Back to Business - Part III - Final

So how can this insurance company resolve their complex process problems? There are a few critical components:

1) Recognize there is a problem and gain executive-level support
2) Determine the current level of process efficiency
3) Identify where you want it to be along with appropriate metrics, recognizing that change does not happen overnight
4) Select software that can help manage the workload better and ensure business goals are met
5) Roll-out the solution in a high value area to learn how best to leverage the software, obtain a quick win, gain support, and use that to shop around to other departments to get them excited
6) Monitor progress and revisit the processes to further optimize and tweak them for optimal efficiency

With a well-planned implementation, commitment, and the right software, they will be ideally positioned to achieve their goals. In this case, they wish to turn around quotes 96% faster and applications 85% faster.

It is nearly impossible to achieve these goals, or any process goals for that matter, consistently by manually directing workload allocation. Even with a basic workflow system, while it will likely improve efficiency over manual processes, it cannot "adjust the levers" to distribute the workload according to your key performance indicators (KPIs). That is why they need to ensure that their Business Process Management (BPM) solution can automatically distribute workload according to the business goals. When this happens, rather than seeing intense peaks and valleys in work completion, due to the over/under compensation that a manager will go through when tasked with manually controlling workload allocation, performance is much more smooth, steady, and predictable.

In addition, we all know that the constant in business is change. And it is happening at a faster pace than ever. However, what most organizations fail to recognize is that internal processes must adapt to these changes. Sometimes it is for compliance purposes or new legal requirements, but more often it should be because the business climate has shifted. As Darwin said, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most responsive to change."

If you use your business processes as a competitive differentiator, you will increase top-line revenue.

There are BPM systems, like Global 360's , that empower organizations to extract the maximum profit out of business processes - every time. Furthermore, they can provide end-to-end visibility across a complete process that spans multiple systems, departments, and people (e.g., loan origination, application processing, etc.), giving executives a true measure for performance and the ability to improve.

And that's the bottom-line.