Common Business Process Problems and Solutions
By: Taylor Farnsworth
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There are several problems relating to business processes in today's enterprise. According to cmswire.com although many of these problems may be quite simple to take care of and eliminate, there seems to be five problems that continue to persist.
These five problems are: Bottlenecks, Paper Trails, Copies, Preparation, and Business Agility.
Problem 1: Bottlenecks
These information bottlenecks occur from "a lack of consideration of the value of particular information, or content, and its relevancy in the business process."Possible Solution:
Research done by cmswire.com has found that enterprises must examine who needs this info, what info is essential, and whether or not it is needed in the current business process. Research also finds that enterprises must index or organize all of this information, and find a way to store the other information not being used.
Problem 2: Paper Trails
Today, enterprises are still using paper documents in their business process, which leaves valuable information vulnerable to loss, errors, and data theft.Possible Solution: The research done by cmswire.com "recommends a planned conversion of paper documents and records into digital information that can be entered, or taken out of business process, as needed, and which can be more easily found in the event of audits or other legal processes." This is an excellent solution to this problem because in today’s world, with technology being so advanced and becoming easier to understand and use, simply switching your business to a digital format rather than paper makes things much easier to keep in order and to keep back-ups of.
Problem 3: Copies
So many enterprises today are keeping several copies of certain documents, whether to be safe or because they believe these documents to be vital to their business processes. With this, response time is slowed and business process agility decreases.Possible Solution: Businesses that are keeping all of these extra copies, whether digital or paper, just need to stop. "They need to create business processes based on single documents, or to create minimal copies that are tracked and regulated within the processes. To do this, cmswire.com states, and I agree that a centralized, electronic storage that provides company-wide accessibility must be utilized.
Problem 4: Preparation
Research shows that many companies are only prepared for what they believe they will have to deal with. In turn, when something unexpected happens, companies are not prepared to respond without considerable business disruption.
Problem 5: Business Agility
Several businesses suffer from not being able to get the right information to the right people in a reasonable amount of time. This is mostly seen by those businesses that struggle with effective and efficient storage methods.Possible Solution: To be a business with effective and efficient storage, according to cmswire.com, "enterprises should optimize workflows so they are able to flex with the changing needs of their company."
In Summary:
As you can see from the problems listed above, having an effective and efficient business and business process is not terribly difficult to accomplish. Many businesses just need to buckle down and take care of these little problems that keep occurring and slowing them down. If they are to take care of these simple-to-fix problems, they will be a much more effective, efficient, and in turn a more profitable organization.Taylor Farnsworth is an accounting and business specialist at Whitworth University
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