DATA ENABLEMENT THROUGH PROCESS EXCELLENCE
The buzz around big data and analytics has been doing the rounds of IT corridors for a decade now, but truthfully, if you have even seen a handful of data-driven improvements in your business function, you are part of a slender minority of businesses that can really make that claim.
But how can it be that, on the one hand, you have reputable technology companies virtually certifying high ROI on data and analytic products, and yet we see time and time again that such endeavors seldom bring meaningful change to the business organization? What could possibly explain this?
We have the technology to identify issues in a system through data and analytics that can turn that data into insight, and yet there seems to be little in terms of measurable action and outcomes in the business community. It feels like even though the technology is producing signals, business organizations are somehow inhibited or cannot respond to those signals. In neurology, a condition called ataxia manifests as a lack of muscle control or coordination of voluntary movements, which may be an apt metaphor for this dissonance in the business organization.
So what is the solution? What can business leaders do to turn the tide on this trend?
Leverage data to drive results. It is a win-win.
Your data should be valued by the number of times it was used for making decisions in your organization, and ultimately drive continuous improvement.
Trust in the data. If the data is bad, use that as the starting point to improve. If the data is good, use it to build a culture of continuous improvement with data in the center.
The uncompromising complete data story
Acknowledge that reports prepared for leadership massage the message. Acknowledge that no matter how detailed process discovery interviews are, you’ll never get the full picture.
Directly translating the system logs to a process gives a more complete picture of what is going on. You remove the oversimplification of how the process was meant to be done, you remove how the process owner thinks it is done, you simply get all the ways it is done (for better or worse).
This could be ugly, but it shines a spotlight into the work-arounds and complexities that front-line workers deal with on a daily basis.
Measure continuously
In today’s world, you always have real time information at your fingertips: weather, stocks, traffic. Why would this same concept not exist for business operations?
Daily – not monthly, not annually – you should be able to answer how well your processes are performing, how long does it take, how much does it cost, how does it compare region-by-region, and where attention should be focused to continuously improve processes.
Accelerate time to value
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Don’t let analysis paralysis turn this into a multi-year initiative. You can begin reaping the benefits of mined processes within weeks (not months/years), anyone who tells you otherwise is out to lunch.
Art of analysis and delivery. Not the tool
Make no mistake, the tools that exist to visualize process mining are great, but this is not a plug and play solution.
Establishing a path towards data-driven process excellence requires process-gurus to understand and create a story on what the data is saying, work with the process owners to validate, interpret the impact, and manage actionable next steps to improve. Anything less than that would yield mediocrity
However, when done right it should give the foundation required to create a sustainable practice of CI.
