is from the negative side. Concerning general meetings before the implementation of business process automation are very useful, because you get the opportunity to explain in more detail about the key points of a particular issue, as well as listen to the wishes and opinions of employees.

How to Determine Which Business Process Automation System You Need

To move from manual routine work to IT and make the execution of business processes faster and more convenient, it is precisely automation systems that consist of various programs and services that are used. In other words, a business process automation system is both a complex ERP system and a cloud service. In any business process automation system, there are two key element, one of which is the input (collection) of information, the second is the provision of processed data in the type or format necessary for the manager or profile master.

There is a good option to instantly get a “sales funnel”. It is only necessary to timely enter information about communications with potential buyers of goods and services, indicate the format in which negotiations are held, whether they are successful, and, based on their results, record data on transactions that have taken place in the program. Thus, a business process automation system can significantly facilitate the work of an enterprise. When some statistics accumulate, you can draw a conclusion about the quality and intensity of the work of your managers.

It should be noted that everything depends on the scale and versatility of the business. It is this indicator that affects the amount of initial information, the variety and detail of the final reports on the work done. Automation systems on the same principle are used for other processes. Thanks to well-thought-out IT technologies, business leaders can get important data for them in a split second, in particular, how much profit the company receives, what expenses the company incurs, and what their structure is, how profitable projects are, whether managers work effectively.

When choosing a business process automation system, remember that you have two options.

Use a typical (boxed) product.
Develop and implement an individual software solution.

The simplest task seems to be the implementation of a standard solution for automating business processes. Financially, besides, it is more profitable. But it should be noted that not every standard model can be adapted to your enterprise. In some automation programs, it is impossible to carry out additional settings, or such actions are significantly limited. The same applies to cloud services.

To choose the right program for you, you need to work out a significant amount of information data. The modern market is represented by software products and has its own advantages and nuances. It is important to answer a number of key questions:

Automation of business processes and tasks of what kind is planned.
Is the functional component of the program consistent with the tasks that need to be solved thanks to it.
Is it realistic to fine-tune the system in relation to your business practice.
Will it be possible to make changes to the system if necessary, if business conditions or processes in it suddenly change.
Is the system simple and easy to operate.
Is it possible to integrate the system with other services and applications.
Is it possible to log in and work in the system from a tablet or smartphone.
Is there a person who could be entrusted with the implementation of technical support.
What is the cost of support and implementation.

To answer these questions, you can consult with specialists from companies that produce software. It's good if you can also talk to entrepreneurs working on similar projects. Based on their practical advice and experience, you will receive valuable information and will be able to choose one or another product.

What are the tools and technologies for automating the company's business processes

Consider a number of common in Russia business process automation tools.

Enterprise Resource Planning, also known as enterprise resource planning. In this case, there is an automation of global business processes at enterprises - financial flow, employees, operational activities, production process management. Large ERP systems have both accounting and functions for control, payroll, personnel and time accounting, and financial management. As a rule, such systems are used by large-scale firms whose divisions are located in different territories, in connection with which the management wants to know how transparent business processes are, how they are formed and transformed.

To implement Enterprise Resource Planning, you need to carefully approach this issue, as the process affects different departments and categories of users. Many enterprises make a big mistake by introducing this system for automating business processes to their company when in fact they don’t really need it.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM systems). The purpose of complex software solutions of this type is to automate relationships with customers. At the moment, they are closely related to the SFA (Sales Force Automation) software and include the features of both systems. It should be noted that the automation of CRM business processes today is the most versatile and popular software.

Working with Customer Relationship Management, company employees know information about each of their customers, manage business processes and perform a number of other functions. Previously, as key users of CRM were commercial services and top managers, but now these systems are ideally suited to almost every enterprise. If necessary, a company can choose to automate CRM business processes and apply it to work in their industry.

As for the differences in CRM systems, it's about the number of possibilities. It can be either complex and multi-stage ERP, or simple Notebook. If the CRM-system is compiled correctly, it can be easily integrated with 1C, various software for the work of analytical and operational type in firms.

P.M. ( project management) are systems with which you can manage projects and goals, distributing tasks among responsible employees and stipulating deadlines for their implementation. Typically, such systems take into account the financial aspects of projects, human and material resources. Using this type of management system, you can control the execution of tasks in the project itself, plan the results, learn about the loading of resources.

The scales of the systems are different. It can be both systems for large productions, and small startups. The differences also lie in the functionality, goals and objectives.

