Process Modeler

Although many forward-thinking organizations have started to use business process modeling and analysis tools, some managers wonder if they really need it? Let us see why business process modeling is important and why it is fast becoming a must-have software in the manager's and business analysts tool kit.

Business Challenge

Most businesses and organizations perform their work based on certain processes and rules, however, these business processes are often not documented but remain in the business users heads. This leads to many inefficiencies such as

• Executing processes in an inconsistent, ad-hoc manner,
• Loss of staff resulting in loss of business process knowledge,
• Difficulty in training new people,
• Not knowing if your processes are efficient and optimal.

Business users - such as analysts, managers and consultants - have often struggled to document their business processes because no easy to use tools have been available for this purpose. Often, they end up using a combination of tools such as Word, PowerPoint and Visio to do this but those tools are drawing and text editing tools and are not designed for this role. This generates a mish-mash of different files and formats that are difficult to share and so results in half-hearted attempts at process documentation that are often incomplete at best or even inaccurate at worst.

On the other hand there are some tools that are being offered for process modeling that are actually designed for full-blown Business Process Management (BPM) or for Enterprise Architecture (EA) use. These tools are very large and complex and are really designed for IT engineers and architects, NOT for business people. These tools often end up on-the-shelf because few people feel comfortable in using them.

So, the business processes in most organizations remain undocumented.

AccuProcess Solution

AccuProcess has designed its Process Modeler product to make the task of documenting business processes AS EASY and AS NATURAL as possible for business users. This business process modeling software product is designed and purpose-built ONLY for modeling processes and so it does this job well.

It is as easy to use as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. It is a graphical, drag-and-drop tool that allows users to visually design a business process flow chart or a process diagram. The Process Modeler then guides the users to add relevant business rules and process information regarding the business process that they are documenting. Once done, this process information can be exported in a Word or PDF file for editing, sharing, approvals and archival.

Finally, the icing on the cake is the SIMULATION capability to assess the performance characteristics of the business process flow to identify any inefficiencies and areas of improvement. This leads to well designed, efficient and optimized business processes that can lead to competitive advantage.

Once it is in their hands, business users utilize the AccuProcess Modeler extensively to document and model their processes and engage in business process analysis to figure out how to make their work easier, better and more efficient.

The AccuProcess Modeler has powerful features that enable it to provide the following capabilities.

DESIGN

The first task in using a Process Modeler is to design the business process flows. AccuProcess Modeler provides a powerful yet very easy approach for designing process diagrams and flowcharts.

DOCUMENT

A process flow thus documented can be saved locally and emailed etc. for sharing with other users. Full business process documentation can be auto generated into a PDF or Word document as well.

AccuProcess Modeler is an easy-to-use but powerful business process modeling tool that is ideal for documenting business processes and rules. It follows the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) standard to make the task of designing processes easier and transparent without the need for extensive training by users.

ANALYZE

Business users and managers often have no idea how much it costs and how long does it take on average to execute a business process from end-to-end that they are responsible for. They also do not know what would be the impact on their process performance of unexpected events such as fewer resources or a surge in demand.

AccuProcess Modeler provides business process simulation capability to help users better understand and analyze their processes. As with the rest of this product, this capability is also quite intuitive and easy-to-use even for novice users.

A running simulation is shown visually on the business process flow and it displays important information related to number of jobs completed, resource utilization, and size of task queue for an activity. This process modeling tool also provides simulation results at the process level related to both timing and cost elements including average, maximum and minimum results for both time and cost. A Simulation Results report is available that provides further details at the task and user level view sample simulation report.

This helps business users quickly understand the bottlenecks in the process and thus identify areas of improvement. This also allows business managers to validate the impact of their decisions on the process performance before implementation. Process Simulation Video (6 mins)

Business Process Analysis and Improvement is a key goal of business process modeling. It has been proven that businesses and companies can gain competitive advantage by constantly analyzing, refining and improving their business processes.

AccuProcess Modeler provides this important capability as well thru its process simulation feature. This analysis of the current AS-IS process and the proposed TO-BE process is critical for process improvement. Users can create various scenarios based on different resource allocations, timing parameters and quality of business rules.

Process simulations can then be easily setup and run again and again for these different scenarios. Analysis of the results provide important feedback about what changes would improve the process and by how much.

These capabilities and features deliver important benefits to users of the AccuProcess Modeler.