Business Process Management: From Functional Silos to Customer-Oriented Processes

Since the industrial revolution, businesses and organizations have been developing an expertise in the different functions that are part of their activities.

Based on this division of the different functions, universities and business schools develop their own curriculums in order to educate and train the present and future experts in every different function that could have an organization. From finance to operations, from logistics to sales, from supply chain to human resources, etc.

Based on these efforts the business community developed very sophisticated tools, approaches, and practices to excel in all these different functions that are developed by the organizations and businesses today.

This specialization made organizations and businesses lose focus on the only important character: the end customer.

The vision of the different functions end in the “internal customer” next in line, which is short sighted. Ideally through a process the end customer needs and wants are passed through all the steps of every process the organizations do, but that is not necessarily true.

What is Business Process Management?

That is where business process management has its main contribution. And is intimately related with the “Customer Focus”, the first and most important principle of Operational Excellence. Implementing business process management effectively allows organizations to discover new opportunities, optimize resources, and improve overall performance, ensuring professional development and organizational success.

If we understand business process management as the activity that sets process goals, defines the metrics to measure performance, plans the process steps, supervises the execution, documents, controls, and follows up the results and evaluates the outcome, then it supports a customer-focused organization and professional skills. This structured approach provides a guide and template for organizations to achieve their targets while reinforcing mastering business process management in practice.

The reality is that business process management departments only exist in big organizations and their role is limited to defining policies, documenting processes, and ensuring that roles and responsibilities are clear. However, structured BPM ensures that all organizational objectives are met and that benefits from each step are maximized.

The concept of business process management is rooted in customer orientation, and this is the reason for its existence. BPM provides a comprehensive model that helps organizations examine processes, create better workflows, and optimize assets effectively.

Customer orientation means that everything we do, we have the customer in mind. Their values, expectations, and satisfaction guide all types of organizational techniques and BPM methods, reinforcing professional development and organizational discipline.

And processes are, by definition, a series of inputs and steps in order to reach a desired outcome, ensuring success. Which is to meet the customer expectations while following structured BPM templates and methods.

Dividing organization in functions means that no one has close contact with customers but the sales, maybe marketing and customer service, and maybe the logistics, when delivering. But working on processes through business process management ensures integration and continuous improvement, making organizations more efficient and effective.

Why is Business Process Management Important for Organizations?

As an example, in a manufacturing organization a production manager is focused on productivity and will go for long runs of production in order to reduce changeover time and produce more at a reduced cost. But business process management provides the analysis and tools to balance efficiency with customer satisfaction.

Even when the advantages of the vision of organizations and business as a set of processes are clear, we are still organized as functions. BPM helps organizations learn from previous steps, enhance performance, and implement structured protocols that ensure long-term benefits.

This organization penalizes the performance of the processes by making them cross multiple “borders”. From sales to planning, from planning to operations and procurement, from operations to logistics, from procurement to logistics, etc. Business process management ensures roles, steps, and targets are coordinated across all functions.

And every time we cross a “border” we lose information, we change priorities, etc. So we have “gaps” where processes become less efficient. Using BPM routines allows organizations to analyze and improve these gaps, maximizing organizational success and customer satisfaction.

The same logic that we apply now to develop processes in an ERP should be applied in developing the management system. Defining goals for each process, scheduling steps, executing under one model, and following up with KPIs is part of business process management, ensuring advantages, efficiency, and skills development.

One possibility is the creation of matrix structure with a functional department on one side and a process management department on the top.

The functional departments will continue performing their functions and developing their expertise but the process manager will supervise the entire process and will overrule any decision made by functional managers that can penalize the process performance.

This is a completely different conception on what is considered process management today. The process manager not only will define policies, procedures and work instruction in collaboration with the different functions (which is what is understood as process management today) but will effectively manage the whole process ensuring customer satisfaction.

This proposal entitles an asymmetrical matrix, privileging the authority of the process managers over the functional managers who support the processes (as seen in the following example table):

Another alternative is the creation of cross-functional process teams. These teams review performance, analyze results, learn from past outcomes, and apply structured practices using templates and guides, supporting the implementation of quality management training in London and enhancing mastering business process management.

And it doesn’t matter what the organizational or corporate strategy is—at the end, all of them are supported by having happy customers, and business process management understood in this way places organizations closer to achieving their objectives, maximizing benefits, opportunities, and success