Business Process

BUSINESS PROCESS

BUSINESS PROCESS

Business Process

Module 1

Michelle Freeman

Purdue University Global

GB 560 Modular - Designing, Improving, and the Implementation Processes

Professor, Jerry Haenisch

November 10, 2020

Business Process

The business processes influence the performance of an organization or an industry and the situation imply that businesses have to come up with effective processes that will be involved in the operations so that performance might be enhanced. At times, industries or organizations will have to change their business processes that might be required to change and this is all meant to ensure that the performance of the organization has been enhanced. These initiatives are designed to affect change and help people accept and adapt (Change Management: Definition, Best Practices & Examples, 2020). The other important thing to realize is that this change in the business process might be explained by applying certain models such as the Kotter’s eight-step model or even the Capability Maturing Model depending on the Model that will be highly suited for the presented situation. Therefore, this discussion examines the application of Kotter’s 8-steps model in analyzing a change in the business processes at Kaplan Higher Education.

a. The name of the organization

Kaplan Higher Education is the intended organization for analysis as far as the discussion under consideration is concerned. It is an international organization that is involved in providing educational services. It is also a long-time leader organization when it comes to the adult education and it has also managed to create a new, but public institution known as Purdue University Global. This organization is tailored toward adult education for students. It opens doors to the adults that need a lot of flexibility in fitting the learning aspect to their daily and busy lives. As a result, the University has made it possible or has created an opportunity for the adults to achieve a high-quality education that is availed by this institution. Many of the courses and online programs that are availed by this University include associate, bachelor, graduate degree programs as well as certificate programs. The university also offers doctoral degrees and even certificates that are availed in this institution.

b. Description of the size of the organization

Various instances or aspects are important or might be used for describing the size of this organization. One of them is the location of the organization, its divisions and also the employees as well as the mission and vision of the above organization. Regarding the location of this institution, it is important to realize that its headquarters is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and it also has support centers that are situated in Orlando as well as Chicago. It is a mission-driven institution and has highly respected services in education and offers an array of support services for enabling education acquisition. The essential divisions include the Kaplan Higher Education as the main institution, the Kaplan International and also the Kaplan Test Preparatory. The firm is a large organization with approximately 9100 employees, and this makes it rank third among its top ten competitors. The mission of this institution is to help adult learners achieve their education and career goals with one success story at a time (Kaplan, Inc, 2020). Through Purdue University Global previously known as Kaplan University the vison is to create a learning platform that is tailored to adults and enable them to achieve their educational and career goals with the support and flexibility necessary.

c. Identification of the business process change needed to be undertaken

It is important to realize that before indicating the business process change which this organization needs to implement in the coming year, it is essential to examine some of the business processes undertaken in this institution. They include administration of the institution, various operations of the organization, procurement, management of information and data, infrastructure, information security as well as customer service.

One of the business processes change that needs to be implemented would be the daily reports. Currently, the organization relies on manual data entry which involves multiple steps and hand-offs between stakeholders to collect data. The purpose of the reports is to provide daily projections for students to be enrolled as well as to provide stability indication for students already enrolled. The reports help to determine where students are in the process allowing advisors as well as management to make accurate projections. The data for these reports are imputed by each advisor individually and some are transferred from report to report. Advisors a well as managers spend numerous hours daily updating and reviewing these reports which create inefficiencies. The organization needs to create a more automated internal workflow which will aid in the organization running more efficiently and improve operational performance.

Typically, these internal workflow platforms exist as WAS (workforce automated software) to automate the monotonous and tedious processes such as Salesforce. This is the platform that is currently being used by the organization for interactions but not fully utilized for reports. It could produce all of the same reports being generated manually within the organization. In today’s marketplace, it is important to realize that certain administrative processes reliant on manual data entry, multiple steps, and physical hand-offs between stakeholders results in time lags and data entry errors (ProcessMaker, 2019). The overall implication of the situation is that the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization will be improved if change is implemented.

d. The use of Kotter’s eight -step model in outlining the change

As realized from the learning activity, Kotter’s eight step model is the appropriate one for outlining the changes that will be required at every stage in the implementation of the anticipated change. The model consists of eight key steps. The first step of the process will entail creating a sense of urgency and in this step, Kotter has revealed that for a change to be realized, the entire company must want the change. Therefore, the essential activity that will be carried out in this step will be informing individuals about the need for having this technological change in the entire processes of the organization. This is done by the Admission’s Director emailing all of the specific details to a group called 4 Minutes of Fame to start the initial process.

