For a dyed-in-the-wool technologist, the notion of becoming a “commander of business process” may seem as daunting as being placed in the cockpit of an Airbus A380 Superjumbo, and being told to get the plane airborne.

Nevertheless, there are good reasons why today’s aspiring chief information officer (CIO) might like to don the process pilot cap, not least of which is the opportunity to elevate their career to new heights.

The term “commander of business process” has been coined by Alex Cullen, research director at IT advisory group Forrester Research, to describe how, through an understanding of business processes and how they can be improved, CIOs can position themselves as “an agent of business transformation”.

The opportunity exists for a process champion because no other senior executive is currently filling that role, suggests Rod Horrocks, business development director at consultant Procertis.

Planning process

Few businesses have a good understanding of their end-to-end business processes, he says ­ while some of the executive team will understand that they have processes for receiving an invoice, they do not put that knowledge into the context of why they have that process. The executive who truly understands what purpose processes can serve gains insight into how they ­ and ultimately the business ­ can be improved.

This is a far cry from the traditional IT function. “A standard IT response is to become problem solvers: ‘We have an issue here, and technology can help.’ But that is not demonstrating strategic thinking. IT should be interrogating business colleagues about what information they need, and how best to get it to them. It is a different mindset,” says Horrocks.

But the process specialist is not a path that all CIOs will necessarily want to follow, says Raju Oak, head of process solutions at merchant bank Kleinwort Benson, but they can often be the best-placed executive to take the lead. Some board-level executives can regard a comprehensive knowledge of business processes as a line-of-business function.

That can leave organisations shorn of that understanding at its highest level, and considering the high degree to which IT supports business processes today, this is an opportunity for the CIO, he says.

“It comes down to leadership. The process pilot might not be a heavily contested space ­ in some ways it can be a poisoned chalice,” says Oak. “However, it gives the CIO an opportunity to create a vision, start a dialogue and begin to set the agenda.”

Process improvement might seem a dull-but-worthy task to some, but the fundamental importance of reducing operational costs, minimising time-to-market for innovations and eliminating duplication of effort remain undiminished. And becoming a process champion need not be some sort of Hobson’s choice. “Whenever the economy turns downward, companies explore process thinking and look internally for opportunities to optimise what they do,” says Gartner analyst Janelle Hill

A new role

The CIO can, by taking on the mantle of process champion, drive business improvements and in the process demonstrate some leadership chops.

CIOs should hardly wait for an invitation, says Horrocks. “I am not seeing a big push for this from the business: currently there are not many executives who really get systems thinking that is needed.” That should be an opportunity for IT to stake its claim, he says.

But while eager IT chiefs may perceive an opportunity to become the prime process expert, it is by no means certain that business colleagues will automatically accept them in this role.

There are many line-of-business executives who will not take kindly to process advice from the CIO, says Oak.

“It is almost impossible for the CIO to have the domain knowledge, and level of business knowledge that a business counterpart has,” he says. “Broaching the issue requires tact.”

For many CIOs, previous experience in delivering enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems will have given them the exposure to business process thinking, says Tim Jones, partner at management consultant KPMG. “That can be a double-edged sword. There were many ERP implementations that were extremely painful. The successful ones tend to have been where the CIOs understood the link between IT and process,” he says.

Establishing credibility is key, says David Brakoniecki, CIO at insurance broker Xbridge which trades as Simply Business. As part of a company initiative to revamp its call centres and install business process management software from vendor Lombardi, Brakoniecki wanted to add process expertise to bolster the credibility of his own IT team. He co-opted a business analyst from the insurance team, and got her to work in his IT team.

“It was important that we not only picked someone with credibility within the business, but that it was also someone who was well liked. You cannot discount the importance of relationships when it comes to influencing people to accept change,” he says.

The benefits in focusing on processes have supported Xbridge through a period of rapid growth ­ the volume of enquiries it handles has grown more than ten-fold in the past three years. Through understanding the processes that underpin operations, IT has been able to implement management systems that provide a near real-time view of the business. The upshot is that the head of insurance is now seeking IT’s involvement in planning changes.

Even those IT chiefs who have hitherto been reluctant to become process experts will face pressure to change, says KPMG’s Jones. IT has become a m echanism that allows global organisations to function effectively ­ IT leaders will be forced to consider process by necessity, he says.

Those CIOs who are successful in mastering process improvements can expect to find new opportunities to progress their career, says KPMG’s Jones.

“I have seen several examples where CIOs who have become process champions have been able to widen their scope, and drive enterprise initiatives with some sort of process title,” Jones says.

So while the process champion may seem a curious career path for some,
successful CIOs can find that it is a mantle where the sky is the limit.