ERP Readiness Series: Why Bother Documenting As-Is Processes?

If you’re new to our series on ERP Readiness, start with our posts on assessing your people readiness. In our last post, we examined three false assumptions that people have about process readiness. In the post, we briefly look at why it’s important to spend time documenting your “as-is” processes.

As-Is Processes

As-is processes are your business processes as they currently exist, as opposed to “to-be” processes which are what your processes will look like once your ERP system has been implemented. In our last post we addressed the false assumption that documenting your existing processes was a waste of time. We wrote,

“. . . documenting business processes ahead of time has the additional benefit of illuminating industry-specific processes, and even processes specific only to your business, that will ultimately require optimization of the ERP system. Identifying those areas early can greatly affect your choice of an ERP solution provider by determining whether or not they can achieve the level of customization your business will need.”

In this post, we’re going to examine three more benefits to documenting your as-is processes. Interestingly, these benefits exist independent of whether or not your organization is involved in an ERP implementation project.

1. When we talk about something, we “see” it more clearly.

Remember, in our last post we referred to process readiness as getting a mountain-top view by simply looking at your business processes and asking, “What’s working, what’s not working, and where do we need to improve?” Asking yourself these three questions about your as-is processes will give you that mountain-top view. You will actually start to “see” what it means to accomplish work in your organization. And, while asking yourself these questions is a great place to start, it’s even better to ask your team.

2. When we collaborate cross-functionally, we learn more.

In the absence of a business analyst, process documentation is a task that is often assigned to one or more managers or supervisors with functional expertise in the processes in question. Sequestering yourself in your office in order to document your team’s or organization’s “as-is” processes is possible, but it is inadvisable. What often ends up being produced is a document that is one person’s description of a process that may or may not reflect how it is actually being executed by employees—it’s closer to a “should-be” description of a process rather than an “as-is” one.

Take one of your organization’s business processes, order-to-cash, for example. Sit down with the team, the group of employees in charge of executing the order-to-cash process from end-to-end and have them describe how the process is actually executed on a daily basis. We often see that the person who is in charge of managing Accounts Receivable, on one end of the order-to-cash processes, has an incomplete picture of what it takes to receive and process the order on the other end of the process. As our CEO, Erin, is fond of saying, “I kid you not, even though you may work with these folks every day, you’re going to see things and learn things in a way that you just didn’t before.”

3. When we document the current state of process. . .

. . . we create a launch pad for reaching the “to-be.”

We’re going to spend some time in our next post defining regimentation as it applies to business processes and ERP systems.  Suffice to say, that business processes often undergo significant changes when an ERP system is implemented. This is especially true when the ERP system is the organization’s first. In order to make intelligent changes to business processes, to get them to the future “to-be” state, you must first be able to describe and document the processes as they are now.

. . . we have a valuable tool for seeking validation and feedback.

Documenting “as-is” processes is not, at the end of the day, only a descriptive process, it’s an evaluative process. Starting with the way things are done now reveals newer, better, more efficient ways to do them. The team, by looking together at the order-to-cash process, often comes up with small ways to tweak and improve the process immediately on the way to making the larger changes necessitated by an ERP implementation. Process analysis and documentation becomes iterative, with the process document becoming a valuable validation and feedback tool.

We’ve briefly covered three benefits of documenting as-is processes, but we’d like to leave you with one final note about process documentation. Unlike the three benefits listed above, this is more of a warning or exhortation.

Analyzing and documenting business processes is an intentional activity, not a passive one.

Okay, you might be saying, “Come on, SYTE, you’re being obvious. Of, course analyzing a business process is an intentional activity!” If that is your reaction, and you can get up from reading this post and quickly grab a manual or folder that contains your documented business processes, then you’re right. For you, this statement is obvious because you or someone in your organization has already done the hard work of process documentation.

However, many business owners, founders, and executives cannot get up and grab a manual or folder that contains their organization’s business processes. Those processes, while known to their employees, have not been documented. Or, perhaps processes have been documented, but they’ve been documented on an ad hoc basis, haven’t been collected, or are disorganized and are difficult to find.

So, this point bears repeating: Analyzing and documenting business processes is an intentional activity. That means that analyzing business processes requires focus, effort, and time. Said another way, someone will have to take time out of their day to analyze business processes, let alone document them. As we’ve seen, this is better done as a group, involving everyone who executes the processes in question.

In short, it’s a big job, but it really is a necessary one. Businesses that take the time to thoroughly examine and document their as-is business processes prior to ERP implementation save more time and money than businesses that don’t.

Do you need help documenting your as-is business processes? Perhaps you need a business analyst to help but do not want to put one on your payroll long term. At SYTE, we can serve you as your team’s outsourced business analyst. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us to find out how we can help.