Designing Business Process

Running Head: IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW 1

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW - DESIGNING BUSINESS PROCESS

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IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

In-Depth Interview- Designing Business Process

To design an effective business process, information obtained through an interview is

critical. The information is obtained through getting an opinion of a user of a given product or

system. These users could either be producers or consumers of a particular product. An example

of such an interview includes that which is conducted by Australian Group on their reforms on

their financial services. The information obtained provides an insight into implications both for

the customers and employees as well. This is because the transformation is aimed at shifting

focus from employees to customers' satisfaction.

The increase in the global market focuses on shifting attention and activities from

employees to customers. This has been observed across a broad range of industries (Sheth et al.,

2000). This has grown due to the customers taking center stage for decisions varying from the

purchases made and the retirement and retrenchments programs. The interview focused on the

implications of a shift in activities from employees to customers due to the change in regulatory

design programs and its implementation.

The interview aimed to identify the consequences of a change in regulatory programs and

its implementation. This was aimed at finding such impacts on employees and customers due to

reforms in the Financial Services Reforms in the Australian Group of Insurance. The success of

the change in programs is a concern to both the customers and employees of the Insurance

Australian Group. This is because the change and its implementation ought to be successful. It

raises much concern if the implementation change is perceived to be as higher than 70 percent

(Balogun & Jenkins, 2003).

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

To effectively obtain accurate and authentic information during an interview, a lot of

factors must be considered. First, the focus should be on the user of the Insurance Group. This

helps in getting the point of view of the user so as to obtain an in-depth information that will

assist in designing the product process. Such information would help understand the financial

reforms in Australia. An emphasis on the accuracy would be obtained through the involvement

of a consumer during the design process.

Moreover, determining the number of actors and their roles as well as their varying points

of views is necessary for the design. This is because there could only be a single actor or

multiple actors. In each case, each one must be taken into account and their perceptions

considered during the design process. Focusing on the Insurance Australian Group, the key

actors are the consumers of the insurance products and the employees of the Group.

Clarification of user roles and their point of view has been applied by the Group to

improve their product design processes. To effectively achieve in their design model, the group

has put forth four different models. In the first model, also known as the Spot and Refer Model,

employees only refer the customers to the insurer. The employees are not to give any advice or

opinion on the insurance product. In regards to the second model, the Information not Provide

model, employees are required to prove limited comments on the actual information without

providing opinions or comments.

The third model, which is a General Advice model, allows employees to provide

information. However, their advice and opinions are only based on what is the general preference

of consumers. They are not to provide information or advice about a customer's needs or

personal preferences and circumstances. This will allow the customer to make a decision based

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

on the general information provided, but making their choice of a product based on their

situations and preferences.

Determining the needs of the user is crucial during the product design process. Focus

should be made both on the latent and explicit needs. To determine the user requirements,

creating a user's character profile is vital. This may entail writing a short description of the user,

based on a fictional character obtained through interview. The basic profile information would

include the user's work experiences, interest, and preferences as well as the residence. From the

profile, identification of the needs is easier. This can be done by figuring out the user's thoughts,

actions, motivations, and emotions. This helps in identifying the primary needs from the listed

options.

Some of the employee needs that were addressed by the Insurance Group included

training before and after the live display of the program as well as the refresher programs

(Hackman, 2004). This significantly built the confidence of the employees leading to quality

service delivery. This was for the benefit of the customers. Some of the needs identified included

capacity building, empowerment and boosting confidence for the employees.

According to Nelson and Pederson, prioritizing the needs is important for success. The

Australia Insurance Group clearly observed by the acknowledging the importance of timelines,

behaviors and processes, the group put a priority on local initiatives. These were necessary for

the success of the program. These initiatives helped build employees' confidence hence quality

service delivery (Beer et al., 1990).

To find the needs of the user, solving the user problems is important. This is achieved only

through designing a problem statement. It is vital to identify with the user so as to have a valid

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

problem statement well captured, have their point of view taken into account and their thoughts

shared.It is done by acquiring the requirements of the user from the created profile. It is from the

user's point of view that a problem statement can be acquired, usually through breaking down the

user's point of view to identify the major issues of concern. From the given out user's needs

perspective, one designs their problem statement. This is based on designing on how to

maximize on the positive and working to eliminate those that are unfavorable to the user's needs.

