Compostwiz Pty Ltd Preliminary Business Report
Instructions:
needed executive summary, table of contents, brief appendices, some diagrams and figures
Solution
Compostwiz Pty Ltd Preliminary Business Report.
Organizations fail not because of
intense competition, or lack of technical know-how. They fail due to poor
organization of the business processes (Seethamraju,
2012). Compostwiz is an example of an enterprise that had a marketable
product but still faced losses for a three years. The organization practiced
traditional practices such as the use of paper to keep and maintain all records,
sales, and marketing through word of mouth, lacked a marketing strategy, failed
to adopt computer-based business methods, customer frustration via late order
deliveries, time and resource wastage among others. The departments also lacked
cohesion in their operations thus making it difficult to do business. However, these challenges are solvable using managing
the procedures of the firm. BPM ensures synergy among the several departments.
It creates value, saves resources and ensures the smooth flow of operations.
These benefits are what led the CEO to introduce BPM to salvage the once
profitable business. BMP focuses on the current business process and resolves
to generate solutions that improve the business procedures. The report focuses
on Compostwiz business processes and how they led to losses. It explains how
the main challenge, loss, was as a result of old practices, poor communication,
customer dissatisfaction and differences among the different departments. The
report further suggests how the company can redeem itself through Information
Technology adoption, system adoption like ERP, excellent communication and
employee training. In conclusion, there are various recommendations that the
top management can embrace to ensure that the change process is fruitful and
permanent.
Compostwiz is failing due to its
poor business process. There is urgent need for BPM adoption to achieve
synergy, productivity, and profit. BPM adoption will entail major changes in
Compostwiz business operations. Also, the organization has to adopt IT in its
process. The adoption faces the risk of significant financial investment,
failure and employee resistance to change. It is possible to mitigate these
risks by providing adequate education and training to the employees on the
benefits of BPM. Management should also provide the necessary resources needed
to spearhead the transformation and set clear goals that the BPM adoption will
fulfill.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Compostwiz limited
has the potential to succeed due to its product. However, the company has faced
consistent loss for the past few years. The loss results from the poor business
process management. The organization has a chance to redeem its performance through
BPM adoption. This activity report provides a detailed analysis of the
challenges that face the organizations and how to control them.
BPM refers to the act of managing business processes to ensure the profitability and productivity of organizations. Business entities have various methods, and it is necessary to streamline these processes to work as one. Failure to manage the processes results in resource wastage. Compostwiz has a valuable product with the potential to exist in numerous markets, grow, expand and thrive for many years. Lack of cohesion of the business process is, however, letting the entity down as evidenced by the consistent loss in the past few years. The Compostwiz management needs to incorporate BMP in its functions to save time, improve relations between staff, streamline operations such that the various departments work as one body and most importantly satisfy consumer needs. The proper BMP implementation will increase the organization’s productivity which will lead to increased profits and growth.
Organizations can use BPM as a
business strategy. Once an institution implements BPM, it can improve itself
from within (Kirchmer, 2011). BPM illuminates the entire
processes of an organization while attempting to detect the weaknesses,
strengths, and opportunities facing these processes. Such evaluation gets rid
of the old process and enables the adoption of effective and efficient methods
of conducting business. An organization that critically looks into its
processes can detect its wrong doings, cut down expenses and identify income
generating ideas all which as strategies for business development. Proper BPM
enables organizations to improve its functions; provide better products;
improve its relations with suppliers, consumers, creditors and staff
relationships all which provide a competitive edge against competitors. An
organization can comply with the various regulations once it clearly
understands and manages its processes. Value chains refer to value creation
throughout the operations of business. It entails an entity looking into its
processes to identify ways to improve the various functions. BPM implementation
creates value since all resources are properly utilized thereby preventing the
wastage of time, people resource, funds, space and ensuring customer
satisfaction and employee fulfillment. Compostwiz will be better-placed in the
business world once it embraces BPM. More so, there will be a significant
growth regarding profit and increased clientele once it streamlines its
operations.
