The Many Lives of a Business Process Flow

It's More Than Meets the Eye

A business's most underrated or undervalued asset is a complete and accurate library of its business process flows. The information in a business process flow tells so much about how a business is supported by the work and activity that takes place daily within the four walls of the establishment.

Business processes must be correctly designed and executed so that the business can function properly. If processes are full of waste or unnecessary steps, the cost of doing business increases. In contrast, if a business has well-planned and efficiently executed processes, internal business activity should flow smoothly. The bottom line will reflect the additional savings resulting from a well-run company.

We will review the many lives, purposes, or ways that accurate and complete documentation of internal processes may bring value to the business.

Work Standardization and The Business Process Flow

Most businesses strive to have standardized business processes across the organization, but sometimes, it's easier said than done. Without clearly defined and documented processes, employees within each department or location may execute processes differently, leading to mistakes, errors, waste, confusion, and overall cost to the bottom line.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) can be implemented using clearly and accurately defined and detailed process flows for each business process within the organization. SOPs help promote consistency in how processes are completed between team members. A well-documented SOP can hold employees accountable for completing processes correctly and serve as a guideline for executing business processes.

Employee Training

Accurately defined and documented business process flows may aid in bringing new hires up to speed quickly on processes associated with their assigned role. When training a new teammate, it is common to overlook or miss a process that may be relevant to the new hire's daily duties.

If working with a list of documented business processes as part of your training guide, chances are the training provided to the new teammate will be more cohesive and relevant.

Process Flows Tell a Story

When processes are documented as they genuinely happen in the workplace, many advantages and helpful information can be gathered from analyzing these process flows.

• Process understanding available via a review of process flows may enable teams to identify and remove waste or unnecessary steps, leading to efficiency gained and a healthier bottom line.

• Reviewing business process flows may highlight potential risks such as unsupervised exposure to cash or sensitive data.

• Analysis of existing documented processes may yield insight that leads to opportunities for streamlining processes and increasing productivity.

• Documented process flows share insight into the inputs and outputs of the process and stakeholders impacted by the process.

• Reviewing customer-impacting processes may unveil opportunities to improve customer experience, ultimately leading to higher revenues.

Automation and Transformation

These two words have been at the forefront of business conversations for five to ten years. While automation comes in many forms depending on the task, the focus has been on automating business processes to yield lower cost margins and gain efficiency in operations.

Documented process flows are a must when considering automation. The steps defined in each process flow determine how the automation (bot) is designed. When multiple teams or locations complete the same processes, standardizing these processes is vital to successful automation. This goal can be achievable by implementing standard operating procedures supported by clearly defined process flows.

Automation plays an essential role in most companies' transformation goals. Process automation specifically can help scale business operations as companies grow and transform.

In Summary

Who would have thought that such a primary function as preparing a business process flow could yield so much value to an organization?

When process flows are combined from each department or function within the company, the actual end-to-end picture of business processes may be revealed, providing valuable insight into how processes flow between departments or teams.

This invaluable information can be used to improve business practices, leading to happier employees, satisfied customers, and a healthier bottom line.

Thank you for reading this post. If you found this information helpful in your automation journey, please leave us a comment below or share this post. Happy automating!