business process calibration with brown paper processing · business process calibration with brown...

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By Brian Beckman and Jeanne Gulbranson

Business Process Calibration with Brown Paper Processing: Turning Brown into Green


Abstract

There are just a few requirements that all businesses, regardless of size, industry or location, have in common. High on this short list is the need to define and refine their core business processes to stay abreast of the changes in their markets, products, organizational requirements, and information system support needs. The list of business events that trigger the call to “define and refine” is as long as the list of “what is required to ensure success in our industry.”

Why don’t more organizations address the need to define and refine more often? Why do too many companies turn a blind eye to this, and attempt to navigate through an information system upgrade or new implementation, a major acquisition or divestiture, or significant product or market changes without first addressing, “how do we do business today and how should we do business tomorrow?” Why? Because it’s just too difficult, too time-consuming and too costly. But it doesn’t have to be. First on the list of “how should we do business’’ should be a definition and refinement of “how should we define and refine.”

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Since Ciber originally introduced Business Process Calibration (BPC) with Brown Paper Processing (BPP) the methodology has been used by more than 150 organizations of all sizes, across all industries, all of whom have achieved significant process improvement and goal alignment with minimal disruption. These progressive companies have strengthened their organizations by calibrating their processes ahead of, or in conjunction with, their software upgrades, implementations or other major business events.

By incorporating Business Process Calibration into their improvement process, they were able to drive synergies across their organizations, embrace unique enterprise best practices, and position themselves to achieve their desired and required objectives. They have used the deceptively simple Business Process Calibration process to streamline their processes, and position themselves with clear vision and direction to achieve their objectives.

Like our successful, satisfied clients, Ciber has reaped the benefits of BPC in our own delivery. We have adopted our Business Process Calibration methodology to define and refine…well, our own Business Process Calibration methodology. The outcome of our efforts is an even simpler, faster, stronger process for our clients to follow. The following information presents our Business Process Calibration with Brown Paper Processing approach and highlights the improvements that will benefit the next 150+ clients during their upgrades, implementations and other life events.

The best practice for best practices

Implementing or upgrading a business software package or ERP suite is never a small effort. It impacts the entire organization: executives, end users, IT, and often customers and suppliers. So why do it at all? Because implicit in going forward with the project is a business case and return on investment arising from improvements in one or more areas of the operation: productivity, customer service, competitive differentiation, and so on.

“In the five years of 2008 through 2013, 89% of Ciber’s software implementation and upgrade clients have requested business improvement initiatives as a key element of their projects. In the five previous years, only 43% of Ciber clients requested this service. An increasing number of companies are recognizing that software alone will not drive the overriding benefits they need and that significant business value comes only when the business processes are refined and the end-users are both willing to accept and able to benefit from the change.”

Defining best practices

To realize those benefits means changing business processes with an objective of achieving “best practices.” Best practices? There are several different choices and definitions of best practices:

1. General industry best practices that are relatively common across all like industries. Perpetual inventory management versus min-max inventory control would be one example.

2. Business processes determined by various consulting and analyst groups focused on top performers in a particular market segment. Wal-Mart’s use of RFID to reduce out of stocks by 16% is viewed as a best practice in that space.

3. Practices “imbedded” in the software package that will be implemented. Software designers make assumptions about how a business should execute processes and build those capabilities into the software.

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4. Best practices unique to a specific organization; those they employ to create or maintain their competitive position in the marketplace. A wholesale or retail distributor may want to commit to providing “available to ship” within 60 seconds of receiving a customer order to maintain customer loyalty and gain competitive advantage in their market space. This was a significant contribution to Zappo’s intensely loyal customer base.

There is a significant challenge in determining which option to use as the basis for the “best practices” for an individual company. Which best practices repository will produce the recommended changes that fit your organization’s mission, values, organization, marketing and financial models, and competitive requirements? A Google search of “manufacturing best practices” yields over 400,000 choices!

“In Greek mythology, Procrustes was a giant who seized travelers and tied them to an iron bed. Then he either stretched or amputated their legs until they fit the bed. Some consider him the patron saint of software developers.”

Improving business processes

In addition to the question of which pool of “best practices” to use as the benchmark, companies must also determine which approach to business process improvement is best. In the past, process change has been approached in a number of ways. These include business process re-engineering (BPR), strict adherence to the software vendor’s model, adopting the processes of the competitor, or, making the software do it “the way we’ve always done it.”

Business process re-engineering

When Michael Hammer and James Champy introduced the business world to Business Process Re-Engineering in the 1990s, it became the way to improve business processes.