Currently, Compostwiz faces some challenges. Some include Inadequate sales and marketing strategies; lack of computer-based business processes; delays in order delivery; loss of shipping order details; time wastage; equipment wastage; losses and consumer grievances. However, the most urgent challenge is the losses that Compostwiz has faced over the past few years. The losses have stemmed from the following: Over-reliance of word-of-mouth sales which limits the customers to a small geographical region thus explaining the decreasing sales. Using paper-based record keeping increases the amount of work, making it difficult to trace various orders and wastes resources. The organization also lacks the ability to use IT to record, store and develop effective systems to assist in the different operations. The delayed order deliveries have resulted to consumer grievances which cause customer dissatisfaction; belief in the organization’s ability to meet consumer needs and inconvenience thus reducing sales thereby explaining the losses and low productivity. Moreover, the employees lack the necessary training on the use of Computer Technology and Information Technology, Synergy and adequate communication.
Compostwiz’s ‘As Is’ process entails each department working on its own instead of collectively to achieve the organizational goals. Individual departments perform their tasks then pass the duties to the other departments. The organization lacks cohesions whereby the various departments work together and communicate with each other to save on time and meet the customers’ needs. An example of their relations is in the BIZAGI Modeler below. One can notice that the various departments perform their various tasks as required then hand over to the next party. Motivation emanates from achieving their goals as opposed to meeting the organization’s goals of providing quality service to the customers. Such a mentality has resulted to backlog by some departments like the purchasing department which has many orders to purchase which eventually inconveniences the customers and costs the company profit. The diagram below portrays the As Is process facing the entity.
Figure 1
The process flow problems existing in the organization include the relations of the production, purchasing, logistics and accounting departments. These four agencies lack proper communication thus explaining the excessive amount of time taken to deliver goods to consumers. Production takes only 10 hours, but it takes the processes over one month to meet customer orders. There is time wastage between manufacturing and purchasing department in requesting and delivering raw materials. More so, the purchasing department has backlog through the piling of orders thus the increased time taken to produce the required materials to production. The logistics department fails to deliver all the shipping orders to accounts thus failing to invoice some customers. Such laxity can resort to some failed payments due to unaccountability. Also, the accounts department method of checking sales orders versus shipping orders is both incompetent and time-consuming. Poor document storage results to the loss or misplacement of some shipping orders thus failed or delayed payments. The sales department is also wanting since it uses out-dated and inadequate methods to obtain new customers thus explaining the reduced sales volumes. Below is a diagram elaborating the problems that the organization faces:
Figure 2
Developing a business processes design entails the process types of the architecture of the business process and the relations among them. The design may feature the whole organization or a portion of it (Barros, 2007). For Compostwiz the design means generating processes that improve how the various departments perform their duties. The architecture is important as it will streamline the various operations and employ synergy among all departments. It will ensure better communication, shorter lead times, shorter delivery times and reduced cases of lost documentation or lost revenue. Since Compostwiz’s product is one of a kind, a business process design will improve the organization’s value chain thus providing value in all departments. Work efficiency will improve, better relations among employees, increased productivity which in turn results in increased customer satisfaction, increased sales and increased profits.
‘To Be’ business procedures describe an organization’s business process’ future status. It clarifies how business processes work in an enterprise’s future once the company implements the various changes. Compostwiz’s current problem is losses for the past financial periods. The ‘To Be’ process entails incorporating Information Technology in all the departments and Information System adoption (Tripathi, Hinkelmann, & Feldkamp, 2008). The above will ensure that the departments have the ability to communicate freely and urgently. It will also reduce the amount of paperwork; the times wasted perusing through volumes of documents and allow the employees trace various orders, delivers and productions. Information systems will reduce the communication time among the departments. The Account’s Department will be better placed to trace all deliveries and send invoices to customers’ thus up-to-date statements and payments. The ‘To Be’ process will require computer technology and IT training for all members to adopt the new processes better. The sales team need training on modern sales techniques that are not limited to word of mouth communication thus increase the customer base.
Also, improved systems will provide a better forum for the innovations team to suit its products to the client needs better thus creating customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty (Raineri, 2011). The organization will improve its customer service, add value to its processes, improve its products, attract a larger market and increase its profits once it adopts the ‘To Be’ process. Below is a diagram of the To Be process. The Process cannot succeed without the top management’s insistence on teamwork, proper communication channels between the departments and active adoption of information systems and Computer Technology (Christensen, 2014). The diagram clearly shows the communication channels of the various department and how they ERP and IT adoption link them.
