Process process process

Process mapping workshops started this week. The plan is to start mapping the current as is process first to provide a base process for improvement.

You might expect this part of the project to provide few results, a tedious distraction before getting down to the new and exciting changes… but consider by mapping existing processes you could reduce invoice collection by 50% or create a new application to manage client training. “How?” you may ask. Put simply quick wins.

By mapping your existing processes, the issues and simple fixes can fall thick and fast whilst still keeping in scope of your existing processes and applications.

“It is a complete nightmare when we don’t have a PO from the client, I can take twice as long to collect payment” said Max, the credit controller, while mapping her processes. “Why don’t we just issue a copy quote and request the procurer to sign and return, thus providing agreement for invoice?” was one of the suggestions. “Brilliant!” was the answer.

It didn’t end there. The quick wins kept coming;

1. We were able to condense email automation, targeting only relevant email actions to the finance team as opposed to all and sundry which they would sort through and delete over half of them.
2. We created a number of email templates that were being manually sent via outlook and manually added to Salesforce.
3. And potentially the most impressive, while mapping the public training processes a dreaded MS Excel spreadsheet that managed the data was produced. “Why don’t we manage this in Salesforce?” I asked. “Can we?”, was the response. That was all I needed, 30 minutes later we have the new processes mapped and a new Force.com client training application to capture the data… now that is a quick win!

Watch out for the next blog where we access a trail of FinancialForce Accounting and start to provoke new ideas in the project team.