Business Process Management System (BPMS). It's about automating business processes. This is a kind of software that is separate or connected to CRM / ERP / ECM, which studies the processes in an enterprise as steps in a certain sequence with actions and deadlines, responsible persons at each of the stages. Such systems allow modeling, launching business processes, as well as analyzing them. Business Process Management System (BPMS) provide opportunities for creating business process algorithms using both native editors and special notations (BPMN 2.0).

How much do business process automation services cost?

It is difficult to unambiguously answer this question. Here you can draw an analogy by asking, for example, the question: “How much does a house cost?”. You can meet a million rubles, or you can ten. It all depends on the quality of building materials, the area of \u200b\u200bthe room, the type of finish. Likewise with software. You should determine: what tasks solution is paramount for you, will it be a typical product or a custom one, what resources will you need to use, how many workplaces will be connected, etc.

When calculating the price of business process automation, take into account:

The cost of the system itself (the price of the box or the cost of rent if you use "cloud" applications).
Costs associated with setting up the software and training company employees to work with it.
Rates for regular maintenance.

Here we can also talk about indirect costs, which include, for example, the time costs of the director and other key project participants.

The main stages of business process automation

Stage 1. Determining Automation Goals

To decide on the start of work related to business process automation, you need to decide on strategic goals this event. Think about what you would like to achieve.

Stage 2. Formalization of business processes

To describe business processes, determine what sub-processes it has, in what sequence all activities should be performed, how information moves, think about the availability of resources and constraints. It also takes into account indicators effective work and the effectiveness of business processes: how much time and money it takes to complete them, how good the final result is, how accurate and stable it is. The output is a real model of business processes.

Stage 3. Business process optimization

Once the models have been developed, experts carefully analyze them and translate them from the real model into the desired one. After that, an action plan is drawn up that would allow achieving the set goals using business processes. At the end of this stage, business processes are aligned to eliminate delays, unnecessary and optional operations. As a result of the optimization, the organizational structure of the company can be reorganized.

Stage 4. Development of technical specifications

Definition of exact tasks, the solution of which depends on the participation of the owners.

Stage 5. Business process coding and job description development

The process of encoding information is carried out by organizations involved in the implementation. For ease of learning and operation of systems, it is recommended to develop service instructions at an early stage.

Stage 6. Training

Staff training is necessary in cases where there is a change in the structure of work. This stage involves the possibility of resistance due to changes in the composition of employees.

Stage 7. Trial operation

In order to evaluate the productivity of the introduced systems, put it into practice. This will help you avoid possible mistakes.

How business process automation is implemented in the enterprise

Implementation is the process of delivering software to a business that needs improvement.

Simple "implementation" tasks are considered to be, for example, installing software on company computers, registering in remote services, copying data, and so on. After these operations, you can proceed to the operation stage, starting to work in the usual mode, start filling in the client base, etc.

More complex tasks are those for which a plan is drawn up, an algorithm for solving certain problems is developed, systems are being finalized to meet the specific requirements of the company. At the next stage, specialists in the field of programming are selected to automate business processes. The choice consists of two more popular options. For example, programmers specially called in from outside and programmers working in your organization.

Let's analyze both options for creating business process automation, which, at first glance, seem not so remarkable.

By choosing programmers from your company, you are one step closer to the successful completion of your tasks, because your specialists already understand what the company specializes in. They really have an idea about your company, but this does not guarantee a good result, since their attitude to work is not as responsible as it should be. You will not be able to create a specific schedule for specialists or increase the speed of work. The normalized working day of programmers involves working on basic issues, but there is not enough time to work on automating business processes. Replacement of such workers is impossible, since the language of writing codes is unique for each programmer.

But specialists from the outside do not know the type of activity of your company, which will certainly affect the quality of the work they perform. Basically, they do not have a proper approach to work, so you should be careful when choosing specialists to automate business processes in your enterprise.

When choosing specialists to implement a business process automation system, you need to take seriously the characteristics of prospective partners. To do this, it is necessary to conduct research and study the prices in the service market. Satisfactory value for money is extremely rare. Therefore, set limits for yourself in tariffs and be guided by this when choosing a partner. It is extremely important that the partner has a certificate of conformity in accordance with the international ISO standard.

After selecting some specialists, a real meeting with all is desirable potential partners. Ask a series of questions directly related to the introduction of business process automation systems into companies. Find out, for example, what are the conditions for concluding a deal, whether you have experience working with companies whose activities are similar to yours. Thanks to this information, you will have an idea about your possibly future partner.

In order to competently make a choice in favor of any organization, you should consider the level of your company. If the firm is not big brand, a small business, who is engaged in one type of activity, it would be best to choose a partner of the same level. In this case, work with such organizations will go faster and more stable, since it is better to resolve issues that arise with you with small companies.

