What Is Business Process Analysis

Business Process Analysis (BPA) is a system that helps a company operate more efficiently so that they may cut back on costs, save more resources and be of better service to their customers. Using different processes, businesses are able to revolutionize end-to-end activities that make a customers experience more useful and removing any unnecessary work for the business. Basically think of BPA as a map. When you use a map, you are able to see the entire picture of where you want to go. However, each of those roads within the map is a link that will get you to where you want to go. You can then weed out the roads that may be inefficient with roads that make the trip easier and quicker. The same thing goes with a BPA. Once everything has been mapped out, a company is then able to see the entire picture. They can remove workers or materials that may not be needed in order to reach their goal; customer euphoria.

As a company is working on a project, process analysis is the concept of reading and acting upon information as it flows into the system. In other words, when new feedback comes in to the company, how the read the data will affect how they react to the data. This is one of the most critical details of any project. A company needs to be able to take a set of data and be able to process what it means and then take the necessary action. Even if you have a great system design with good methods and fail to meet the business requirements, then a project very well may fail.

In BPA, companies will often look at not only textual information but more importantly graphs and charts to get more of a visual on the flow of information. For example, there are many different departments that make up a company. Each department in the company is trained to document everything that is involved in the developing of a project. Each department will then give the demographics of their department so that the BPA department can map out what is going on within all areas of the company. A company is then able to see everything that is going on within the company and can then analyze each department and how everything works together in unison.

Once the entire chart is mapped out, a company can then analyze to see where improvements can be made to cut down on costs. They can see where more workers may be needed or what materials they may need more or less of. In turn, this makes the company run a lot more efficiently and able to maximize their potential in every possible way.

Any great company needs to implement BPA system in order to maximize their chances of being successful. This will help create a more direct route to their goal just like a map is the way for getting to where you want to go.

How Business Process Management Can Help Small Businesses

What is Small Business Process Management?

Business process management can help small businesses in two ways: (1) identifying repeatable processes and (2) automating them.

Automating repeatable processes (straightforward ways of doing things that you do over and over again the same way) saves time and money by removing guesswork, making training easier, and allowing you to take a break from running your business without the whole thing falling apart!

Business process management takes into account the things you do every day to make your business run and lays them out visually, so you can see just how your business looks when drawn out in a diagram. This is a great way to discover your repeatable processes. When you work with a small business process consultant, you talk through your business processes, where you can trim activity and where you can ramp up activity, so that your business can run more smoothly and be more profitable.

For example, if you own a small cafe or flower shop and every Monday you take inventory and order supplies, it would be ideal to find a way to automate at least part of that process. Or, if you run a small organization of 50 employees or contractors, it would be ideal to automate the help desk system or supply ordering process. If you are a solo entrepreneur, you can automate billing, setting up accounts, tasks you send to your virtual assistant, article writing or blogging, responding to basic questions or concerns, or even your social networking!

Small Business Process Automation in Action

You probably will recognize some or all of these things, but you may not have learned to implement them in your own business. This is where a business process consultant can help. Which of these is right for your business? All of them? None of them?

• Automated or semi-automated supply ordering (e.g., food, office supplies, etc.)
• Automated new account creation
• Frequently Asked Questions booklets or page on your website
• Help desk system for internal employees or outside clients
• Project management software
• Time tracking systems for yourself, employees or contractors
• Billing management systems
• Online postage/printing shipping labels

There a hundred more we could add to this list. What have you automated in your small business?

Business Process Outsourcing Gain a Competitive Edge in the Market

Business process outsourcing helps businesses gain a competitive edge by enhancing their overall efficiency at reduced cost. Every business has to perform tasks that are time-consuming and tedious, but need special skills to execute. These day-to-day activities, if performed in-house, could interfere with the way they conduct business. Outsourcing the work to a reliable service provider helps them get the job done expertly, thereby enhancing their efficiency and saving valuable time.

Business Process Outsourcing Solutions

Business process outsourcing solutions are available for a wide range of activities that include:

• Transcription (medical, legal, business, media and general) • Medical billing and collections • Collections on medical accounts receivable management • Software development • Website designing • Search engine optimization • Corporate branding • Document conversion • Legal coding • Legal research • Animation • Form processing • Data entry • Web-based EMR • Teleradiology

Improving the Bottom Line

Back office procedures including data and document processing tasks offer numerous benefits:

• Business process outsourcing results in substantial cost savings. When back office operations are outsourced, business firms save money that would have been spent on recruiting and managing manpower to do the job in-house.

