Specifications

Is your business as effi cient as it should be?
Or do customers slip through the cracks?
Many small businesses struggle just to get
routine things done, but a careful analysis
of the steps you take in dealing with cus-
tomers is almost always worth the time
you invest. Examine the way your business
functions and the daily tasks employees
perform. Take a special look at the role IT
systems play in the process. Then look for
ways to improve and serve the customer
better and less expensively.
This is all common sense, of course, but
it goes quite a bit further and has grown
into a fi eld called business process analysis,
or business process management. Compa-
nies pay hundreds of millions of dollars a
year in software and services for it.
Years ago, I worked at the New Jersey
Medical School National TB Center. Part of
what we did was provide preventive ther-
apy for people infected with tuberculosis.
Those who were infected but not sick were
asked to take medication for six months.
It’s pretty hard to get someone to take a
pill every day who doesn’t even feel sick,
so many patients in this category stopped
coming to the clinic, and we couldn’t fol-
low up with them. In public-health terms,
that’s considered a “negative outcome.”
In business-process terms, compare it to
someone coming into a retail store in need
of something, looking around, and leaving
without buying anything.
Q
SOLUTIONS BUSINESS
112 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007
The fi rst step in my analysis was to involve everyone who played a role, from clinic
staff to data entry clerks to health offi cials to the IT director. We looked at the pro-
cess of preventive therapy and created a process diagram, paying special attention
to where we thought patients were slipping through the cracks. Manually review-
ing patient charts to schedule appointments wasn’t working. We mapped the old,
manual process and a new, automated process (see below).
I developed a custom database that automated the generation of reminder and
missed-appointment letters, lists of delinquent patients who needed follow-up
calls, and reports. It worked. We demonstrated a statistically signifi cant increase
in the percentage of patients who completed preventive therapy.
Do Your Own Business Process Analysis
According to Ron Wince, CEO of Guidon Performance Solutions, a key factor in
project success is engaging employees. Many people are resistant to change—espe-
cially when the change is dictated from above. It’s important for IT to understand
the business side of things, and vice versa. “Hold short collaborative brainstorming
sessions with cross-functional teams,” advises Wince. To write an effective data-
base, for example, the developer needs to understand how it will be used.
TAKE A BASELINE MEASUREMENT Whether you measure your success by
straight fi nancial fi gures or other metrics, take stock of your current rate.
BE THE CUSTOMER Look at your processes from the customer’s perspective.
DIAGRAM THE PROCESS Create a process diagram that shows the steps that a
customer must go through to complete a transaction. I like to use Visio for this.
USE FRESH EYES Try to view the process as an outsider might, not taking any-
thing for granted. Look for procedures that don’t make sense, where steps don’t
seem to be in the right order, and where there’s a chance for customers to drop out.
CHANGE Easy to say, not always so easy to do. Fix the problems you identifi ed,
either by changing the overall process or by adding or subtracting technology.
MEASURE THE OUTCOME No initiative can be called successful unless you can
show a positive effect such as an increase in revenue or a decrease in costs.
Fixing a Business Process
SMB BOOT CAMP
Keep Your Customers in View
Analyzing how you deal with customers is almost always worthwhile. By Matthew D. Sarrel
AUTOMATED METHOD PROCESS FLOW
Developing and implementing IT systems should be an ongoing process focused on continual improvement of the business process.
Here’s a sample workflow that worked at the New Jersey Medical School National TB Center.
Patient
enters
clinic
Patient
is in
treatment
limbo
Patient
is in
treatment
limbo
Data-entry
clerk
generates
missed-
appointment
letter
Data-entry
clerk
generates
missed-
appointment
letter
Patient
is in
treatment
limbo
Does
patient
come to
clinic?
Does
patient
come to
clinic?
Does
patient
come to
clinic?
START
END
Receptionist
calls patient
Data-entry
clerk
generates
delinquency
list
Receptionist
starts chart
Nurse
provides
treatment
to patient
Data-entry
clerk
inputs
appoint-
ment
Reception-
ist
schedules
next visit,
files chart
Patient
returns in
1 month
Patient
file
complete
Patient file
incomplete
<6
times
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
NoNo
No
6th
time
END