With the position of both a process management and exploration tool, the industry analysts came to this conclusion by understanding the active role that a tool can play in facilitating interactive process workshops where all staff involved in executing the process can participate in discussing, evaluating, comparing and mapping their process. Engage Process succeeded in its mission to make a tool that enables interactive workshops to be done directly in the platform, rather than starting with brown paper. This is where our customers find value today; empowering staff and creating ownership for each process step - a key foundation of people-driven change.
So what is process exploration and what is the difference to process mapping?
In process exploration the operating staff go beyond just mapping the steps. A process workshop challenges them to:
- See and consider the costs associated with each activity, identifying which steps in the process are most expensive. This lets you see what cost savings can be achieved when changes are made in the process.
- Think about how much time it takes to execute a process step. If it takes longer, why is that? What is happening in that situation? Is that an exception that we should map as well?
- Think about, and indicate, whether activities or process steps are customer value-added or not. And if not, what can we do to reduce steps that don't add value to the customer?
- Think about the difference between the processing time and the lead time of the complete process. Why does it take us 15 days to perform work with 3,5 hours of processing time?
- Compare an AS-IS situation with an alternative TO-BE situation. Immediately see the impact of changes suggested by the team.
- Adjust your view at the press of a button to look at the process from different angles. What do we learn when we look at a swimlane view of the process by Roles involved, or a swimlane view of Applications used? Does that give new ideas?
- See where in the process risk is defined or tasks need to be escalated for approval. Which control measures are where in the process and why?
While process exploration may include process mapping, the purpose and scope go far beyond. Being able to see the potential impact of their suggestions in real-time enables the team to become more involved. It lays the foundation for any process improvement, cost savings program or digital transformation project.