Figure 3
The management needs to
understand the need for constant maintenance and upgrading of the computer and
information systems to ensure continuity of service. Upon saving the records in
the systems, they need to be backed up to prevent instances of lost data with
no secondary storage. The secondary storage can be online in the various
software or using secondary hard disks. The CEO, therefore, needs to
familiarize herself with the benefits of shifting from manual data storage to
digital data storage, the risks associated with the change and how to protect
oneself from such hazards. The management needs to understand that the changes
made are EnterpriseResourcePlanning (ERP) based as they will integrate the
primary business procedures that were previously done manually to digital
through the help of technology and software.
As stated, Compostwiz needs to shift its processes from manual to digital. It means that the organization needs to invest more on computer and information technology, and information systems. The systems include ERP, IFRS for accounting, and other relevant systems depending on the department. The process requires financial investment to procure the resources necessary to support the BPM. It will also entail the hire or outsourcing of specialists in this field. The employees also need training on the various operations such as using the new devices, how to compute using the new systems, effective communication amongst themselves and various team building exercise to improve their relations. All these require money which, luckily, the CEO had set aside for such development.
The change process may receive
criticism from the employees who may view these changes as a ploy to take over
their jobs. Lots of time is required to redesign a new system that incorporates
all the business process particularly for the organization which has terrible
operational procedures. The change process will consume effort trying to
assimilate the employees who were used to manual process to computer technology
and the implementation of systems in their daily activities. There is also risk
that the project may fail after consuming much investment. The managers need to
come together despite their differences and support this idea so that all the
employees can embrace it. Failure to this will result in wasted time on
propaganda and rumors which may prevent the embracing of the BPM by all.
There are various
recommendations to ensure a smooth process during the implementation of the
BPM. Firstly, the CEO needs to explain to the employees the need for change and
the reasons behind the modification. Secondly, the managers should assist the
consultant by providing meaningful information that will help in integrating
the processes of various departments. Thirdly, all employees require a detailed
training program that educates them on the different processes, better methods
to conduct business and the use of Information Technology. Fourthly, management
is to provide the necessary resources for the BPM to take place be it the
finances, and specialists. Lastly, there must be clear goals that guide the
change process implementation and also guide management in the future when
reviewing progress.
In conclusion, Compostwiz faces
various challenges that resulted in a bad performance. Luckily, the performance
can improve by the adoption and implementation of BMP. BPM will ensure that all
departments work together to achieving toe organization’s objections. It will
also introduce new systems crucial for running operations. The change process
faces the risk of high financial investment, employee resistance, and failure
but it is possible to reduce these risks through employee training, goal
setting and provision of the necessary resource to make the process a success.
Barros, O. (2007). Business Processes Architecture and Design (undergraduate). The University of Chile.
Brocke, J. & Rosemann, M. (2010). Handbook on business process management 2 (1st ed.). Berlin: Springer.
Christensen, M. (2014). Communication as a Strategic Tool in Change Processes. International Journal Of Business Communication, 51(4), 359-385.
Kirchmer, M. (2011). High Performance Through Process Excellence (1st ed.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Raineri, A. (2011). Change management practices: Impact on perceived change results. Journal Of Business Research, 64(3), 266-272. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.11.011
Seethamraju, R. (2012). Business process management: a missing link in business education. Business Process Management Journal, 18(3), 532-547.
Tripathi, U., Hinkelmann, K., & Feldkamp, D. (2008). Life
Cycle for Change Management in Business Processes using Semantic Technologies. Journal
Of Computers, 3(1).
INTERNAL MEMO
TO: All Employees Compostwiz Pty Ltd
FROM: Jenny Attenborough – CEO
DATE:10TH December 2016
SUBJECT: BPM adoption
The organization needs to restructure following the consistently poor performance of the past few years. We will adopt BPM which will ensure that all business processes work together to achieving the organization’s vision. There will be significant changes which will require the undivided support of all employees. There is no need to panic since the activity will ensure that improvement in all business parameters. Please support the venture as it is a positive change and will assist the organization in moving forward.
Thank You
THE CEO – Compostwiz Pty Ltd,
Jenny Attenborough