| Often the wrong people are making these decisions, | | | | regardless of how hard or how long it takes, because |
| they aren't bad people but they should rely on those | | | | it makes future upgrades and or the decision to |
| who work with Technology and understand the | | | | change a core application in your organization much |
| implications of making the wrong choices. One of the | | | | easier. |
| best ways to prevent the wrong people from | | | | Once you have your business processes documented |
| making I.T. decisions is to make sure all business | | | | you have something to work with when deciding |
| processes are well documented and measured | | | | what software or ERP systems implement, this job |
| (weighted). Why you ask? | | | | takes time but it's well worth it. Enter these |
| * If all subject matter experts in your business were | | | | processes into your database, then build |
| to document their business processes, you would | | | | spreadsheets to pull that data out for review. |
| know exactly what each staff person has to do | | | | In your database you want to also store a |
| each and everyday to get the job done. | | | | measurement we'll call weighting for this example. |
| * You then have a foundation to measure the right | | | | Why? When you sitdown and have software |
| software applications for your business | | | | demonstrated you can ask key questions, does this |
| * These business processes can now be measured | | | | software do this and that from your database. |
| and weighted to help make I.T. decisions for your | | | | Afterall, you are asking directly from how you do |
| organization | | | | business (your documented business processes). You |
| Those are just few but you should be getting the | | | | now want to be able to give that process a score or |
| idea. | | | | measurement when sitting in these demonstrations. |
| There are many ways of handling the task of | | | | Your scale might look like this: |
| measuring business processes but I'll try to keep it | | | | 1 - Does it well and is easy to use |
| simple for you. There are two things I would | | | | 3 - Does it but not well - not easy to figure out or |
| recommend: | | | | use |
| 1. Build a Database (MySQL or SQL) to store your | | | | 5 - May need to be modified |
| business processes & the weighting | | | | 9 - Not sure - need more information |
| 2. Build Excel Worksheets to enter & pull these | | | | 0 - Doesn't do it at all |
| processes and weights from the Database | | | | In your spreadsheet you would use the above scale |
| Years ago I had a couple of really sharp guys | | | | to measure the software you are looking at on a |
| working for me, they built a nifty application (system) | | | | business process by business process basis. Sounds |
| for us to measure our business processes against | | | | tedious doesn't it? It is when setting things up the |
| features in software applications. We wanted to | | | | first time, after that it gets much easier because you |
| have a snapshot of how each application matched up | | | | don't need to build it again. |
| against each other, the problem is we didn't have an | | | | This is just one way of measuring your business |
| easy way to see all our requirements on one page. | | | | process against software, you could and should |
| We also didn't know which processes were more | | | | group your business processes by importance as well. |
| important than others. | | | | That way you know exactly what you MUST have |
| The first step is to pull your key subject matter | | | | and what the NICE to have's would be. |
| experts together, get all business processes | | | | I hope that helps, feel free to contact me if you |
| documented for each role in the organization. This | | | | have questions or wish to go through this process |
| ensured you knew what tasks had to be completed | | | | for your business. |
| each and everyday to do business. Depending on | | | | I would love your feedback, what do you think and |
| your business this can be an easy job or a labour | | | | do you have a better way? |
| intensive one. I highly recommend this gets done | | | | |