What is a Process?

The word ‘process’ has many definitions. Where the dictionary generally uses something like ‘a set of related activities’, each expert has developed his/her own variety of this definition. But for now, let’s accept that a process can be generally described as a set of related activities. This means that the definition applies to every set of related activities, regardless the size or scale. Well, this does not make things easier. In fact, it stresses the importance of gaining a systematic insight on the processes within a company.

Input and Output

Input is that which is needed to be able to perform certain activities (for example, equipment, budget, people, information, …). Output is the result of these activities, a product, service, or report to name a few.

So, in other words, a process is the way in which something is done, using the resources doing it and producing results of some kind.

Everyone’s Involved

Everybody in a company is involved in some sort of process.

• Management processes: This covers the processes of strategic and financial planning, controlling, internal auditing and things of that nature.
• Primary processes: These are the main processes, ‘customer-relationship management’, ‘supply-chain management’ and ‘product-lifecycle management’.
• Supportive processes: Here should be thought of staff management, quality management and/or information management.

Now, What is Process Management?

Each organization or company can be seen as a complex collection of processes, generating products or services through the company’s activities, serving clients and by doing so, generating income. The managing, and through it the continuous improvement, of these processes is a very important factor in the success of a company.

Simply put, process management is how an individual, a group, a project team or an organization handles processes. The most important goal in introducing process management is increasing effectiveness (doing the right things) and efficiency (doing things right) of all value creating processes within a company. From an operational viewpoint, process management is about defining processes, measuring the performance of them and improving them. It is also about the top-down defining of process goals, based on the strategic ambitions and the development of re-engineering activities to fix any process problems and, if possible, decrease the cost.

The implementation of process management in a company should be organized as a ‘business transformation program’. In this program, all aspects of the development of the company or organization should be included to yield the most favorable results.