What risks hide even the most effective business process automation

We must not forget about the possible risks after the implementation process. The risks may vary. It all depends on the change in the deadline, implementation before the protest from the side of employees and possible changes in the structure of business tasks. In order to avoid possible risks, it is important to seriously approach the search for qualified specialists, to study the available software for the future stable operation of systems. With the personal participation of the business owner, the chances of a successful “upgrade” increase significantly. If you follow all the above recommendations, you are guaranteed a favorable result.

A competent explanation of the company about the benefits and effectiveness of business process automation will help to avoid possible resistance from employees. After the clarification, the employees should have a feeling of immutability of the decision made. If any problems arise, they should be resolved immediately, as any delay will lead to a significant deterioration in the company's performance. To improve the process of implementing business process automation, it is recommended to reward employees with bonuses. This approach can improve the quality of the work performed.

Problems of automating business processes and ways to solve them

Problem 1. The project is not divided into manageable blocks, checkpoints are not allocated, and as a result, the project implementation deadlines are delayed

For different areas of the project, there are different solutions:

For full-fledged work, several areas should be identified, and managers should be appointed to control them.
You should also highlight common logical schemes, establish a sequence of operations for the implementation of a business process automation system, and analyze the end result of your work.

Problem 2 The logical framework of the project is not defined, new wishes constantly arise, which leads to a delay in the project

It is necessary to clearly indicate in the approved document the restrictions (framework) for the project you have chosen. These restrictions can be terms of reference, projects and design solutions. The process of automating business processes should clearly reflect all the goals of this plan.

Problem 3. Resources are involved in the project at the wrong time, their quality does not correspond to the tasks being solved

Estimate the required amount of resources and the timing of their involvement. Answer honestly the question: are these resources available now, will they be available at the right time? Find a compromise between the need for resources, their availability and the timing of the project.

Problem 4. Company staff resist

With the help of various information resources inform employees about business process automation. Pay close attention to information that highlights the importance and value of the implementation. Announce to employees about the interest of superiors in the outcome of the process. Find the organizer of the protest, try to resolve the conflict, in case of failure, fire him.

Problem 5. Reporting on the progress of the project is formal, there are no real demonstrations and testing of functionality.

Highlighting great results from possible failures will help organize the entire workflow. To prevent future missed deadlines, explore all possible solutions to the problem. For example, analyze the results obtained after a certain period of time. If the results do not satisfy the employees of the company, refine the indicators to the ideal.

Problem 6. There is no effective project management system.

During the meetings you attend, you see how the company's employees are involved in disputes, conflicts, thereby demonstrating uncertainty. To resolve such conflicts, it is recommended to hire a conflict management specialist who will help resolve all existing difficult situations.

Problem 7. The project has a low priority for the contractor and is carried out according to the residual principle.

The contractor is not interested in the work and does not devote enough time to the project. It is necessary to try to find the reasons for such a negligent attitude towards the project and try to eliminate them. If the situation remains unchanged, the performer should be replaced.

Problem 8. The goals of the project are not defined, the criteria for achieving the goals and evaluating the results of the project are not approved.

Evaluation of results occurs according to personal preferences, which adversely affects the overall assessment of the entire project. Evaluation criteria are compiled individually, depending on the direction of the project. For example, the direction "Management of relations with the debtor" requires the creation of a success criterion that helps the company to competently approach the issue of customer debts. Such a criterion may be an increase in the interest rate by a fixed amount (1.45% per annum). Determining the project goal for the subsequent stages of the implementation of the task will help the company achieve positive results faster.

Information about experts

Anatoly Zubeyrov, General Director of Millsystems, Moscow. Millsystems is the official distributor of the Sellora Management System information system. Sellora Management System is an ERP management system that meets the needs of any business and is suitable for any enterprise. In addition, the system is perfectly optimized for the realities of the Russian market, i.е. takes into account all national features of domestic office work.

Alexey Tuleshov, General Director of City-Box, Moscow. Field of activity: leasing storage cells (or boxes) to individuals. Number of warehouses: 2. Number of employees: 20. Annual turnover: over 100 million rubles. (in 2012).

Andrey Kistenev, CEO of Intoto (Shop-Logistics delivery service), Moscow. Andrey Kistenev graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Since 2008 he has been working in the field ecommerce; previously participated in business automation projects. Field of activity: cargo transportation, including at the request of online stores. Number of staff: 30 (in-house), 40-70 couriers (in-house and freelance).