The Lumos Partnership uses business modelling as a key element of its approach in the journey towards the creation of an organisation’s target operating model. It is particularly valuable during the creation of a full business case where tangible benefits – both financial and efficiency-related – need to be defined, measured and assessed.
Business Process Modelling requires creativity, attention to detail and strong communication skills along with an ability to align processes with goals, risks, controls, IT systems, technologies etc. A graphical language is used to enable the team to gain the necessary understanding, agreement and collaboration. It is a discipline based on experience and therefore industry independent.
The approach encompasses a high-level holistic understanding of an organisation's structure, its domains and processes and to then identify and fully explore those processes that require documenting (say, for compliance purposes) and/or those that would benefit from full analysis and improved. From this point it is possible to model, plan, 'prove' and implement the improved processes, supporting systems and training programmes.
Of course, employee communications plays a big part here. It is important to not only to work towards the high-level goals of management but also to appreciate the practical requirements of staff – a fundamental and critical link into Organisational Change Management. For a modelling and improvement programme to succeed agreement at all levels is required otherwise there is the risk of only paying lip service to the new processes and the whole programme failing. This demonstrates another key dynamic of the breadth of expertise and experience within the Lumos team.