Using Enterprise Architecture to Drive Customer-Centric Business Process Management Steven E. Else, Ph.D., PMP Michael J.

Novak, CQE, CMQ/OE

Traditionally, Enterprise Architecture (EA) has resided in the domain of the Chief Information Officer and the IT staff. But current economic conditions require a more enterprise-wide perspective of EA, and in particular where EA drives a more customer-centric focus through the management of the organizations key business processes. Conventional EA models (e.g., Zachman, TOGAF, FEA) fail in this regard because of their complexity; their lack of understandability often causes consternation and frustration on the part of non-IT personnel. A more elegant, less intricate model is needed if the entire workforce is to become engaged in EA and its support of the organizations business processes and customer focus. Isher Kaila, speaking at the Gartner Business Process Management Summit in 2008, poses three key issues in using business process management as a driver of customer centricity (Figure 1, below). 1

Figure 1 Key Issues in Process-centric Customer Focus

Kaila goes on to say that customer experiences are affected and synthesized through the synergies that exist among people, processes, and technologies. He then introduces the term
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Figures 1 and 2 Gartner, Inc., 2008, used with permission.

Moment of Truth, first coined at SAS Airlines, to describe specific points in business processes when an opportunity to define, nurture, and diversify an enterprise's service differentiation and competitive messaging to a customer would be most optimal. Further, Kaila provides a framework for viewing how business processes are managed to affect customer experiences (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Managing Business Processes to Affect Customer Experiences

Kalias model is useful as it stands, but when viewed in the context of an EA framework (e.g., Zachman, TOGAF, or FEA), it becomes a principal enabler of organizational success in managing prcesses with the ultimate purpose of understanding and meeting customer requirements. But traditional EA frameworks are often intricate and complex, and therefore difficult for operational and non-IT support functions to comprehend. Accordingly, individuals in non-IT business units often pay lip service to EA, and go about their business without true engagement in EA. This can result in the organizations failure to leverage the benefits of EA in optimizing its performance; aligning and integrating its business processes; and maximizing customer relationships, experiences, and service.
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To counter this tendency, a simpler view of EA, is needed particularly when integrating the management of key business processes with the management of other aspects of the organizations overall management system. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria for Performance Excellence provides just such a view. The Baldrige organizational management model provides a systems perspective for managing an organization and its key processes to achieve results and to achieve customer-centric organizational excellence. These concepts are depicted in Figure 3, below. The Baldrige systems perspective starts with the organizations senior leaders focus on strategic directions, on the organizations strategic planning, and on the organizations customers. These three factors drive the organizations workforce and processes, which produce results or outcomes. These are supported by the organizations measurement and analysis processes, knowledge management approach, and management of IT systems. All seven factors the sewven Categories of the Baldrige Criteria operate in the context of an organizational profile that provides a snapshot of the organizations operating environment, relationships, and challenges. The sine qua non of a systems perspective is the organizations senior leaders active participation in monitoring, responding to, and managing performance based on performance results. A systems perspective also includes using measures, indicators, core competencies, and organizational knowledge to build key strategies. It means linking these strategies with the organizations work systems and key processes, and aligning resources to improve organizational performance and to focus on customers and stakeholders.

Figure 3 The Baldrige Organizational Management Model

The Organizational Profile is a snapshot of the organization a context or umbrella under which the organization operates. It describes the organization, including such key factors as: The organizations main product and service offerings and delivery mechanisms The organizations culture (purpose, vision, mission, values, and core competencies) The organizations workforce profile The organizations major facilities, technologies, and equipment The regulatory environment in which the organization operates The organizations structure and governance syustem The organizations key market segments, customer groups, and stakeholder groups, and differences in the requirements within and among these segments and groups The organizations key suppliers, partners, and collaborators The Organizational Profile also describes the organizations competitive environment, key strategic challenges and advantages, and the organizations system for performance improvement. Included are: The organizations competitive position and key competitors Principal factors that determine the organizations succcess
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Changes in the operating environment that might affect the organizations competitive position Organizational sustainability issues Organizational performance evaluation, organizational learning, and innovation processes

Once these key factors are known, agreed upon, and publicized, the organization can then align its key business processes with those factors and integrate them with one another to achieve customer-centric success. (The term customer-driven excellence is one of eleven interrelated Core Values and Concepts of the Baldrige method, gleaned from research of organizatons that have demonstrated world-class performance.) The Customer Focus category specifically addresses customer-centric process management. This category includes processes that engage customers, determine how to meet customers needs, and support customers use of the organizations products/services. Also included are processes for building a customer-focused organizational culture; listening to the voice of the customer; determining customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction; and using information obtained from customers to improve performance and to identify opportunities for innovation. But the other process categories of the Baldrige model also drive customer centricity. The Leadership category includes processes whereby the organizations senior leaders guide and sustain the organization in the realm of customer centricity and in other areas; how senior leaders communicate with the workforce and encourage high performance; how the organization is governed; how the organization improves its leadership performance; and the organizations approach to assuring legal and ethical behavior, fulfilling societal responsibilities, and supporting key communities. Specific to customer centric process management, this category includes such factors as: The process for setting the organizations vision, mission, and values (Do they reflect a customer focus?) and how they are deployed through the leadership system, to the workforce, to key suppliers and partners, and to customers and other stakeholders The process whereby senior leaders promote an environment that fosters, requires, and results in legal and ethical behavior (primarily vis--vis customers and stakeholders) The process whereby senior leaders communicate with and engage the workforce (the assumption being that workforce engagement is a leading indicator of customer satisfaction and loyalty) The process whereby senior leaders create in the organizaton a focus on creating and balancing value for customers and other stakeholders in organizational performance expectations The Strategic Planning category includes processes for establishing organizational strategy, addressing strategic challenges, and leveraging strategic advantages; processes for converting strategic objectives into action plans; and processes for deploying action plans. In particular, this category includes: The process whereby the strategic planning process addresses shifts in customer preferences
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The process whereby the strategic planning process addresses acquisition or development of core competencies needed e.g., to meet customer needs The process whereby the strategic planning process considers and balances the needs of all key customers and other stakeholders The process for converting strategic plans into customer-centric action plans The process for modifying action plans to account for changing customer segments and requirements, and for deploying these modified plans to the workforce to achieve optimal customer satisfaction The process for developing human resource plans to maximize workforce capability and capacity to meet customer needs The process for budgeting and allocation of resources to support action plans and to maximize cuatomer service The process for establishing and monitoring performance metrics, with a view to ensuring maximum customer satisfaction

The Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management category encompasses processes for selecting, gathering, analyzing, managing, and improving data, information, and knowledge assets; for managing information technology; and for reviewing and improving organizational performance. Included in this category are: The process for selecting, collecting, aligning, and integrating data and information for tracking daily operations and performance, including progress in meeting customer requirements The process for using comparative data to measure the organizations performance (e.g., in customer service and satisfaction) relative to competitors and other organizations, standards, and best-in-class performers The process for keeping the organizations performance meaurement current with business needs and directions, including shifts in customer requirements The processes for analyzing and improving organizational performance The process for ensuring data, information, and knowledge are accurate, valid, reliable, complete, up to date, and secure The process for making data and information available to, among others, customers and other stakeholders The process for transferring relevant knowledge to, among others, customers and other stakeholders The process for ensuring the reliability, security, and continued availability of hardware and software systems, with a view to continuity of service to customers and other stakeholders The Workforce Focus category includes processes for engaging, managing, and developing the workforce in alignment with the organizations overall mission, strategy, and action plans. Also included are processes for assessing workforce capability and capacity needs, for assessing and improving workforce climate, and for building a high-performance workforce. Thes processes enable the organizations workforce to effectively perform the work necessary to meet customer needs, and to continuously improve performance. As mentioned earlier, workforce engagement
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and satisfaction are leading indicators of procutivity and quality, which in turn are leading indicators of customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty. The work of an effectively managed workforce is aligned with customer-focused goals, thereby enabling the workforce to effectively meet customer requirements. A workforce that is continuously trained, educated, and developed with a a focus on customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty is poised to provide world-class service to customers and other stakeholders. The focus of the Process Management category is on continuous delivery of customer value. This category includes processes for designing and implementing work systems; and for designing, managing, and improving key business processes. Effectively designed, implemented, and managed work systems and business processes effectively meet customer requirements. Continuous improvement of work systems and business processes is necessary to meet constantly increasing customer expectations. This category also includes processes for emergency preparedness, disaster recovery, and continuity of operations, which lead to sustainability of customer service. The Results category is, in essence, a balanced set of measures. These measures illustrate the current level of performance of the processes in the six process categories: Product outcomes Customer-focused outcomes Financial and market outcomes Workforce-focused outcomes Process effectiveness outrcomes Leadership outcomes This category also shows process performance trends over time; comparison of performance against competitors and other organizations, industry standards, and best in class. Finally, this category shows integration of results with one another (e.g., the effect that a change in workforce engagement has on, say, productivity). The Baldrige model in no way claims to meet the requirements of the mandated Federal Enterprise Architecture or to conform to other, more complex EA models. But it is an elegant approach to aligning the management of business processes with an organizations mission, vision, values, strategies, action plans, goals, and objectives particularly in small and mid-sized organizations that may not have the resources to implement more extensive architectures. It is, primarily, a means for ensuring processes in all categories are integrated with one another to maximize organizational outcomes in particular, to focus on most effectively determining and meeting the requirements of customers and other key stakeholders.

References: Kaila, Isher. Employing Business Process Management to Drive Customer Centricity. Gartner Business Process Management Summit. Washington, DC, September 10-12, 2008.
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Kaplan, Robert S., and David P. Norton. The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Baldrige National Quality Program 2009-2010 Criteria for Performance Excellence. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: American Society for Quality, 2008.

Dr. Steven E. Else is the Founding and Executive Editor of the EA Zone Journal. He is also Chairman of the Center for Public-Private Enterprise, a non-profit 501c3 organization committed to addressing complex issues related to the public-private dynamic in a time of government transformation. In addition, he teaches EA graduate courses at the University of Denver and directs the TOGAF program at FEAC. Michael J. Novak is a retired U.S. Naval Officer and retired Federal civil servant. Highlights of his extensive federal career include drafting the Treasury Department Strategic Plan; serving on task groups chartered by the Vice Presidents National Partnership for Reinventing Government; developing and implementing Defense Department procurement policy; serving as Co-Chair if the Federal CIO Councils Knowledge Management Working Group; and serving as an Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and other Baldrige-based award programs.