Business processes can be defined as the specific steps that need to be completed when a company delivers a product or service to its customers or end users. Every business will rely on a multitude of individual processes to take place across every team and department.
Different teams will have their own specific roles and responsibilities and will use a range of different processes to complete their tasks, projects, and objectives. These individual and team processes combine to allow a company to achieve its operational goals and objectives. However, many organizations will use outdated or not fully optimized methodologies to undertake specific roles or activities, and this can result in inefficient working practices or losses in productivity.
In this article, two top tips will be discussed that will help a wide range of businesses to improve different areas of their organization. They may also assist in streamlining some of their key functions with the aim of providing better products or services to both the customer and their workforce.
1. Boost the efficiency of your business applications
An increasing number of businesses use a wide range of microservices in their cloud-based IT architecture. These can range from microservices that are designed to ensure that the company website functions effectively to order management systems. As the number of microservices grows, there’s a greater need to control and manage them with modern control planes and service mesh kubernetes.
Put simply, these are layers of software that co-ordinate and manage all communications between different microservices and business applications. They play a key role in monitoring the performance of individual services and help to manage the increasingly complex communication channels between microservices. As businesses increase the number of online applications that need to communicate and function together, service mesh and control planes play a vital role in ensuring that these systems continue to operate efficiently.
2. Build teams that relish change and improvement
When looking to improve any business process, it’s normal to expect some degree of apprehension on the part of the wider workforce. Many staff adopt a series of working practices which become routine in nature over time, and they may be reluctant to change the way they approach specific tasks, even if these new methods are expected to improve business processes. Research has been undertaken in this field and McGregor’s X and Y theory contains information on how some staff members may be more reluctant to change than others. You can read more about this theory here.
When building teams, it’s important to communicate to them that change will be a part of their working life as the organization seeks to adapt to superior working practices. In addition, when recruiting new starters to the firm, a range of personality tests can be undertaken by candidates to confirm if they’ll relish change or struggle to embrace it.
A workforce that relishes change and enjoys the journey of exploring new ways to undertake tasks is one that can more easily adapt. This trait is considered vital in modern business where the pace of technological advancement is rapid and new ways of working must always be considered to facilitate ongoing improvements.