Turning Business Processes into Business Assets

The way a company does things is often called its business processes, and capturing these business processes is a common procedure for many companies. The recorded processes are useful to better understand the way a company operates; these processes can also be stress-tested and modeled for further optimization or experimentation. Along with a company’s products, people, IT systems, customers, and suppliers, its recorded business processes form an important part of the company’s total value bundle, and so should be treated as a real asset.

Drawing diagrams of business processes is a well-known and common activity in many commercial and non-commercial organizations. It’s rare to find enterprises that do not have some process maps somewhere in the organization, except perhaps in micro-businesses where individuals operate on their own, or in small teams interacting very closely. Identifying and thoroughly defining the current state of your processes is one of the first steps in understanding how things are done in an organization, and sets the foundation for process improvement. It has become a hygiene requirement for any company embarking on a journey to develop its processes into business assets.

If your business processes are treated as ad-hoc, project-focused artefacts with no long term value, it’s a sure-fire sign your company needs to develop a change in thinking and approach. This paper will show why you should create a foundation you can build upon so you can fully leverage process modeling as a lasting investment.