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This paper presents a case study of the use of business‐process simulation within the context of a business‐process‐reengineering approach to change. The process‐based change methodology provides context to the simulation technique in that it connects the aims of a business‐process simulation (BPS) study to the strategic aims of the organisation and incorporates a consideration of human factors in order to achieve successful implementation of redesigned processes. Conversely, the ability of BPS to incorporate system variability, scenario analysis and a visual display to communicate process performance makes it a useful technique to provide a realistic assessment of the need for, and results of, change.

Purpose
Past research examining Business Process Management (BPM) mainly focussed on either process alignment, business process orientation (BPO) or process improvement initiative (PII) constructs. However, based on the definition of BPM by Zairi (1997) and Lee and Dale (1998), BPM comprises all the elements of process alignment, BPO and PII. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to present a total view of measuring BPM through combining BPO and PIIs.


Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research technique was applied for this study. The study was carried out in Malaysia. Close-ended survey instrument was administered to a large number of organisations.


Findings
The findings revealed that the elements of BPM cover both process management as well as process improvements.


Originality/value
The findings from this study is important for practitioners to regard continuous improvement as a component of BPM practice.

Flexibility has emerged as an important requirement in the design of business processes. Research on process flexibility, however, has traditionally been focused on the intrinsic capability of a process to adapt to a new environment (e.g. workflow escalation, ad hoc modelling). This paper proposes to extend the existing body of research by studying the extrinsic drivers for process flexibility, that is, the root causes that actually drive the demand for flexible business processes. The drivers for flexibility can be found in the context of a process and may include among others time, location, weather, legislation or performance requirements. We argue for a stronger and more explicit consideration of these contextual factors in the design of business processes in order to make processes more adaptive. This paper discusses why context matters and how context can be conceptualised, classified and integrated with existing approaches to business process modelling. We use a goal-oriented process modelling approach to be able to identify relevant context elements and propose a framework and a meta model for classifying relevant context. These extensions are an essential foundation for the definition and implementation of truly agile processes, and as such of high practical and theoretical value.