• Back office work is handled professionally when it is outsourced. Service providers have the right kind of resources, including manpower and technology, to deliver professional results.

• Outsourcing processes considerably reduces the managerial responsibilities of business executives. They can focus on core business functions more efficiently, improving sale leads and revenue.

Reputable Provider for Best Deals

Outsourcing non-core processes to a reliable provider helps business firms streamline their functions. Experienced providers offer custom-made process outsourcing solutions at affordable charges to help business firm stay competitive in the business arena.

Buying Software Solutions Means Adapting Business Processes

CRM, SCM, FAS, ESS, ECM and BPA are just a few of the endless stream of acronyms and buzzwords that confront small business owners searching for good software solutions to automate key business functions. The promises of many cloud-based software solutions to automate key functions of a business are impressive. The ability of the technology sales rep to speak an entirely different language using English words injected with acronyms, jargon and unique expressions is equally impressive.

This creates an air of superiority as apparently only special people can know all of this stuff and make any meaning from it in business terms. Many small businesses readily adopt these solutions, believing they will accrue the compelling list of benefits.

The challenges for the business owner go far beyond learning an entirely new befuddling language. More importantly, they must learn to adapt their business processes, people, policies, practices and all of the information and work that must flow through the business functions served by this software. Ironically, many very large businesses cite this failure to execute this adaptation process as the reason many such systems fail to meet their expectations. This despite the hordes of information technology resources and business consultants applied to manage the process.

Small business don't have access to the same array of experts to help them manage the transition. Instead, they tend to rely more heavily on the supplier of the software solution. Unfortunately, most of these software suppliers do not provide services to help their customers redefine their business processes and work flows. The software supplier is focused on installing the product, providing training on the best practices in the usage of the product, providing basic technical support for the software and then moving on to the next prospect.

After a short period, the frustration mounts as the existing processes and work practices of employees in the business clash with the way the software operates by design. Attempts to adapt the software to the existing workflow or to develop workarounds to seemingly inappropriate or missing functionality invariably produce more frustration. All the while, the business never fully realizes the full benefits of the software as sold by the sales person. The truth is that the business never fully adopts the software so the benefits will only match the degree of its utilization.

Acquiring the software license and turning on the first user name and password is the easy part. To achieve the real value of this purchase requires an accurate and comprehensive assessment of the actual business processes in place in the business compared with those provided in the software solution is required to determine the work required to implement it successfully. This assessment must include process mapping, change management plan for each process, system and workflow integration, user training, and real-world testing and overall project plan to manage the transition to the new mode of operating. A competent project manager with business operations, business process analysis and software deployment expertise can be an invaluable asset to enabling long-term profitable deployments of software solutions for small businesses.

Asia Dominates Business Process Outsourcing Services Arena

Outsourcing has opened opportunities for companies to gain competitive advantage in the tough business world. It has been a great help especially for small organizations that wish to provide quality service at a lower cost.

Why Choose the Process? There has been a long debate whether companies should outsource jobs or not. For businessmen, it is a strategic way to save cost. However, opposing politicians think that it lessens job opportunities locally and in turn, affect the country's economy.

For what it's worth, outsourcing is a great option for organizations that wish to gain profit while reducing corporate expenses. This is plausible especially if the organization will use a suitable third party service such as business process outsourcing (BPO) or knowledge process outsourcing (KPO). Business process outsourcing services may include payroll processing, human resources, warehousing, transport, customer service, collections, distribution, sales, technical support, and so on.

Over the years, the system has utilized skills and expertise that are significant for the success of any organization. Here are the reasons why businessmen will consider it.

• Lower costs. One of the reasons why western countries will offshore their services is to save cost. Asia is the top choice of western countries because of lower labor cost. As a matter of fact, businesses expect a 60% savings by outsourcing their tasks to third-party service companies.

• Efficiency. Business process outsourcing services include customer assistance and management. Through the help of adept and well-trained employees, customer inquiries and concerns are immediately addressed. Thus, third-party service providers ensure that customer satisfaction, goodwill, and trust are strictly monitored.

• Excellent Management. An effective management is the core of a successful business. The availability of outsource providers give companies an opportunity to innovate and focus on specific tasks. For instance, a company outsources their human resource activities. This will allow the company to focus their manpower and resources (that were once allotted for HR tasks) to their core activities and innovation tasks.

