Business Process Management and Automation

The provided assignment is an analysis of business process management within organizations. It highlights the significance of business processes in ensuring efficiency and productivity, as well as the potential for automation to enhance operations. The document also emphasizes the importance of linking business processes to strategic alignment, enabling companies to meet their goals and achieve sustainability.

Business Process

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Part 1 – Identification and Justification...........................................................................................1
1.1 Introduction to organisation along with rationale..................................................................1
1.2 Mission, target market, and strategy......................................................................................2
Part 2 Process Mapping and Analysis.............................................................................................5
Part 3 Technology and Strategic Alignment....................................................................................7
3.1 Use of technology..................................................................................................................7
3.2 Ethics and processes..............................................................................................................7
3.3 Strategic alignment................................................................................................................7
3.4 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................8
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business Process is a set of activities undertaken within a firm in a structural manner or
sequence so as to produce a good or service for customers. Business processes take place at
various departments, units and levels of organisation and at times, may not be clearly visible to
customers (Hammer, 2015). In other words, it is a flowchart which represent a range of
procedures that take place within an entity. This report is based upon Complete Office Supplies
(COS) Pty Ltd. which is a 100% Australian owned enterprise dealing in products of a wide range
such as technology, kitchen, furniture, cleaning that are required for the upkeep of a workplace
premises. This will include the mission, strategy and target market of company. Also it
comprises of two business processes of organisation along with relationship and cross-functional
maps. Besides this, the use of automation within the enterprise is explored together with ethical
considerations.
Part 1 – Identification and Justification
1.1 Introduction to organisation along with rationale
Complete Office Supplies (COS) Pty Limited is the biggest Australian owned and
operated corporation which has been functioning for last 40 years. It is a family owned company
which has 9 distribution centres with the assistance of which the organisation delivers more than
5000 orders to around 3000 locations of Australia. This enterprise deals in a wide range of
products from different categories such as technology, furniture, promotional products, kitchen
and hygiene, print and office supplies. Being an active member of Family Business Australia,
COS is ascertained to be one of the major contributors towards the daily routine life as well as
future of Australians. This company has largely been focussing upon adopting sustainable
business activities and processes so as to leverage innovation within the business and industry as
well as creating opportunities for enterprise to be able to deliver excellent customer services
(Laguna and Marklund, 2018).
Rationale for selection of organisation
COS has been chosen due to the observant inefficiencies within the company. The core
business processes of COS have been observed to be accounting, sales, management and
delivery handling. The issues that have been noticed within the organisation exist in the core
business process of order handling of company. This business process is suffering from lack of
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centralisation, adequate communication and proper integration between the various departments
of organisation. These issues have largely been affecting the operations of COS as well as
disrupting the effectiveness and efficiency of business of. The business processes are open to a
number of threats and errors and should be given due consideration by top management and
leaders so as to avoid any discrepancies within the organisational premises.
Solutions for problems
There is a need for better communication and centralised system within COS so as to
enhance customer service delivery and render a better value for the consumers. The barriers
associated with communication process have been affecting the financial performance of
company. This has further led to some other problems within COS. The impact of ineffective
integration of business processes can be seen in terms of reduced operational capabilities as well
as performance of entity. By strategically carrying out the integration of various departments of
organisation, company can gain a competitive advantage over its rivals and cut down the cost
caused as a result of miscommunication (Chang, 2016). Once the whole system of this enterprise
will get streamlined, business process that take place within different departments of COS can be
addressed in an appropriate manner. The problem of losing clients due to inefficiencies of
processes can be overcome by way of integration and would lead to enhanced capability of
organisation to provide value to clients. Another benefit associated with integration of processes
is significant increase in productivity by eliminating the redundant processes. This
interdepartmental collaboration will not only boost the client service but also facilitate the
growth of company.
1.2 Mission, target market, and strategy
COS is a B2B supplier that aims to render office supplies to clients and associates within
the country and develop opportunities for other wholly owned Australian enterprises to grow.
Mission: “To offer best quality products and services to clients without compromising
with honesty and fairness in business dealings and user service excellence.”
Vision: “To be the foremost choice for office products as a professional supplier that
continuously deliver products to ensure user satisfactions.”
Target Market
COS is a 100% Australian owned office supplies enterprise and operate to serve the
needs, demands and preferences of local people. This company possess local Australian values
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and ensure that all their profits stay within the country so as to give a boost to the economy of
nation (Why COS? Australian Owned, 2018). COS mainly targets enterprises and government of
Australia and their target market is limited to all the businesses whose roots are of this country or
they are operating within the nation. This is done with the sole objective of creating new jobs and
employment opportunities for local audience. This enterprise strives to share their success with
wider community of Australia and they are immensely passionate to make a substantial
difference in the lives of Australians. COS is committed to promoting and fostering the growth
of other Australian owned business enterprises, inclusive of indigenous suppliers. COS offers
thousands of products for every room that exists within any Australian office premise. This
business enterprise offers innovative goods of varying categories for the workplaces within the
country so as to tap the advantage of local businesses as well as to give them a chance to easily
conduct business. Be it a large government agency or publicly listed multinational corporation,
COS evaluates the requirements of users and offer tailored solutions to fulfil those needs.