Fundamentally, Business Process Re-Engineering starts with a blank page, identifies the core business function being served by a process, and then re-engineers it from the ground up. While this approach can and has resulted in major improvements, it is very costly, time-consuming, and has caused major problems and business disruptions. Business Process Re-Engineering is an intrusive and revolutionary approach to process change, and when you rock the boat sometimes you can capsize it. Business Process Re-Engineering has done more to discourage “define and refine” initiatives than it has to encourage it.

Software specific practice adoption

As ERP software grew in complexity in terms of functionality as well as the markets and industries served, it embodied more and more fundamental business processes. The process designs were rationalized as best practices and users were strongly urged to change their business to match the software. In 1998, as the SAP juggernaut was exploding, Bruce Richardson at AMR’s annual conference posed this question, “Once everyone is running their business as dictated by the software, where is the competitive advantage?”

Follow the leader

Should every retailer model their business processes after Wal-Mart? Definitely not. What works for one organization does not automatically work for the next, unless their business alignment, market strategies, and long-term visions align perfectly. Wal-Mart is driven to be the low-cost leader. Nordstrom is driven to lead in customer service, and The Sharper Image is driven by the uniqueness of their offerings. Each of these companies requires business processes that support their distinct approach to the market, their customers, and suppliers.

Don’t change anything

Lacking understanding, methodology, and experience, too many organizations default to maintaining the status quo when implementing business systems. This is especially attractive to the large body of end users that is wary of and resistant to change. As a result, a large investment goes into making the software conform to current practices; in

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effect negating the business rationale for the project. Lots of money and time are spent in order to make the new software support “the way we’ve always done it.”

The intelligent approach

“Follow the leader” does not work, “Don’t change anything” does not make sense, and Business Process Re-Engineering is too big and disruptive to be a part of a software implementation. The best approach by far is an intelligent mapping of strategic business processes with imbedded software processes, redesigning the process and/or software as needed to support the business strategy. This approach is supported by a Gartner Group research paper entitled, “Are ERP Best Practices Best for Your Company?” In the report, Gartner states, “Users need to do a proper evaluation of the fit between a vendor’s best practices and their business requirements. In most cases, users will discover a gap, and must make modification to the best practices for a better fit.” 1

1 Gartner, 2/28/06, “Are ERP Best Practices Best for Your Company”

“User-defined practices” are the “best practices” for a company. These are the practices that a fully-informed team of client key users crafts and implements with the guidance of business specialists who supply the effective and efficient approach to the initiative, as well as the knowledge of the various choices in process.

What is Ciber’s Business Process Calibration?

Business Process Calibration (BPC) utilizes the intelligent approach; a methodology that is fully integrated with a complete software implementation and upgrade. Its purpose is to develop a set of business processes that support and enhance the organization’s vision, goals, and objectives while taking maximum advantage of the available software capabilities. The BPC positioning within that methodology ensures that process improvement is a natural outcome of the implementation, and occurs at the most appropriate time in the project. Figure 1 is a high-level view of BPC with Ciber’s Brown Paper Process (BPP) approach. The major components of the BPC with BPP process are:

Figure 1: Business Process Calibration with Brown Paper Process

Brown Paper Process “To-be” Workshop

Brown Paper Process:Identify “As-is”

Conference Room PilotsCategorize the Processes

(3 tiers)

Articulate theStrategic Vision

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experts know the various options and already have the documentation that allows our clients to make well-informed choices. We have saved substantial time, effort and cost by eliminating the need for As-is, and provided uniquely crafted To-be documentation. Examples of processes included in the Standard Tier are Issuing Inventory, Maintaining Recurring Payments, Transferring an Asset and Maintaining Purchase Orders.

Tier three: Full

Full processes are those that are worthy of comprehensive attention in the BPC process. These processes require us to know more about how you do your business and adapt the future state to best serve your needs. They are the processes unique to an organization and require full documentation for As-is, To-be, and Conference Room Pilot scripts. Full processes will include Inventory Replenishment, Processing Time Entry, Disposing of an Asset and other processes with substantial variation from company to company.

Once the Three Tier categorization has been completed (generally before the project begins) and validated (after articulation of the strategic vision during planning), the projects move swiftly to the next steps in the BPC process.