• Productivity. Each company will outsource with one thing in mind and that is to be productive. Productivity is the capacity to apply skills, ideas, and technology to acquire profit. It is equally important to ensure that a business is able to render quality service to its client.

Outsourcing gives business a different name. It improves internal management, effectively saves cost, increases commitment in different business areas, and gains market access.

Over the years, Asian countries have shown increase in business profit. This can be attributed to the growing industry in the region. Here is a list of countries where business process outsourcing services is a success.

• India. With a large number of English speaking professionals and thousands of Information Technology graduates, India held the top position as the top country in the industry, both in Asia and around the world. It is said that 80-90 percent of the global market outsource in this country.

• China. This country is said to be the top rival of India for the number one spot. In a recent survey conducted by KPMG, with 280 senior company executives, 41 percent of the respondents said that they have an outsourcing provider from China. Over the years, China's activity has significantly increased. Its market has reached $7.5 billion in 2007 alone.

• Philippines. With an excellent experience in BPO industry and a large population that speaks American English, Philippines is a promising contender for the top spot. In addition to English competency, the Philippines also boasts a pool of medical graduates. This made the country a likely place to outsource medical and healthcare-related tasks.

• Malaysia. The government of Malaysia has shown an outstanding support for outsourcing companies through its world class infrastructures and policies focusing on improving English proficiency.

• Czech Republic. Another Asian country that has a 5.6 outsourcing index, and ranked on the seventeenth spot. It has developed the popular AVG antivirus software. Located between Austria, Slovakia, Poland, and Germany, it is often referred to as the gateway to both eastern and western countries. Also, the number of IT graduates has increased over the years, which greatly demands higher work force.

Business process outsourcing services greatly help in promoting global business impact. Aside from lower cost, its round-the-clock service has reached various customers of different cultures and time zone. Indeed, the process has opened absolute employment opportunities and competitive strategies for business sectors.

Business Process Outsourcing The Perfect Solution for Your Business

Running a business involves a lot of things. There are many business processes involved that touch every aspect of your company; many processes and task that are required to run an efficient and smooth operation, to ensure success.

Some of these tasks are business tasks, such as marketing, payroll, help desks, customer service and other are operational tasks, such data capturing, report creation, transaction processing, account maintenance, invoicing, etc.

In today's economy most companies have had to reduce staff and are having to do multiple tasks and processes with the same number of resources, but what happens when your business starts to grow again. How can you increase efficiency and increase capacity while at the same time reducing cost?

The answer is simple, though BPO, you can increase capacity and gain efficiencies by outsourcing specific processes like: customer service, help desk, transaction processing, data capture, invoicing, account management, etc.

In the past, handling all these processes in house was easy and expected. However, due to growing demands in businesses today, you have to consider that for your company to remain competitive; your company needs to maximize its resources in order to succeed.

This would be impossible or very expensive if you handle every business process involved. This is why many companies are now considering outsourcing their business process.

Business process outsourcing is one of the most popular and the most cost-efficient business solution that you can ever make. By contracting other companies to do a specific business task, you will be taking off extra work involved in your company and focus more on important aspects of running your business.

Today, there are available BPO companies that will be able to provide all of these services for you. For example: If you were to outsource help desk for you company. The BPO Company will recruit and train resources specifically for your project. They will answer your calls, provide quality customer service, resolve problems or if required escalate it. They will provide you with daily information about calls received, issues resolved, issues escalated, etc. for your information and action.

There are several options when it comes to outsourcing of business processes. You can outsource in your same country or offshore. One option that offers both the benefits of being close and also the cost savings of an offshore company is: nearshoring. Many companies in the US regularly outsource their business process nearshore, particularly to countries filled with qualified and talented individuals, such as Mexico. Some of the advantages are: cost savings, virtually no time difference, cultural affinity and infrastructure and some of the reasons why you should consider outsourcing your business process to nearshore companies.

However, there are offshore countries such as China, Philippines, and India that also offer business process outsourcing services.

By taking advantage of Business Process Outsourcing and outsource some of your noncore business processes your company will be able to utilize its resources to its maximum potential. You will also be able to cut some operational costs and at the same time, let your company focus more on important factors in running your business.

Always keep in mind that you should first check the quality of an outsourcing company first, being nearshore or offshore, before you sign an agreement in order to be sure that you will be getting your money's worth. Remember this and it will pave the way to make your company the best in the industry.