Step 1. Organizational Analysis
Activities
The first step in the Content360° methodology is to gain a clear understanding of the
organization and the key business drivers and associated business processes that determine its success. Key business drivers are imperatives that are critical to customer satisfaction, competitive effectiveness, financial growth and stability, regulatory compliance and production and delivery quality and consistency. To understand and document these important areas, organizational discovery session(s) are conducted which concentrate on identification and understanding of the following aspects of the organization:
- Type(s) of business and activities the organization is engaged in (or planning to move into).
- Products and services provided to the marketplace.
- Organizational structure employed by the organization.
- Strategic goals, objectives and advantages
The discovery sessions are also used to understand and document internal and external forces that may have positive or negative leverage over an organization’s key business drivers, including:
- Economic issues
- Environmental issues
- Regulatory and compliance issues
- Corporate governance issues
- Resource issues
- Financial issues
- Market/competitive issues
The final objective of the organizational discovery sessions is to identify and document those business processes that are associated with the successful accomplishment of each key business driver. A business process is an organized group of related activities that work together to create a result for the organization and its customers. An organization’s Key business processes are those processes which have maximum impact on the success of an organization, as these processes deliver results that are directed towards specific and measurable business goals.
These are the business processes that an organization must excel at to remain successful, both now and in future.
During the organizational discovery session, key business processes will be identified and documented at a macro level along with the metrics used to determine the performance of each business process along with any requirements and assumptions regarding future growth, expansion or extension of each business process.
Deliverables
The deliverable of Step 1 is a detailed project plan outlining the scope of the remainder of the engagement. This plan will be built with specific activities and dates for a successful engagement.
Step 2. Requirements Analysis
Activities
The second step in the Content360° methodology is to perform a detailed requirements analysis of each key business process identified during the Organizational Analysis phase. This is accomplished by conducting iterative process discovery sessions with key process stakeholders and process performers. The objective of each discovery session is to identify, understand and document the following areas for each business process:
- Identification and documentation of the activities performed during each step of the business process.
- Identification of the roles (internal and external) involved in performing each activity within the business process.
- Identification of key inputs to each business process activity, including initiation inputs, contribution inputs and coordination inputs.
- Identification of integration points between each business process activity and other internal and external processes/systems.
- Identification of key defect sources and the associated method (and cost) of compensation processing.
- Identification of key outputs of each business process activity.
- Content retention requirements and policies.
- Resource and skill set availability.
- Identification of internal and/or external forces that can significantly impact the business process, including regulatory/compliance requirements, corporate and/or industry governance requirements and contractual requirements.
During the business process analysis phase we pay particular attention to content‐specific areas that can have a significant impact on the success of the business process, including:
- Inefficient paper processes – lost files, redundant work, fraud, etc.
- The volume of paper being generated and stored – filing cabinets, paper routing, etc.
- Regulatory storage requirements – legal, local and federal government, etc.
- Physical logistics of paper document storage, retrieval and reproduction.
A significant part of each business process discovery session will be the collection of samples for each content type (i.e., paper forms) associated with that process. These samples play a significant role in understanding the information requirements of the business process. They also provide a baseline for analysis and design of electronic renditions of content where identified as appropriate.
During this session we also develop an initial set of metrics by which the success of the project can be based and evaluated. These will typically include concrete measurements such as reduction in defects, time, and cost required to complete a given business process. They may also include more abstract, but equally valuable measurements such as improvements in quality and customer satisfaction.
Documentation of the business process activities is captured into a MindMap software template for easy reference and flexibility. The MindMap provides an easy‐to‐understand visual outline
of the process and systems which allows us to easily identify touch points and access points of
information in the process. These points are where we will look for Document Imaging projects and applications.
Deliverables
The output of the Business Process Requirements Analysis will be a report that graphically and descriptively depicts a view of the systems, equipment, content, users and reports involved in the evaluated processes. This report will be in a Mind Map format to provide greater understanding of the process strengths and weaknesses.
