Accounting Software Shreveport

Business Process Analysis: Develop Department Specific Questions

Posted by Adrian Montgomery on Mon, Jan 14, 2013 @ 02:12 PM
Business Valuation India

This the third part of our eight part series describing why every business should incorporate a Business Process Assessment.  In previous blogs we discussed the importance of creating a Business Process Project Management Committee and electing a leader to represent each department within a company.  The third step is to develop a comprehensive business process analysis document with a series of questions.  

The business process analysis is a series of questions each department in the company is required to answer.  This gives the business process management committee a blueprint of the business process opportunities to improve between departments in a company.  The answers to these questions serve to reveal bottlenecks within a company and improve on efficiency.

Examples of questions a business process assessment would ask the Accounts Payable (AP) department include:

  1. What is your check writing procedure?
  2. How are AP cash requirements determined?
  3. Are there requirements for prepayments to vendors?
The business process analysis is a comprehensive examination of each department within a company.  The business project management committee develops a list of questions the business project managment department leader is assigned to answer with the help of employees within the each department.  This gives the employees the opportunity to contribute to the discovery process and the ultimate solution associated with each problem. Each answer should associate a weight of importance, i.e. low priority = 1, medium priority = 2, high priority = 3 and essential = 4.  This will give you an immediate snapshot of the most important issues to focus on first.
If it is discovered there is a need to replace the business process automation software or improve upon the current systems via enhancements it is our experience the employees will likely accept that change easier and take ownership in making the software change successful.

Tags: Business process management, business process analysis, Business Process Assessment, Sage 100 ERP consultant, MAS 90 consultant, ERP software consultant