After lunch, we had two short vendor sessions: in some cases, the vendor themselves presented; in others, the vendor’s customer presented. For the first session, I went to see Metastorm’s customer Great Clips talk about The Power of SOA & BPM for Human and System-Based Process Optimization. Jim Waldo and Kathy Wetzel of Great Clips talked about how they analyzed their processes, particularly the process of opening a new (franchised) salon. Their process is very human-intensive, and there were a lot of gaps in the old process.
By applying BPM tools and techniques, they were able to eliminate 20% of the work steps and simplify another 70% of the steps, automate at least 8 handoffs and eliminate status checks. In total, they were able to shave 2 weeks of lag time out of the 16-week salon opening process, which has allowed them to grow the business without increasing the headcount — for five years now. There’s greater visibility into the processes, which provides for better management.
They phased in BPM over 3 years, and have seen an unexpected agility in introducing changes to processes, and find that they spend a lot less time worrying about the paperwork and the processes, and more time concentrating on the things that matter, like increasing their business and promoting their brand.