Step 3. Impact Analysis
Activities
Step 3 of the Content360° methodology is focused on the evaluation and assessment of the business process information gathered during step 2. Each business process will be evaluated regarding its overall efficiency and effectiveness. The efficiency assessment is internally focused and measures the resources that are consumed in getting a unit of work done. These resources may include materials, personnel or simply time consumed. The efficiency of a business process often has a direct impact on the cost performance of a business process for the organization. Conversely, effectiveness assesses the business process from an external (customers’) perspective. For example, how effective was the business process in delivering what a customer wanted/needed in a consistent manner and at an acceptable level of quality.
The efficiency and effectiveness evaluations will be used to develop a high‐level, preliminary ROI
analysis. This ROI will help determine those business processes that are the best candidates for
a detailed business process improvement analysis and which groups within the organization would benefit the most from implementing specific solutions in support of business and financial goals.
The Content360° methodology is designed to emphasize and focus on modifications to business processes that are identified as having the greatest potential positive impact to and consistency with an organization’s key business drivers and overall success. Recommendations for small improvements may be made for business processes that do not provide significant financial or cultural improvement to an organization. However, these business processes will not be included in any ongoing reengineering analysis.
Deliverables
The output of the Business Process Impact Analysis will be an ROI document that details potential savings to the organization by improving identified key business process. The document will outline anticipated labor and/or time savings, hard cost savings, and process improvement benefits.
This document will be used to identify those business processes that have the potential ROI to fund a solution on its own or if other mitigating factors need to be present to justify investing in a solution. The ROI evaluation can also serve as the basis for prioritization of business process improvement initiatives for the organization.
Step 4. Detailed Needs Analysis
Activities
Step 4 in the Content360° methodology will be to perform a deeper analysis of those business processes that were identified in the Impact Analysis as having the potential for significant positive impact to, and consistency with, an organization’s key business drivers and overall success.
The primary objective of this step is the development and documentation of a functional speciation document for the identified key business processes. The Functional Specification is designed to provide a before and after perspective of the activities performed and functionality provided by the existing key business process in contrast to the activities performed and functionality provided by the reengineered business process. As such, the Functional Specification provides a singular vision/description of what the business process automation solution is expected to do and how it is supposed to function. The analysis is presented using highly visual information formats, including Use Case diagrams, Swim Lane flow charts, system architecture drawings and activity diagrams. This enables both technical and non‐technical personnel to rapidly understand and evaluate the proposed solution and make changes where necessary.
The evaluated business processes are presented in both an “as‐is” format and a “to‐be” format. The as‐is format documents the business process as it currently exists. The to‐be format documents and illustrates the business process as it will be after the business process automation changes have been applied. This approach offers a clear visual representation of the differences between the two implementations and serves to rapidly identify shortcomings in the planned solution prior to actual development and implementation. This document explains in great detail exactly what the Document Imaging solution should do and will serve as a “road map” of the process with an outline all known process steps.
Deliverables
Functional Specification
Based upon the Detailed Needs Analysis, we will compile a functional specifications document which will contain Use Case diagrams, Swim Lane flow charts, system architecture drawings, activity diagrams, and list the requirements for a solution to improve that process.
This document will serve as a “road map” of the process and will outline all known process steps. It is, by design, “application agnostic” meaning that any technology or process solution may be developed using this document. The Functional Specification document can be used as
a check list for feature / functionality of any technology solution your organization may consider to improve the business process or to generate an RFP to send to vendors.
Step 5. Analysis Review and Recommendations
Activities
The final step in the Content360° methodology is an organizational review of the ROI and Functional Design deliverables of steps 4 and 5. This step involves bringing together executives, managing directors, process users and business process consultants in a forum to review and discuss the findings of the analysis and to clarify any assumptions that were required during the evaluation.
During this step, recommendations will be presented for changing or modifying key business processes. The result of the engagement will be confidence in a decision to move forward with a solution and a plan to give the organization the greatest opportunity for success.
Final Deliverable and Recommendation
The final document delivered in the engagement will be a brief overview of the key business processes and a final recommendation for steps to be taken to improve them. This document will take into account all steps conducted as part of the Content360° process and the ROI potential for any improvements made to identified key business processes.