Quick Tips: 5 Ways to Prioritise Business Process Optimisations

In today’s dynamic business environment, organisations are inundated with opportunities for process improvement. However, limited resources necessitate a strategic approach to prioritisation. This edition of Quick Tips offers five pragmatic strategies, incorporating AI-driven insights, to effectively navigate the complexities of process optimisation.

Understanding the Challenge

The landscape of business process optimisation is vast, presenting numerous avenues for enhancement. Yet, the constraints of time, budget, and manpower compel organisations to make judicious choices. The central question becomes: Which process improvements should take precedence? Absent objective, data-informed evaluation methods, decision-making can become mired in subjective debates and biases. The following strategies aim to provide clarity and direction in this decision-making process.

Five Strategies for Effective Process Optimisation Prioritisation

1. Align with Strategic Objectives

Importance: Process improvements should directly contribute to overarching business goals.

Approach: Clearly define your organisation’s primary objectives—be it cost reduction, customer satisfaction, compliance, or risk mitigation. Evaluate each potential process improvement against these objectives to ensure alignment.

Example: If enhancing customer satisfaction is paramount, prioritise improvements in customer-facing processes, such as streamlining support ticket resolution or optimising delivery workflows.

2. Leverage AI for Process Simulation

Importance: Predicting the real-world impact of process changes is challenging without empirical testing.

Approach: Utilise AI-powered simulation tools to model various process scenarios. These tools can assess metrics like throughput time, cost implications, and potential bottlenecks, enabling informed decision-making.

Example: An insurance company employs simulation to compare three claims handling workflows. The AI analysis reveals that one variant reduces average case duration by 18%, identifying it as the optimal choice.

3. Centralise and Structure Process Data

Importance: Fragmented or siloed data hampers the ability to accurately assess and prioritise process improvements.

Approach: Develop a centralised data repository that consolidates KPIs, logs, and event traces from various systems. Ensure the data is clean and structured to facilitate effective analysis.

Clarification: Implementing platforms like Infor’s Data Lake can aid in integrating data from ERP, CRM, and other systems, providing a unified view for analysis.

4. Target Low-Effort, High-Impact Initiatives

Importance: Quick wins can generate momentum and demonstrate the value of process optimisation efforts.

Approach: Employ an Effort-Impact Matrix to categorise potential improvements. Focus initially on initiatives that require minimal effort but offer substantial impact.

Example: Automating email confirmations for order processing may be a simple change but can significantly reduce customer inquiries, enhancing satisfaction and efficiency.

5. Implement a Structured Scoring System

Importance: Objective evaluation is crucial for effective prioritisation.

Approach: Develop a scoring model that assesses each improvement opportunity based on factors such as ROI, implementation effort, strategic alignment, and risk reduction. Incorporate AI-based projections to enhance the accuracy of ROI estimations.

Clarification: A weighted scoring system might allocate 40% to ROI, 20% to implementation effort, 20% to strategic fit, and 20% to risk reduction, providing a balanced assessment framework.

Food for Thought

• Is your current data infrastructure robust enough to support AI-driven decision-making?
• Does your team possess the necessary skills to interpret AI-generated insights effectively?
• While quick wins are beneficial, have you also planned for more substantial, long-term process transformations?

Conclusion

These strategies serve as a foundational guide for prioritising process optimisations. However, each organisation’s context is unique. It’s essential to tailor these approaches to fit your specific operational maturity, resource availability, and strategic objectives.