Die Veränderung des weltweiten Klimas macht deutlich, dass die Entwicklungen der globalen Märkte neben ökonomischen Aspekten zunehmend auch die Erhaltung und Verbesserung der Umweltzustände anstreben müssen. Für die Definition von Umweltzielen und -regularien wurden durch verschiedene nationale und internationale Gremien Kriterien und Ansätze beschrieben, welche häufig als Vorgaben an Unternehmen auf nationaler Ebene weitergegeben werden. Ein Beispiel hierfür ist der Handel mit CO2-Zertifikaten, bei dem Unternehmen den von ihnen ausgestoßenen Anteil von CO2 durch Zertifikate abdecken müssen. Damit Unternehmen diese gesetzlichen Auflagen einhalten und die damit verbundenen monetären Belastungen reduzieren können, müssen geeignete Maßnahmen zur Reduktion des negativen Umwelteinflusses aller unternehmerischen Aktivitäten entwickelt werden. Für die Ermittlung des Umwelteinflusses eines Unternehmens wurden bereits verschiedene Methoden entwickelt, wie beispielsweise der ISO Standard 14000 und das Life Cycle Assessment. Diese Methoden zielen jedoch häufig nur auf die Erfassung des Umwelteinflusses von Produkten ab und reichen nicht aus, eine ganzheitliche Optimierung des Umwelteinflusses eines Unternehmens und seiner Abläufe zu erreichen. Umweltaspekte müssen direkt in das Management und die strategische Entwicklung von Unternehmen integriert werden. Sie müssen in der Lage sein, den Umwelteinfluss des unternehmerischen Handelns abzubilden, zu analysieren und hinsichtlich der konventionellen Optimierungskriterien Kosten, Qualität, Zeit und Flexibilität abzuwägen, ohne dabei auf eine schnelle und flexible Anpassung an sich verändernde Marktsituationen zu verzichten. In dieser Dissertation wird eine Erweiterung des existierenden Geschäftsprozessmanagements unter Einbeziehung zugehöriger Methoden und Werkzeuge eingeführt, welche es Entscheidungsträgern ermöglicht, die strategische Entwicklung eines Unternehmens durch ökologische Aspekte zu ergänzen. Die entwickelten Konzepte zeigen, wie Key Performance Indicators, unterstützende IT-Infrastrukturen und die strategische Unternehmensgestaltung für die Integration dieser Aspekte erweitert werden müssen. Zur Unterstützung der vorgestellten Erweiterungen des Geschäfts¬prozess-managements wurde ein allgemeines Vorgehens¬modell definiert, welches aus ökologischer Sicht die Definition von Key Ecological Indicators, die Abbildung von Ressourcen auf Prozessmodelle und -aktivitäten, die Definition spezifischer Monitoringmodelle und die ökologische Analyse von Geschäftsprozessen abdeckt. Die Umsetzung dieser Aspekte wird jeweils exemplarisch durch spezifisch entwickelte Methoden aufgezeigt. Für das Management von Geschäftsprozessen auf Basis der analysierten Informationen definiert die vorliegende Arbeit einen auf Patterns basierenden Ansatz. Hierzu wurde eine Menge von Green Business Process Patterns identifiziert und dokumentiert. Die Entwicklung eines Pattern Support Frameworks hilft Entscheidungsträgern anschließend, diese Patterns für eine zielorientierte Optimierung von Geschäftsprozessen einzusetzen. Ausgehend von konkreten Problemstellungen begleitet das Pattern Support Framework damit die Identifikation geeigneter Patterns, welche im Anschluss auf konkrete Lösungsimplementierungen übertragen werden können. Die in der vorliegenden Arbeit eingeführten Konzepte erlauben es Entscheidungsträgern, neben ökonomischen auch ökologische Entscheidungsaspekte in der Entwicklung von Geschäftsprozessen zu berücksichtigen. Die Verbesserung des Umwelteinflusses zielt damit nicht nur direkt auf den ökologischen Fußabdruck eines Produktes oder Services ab, sondern ermöglicht eine durchgängige Restrukturierung aller an der Erzeugung oder Bereitstellung beteiligten Abläufe. Die entwickelten Prototypen zeigen exemplarisch die Implementierung der verschiedenen Konzepte und unterstützen sowohl Entscheidungsträger als auch Optimierungsteams bei der Verbesserung des Umwelteinflusses. Die Anwendbarkeit der Konzepte und Werkzeuge wird zudem in einer Fallstudie validiert. ; Changes in the worldwide climate more and more reveal that the development of global markets and the associated enterprises not only have to consider economic objectives but also to an increasing degree the environmental influence of organizational acting. Definitions for environmental targets, prescriptive limits, and legislative regulations have been discussed and elaborated by various national and international committees. Most of these definitions are resulting in statutory requirements for enterprises, like the trade of CO2-certificates, for example. In order to be compliant with those legislative regulations as well as to improve public perception and to adapt changing customer requirements, organizations need suitable methods to capture and reduce their environmental impact. To determine the environmental influence of an organization different standards and frameworks have been developed, like the ISO Standard 14000 and the Life Cycle Assessment. These methods widely aim at improving the environmental impact of products yet are not very comprehensive with respect to improving an organization and its business processes. Environmental aspects have to be integrated in the management and strategic development of organizations. They need to be able to indicate the environmental influence of an organization's activities, to analyze them and integrate and balance them with respect to existing optimization criteria. Nevertheless, environmental aspects must not hinder the quick and flexible adaption of businesses to changing market demands. In this dissertation an extension of common Business Process Management is introduced. Furthermore, associated methods and tools are provided to support stakeholders with an ecologically driven strategic development of businesses. Particularly, the developed concepts describe how Key Performance Indicators, supporting IT-Infrastructures and the strategic business development must be extended in order to integrate heterogeneous environmental aspects into existing business process management approaches. To support the use of the introduced concepts and methods a generic procedure model is introduced. This model mainly focuses on how Key Ecological Indicators are defined, how resources are mapped to processes and their activities, how monitoring models are defined, and how an environmental-based analysis is performed. Each of these aspects is exemplarily addressed by a suitable method. Moreover, to allow stakeholders a subsequent restructuring of business processes, a pattern-based optimization approach is introduced as well as a set of Green Business Process Patterns. To ease the identification of suitable Patterns for restructuring a business process a Pattern Support Framework is provided. Based on the earlier analysis of the Key Environmental Indicators the Pattern Support Framework supports the identification of individual patterns that subsequently can be mapped to concrete solution implementations. The introduced concepts of this dissertation allow stakeholders to consider both economic and ecological aspects for the development of business processes. Therefore, the optimization of the environmental footprint does not only focus on products and services but also allows restructuring business processes in a holistic way. The feasibility of the introduced concepts is evaluated by a prototypical implementation. Moreover, the applicability of the concepts and tools is validated in a case study.

PurposeNowadays, outsourcing has proved to be an enterprise management strategy in the face of globalization and growing competition. The decision to outsource a business process for any organization has far‐reaching consequences and risks. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of business process management (BPM) and knowledge management (KM) on reduction of outsourcing risks and pitfalls.Design/methodology/approachOutsourcing models and frameworks are reviewed to find the main risks in outsourcing. One of the most important groups of risks is emergent KM issues arising from widespread outsourcing. A strategic KM approach can reduce this risk. Communication and coordination difficulties between outsourcing partners is another group of risks that could be decreased by using the BPM approach in organizations. Then the contribution of a business process outsourcing (BPO) framework based on BPM and KM lifecycles is tested.FindingsThe paper finds that BPM and KM could reduce risks of outsourcing and enable a BPO lifecycle.Practical implicationsA contemporary case of IEI Company's outsourcing practices with one of its subsidiaries, Irancell, is discussed as an illustrative example.Originality/valueThe paper demystifies BPM and KM could enable BPO via coordinating BPM, KM, and BPO lifecycles.

Computer-based simulation models of business processes offer a powerful mechanism for modelling organizational structures and arriving at informed recommendations for change and improvement. In this article, the authors review the current status of the business process modelling (BPM) and business process simulation (BPS) domains, discuss some pertinent issues for their successful deployment, and suggest a number of research directions for organizational modelling.

"Holistic Business Process Management focuses on building business process management (BPM) as a model to address the importance of BPM views, analyze the effectiveness of the approach, and study the research trends in BPM. The book includes case studies of Japanese and Korean companies and BPM models suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) anywhere in the world." --