Top Trends in Business Process Improvement in 2023
It’s a new year, and this means there will be the new trends to watch for. Especially in our space -business process improvement.
Our industry has grown substantially in the last decade, thanks to the impact of technology and software on what had previously been a discipline wholly reliant on pen and paper.
But things are different now, and it is never more evident to us than at the beginning of a new year.
So without further ado, here are the top 10 trends we foresee for business process improvement in 2023:
1. Process Mapping Software
If your business hasn’t adopted process mapping software yet, this will be the year you want to.
It’s time to finally move away from pen and paper and embrace process mapping with software created specifically for this purpose.
Not only will this adoption make it easier to map at the moment during a workshop, but also to share with all relevant parties in your organisation. You can rest assured you will all be on the same page and there’s no need to dig up old paper from filing cabinets.
There are several options to choose from, but we are a bit biased and believe you should give us a chance first. Here’s a look at how easy it is to build a process map with Skore.
Whenever you’re ready, you can get in touch. We’ll be glad to help you take your business processes to the next level this year.
2. Simple Is Best
It’s one of our founding tenets here at Skore.
Business process maps should not be confusing, hard to follow webs of steps and people. They should be easy to understand and as simple as possible while capturing how the process works.
Modeling methods such as flowcharts, swimlanes or BPMN failed to account for this need for simplicity. Instead, they complicated the entire process and then removed parts of the process in a bid for more space.
A cleaner, simpler approach will become favoured this year.
3. Use of UPN
With the focus on simplifying process mapping, Universal Process Notation (UPN) will become the preferred notation style.
At Skore, we’ve been using it since the get-go.
This is because UPN is easy to understand and adapt for everyone, without the need for certifications or the drawbacks of modeling styles that do not fit the needs of businesses today.
A key indicator that UPN is likely to become even bigger this year?
CRM giant Salesforce has an online-training platform known as Trailhead. And its Business Process Mapping course now includes a module on UPN.
4. Cloud-based solutions
As we move into software instead of pen and paper, the focus will be on cloud-based solutions.
This ensures that all process maps are available to relevant employees on a constant basis. It also fosters the collaborative environment needed for process maps to truly capture what is taking place on a daily basis.
Cloud-based solutions such as Skore ensure all involved parties can constantly check in on and edit process maps as required, whether asynchronously or over a virtual call.
And you don’t need to root through old papers and files to find the map every time.
5. More People Involved
There will be more people involved in your processes and your process maps.
With the focus on simplifying process mapping and process management, more and more employees will be able to participate.
While you will continue to work with external consultants, your own employees will also be able to contribute directly to your process maps. They will also contribute to the upkeep of the process, as they can now understand how they fit into the overall company goal and metric.
It will become far more likely this year for employees to be more directly involved, and for stakeholders to understand the process and everyone’s role better than ever before.
6. Better Process Analytics
Using technology will lead to better process analytics this year, which will lead to process improvement skyrocketing if you adjust correctly.
Process mapping software such as Skore has insight and analytics elements which allow you to draw clear conclusions about spots for improvement. You will no longer be going in blind and trying different things to see what will make the change.
The decisions will be well-informed and suggested to you based on the information you already have.
7. Building Process Libraries
A trend we encourage organisations to jump on is building their own process library.
Skore and other software that have this feature are fundamental for you to grow as a business. Without process libraries, you will be constantly in the dark.
Process information will be lost, and you will have to start the whole mapping process all over again from the beginning, every time.
With process libraries, you retain organisational knowledge and build a strong foundation from which you can improve. It becomes accessible for all relevant employees to refer to at any point should questions arise.
And you have training material ready any time for new hires to study.
Creating a process library isn’t hard, as daunting as it might seem to map every single business process you have. Tools such as Skore make it easy and simple to do so over workshops or remotely, and then you have all the information for posterity.
8. Automation
Automation tools will be adopted more and more this year to lessen the burden of daily, monotonous tasks on employees. From connecting with folks on LinkedIn to responding to queries on email or social media, automation tools will continue to rise.
Employees will be able to focus on work more worth their time, such as building and maintaining relationships with clients, while resting easy knowing that additional tasks are being completed.
Finding the areas in the process that will benefit from automation tools will still be the purview of humans, though analytics tools will have helpful suggestions.
The next step for automation in 2023? AI and RPA.
9. Use of AI and RPA
Our AI capabilities will continue to grow in 2023. And we will make use of them.
AI will be adopted to help analytics tools and software identify patterns and areas of improvement in business processes. And Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will continue to take on certain business process components on.
Able to emulate human actions, RPA is the level-up of the automation tool that serves one single purpose. They understand what is on a screen, navigate systems, identify and extract data and perform defined actions. And they can do it faster and more consistently than humans!
Manual labour and tasks that do not require human involvement will slowly continue to be assigned to automation tools that will make everyone’s lives easier. And the way to find the places where these tools will fit in properly will be by process mapping.
10. Mobile Solutions
We’ve adopted process mapping to specific software and made it cloud-based, so the obvious next step is to offer mobile solutions.
Likely to grow in popularity as 25% of professionals are expected to be remote workers by the end of the year, mobile solutions mean being able to work on process maps from a device that goes in your pocket.
With a focus on simplicity for process mapping, there is nothing more simple than being able to access and edit maps on your phone.
To do this, the software you use has to be focused on being simple, easy to understand, and adjustable. Mobile solutions are the culmination of all the above trends and growing changes in process mapping over the last decade, so we expect them to truly begin to have an impact this year.
Your Top 10 for Business Process Improvement….
The year has just begun, but we already know it will be a big one for process improvement.
There are many changes on the horizon, from Salesforce’s adoption of UPN to the move towards RPA for daily tasks. Changes that having the correct business process improvement software will be crucial.
Skore has been ahead of the curve when it comes to business process improvement trends since we began, and you can rest assured we’ll continue on this path for many years to come.
If this is the year you want to take on your businesses’ process maps with a focus on improvement, please get in touch.
We’ll be glad to help you increase your efficiency, productivity, and revenue in 2023.