Business Strategy
The major goal of COS is to become a top supplier of office supplies by engaging in
environmental friendly techniques and sustainable practices. For this, company adopts a wide
range of strategies depending upon the area of focus. Thus, various strategies implemented by
company in order to effectively and efficiently manage the business processes and activities are
specified in brief below:-
Competitive Strategy: The rivalry strategy of COS is two fold, a suitable and relevant
selection of products associated with office supplies so as to make it an attractive shopping place
and an effective service delivery where clients are treated as supreme for the business. For this,
COS has appointed a specified Sales Agent/Manager which provides assistance to customers in
their shopping experience. This organisations offers a strong product catalog where all the
specifications and features of office supplies and related products are clearly mentioned so that
business clients and associates do not face any issue while taking decisions regarding selecting
COS as their supply partner (McCormack and Johnson, 2016). Further with the help of catalog,
clients are able to place bulk orders for office supplies at one company instead of having to deal
with a number of vendors every week or month. By professionally creating an impression among
Australian community that all of the needs of any company's office supplies can be fulfilled at
one place, COS enjoys a strategic edge in market over its rivals. Further, this entity tends to
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emphasize upon service excellence so as to ensure that maximum business clients place their
orders with this company. The long term goal of COS associated with this strategy is to make
sure that enterprise sustains in marketplace for a long duration of time. Also, this builds a sense
of trust and loyalty among clients to stay associated with the supplier for a long period.
Marketing Strategy: The marketing or advertising strategy of COS is based upon
developing an effective communication with the target audience so as to enhance the growth of
business enterprise as well as increase its profitability in marketplace (Tregear, 2015). The
largest supplier of Australia has built its marketing strategy focussing on the point that any entity
can order for all of its office supplies from one point destination, Complete Office Supplies
(COS). Their main marketing strategy is focussed upon conducting such advertising campaigns
which can communicate the mission, vision and objectives of company to local community of
Australia. These campaigns majorly rely upon print media by widespread distribution of product
catalogs so as to gain attention of a large number of people. With this, COS strives to retain top
rated business clients and other associates who have been linked with the enterprise for a long
duration of time or give orders for bulk purchases in one go (Müller and et. al., 2016). The
campaign is based on increasing the awareness among target customers about unique and
innovative products developed and sold by the organisation. The development of a positive
image of COS is the foremost step towards facilitating the increased sales, growth and
profitability of company.
Sales Strategy: Complete Office Supplies' sales strategy is based upon the conversion of
top rated business leads into paying clients. The key focus here is to enhance customer service so
as to analyse and evaluate whether the needs, demands and preferences of official clients are met
or not. COS ensures that customers desires are taken care of so as to enhance its revenues as well
as profitability. In addition to this, professional clients now want a seemless experience which
can ensure that their expectations are recognised and met accordingly (Uhl and Gollenia, 2016).
They ensure this by assigning a specified Sales agent for each client depending upon the type of
customer. This sales agent works to their full potential as they receive a commission for the
individual sale they do as well as the leads that they provide to enterprise. Thus, this enterprise
has developed economic incentives for its Sales managers so as to create an organisation which
excels in products as well as their quality. This incentive system within COS is the key to
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company's sales strategy because it includes initiatives taken by representatives of enterprise to
enhance the sales and overall profitability of organisation.
Part 2 Process Mapping and Analysis
The level one main process highlights the receipt of order by way of mail from the
customer representative of the company. It then passes the order to Order Manager who then
passes this on to Warehouse and accounting staff at the same time. The warehouse staff then
checks the stock and if order items are available, shipment is arranged, estimation of availability
of stock occurs and customer is informed and confirmation regarding order is taken from them
(Kumar, 2018). The next thing in the process is booking of transport company who is responsible
for shipping. Accounting staff prepares invoice and sends it to consumers.
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This is the process through which registration of customers takes place by Customer
Representative of COS. Request for customer details is sent via email. The details are then sent
by customers. Then a customer profile is made manually by CR (Stewart and Ahlborn, 2015).
The last act that takes place is creation of consumer number which is generated by entering the
details about customers in the database and process comes to an end.
This process is related to notifying customer about the availability of office equipments
within the company to be able to make the delivery. The estimation related to availability of
stock is done by Warehouse staff and time of delivery is estimated. The customer is then
informed about the dispatch date and the time details.
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Part 3 Technology and Strategic Alignment
3.1 Use of technology
As per the observation, the current business processes of COS are inefficient to meet the
needs and requirements of customers on an urgent basis. Thus, it is required that company takes
into account the latest tools and techniques existing within the office supplies industry so as to
tap the advantage of these tools and become a leader in this sector. In this regards, it has been
identified that the inefficient order handling process within COS is hampering the overall
profitability and revenues of company (Rosemann and Brocke, 2015). Thus, there is a dire need
for organisation to integrate all the business processes so as to execute effectiveness and
efficiency of operations. Furthermore, company can automate the business processes to complete
the activities and procedures of business in a desirable manner within the stipulated time allotted
for achievement of organisational goals and objectives. This will increase the pace at which
orders of customers will be handled as well as delivered.
