A fresh approach to business processes

At Birmingham City Council, we no longer have IT projects – we have business transformation projects that may or may not be supported by IT. We prefer not to use the ‘e’ prefix, as it only supports the belief of a technology-led initiative rather than a business approach.

Birmingham has an ambitious programme to transform the council’s business processes. This programme will deliver the twin benefits of increased customer satisfaction, with council services designed around the needs of individuals, and financial savings, through improved efficiency.

We have produced a five-year business transformation vision that contains very challenging targets, helping to focus the work of the programme, and reflecting the Council Plan.

For us, the transformation process starts from the business outcomes required, and uses techniques to help design a real change in service provision. It purposely does not start by mapping the current situation, as that builds existing constraints into the redesign.

We produced a DVD to help managers and council members understand the approach, with messages from senior politicians and managers about the importance of business transformation allied to tools, techniques and case studies. The DVD stresses that the approach is business-led, and is to be used to support the business areas in transforming themselves, rather than by using a third party.

We broke the process into four elements:

Outcomes – what are we trying to deliver from the service; what does the customer want? These must be measurable objectives.

We then produce the Could Be model – which allows us to ask: ‘If you were setting up this service from scratch, how would you deliver it?’

We then examine the As Is situation, looking at how the service is delivered and the constraints preventing us from achieving the Could Be model.

A combination of the unavoidable constraints from the As Is coupled with the Could Be gives us the Will Be model – redesigned processes with constraints that cannot be avoided for implementation. This is a step change rather than continuous improvement, removing the excuse that ‘we have always done it this way’.

The usual implementation can now take place, but this process will have identified changes that can be made prior to the introduction of any IT system.

This approach results in more simplified service processes, and any resulting IT system will be less expensive than the more traditional approach of trying to make a system match the existing business processes.

We sub-divided the overall transformation programme into a series of projects that clearly map onto the Council Plan. This ensures that individual projects are focused on council priorities, subject to a business case which identifies the benefits in both service improvement and financial terms.

Our business transformation tools and techniques are designed to ensure that we do the right thing, through change management, and do things right, through programme and project management. Putting these things together helps to ensure we can deliver the required benefits.

We have made a start on our transformation programme, but we were always conscious that we did not have all the skills and resources required.

We are in the process of appointing a strategic partner for a contract to start in April 2006, initially for 10 years. The council and the chosen partner will form a joint venture, to be staffed by employees from both organisations.

For a major transformation initiative, the strategic business case should address the business needs and benefits – without reference to IT.

Ian Paterson is corporate head of programme management at Birmingham City Council. He will be speaking at the Business Performance and Project Management summit at the London Heathrow Marriott on 27-28 April.

www.bppmsummit.com.