Practice Description Business process management and enterprise architecture 1. Description of the practice The BPM & EA practice assists organisations in 1 keeping in control of the performance of their operational processes in alignment with business priorities and strategy, and 2 in ensuring that IT investments are being carefully allocated in the appropriate capabilities, architecture, systems and governance which support these objectives. To fulfil this goal, the BPM & EA practice has developed a portfolio of services that encompass the process excellence, governance and architectural aspects. These services are outlined in 2. 1.
Business Process Management (BPM) is a business management discipline that pursues the objective of increasing business profitability by: Discovering, analysing, formalising, modelling and optimising business processes Promoting customer orientation Striving for innovation, flexibility and integration with technology Automating/executing, monitoring process performance and refining processes ( closing the loop ) BPM is used enterprise-wide to achieve: Operational (process) excellence Compliance to regulations Introduction of flexibility in the management of information flows Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an essential component of IT governance. It is the only systematic and undisputable way to ensure 1 evolution of the IT architecture in synch with business requirements and 2 objectivity in the prioritisation and allocation of resources and efforts in answering demands for new functions and change requests from the business. EA is used enterprise-wide to: Obtain a coherent view on business requirements expressed in the context of the BPM initiatives Harmonise information flows and sources Prioritise IT initiatives in function of real business benefits Reduce redundancy costs in the applications portfolio Reduce integration risk due to co-existence of different technologies 2.
2. Services portfolio 2.1 BPM/EA strategy and planning services Our BPM/EA strategy and planning services aim to build a vision, roadmap and case and to help the Process Performance Responsible and/or the CIO defend the necessary investments in front of the Board of Directors: 1. BPM Maturity Assessment: We identify our customer s BPM maturity level, current weaknesses and required actions (based on an industry-standard Business Process Maturity Model from OMG). 2. EA Maturity Assessment: We help assess where our customer s organisation stands in terms of Enterprise Architecture and related disciplines (PPM, IT project management, BPM) and define the EA implementation roadmap. 3. Vision, Roadmap & Business Case: We help our customer s Process Performance Responsible or CIO justify investments, obtain a clear mandate and plan & budget the implementation for BPM and/or for EA. 2.2 BPM/EA capability building services Our capability building services aim at helping an organisation growing its maturity in BPM and/or EA. 1. BPM Capability Building: We help our customer s organisation raise its BPM capability (definition of the BPM framework; BPM R&R, governance processes; Selection of the adequate BPM platform; Education & raising awareness of staff). 2. EA Capability Building: We leverage TOGAF 9 and ArchiMate as a base for tailoring an EA approach and building blocks suited to your organisation and IT department. Alongside BPM/EA groundwork, we can also start with a pilot project as a direct and pragmatic approach to grow your organisation s maturity in either the BPM and/or EA discipline. E.g., we can propose to help identify functional and architectural requirements in support of a strategic business project (CRM, SCM; compliance to regulations; etc.), then learn the lessons and fine-tune support of future project by EA. 3. This pilot phase has the advantages of simultaneously deliver quick wins in the scope of the pilot (delimited business domain), define specifications for your BPM / EA approach and build your vision and case.
2.3 Process management services Our process management services assist Process Owners in optimising and monitoring operations within their area of responsibility. 1. Process Discovery, Prioritisation & Improvement: Our consultants will assist your teams to: Analyse the as-is processes, identify stakeholders and existing issues; Prioritise process improvement efforts; Propose and assess to-be solutions; Support change management activities (awareness, training, etc.) 2. Operations Risk Management: We help identify and manage operational risk based on business events and/or Business Activity Monitoring (BAM; dashboards). 3. Process Performance Management: We help Process Owners close the BPM loop, by defining Balanced Scorecards, helping them measure KPIs and produce dashboards and performance reports. 2.4 Information systems planning services Our information systems planning services are designed to assist our customer s IT department in taking investment decisions in systems and IT architecture in line with the business priorities. 1. Rationalisation and Planning of Information Systems: We help determine the appropriate evolutions to the IT architecture and governance for the next years and to make a case for the required investments. 2. SOA Services Planning & Governance: We help our customer s Architecture Board establish the catalogue of business services in support of process automation and agility and install the governance framework (Service Lifecycle Management Process) in a Services Oriented IT Architecture (SOA). 3. Best practices & Technologies Our consultants are experienced with best practices such as: ArchiMate, BPMM, BPMN, SOA, TOGAF, etc. They have conducted missions using modelling software such as the ARIS Platform (ARIS Business Architect, ARIS Business Designer), MEGA (Process & Architecture), Casewise Corporate Modeller. Our consultants are experienced / certified in internationally recognized disciplines and tools used in BPM and EA, such as: OMG Certified Expert in BPM (OCEB) SAP Business Process Expert (BPX) The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF 9) ARIS Platform (ARIS Business Architect, ARIS Business Designer) 4.
4. Key references Our consultants have successfully conducted engagements in European institutions, federal and Flemish public sector, energy & utilities, industry and banking & finance sectors. As an illustration, during the last 3 years they have conducted missions for the following clients: 4.1 A customer in the glass industry : Evaluation of CRM processes and IT architecture The customer s management wanted to implement the governance, tools and framework appropriate for its team of architects to carry out Enterprise Architecture activities. The customer s IT also needed to obtain a strong mandate from management. TRASYS consultants assisted the customer s IT department to 1 prove the value of the EA approach in the selection of a new CRM platform and 2 to translate principles and best practices recommended by TOGAF9 into practical step.. 4.2 A utilities company - Roadmap 2011-2015: Definition of the customer s target IT architecture and roadmap for 2011-2015 Since 2005, the customer had been rapidly growing its information system through organic development of dedicated, often silo-ed applications, as it was in a hurry to carry out its tasks independently from its former mother company (Electrabel). TRASYS Enterprise Architects assisted the customer s Corporate Architect and Functional Architect to define the information system architecture and roadmap for the coming next 4-5 years period and to prepare the business case for the necessary investments. The target (SOA) architecture will enable the customer to face new major challenges such as the progressive introduction of a smart metering infrastructure, the evolution to smart grid management to accommodate decentralised electricity production, support of electric vehicles and renewable energies in collective buildings, etc. 4.3 A pharmaceutical customer - PIM BPM: Redesign of product information management and regulatory submission processes in the pharmaceutical industry The customer wanted to implement the Product Information Management (PIM) processes and XML-based exchange standards (elaborated by a pharmaceutical industry workgroup in close collaboration with EMEA), as well as use an IT tool to support these processes and protocols. To that effect, the customer entrusted TRASYS BPM consultants and business experts with the analysis of its current PI and the definition of its future (PIM compliant) authoring and submission processes, as well as the identification of the required functions for the IT platform. 5.