3.2 Ethics and processes
It is important for company to take into account the fact that all the operations, processes
and activities taking place within the premises of company have to be in accordance with the
desirability of law and ethical bodies existing in Australia. In this regards, it is necessary that the
integration of business functions as well as processes takes place keeping in mind the important
of conducting operations in an ethical manner in Complete Office Supplies (COS). Further, when
the company executes automation of order handling process, the managers of the company have
to keep the ethical considerations in account.
3.3 Strategic alignment
It is necessary for the managers of COS to ensure that the integration of business
functions as well as the automation of processes takes place keeping in consideration the
strategies of enterprise. Both the processes have to take place by focussing upon the competitive,
sales and marketing strategy of enterprise (Page, 2015). Further, the company will take steps so
as to make sure that the integration and automation processes yield desirable benefits to entity.
Also, it will be evaluated by the managers that both these processes have enhanced the revenues
and profitability of company in Australian marketplace.
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3.4 Conclusion
Thus, it is analysed that business processes form key components of any enterprise.
Besides this, it is assessed that automation of processes or integration of functions can assist an
organisation in increasing the pace at which work is being carried out in the company premises.
Along with this, it is evaluated that, for an office supplies company, order handling and product
delivery are two important procedures which need to be assessed and reviewed by the managers
of organisation on a regular basis. In addition to this, it is analysed that inefficiencies and
ineffectiveness of processes leads to delay in product and service delivery. This hampers the
name and stake of company in market which further leads to a significant fall in revenues and
profitability of entity.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The business processes noticed within COS are inefficient to deal with the large scale
orders that it receives on a daily basis. Thus, it is recommended that these business processes
should be substantially improved as well as enhanced by way of using certain methodologies like
six sigma, lean etc. The six sigma technique consists of stages such as designing, measurement,
analysis, improvement and controls. Also known as DMAIC methodology, six sigma tends to
give a rise to the existing level of process performance and also significantly reduces the
probability of an error occurring during the procedure. In addition to this, lean method is
focussed upon elimination of waste across the entity as it does not hold any value for the
customer.
There are a number of errors prevailing within the system which can be eradicated so as
to enhance the pace at which orders are handled and makes it less prone to defaults or errors.
This will improve the quality of business processes within COS. Thus, the implementation of
lean and six sigma is recommended within the enterprise. The result of application of these
methodologies will maximise the revenues of organisation as well as reduce the overall cycle
time of order handling and delivery. Also, COS can reduce the order processing time by applying
automation of processes as well as electronically executing the business process. Automation can
also be applied inn case of responses to customers. COS can eliminate the lengthy manual
processes and execute these by utilising internet platform such as automated emails and calls.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that business processes are a vital component of
any business organisation and need to be carefully handled so as to avoid any discrepancies
within the enterprise. Also, it has been analysed that communication is a major process that can
hamper the efficiency of any company and influence its financial performance to a great extent.
Besides this, it has been assessed that there are certain portions of business processes that can be
automated to increase the pace of operations as well as to enhance the overall productivity of
organisation. Along with this, it is analysed that it is necessary to ensure that business processes
within a company are linked to strategic alignment so that the goals and objectives of entity can
be met and sustainability of enterprise can be taken care of.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hammer, M., 2015. What is business process management?. In Handbook on business process
management 1 (pp. 3-16). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Laguna, M. and Marklund, J., 2018. Business process modeling, simulation and design.
Chapman and Hall/CRC.
Chang, J.F., 2016. Business process management systems: strategy and implementation.
Auerbach Publications.
McCormack, K.P. and Johnson, W.C., 2016. Supply chain networks and business process
orientation: advanced strategies and best practices. CRC Press.
Tregear, R., 2015. Business process standardization. In Handbook on Business Process
Management 2 (pp. 421-441). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Uhl, A. and Gollenia, L.A. eds., 2016. A handbook of business transformation management
methodology. Routledge.
Roeser, T. and Kern, E.M., 2015. Surveys in business process management–a literature
review. Business Process Management Journal, 21(3), pp.692-718.
Dijkman, R., Vanderfeesten, I. and Reijers, H.A., 2016. Business process architectures:
overview, comparison and framework. Enterprise Information Systems, 10(2), pp.129-
158.
Page, S., 2015. The power of business process improvement: 10 simple steps to increase
effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability. AMACOM.
Rosemann, M. and Brocke, J.V., 2015. Handbook on Business Process Management 2: Strategic
Alignment, Governance, People and Culture. Springer.
Kumar, A., 2018. Business Process Management. Routledge.
Müller, O., Schmiedel, T., Gorbacheva, E. and Vom Brocke, J., 2016. Towards a typology of
business process management professionals: identifying patterns of competences
through latent semantic analysis. Enterprise Information Systems, 10(1), pp.50-80.
Stewart, M.J. and Ahlborn, J.T., Dell Products LP, 2015. System to automate mapping of
variables between business process applications and method therefor. U.S. Patent
8,943,076.
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