7 Benefits Of Business Process Improvement

Are you using dated processes and business practices, simply because you’ve always done things that way? If so, you’re not alone. 90 percent of IT decision-makers say legacy systems hold them back from embracing new technologies and becoming more efficient.

Digital transformation is forcing businesses to adopt new technologies before they get left behind. But when you’ve relied on the same processes for years, where do you begin?

You might think you know where business pain points exist. But the best way to identify the biggest opportunities for increased efficiency and overhaul dated processes is through business process improvement.

In this post, we'll cover the core benefits of business process improvement, including:

1. Productivity
2. Employee satisfaction
3. Reduced risk
4. Compliance
5. Customer satisfaction
6. Agility
7. Technology integration

Prioritize Technology Projects with Business Process Improvement

Business process improvement (BPI) involves automating processes and restructuring operational resources to contain costs. BPI uncovers your largest organizational inefficiencies and introduces new software and applications to connect systems and cut down on manual labor.

The primary goals of business process improvement include:

• Reducing process completion time
• Identifying wasted efforts
• Improving the quality of work output
• Achieving regulatory compliance
• Reducing friction in the process

BPI is focused on fine-tuning the operations that keep your business running smoothly. By breaking down your organizational resources and processes, you can uncover ways to improve efficiency and free employees to focus on business strategy.

Benefits of Business Process Improvement

Here are some of the top benefits of business process improvement you can expect when taking on a BPI project.

1. Productivity

Do everyday tasks like filling out forms and running reports confuse and frustrate your employees? These activities can easily take hours if you rely on a system with limited capabilities, like an access database or Excel spreadsheet. One survey found that employees spend an average of 520 hours per year on repetitive tasks that could easily be automated.

By introducing new software or a custom application, you can automate these tasks, and employees can improve productivity, and reallocate time to core aspects of their job.

2. Employee satisfaction

Well-developed business processes help motivate team members who generally aren’t interested in wasting time or money. BPI cuts down on tedious, repetitive tasks that eat up critical working hours and brainpower.

Employees can focus on job functions they care about instead of searching endlessly for documents and manually entering data. Smoother procedures lead to a happier workforce, resulting in higher productivity and revenue.

3. Reduced risk

Maybe your employees manually transfer information between systems, resulting in mistakes that take hours to fix.

Manual systems lack controls, increasing the risk of fraud and human error. Non-IT employees often manage data entry tasks but aren’t familiar with storage and backup best practices.

Business process improvement helps you highlight activities to automate, reducing human error and adding additional security measures to protect company data.

4. Compliance

Is maintaining compliance a constant headache for your business? If you don’t have a flexible system in place to handle end-to-end compliance, you could face unforeseen penalties.

With BPI, your third-party consultant thoroughly documents all compliance-related procedures, policies and internal controls. By building compliance into your new business processes, you can create transparency and quickly implement regulatory requirements, preventing delays in compliance and fines.

5. Customer satisfaction

A Microsoft study found that more than 90 percent of consumers would choose to take their business elsewhere rather than work with a company that relies on outdated technology.

By upgrading your technology solutions and cutting down time spent on administrative tasks, your employees are free to focus on real-time collaboration with customers. Employees will have greater capacity to respond to customer requests, build proposals and customize solutions faster. They will have more time to focus on activities that deliver results for clients, increasing customer satisfaction.

6. Agility

Nimble processes are critical for staying competitive. With BPI, you can constantly improve processes to adapt to changing business needs. Why reinvent the wheel every time you experience change? BPI focuses on implementing flexible processes that are easy to adapt and deploy as your business needs evolve.

7. Technology integration

Business process improvement outlines which software and applications align best with your organizational requirements. Depending on your industry and business needs, the best solution might be a commercially available software or a custom web application. New technology will support your new business processes, from data entry to employee collaboration.

Start With a Business Project Management Assessment

Unsure where to start with your business process improvement efforts? Do you have multiple inefficiencies competing for priority? Business process improvement should begin with a BPI assessment and business processing mapping.

At Ntiva, our low-cost BPI assessment validates your operational pain points and clearly defines the best solutions for greater efficiency and growth.

Our BPI assessment takes place in three steps:

• Onsite audit: A Ntiva tech consultant comes onsite to interview your key staff members and learn about your business structure. They document and analyze your existing processes, systems and resources to uncover inefficiencies and performance gaps.
  
  
• ROI analysis: The consultant develops a value-stream map that outlines the best ways to extract greater ROI from your technology solutions, improve procedures and spark growth.
  
  
• BPI improvement roadmap: After an extensive analysis, our team composes a roadmap document with recommended continuous process improvement solutions and the pros and cons of each. We develop a plan that you can execute in-house, with another vendor or with Ntiva.

At Ntiva, we have helped companies across all industries realize the benefits of business process improvement to reduce costs and improve performance.

Still wondering if business process improvement is the right move for your organization? Contact us today to schedule a free review with a BPI specialist.