What Is Business Process Change?

A business process is a step-by-step outline of a specific business function within a company. This process may include both manual an automated steps. A business process change is a modification to a company's existing business process. These changes are designed to improve the performance and productivity of a company.

When one company merges with another company, it usually requires a significant business process change. The parent company typically has different business processes for sales, accounting, and human resources, which must be implemented by the consumed organization. This change in business procedures requires proper training and oversight to ensure a smooth transition.

Business process change can be stressful for employees. Effective change management is a technique that can be used when introducing changes to an organization. This typically includes marketing, training, and migrations processes. Many companies specialize in change management implementation for organizations.

Change management is best when it is implemented in a slow, methodical process that enables the adaption of new business processes. Quick reactive changes to legacy business processes can create low morale and support from the employees of a company. When implementing business changes, it is important to educate the staff on the new process prior to implementation.

A successful transition in a company requires business process monitoring. A monitoring process will typically include measurements on productivity, cost, and employee morale. This step is meant to verify the results of the business process change to ensure it meets the expected results.

Defining and documenting a company's existing business processes requires a technique called business process modeling. These business process models are used for simulation purposes when exploring a proposed business process change. The business process models are entered into a business process server, which can help determine whether the change will be successful.

Business process automation is a technique that uses computer software to streamline business steps within an organization. This type of automation requires specific hardware and software, known as business process servers. There are many forms of business process servers available today. Business process servers manage the automation of specific business rules and work-flow of business functions. These processes can be joined together with other processes to create a technique known a business process orchestration.