3. Brown Paper Process: Identify the current (as-is) business processes.

For this purpose we define process as “a structured, measured set of activities with a specific driver and specific outputs that meet a business objective.” There are hundreds of processes within an organization, and most likely even more in the software being implemented or upgraded. It is not unusual to find that no single individual understands the complete end-to-end process, particularly when that process crosses functional and departmental boundaries. Reliance on written procedures, (the formal system that may be in place), is risky at best. Even if the documentation exists, it often does not represent the actual way in which work flows and is accomplished. It is important therefore to get started on this task early.

1. Articulate the strategic vision: Establish the organization’s strategic positioning and business goals.

This provides the framework within which business processes can be evaluated for their relative strategic importance. It’s amazing how few project teams have any common understanding of the goals and objectives of the organization. How can they be expected to implement a strategically focused and enabling solution without that awareness?

2. Categorize the processes into three tiers: Express, standard and full approach.

This is the most significant and visible improvement to our already straightforward methodology. The addition of the Three-Tiered Approach has reduced the time and cost-of-business process calibration by more than 35% for our clients without a reduction in their process improvement or attainment of the project goals.

Tier one: Express

Those processes that are ‘normalized’ across like companies in an industry utilizing enterprise software. Because they are commonly-used practices and are inherent to the software solution, they can take the express route and do not require individually crafted As-is or To-be documentation. These standard processes instead can start with Conference Room Pilot (CRP); a formalized activity, immediately following BPC that tests the To-be processes in the system. Because Ciber already has the list of Express processes and the documentation, and supplies that information for the client, taking these processes directly to CRP saves substantial time and investment. Examples of Express processes are Calculating Depreciation, Adding Ship-to Locations and Calculating Retro Pay.

Tier two: Standard

These processes are generally standardized in companies, but our experience indicates that many organizations may need quality recommendations for improvements in the future (To-be) processes. Our business process

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Initiating the Brown Paper Process

As with other wide-reaching initiatives, the way a company plans and begins the projects dictates the way they will end! Well-planned efforts and fully-prepared participants will ensure that the objectives are achieved efficiently and comprehensively.

Because of our Three Tiered approach, we don’t have to include all the processes used in any organization in the BPP Exercises. Only the Full processes will be included, which substantially reduces the time, effort and cost of the Exercises and allows the greatest return for the investment in the BPC initiative.

The Brown Paper Process is carried out in a facilitated session, requiring one half-day (four hours) of examination at a time. The usual schedule (planned and communicated before the BPP exercises begin) allows for three to four processes that can be identified and documented in each of the half-day sessions. Company participants (four to six people per session) must represent key contributors from each functional or departmental area that is an active participant in the process including key crossover departments. For example, when examining purchasing processes it is important to include representation from accounts payable. Preparation for the analysis session is critical, and includes the key component of the Brown Paper Process Workshop.

A reminder: in the actual Brown Paper Process, we will include only those in the Tier Three. These are the Full Processes; those that are the most unique, the most costly, or that cause the most angst. These are the candidates for a more rigorous analysis using the Brown Paper Process.

What is this Brown Paper Process that keeps coming up?

The secret to executing a successful, efficient, and non-disruptive Business Process Calibration initiative is in the techniques used in the approach. The Brown Paper Process is a rigorous, structured group exercise designed to fully identify and document a business process from start

to finish, and across all functions and departments. It is fast, cost-effective, and delivers solid process improvement results when done correctly. The name, Brown Paper Process, comes from using brown (Kraft) paper as the medium for recording all the inputs, outputs, current process steps, manual interventions, and department crossovers. It is a low-tech, highly visible, and easy-to-use and follow technique. The visual impact of seeing a process documented on a large wall with standardized icons that illustrate the steps and highlight the areas for improvement is a strong catalyst to drive the integrated participation of the company’s key users.

Many key users in a large services organization protested the use of the new ERP package being implemented because it would “needlessly complicate our streamlined business process” in order fulfillment. Participation in an integrated, cross-department Brown Paper Process allowed them to see that, over time, their current processes had gradually become complicated in a way they did not realize. The resulting improved process using their new system reduced the process steps by over 1/3 of the required time to complete.

More details about the BPP Exercises, immediately follow this section.

4. Brown Paper Process to-be workshop: Map the identified processes to those in the software, and develop the proposed future (to-be) processes.

The Brown Paper Process Workshop is a two- to four-hour workshop to explain and demonstrate the methodology, icons and logistics, establish the ground rules for open and

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The BPP, To-be Workshop will drive a set of requirements for change either in the process or in the software. It is important to limit software changes to only those processes that are strategically important to carry out in their “as-is” configuration. For all others the physical process and workflow should be changed to utilize the as-delivered software capabilities.

