What is the difference between customer-facing processes and business-facing processes?

(23.0K) Inhaltsverzeichnis Show What is the difference between customer facing processes in business facing processes? What is a business facing process? What is a customer facing business? Which among below falls under customer facing business processes?

SECTION 2.2 Business Processes LEARNING OUTCOMES LO2.6   Describe business processes and their importance to an organization. LO2.7   Differentiate between customer facing processes and business facing processes. LO2.8   Compare business process improvement and business process reengineering. LO2.9   Describe the importance of business process modeling (or mapping) and business process models. LO2.10   Explain business process management along with the reason for its importance to an organization.

(23.0K)	LO2.6 Describe business processes and their importance to an organization.
(23.0K)	LO2.7 Differentiate between customer facing processes and business facing processes.

Businesses gain a competitive edge when they minimize costs and streamline their business processes. Columbia Sportswear Company is a global leader in the design, production, marketing, and distribution of outdoor apparel and footwear. The company is always looking to make the members of its highly mobile workforce more responsive and efficient while also helping them enjoy better work–life balance. Columbia Sportswear wanted new ways to streamline its operations to get up-to-the-minute information to employees working across multiple time zones. The company deployed innovative Microsoft messaging software to give its workers flexible, safeguarded access to messages from anywhere in the world. This helps the company speed every aspect of its business, and gives employees more freedom to enjoy an active lifestyle.17

   Most organizations pride themselves on providing breakthrough products and services for customers. Unfortunately, if customers do not receive what they want quickly, accurately, and hassle-free even fantastic offerings will not save an organization from annoying its customers and ultimately eroding the firm's financial performance.

“The best way an organization can satisfy customers and spur profits is by completely understanding all of its business processes.”

   The best way an organization can satisfy customers and spur profits is by completely understanding all of its business processes. Waiting in line at a grocery store is a great example of the need for an organization to understand and improve its business processes. In this case, the “process” is called checkout, and the purpose is to pay for and bag groceries. The process begins when a customer steps into line and ends when the customer receives the receipt and leaves the store. The process steps are the activities the customer and store personnel do to complete the transaction. A business processA standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer’s order. is a standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer's order.18

   Business processes transform a set of inputs into a set of outputs (goods or services) for another person or process by using people and tools. This simple example describes a customer checkout process. Imagine other business processes: developing new products, building a new home, ordering clothes from mail-order companies, requesting new telephone service from a telephone company, and administering Social Security payments. Making the checkout procedure quick and easy is a great way for grocery stores to increase profits. How long will a customer wait in line to pay for groceries? Automatic checkout systems at grocery stores are an excellent example of business process improvement.

   Examining business processes helps an organization determine bottlenecks, eliminate duplicate activities, combine related activities, and identify smooth-running processes. To stay competitive, organizations must optimize and automate their business processes. Organizations are only as effective as their business processes. Developing logical business processes can help an organization achieve its goals. For example, an automobile manufacturer might have a goal to reduce the time it takes to deliver a car to a customer. The automobile manufacturer cannot hope to meet this goal with an inefficient ordering process or a convoluted distribution process. Sales representatives might be making mistakes when completing order forms, data-entry clerks might not accurately code order information, and dock crews might be inefficiently loading cars onto trucks. All of these errors increase the time it will take to get the car to the customer. Improving any one of these business processes can have a significant effect on the total distribution process, made up of the order entry, production scheduling, and transportation processes. Figure 2.11 displays several sample business processes.19

   Some processes (such as a programming process) may be contained wholly within a single department. However, most processes (such as ordering a product) are cross-departmental, spanning the entire organization. Figure 2.12 displays the different categories of cross-departmental business processes. Customer facing processesResults in a product or service that is received by an organization’s external customer. result in a product or service that is received by an organization's external customer. Business facing processesInvisible to the external customer but essential to the effective management of the business and includes goal setting, day-to-day planning, performance feedback, rewards, and resource allocation. are invisible to the external customer but essential to the effective management of the business and include goal setting, day-to-day planning, performance feedback, rewards, and resource allocation.20

17www.columbiasportswear.com, accessed December 15, 2008.

18“What Is BPR?” searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid182_gci536451,00.html, accessed October 10, 2005; BPR Online, www.prosci.com/mod1.htm, accessed October 10, 2005; Business Process Reengineering Six Sigma, www.isixsigma.com/me/bpr/, accessed October 10, 2005; and SmartDraw.com, www.smartdraw.com/, accessed October 11, 2005.

19Ibid.

20Ibid.