The second step is forming a powerful coalition and as per Kotter, people will have to be convinced that this change is necessary. In this case, the information for the submitted recomendtion is reviewed by a group of leaders. This is done using a combination of a brief presentation and a Q&A session.

The third step will entail creating a vision for a change. As per Kotter, the step will entail determining the values central to this change and also creating the strategy and vision of executing and implementing the change. Once the change is determined to be valuable to the organization and is approved by executive leadership it is then sent to the project team for implementation.

In the fourth step, the vision created in the third step will be communicated. In this case, meetings do not have to be called to communicate the vision. Instead, leaders will have to communicate the need for implementing this change whenever an opportunity arises, (The 8-Step Process for Leading Change | Dr. John, 2020). At Kaplan this is usually communicated by the chief executive officer through email. Anxieties such as loss of jobs after implementing the technology will have to be addressed and any anxiety also needs to be addressed not only openly but also honestly by the department managers.

In the fifth step, obstacles will be eliminated and this will include looking at the potential sources of funds to acquire the necessary reports as this is one of the key obstacles. Enough resources will be identified and availed that will acquire the data and the personnel entrusted with making sure that the change becomes a success.

In the sixth step, short-term wins will be created and this is where the supplier of the software programs will be identified, given the contract to supply the data, install and also run the system and this is something that can be achieved. Associate and Directors of the Admission department will dissiminate the imformtion of how the new process will be implemented and how the advisors will benefit. Once the change is implemented the wins will be realized by Kaplan Higher Education because the company will have a more efficient process for producing reports and by the advisors who will spend less time filling in reports and more time contacting student.

The seventh step will entail building on the change and according to Kotter, this change needs to be gradual and the one that will be hard to notice. As an example, the other stakeholders such as the admissions leafership team will be informed and introduced to online business processes by the project team.

The eighth step will entail incorporating the change into the culture of the organization, (The 8-Step Process for Leading Change | Dr. John, 2020). As an example, the incoming students will be fully served electronically while the company will be trying to deal with those stakeholders that had been existing and this becomes a part of the culture of the institution. The chosen business process will enable in improving the performance of the organization by enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of the firm and this will reduce the costs incurred in dealing with losses or redoing certain business process after it has been done incorrectly. In other words, internal workflow platforms are highly effective and efficient in running the operations of the institution.

Evaluation of Potter’s three-phase process.

The three-phase process entail three key steps in the implementation of the change and they include determining the company’s current position, what is changing in the environment and what the company should do next (Harmon, 2014). Therefore, by looking at the above three phases, an effective chart might be created concerning the manner that Kaplan Higher Education might go about in implementing the change. [The description below does not reflect the contents of each analysis phase of Porter’s model as described and illustrated in Chapter 2 of the course textbook, Harmon (2014). 1. What is being done now? Why? 2. Conduct an environmentatl scan. 3. What should be done to improve the present process?]

Activity	Major considerations	Time frame
Current	Creating the perception that a change is needed. Looking at the areas that require such a change. Identifying the potential sources of such changes.	2 months
Changing	Kaplan Higher Education will be able to generate reports directly from Salesforce, changing the way data is collected. Implementing, testing and running the system in the organization	3 months
Change	Kaplan Higher Education will incorporate the system into its culture.	Approximately 5 months.

Bearing all the above information in mind, it is important to argue that the business process of an organization, in this case, Kaplan Higher Education, determines the performance of such an organization. However, the business processes may require a change or an adjustment so that the performance of the involved firm might even be enhanced further. For instance, Kaplan Higher Education will have to ensure that all its processes have been carried out electronically and this will further ensure that the performance of the organization will be more efficient and effective. The above change in the business processes might be better understood by applying the Kotter’s eight-step model and Potter’s three phase strategy as it has been discussed in the body above.

References [Double space only. Revise capitalization of titles to fit the APA format rules. Do not show article or web page titles in italics. Do NOT include blogs as ref sources.]

Change Management: Definition, Best Practices & Examples. (2020, April 16). Snarp. https://blog.smarp.com/change-management-definition-best-practices-examples

Harmon, P. (2014). Business process change: A business process management guide for managers and process professionals, (3rd ed.). Elsevier

Kaplan, Inc. (2020, January 29). Overview. Kaplan. https://kaplan.com/about-us-overview/#:%7E:text=We%20help%20adult%20learners%20return,and%20opportunities%20for%20career%20advancement.

ProcessMaker. (2019, December 9). How Business Process Management Enhances Distance Learning. https://www.processmaker.com/blog/how-business-process-management-enhances-distance-learning/

The 8-Step Process for Leading Change | Dr. John. (2020, November 5). Kotter. https://www.kotterinc.com/8-steps-process-for-leading-change/

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