Impact Analysis is a significant step in the development of the best user-defined processes for an organization and is done concurrently with the To-be Workshops. Before adopting a proposed process change, the implications, and cause-and-effect across departments and/or locations must be fully-realized and integrated into the decision-making. Ciber business specialists prepare the Impact Analysis Document (IAD) and refine it with key stakeholders in the organization. The IAD addresses the potential impacts of each proposed change in the categories of: People, Integrated Process, Organizational Structure, and External Considerations. The IAD provides the information to make the most fully-informed decision about process changes, as well as software selections, resource responsibilities, and timing for transition.

Change Management and Communication planning is also finalized during this step in the BPC process. The specifics of required communication and change leadership approaches can be uniquely crafted to address the magnitude and reach of the upcoming changes.

5. Conference Room Pilot (CRP) sessions: Script, test, and validate each process.

Now all of the processes, Express and Standard (with documentation prepared in advance by Ciber), and the Full processes, prepared uniquely in the Brown Paper Workshop come together.

Conference Room Pilot provides the initial validation of all of the processes using the to-be processes as the basis for the creation of the scripts. As a result of the CRP, the To-be processes may be modified to reflect the total process and system design.

constructive participation. Attendees include the project team and any additional key users who will be participants in the Brown Paper Process.

In addition to the mechanics of the analysis process, we work on the interpersonal and team dynamics that need to come into play. During the Workshop, we address the natural resistance to change, and encourage open communication and contribution. Participants are exposed to the concept of givens, negotiables, and controllables that can be applied in making decisions about business processes. A “practice session” is conducted with the users to increase their comfort level with the process before the actual sessions begin.

“Key users are often reluctant to engage in the Brown Paper Process because they are concerned about the time required and, most importantly, their own ability to contribute successfully to the Exercises. In a recently completed Brown Paper Process Exercise with a state government, there were not enough personnel initially willing to participate to even properly conduct the Exercises, but they were willing to attend the Workshop. After attending the Workshop, the number of key users willing and eager to contribute to the solutions was almost four times the original participant pool!”

Again, the actual To-be Workshops are for the Full Processes only. Ciber has already captured and documented the To-be for the Express Processes and will be bringing that to Conference Room Pilot. Ciber already has the To-be for the Standard Processes and will be presenting the artifacts to our clients to allow them to make the choices that are right for their organizations.

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Train to succeed

A significant step in the overall process (not pictured in the Figure 1 diagram), is to develop training materials and train the user community in the improved processes. The documented results of the CRP form the basis for the end-user training materials. By providing visual representation of the processes that are included in the training, knowledge transfer has greater impact and is more comprehensive.

The secrets to our clients’ success and ability to achieve the outcomes they need from their major change initiatives are not actually ‘secrets.’ They are straightforward, highly-visible, well-communicated and consistently successful.

Succeed to achieve results

Ciber’s Business Process Calibration combined with our Brown Paper Process provides the proven, structured methodology that is followed rigorously to deliver results. The high level of user involvement, support and buy-in that it produces results in both process improvement and the outcomes from their upgrade, implementation or other major business event that they desire.

Including the BPC methodology with IMPACT, Ciber’s project methodology, allows our clients to develop and integrate their ‘user-defined’ practices. And for the organizations we serve, these are the real “best practices.”

Figure 2: The Brown Paper Workshop

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Figure 3: The Conference Room Pilot Business Scenario

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About the Authors

Brian Beckman is a Senior Delivery Director with extensive project delivery expertise, in addition to his robust Infor Lawson ERP knowledge and experience. His multiple roles, spanning more than 15 years, have included technology lead consultant, personnel manager, project manager, and delivery leader for numerous implementations, upgrades and system migrations. In his current position, Brian is responsible for the continuous development and refinement of Ciber’s Infor Practice delivery methodology and toolsets.

Jeanne Gulbranson has been focused on strategy development and deployment, process improvement, quality assurance, and change management for ERP projects for over 20 years. Her expertise in planning and execution has supported companies from 300 to 40,000 employees with locations in 19 different countries. Jeanne has authored numerous articles and award-winning books on strategic visioning, change management, leadership development, and other related topics that span the boundaries between business and IT.

Brian BeckmanSenior Delivery Director

Jeanne GulbransonStrategist

About Ciber

Ciber is a global IT consulting company with some 6,500 employees in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific, and is approaching $1 billion in annual business. Ciber partners with organizations to develop technology strategies and solutions that deliver tangible business value. Founded in 1974, the company trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CBR).

For more information, visit www.ciber.com.

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