Business Process Excellence Exchange

The 5th Annual IQPC Business Process Excellence Exchange took place this week in London. Bringing together solution providers and practitioners in a highly interactive environment, the event consisted of a wide selection of workshops and round table discussions, keynote presentations, and pre-arranged business meetings.

Business Process Excellence (BPE) focuses on the optimisation and automation of processes in order to achieve greater efficiency and productivity. It incorporates Lean & Six Sigma as well as Business Process Management (BPM), which concentrates on the interface between processes and technology.

Organised by IQPC, the event was aimed at aligning people who are looking to improve their processes with solution providers and authoritative speakers in order to create a conducive, networking environment.

One of the themes that emerged was the importance of aligning business goals with the process improvements being made, both in terms of the people involved and the technology being used. All too often the processes of a business are not thought of in terms of the overall strategy, let alone directly linked, but this event showed that technological systems can be put in place which inextricably link the two, creating a more efficient organisation.

Improving the technology behind your processes can also drive cultural change, focusing the organisation on systems instead of tasks. Ironically, automating processes allows the workforce greater freedom to be creative and continuously improve.

The other crucial element is, of course, the customer. Several presenters talked about how focusing on enhancing the customer experience by designing process systems around their needs and requirements is vital in gaining not only a competitive advantage, but also solidifying business strategy and, ultimately, achieving lasting change.

Although there is always a difficulty in maintaining momentum during a three day event, attendees were able to take part in workshops that dealt with subjects such as incorporating Lean and Six Sigma, maintaining operational flexibility, measuring the effectiveness of Process Excellence, leveraging technologies, and more. There was a strong financial sector presence, with several banks represented, but also academia as well as consultants and software providers.

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