BPR and Change Management

RB Solutions can assist Authorities to meet the challenge of implementing major organisational changes as a result of policy, system or business changes. There are several approaches that can be adopted.These include:-

• Map existing Revenues and Benefits processes.This will provide a comprehensive guide to aid staff training and also provide consistency of service delivery.

• Evaluate existing processes and provide recommendations where service improvements and efficiencies can be made.

• Provide Change Management support to implement improved processes and procedures to ensure a smooth transition to a better service ensuring minimum disruption to current service delivery.

RB Solutions offer a comprehensive BPI exercise (which can be tailored for a specific Authorities requirement), which identify a number of aspects/ outcomes that will ultimately impact on performance.

These are:

• Identification of the blockages/delays in key processes (new claims, change of circumstances) that are outside the control of the Benefit Section. Once identified recommendations are made on how to reduce these blockages/delays (at the same time taking into account the requirements of the regulations).
• Identification of internal blockages/ delays that have crept into the process.This includes internal issues/ relationships and procedures that create a delay.
• Assessing the involvement of various staff who are within the processing cycle.
• Reducing the level of manual intervention involved with processes and replacing this (where possible) with automated processes.
• The involvement of third parties (e.g. Rent Officer, DWP) and the manner in which the information is provided to/from third parties.
• Assessing the impact of customers (claimants/taxpayers) on the processes.
• Considering how manual processes can be automated.
• Identification of additional software modules that would assist in improving efficiency.

The cornerstone of our approach is the creation of detailed models of all activities carried out including:

• How often does it happen?
• What is the cost of the activity, in terms of resource usage and time?
• What are the business triggers?
• What decision points exist and what are the percentages for each possibility?
• What resources/organisation structure is in place to carry out the processes?

Having an accurate model of the business process enables:

• Rapid identification of problems with current processes such as bottlenecks and time spent on activities adding little or no values
• Simulation of the affect of new processes on key performance indicators
• Identification of the numbers and types of resources needed to support your new processes to reduce both bottlenecks and surplus capacity
• Production of new performance targets for service, teams and individuals
• Testing the end-to-end integrity of new processes
• Iterative design and analysis until the optimum design is reached and agreed
• Communication of the new model to all stakeholders involved to gain agreement

A BPI exercise to review the working practices within a Benefit or Revenues Service is normally a 30-40 day engagement. The exercise involves on site work to gather existing working practices, an analysis of the data gathered and a formal presentation of the findings and recommendations.