A process design is critical to solve the problems and meet the needs of the user. This

could either be redesigning the already existing process to improve service delivery or a

completely new system. This is low-level and meeting user's needs and customer satisfaction.

Process redesign may entail mapping of the complete product system. These must be done using

mapping tools and applications such as System maps, Value stream maps, process maps and

Relationship maps.

The effectiveness of designing a business process must take into consideration of the

success of the business as well as the performance of the process. The essence of the mapping

process is to identify existing problems and opportunities to be exploited. Furthermore, the

mapping process helps in creating and raising awareness hence promoting opportunities for

further analysis. According to Sir Halford, mapping helps convey a whole series of the process

and generalizations at a glance. This allows for ease of monitoring and identification of the

shortcomings, their control measures, and successful processes within the production system.

The process maps represent a given production process. As such, there is no single

process that is effective for production hence fully meeting user's needs. This is because the

various techniques applied have a different focus on the production process. When designing a

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

production process, consideration of the context is important. Furthermore, users should be

involved, and their needs are well understood.

Though intended to meet the needs of the user and customers' satisfaction, all processes

have a given degree of being poorly defined. Maps require that there be a standardized process

in production though this is never the case. In reality, the effectiveness of the process is altered

by the employees. The employees have tendencies of modifying the production system hence

obtain different outcomes, some of which could be beyond the intended purpose. Also, the

structures of the organization may be disjointed hardening the conceptualization of the whole

process. Furthermore, employees have different understanding and reference for the process

based on their level of skills and specialization.

Despite the challenges, the process mapping aims to improve the production process

through the innovation and use of new technologies, new concepts design and implementation of

new models in the business. This leads to enhanced efficiency and performance due to the

elimination of duplication of roles while merging tasks and activities that are related. Also,

process mapping assists in eliminating sign-offs, hand-offs, and multiple reviews as well as

reduced checking and inspections.

The mapping process is considered into two levels, high and low levels. The high-level

mapping process majorly defines and elaborates business processes. Not only does the high-level

mapping process provide a picture that can be managed entirely but also determines whether the

processes fit or not. Moreover, it provides data to identify the basic disconnections and complete

relationships between the various production processes. This generalized overview of activities

and how they are related provides an effective way of abstraction using fewer details.

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

Also, the high-level mapping process identifies primary activities and the process

involved as well as deterring the start and the end of a process. This helps in determining the

purpose of the process together with the required inputs and outputs. By mapping some versions

and the iterations, high-level mapping helps defining the business strategies and customer needs.

This greatly determines the success of the business.

The low level mapping serves a different purpose. It serves to identify key specific steps

in a given production process. These cover the areas such as the required objectives, resources as

well as the assumptions made. Whether to have a high-level or low-level mapping or even both

is determined by the type and nature of the process to be mapped.

To select a process to redesign, the scope of the process must be determined. This

includes determining the scope of the process. This could either focus on the entire production

system as an enterprise, the system of the process delivery or a single process. This is based on

criteria that seek to address the needs of the customers, provides an opportunity for further

success as well as that which has significant challenges. Besides, the process should provide a

business that can be easily redesigned.

The tools used for the mapping process include the organizational sub-systems and

relationship maps tools. The relationship mapping tools gives an indication of the working

system and the nonfunctional inputs and outputs. This is important as it helps restructure the

functional relationships in "should be" scenarios. Furthermore, it helps in evaluating the

groupings such as those of personnel. The testing of the design before implantation is important.

Both the functional and conceptual prototypes are used to test the effectiveness of the newly

designed process.

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

In conclusion, the implementation the process must be done focusing on results and not

the activities. Jobs should be based on objectives and not tasks. Furthermore, automation of

information and work flow as well as combing the information processing with the actual task

ought to be done through technology. Meeting the needs of the user should be the focus of any

system production design process. This will ensure the satisfaction of customers, the growth, and

development of the business as well.

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

References

Beer, M., Einstein, R. &. Specter, B. (1990) Why Change Programs do not Produce Change:

Harvard Business Review p. 158-166.

Balogun, J. &. Jenkins, N. (2003). Preconceiving Change Management: Acknowledge-Base

Perspective European Management Journal 21(2) p. 247-257: Retrieved on 12

September,

2015.

Hackman, K. (2004). Providing the “right help” to Customers: Implementing Financial Services

Reform in Australia Proceedings of the ANZAM Conference Dunedin New Zealand

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