Processes and tasks entanglement
Do you still remember how we wrote about spaghetti, processes and how to eat so as not to stain your shirt? Regardless of the answer here, you may recall.
Meanwhile, today we would like to start with the question of what is a process? And before you think it's a joke and exchange glances, wondering if we're serious, we already answer - we are serious.
Broadly understood processes are studied and described in many different ways.
Does this mean that there are no misunderstandings during the project with the client? Of course they are. They take up a large part of our daily work. Can we talk about process optimization, automation, work methodologies and other details, if there is a risk that we will not fully understand each other? Sure we can. Nevertheless, we value effective communication and we know how important it is on the road to success.
Processes, closer then you think
So let me tell you how we see the processes, what we face and how we support our partners. Let's go back to spaghetti for a moment.
Let's imagine a situation that we want to eat carbonara. And already at this stage the first questions arise:
? Will we prepare it ourselves or will we go to a restaurant?
? What is our budget for this pleasure?
? Is our goal to achieve the highest quality of taste, or will it be enough to satisfy hunger?
Let's say we choose the option of testing our skills and making a dish ourselves and we have no idea how to prepare it. And here are the next questions:
? Do we know someone who could help us?
? Are we looking for a recipe on the Internet?
? What products will we need?
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The number of questions is growing, and with each subsequent answer or decision made, new ones appear. Is good preparation to start the carbonara cooking process necessary at all? oh! Our favourite word "process" popped up? Yes, because that is the process. We have a goal, we have to start somewhere, perform a sequence of activities, preferably in the right order, and all this happens in a finite time and leads us to some effect.
Will we be satisfied after completing all the activities? Will we succeed or fail? It depends on many factors. However, if we have prepared well and defined the goal and it is, for example, to enjoy the highest quality of taste, we can measure this success by looking at the plate after eating and checking the level of our satisfaction. Easy?
Even when cooking spaghetti carbonara, not necessarily.
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Do we see processes or only tasks?
So why are we telling you about food? Because it's easy to get tangled up in details and lose sight of the goal. Has it happened to you? Our experience shows that precise definition of needs and focusing on what we want to achieve is one of the most important challenges of each project.
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We talk about processes with partners from the e-commerce, banking, logistics and insurance sectors, but in the context of slightly different tasks. These are activities handled by the system, but also by people specializing in various business areas.
Now imagine the after-sales process. Our goal may be customer satisfaction with the quality of order fulfilment.
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? Do we monitor the transport of the product to the customer?
? How will we know that the package has been lost by the courier?
? Have we taken care to send e-mail communication to the customer, which will reduce, for example, incoming calls with questions "when will I receive my order"?
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Let's move on to the complaint processes. Despite our efforts, the customer is not satisfied with the purchase. Here, our goal may be to shorten the time of customer dissatisfaction.
? Do we know what to do when the customer wants and has the right to return or exchange the product?
? Does the same employee have the competence to service the customer returning and exchanging the purchase?
? When is the safest time to return funds to the client's account?
Probably in every business where employees are employed there are also processes related to the processing of leave of absence requests. The goal may be, for example, to minimize paper and implement the whole thing electronically.
? Will the request for leave go to the right person right away?
? How will the employee know about our acceptance or disagreement?
? Do we need to provide a replacement for the employee's absence?
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When technology meets processes
The number of tasks needed to achieve the goals of a given business increases with the size of the organization. Too many orders? Are the legal regulations that you have to comply with changing too fast? Too many tasks? Too little time? How quickly can we react to changes?
These needs are met by technologies that help manage tasks, priorities, and automatic machines that assign tasks to employees with appropriate competences based on specific needs. With the use of IT technology, we can also help in generating documents, facilitate correspondence as part of the tasks performed. An infinite range of possibilities.
? When facing business challenges, do you see them as part of the process?
? Do you model processes in your organizations?
? If so, do you create analytical models or also executable models?
? Do you use BPA tools?
? Have you ever wondered about the business benefits of implementing a low-code application? Or do you think it's totally overrated?
?Summary
If we have whetted your appetite for more information, our goal has been achieved. We can look at processes from many different perspectives. They are seen differently by an analyst, differently by a programmer, and even differently by a bank employee whose task is to verify and generate a document that the client needs. If you are curious how it all comes together, you see something useful for yourself, we invite you for more. And of course we are curious how you see the processes?