ProActivity

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• ProActivity
• Discover--Understand--Act

181 Wells Avenue Newton, MA 02459 Phone (617)
332-0095 Toll Free 877-332-0095 Fax (617)
332-0295 Email info_at_proactivityinc.com
Business Process Knowledge and Optimization
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ProActivity

• Microsoft Certified Partner
• Based in Newton, MA
• Leading provider of next-generation Enterprise
  Business Process Analysis (BPA) and design
  solutions for commercial and government
  enterprises.

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Agenda

• Introductions
• Discuss why we are here and what brought us
  together
• Learn how to improve your business process
  initiatives
• Questions Answers

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Why are we here?

• To better understand business processes and their
  impact on the enterprise
• How to capture and organize process information
  for optimal analysis
• What tools and methodologies are best deployed to
  support your process initiatives

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What are the business issues which brought you
here?

• It is costing us too much money to do this
• This is taking us too much time
• Our level of service to our customers is
  diminishing
• The quality of our products is lacking
• Regulatory compliance requirements

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Why look at business processes?

• Understand how our business processes are
  operating today (current state)
• Identify issues and improvement opportunities
• Conduct focused analyses that will provide
  insight into quick wins

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The Approach
Technology is not the only component for
successfully capturing and managing your
processes. You also need a discipline
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The Process of Process Improvement
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Discover Part I
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) represent a
reliable source of information regarding their
piece of an overall process.
Systems and other resources are used by SMEs to
complete work. These include IT systems and/or
any other tools.
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Data Collected Includes

• Activities
• Inputs/Outputs
• Resource Assignments
• Touch Time
• Total Time
• Frequency
• Resource Costs
• Custom Attributes

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Methods Tools For Collecting Discovery Data
Option 1 Interviews using a structured
interview approach we can quickly uncover the
details behind any process, regardless of
complexity. This approach can sometimes become
complex given the logistics of scheduling and
conducting interviews.
Option 2 Use existing information Discovery
data can also be uploaded from Excel, Project and
other repositories.
Option 3 Visio pushes Discovery to the desktop
level where SMEs can draw process flows which are
then sucked in into ProActivity and combined
into end-to-end views.
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The Visio Solution
Distributed Data Collection
Fragment 1
Fragment 2
Fragment 3
End-to-End Process Views in ProActivity
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The Need for a Repository
Point 1 Once a problem is identified, we need a
detailed understanding of how processes
operate Point 2 The details of how processes
operate exist within the heads of those
performing work Point 3 With detailed
information dispersed throughout our
organization, we must have a central repository
to store this data and update moving forward.
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Discover Part II
A Process Hierarchy helps in structuring large
amounts of process information in an orderly
fashion and allows for a clear correlation
between SMEs and processes.
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Central Repository
The goal is to distribute data collection to the
desktop level and then collect and store the data
in a relational database
Process Information
Process Information
Process Information
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Validate Your DataGain confidence in your
process model
You need to ensure your data integrity and
completeness.
Validation is a very necessary part of ensuring
your process analysis is correct
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UnderstandThrough Diagrams and Reports
Once data is entered, it is useful to view the
information with different lenses.

• Three basic types of diagrams
• Swim lane diagrams
• Resource diagrams
• Input/Output diagrams
• High level diagrams

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Swim Lane Diagrams
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Process Analytics
The analyses you conduct on your process data
depends on the goal of your process improvement
initiative
Then youll want to
If your goal is to
Reduce cycle time
Conduct Primary Path Analysis
Reduce cost
Generate variable cost reports
Generate automation profile reports
cost-justify automation
Increase process automation
Generate risks vs. control reports
Comply with Sarbanes Oxley
Understand detailed what if scenarios
Simulate your processes
Please Note The goal of analyzing your processes
is to identify quick wins
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Primary Path Analysis
The Primary Path is the set of activities
that most often determines cycle time
Primary Path Analysis identifies the top-priority
activities for cycle time reduction
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Variable Cost ReportCurrent State
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Variable Cost ReportFuture State
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Automation Profile
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Sarbanes Oxley
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Requirements Definition
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Simulation
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Once you understand its time to ACT!
Design Future State
How should we approach Future State design? It
dependsthere are 3 basic approaches
Re-use current state data Use when the end
result of the process is appropriate/desired, but
the time it takes to complete the process is too
long or cost is too high. Integrate best
practices from other parts of the organization or
system integrators. Begin from scratch Use when
the existing process does not meet the current
demands of the business.
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Future State Design Technique
Re-use Current State data when possible
Current State
Copy/Paste
Future State
and modify
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Communicating Process Change
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Publish to the Web
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Customer Experience

• Business Problem
• Housing Claims Benefits was experiencing
  diminished customer service
• Need for decreased budget
• Solution
• Capture As-Is
• Design To-Be
• Build a strong business case
• Customer Benefits
• Use of ProActivity reduced the required time for
  the implementation of an automated solution from
  30 days to 3 days.
• Reduced the cost of a weekly process run from
  7,608 Euros to 2,066
• Reduced the time of a weekly process run from 100
  hrs to 17
• Currently, expanding and scaling initiative to
  support additional projects and interrelations

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Customer Experience

• Business Problem
• For each server series, the computer vendor had a
  different content management process
• Led to inconsistent information, lag time, and
  inaccuracies
• Solution
• Capture the five current processes (for each of
  the server series)
• Perform diagnosis of the current state
  strengths weaknesses
• Create deploy a single, standard future state
  process
• Customer Benefits
• Captured requirements in 2 weeks vs. 2 months and
  with 5 people vs. 15 people
• Facilitated and expedited Interwoven
  implementation
• Standard for all content management processes
  across the company

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Customer Experience

• Business Problem
• 800 retail stores with different merchandise in
  each store
• Current distribution/merchandizing system was
  inefficient and outdated
• Lack of coordination between distribution center
  and extended enterprise
• Solution
• Using ProActivity they defined all processes in
  their delivery cycle, from ordering to
  warehousing to tracking, from vendor to shipper,
  including every partner in the extended
  enterprise
• Customer Benefits
• Improved productivity one person now able to do
  all process-related work
• Streamlined training of new employees
• Centralized management and control
• Mitigates risk involved in new initiatives

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Customer Experience

• Business Problem
• Need to control change management
• Downtime due to changes was costing money
• Solution
• Easy collection of data via Visio
• Leverage a central repository
• View of a holistic end-to-end model
• Customer Benefits
• Increase employee productivity
• Saves time by using a central repository
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Increase the availability of IT client assets

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Customer Experience

• Business Problem
• Needed to understand their warranty processes
• The warranty process exceeded industry benchmarks
• Solution
• Leverage a central repository
• View a holistic end-to-end model
• Customer Benefits
• Uncovered data they had no idea about
• Diagnosed the problem at the customer level
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Big savings

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Typical First Projects
The most successful projects begin small

• Customer service issues
• High return rates for products
• Loss of market share
• High distribution costs
• Regulatory compliance (i.e. Sarbanes-Oxley)
• Cost time reductions

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Scale the Solution

• Complete 1 or 2 process improvement initiatives
  show success!
• Promote your successes and get others involved
• Identify additional process improvement
  opportunities
• Now you can begin to think BIG
• Always keep management involved their continued
  support is important

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• ProActivity
• Discover--UnderstandAct
• QA

181 Wells Avenue Newton, MA 02459 Phone (617)
332-0095 Toll Free 877-332-0095 Fax (617)
332-0295 Email info_at_proactivityinc.com
Business Process Knowledge and Optimization