CIOIN

Anil Khopkar

VP-MIS, Bajaj Auto

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Anil Khopkar is VP-MIS at Bajaj Auto

When businesses seek the help of their IT departments to design business processes, they put forth a laundry list of requirements, conjuring up all kinds of possible scenarios. They will present 100 different scenarios before IT, each more challenging and complex than the last. But, to be honest, not all of these scenarios are realistic. In fact, a large percentage are hypothetical and presume worst-case scenarios. 

At the same time, IT also likes to develop complex systems and processes and falls prey to its predilection towards complexity. Combined, these two forces often sow the seeds of complex business processes within an enterprise—which, in the long run, hamstrings efficiency and agility. Plus, enterprises incur huge IT costs to manage these complex business processes.

IT should steer clear of this approach. CIOs should keep IT simple and adopt a realistic approach while crafting and developing processes. We should not accept business requirements at face value. I suggest an alternate approach to process designing.

"CIOs should keep IT simple and adopt a realistic approach while crafting and developing processes. "

This approach is inspired from the Japanese word Genba meaning ‘the real place’. I interpret this as ‘going to a real workplace’. Taking a cue from this term, I would urge IT to visit all functional departments, to go to ground zero and observe various business-related activities. They should then investigate, identify, and analyze non-value adding activities and explain to business users how these can be done away with. The aim is to simplify business processes.

In doing this, IT leaders need to adopt a four-pronged approach called ECRS. E stands for eliminating non-value adding activities. C stands for ‘commonize’—or sharing processes across multiple functions. R stands for re-organize, which needs to be done to ensure there aren’t duplicates in a process. And S stands for standardizing and simplifying processes across all locations.

We have followed this approach at Bajaj Auto and accrued multifarious benefits from it. Not only has it made business processes simple to develop and implement, but it has also shrunk IT cost and delivery time. It has simplified our entire material planning and optimized our supply chain. Both manufacturers and suppliers are happy because they get paid on time. And the IT staffers are also happy because they are dealing with simple systems.