Level two
Expert Review
A business process analysis on an as-is map: a snapshot of your workflow as it runs today. Usually three to six linked processes, mapped with the people who run them. Every step on the map carries a person, a tool and a time. You get a findings report: each finding carries its hours a week and where the number comes from. Read-only access, nothing changes. Three to four weeks.
Ask about an Expert Reviewor write to contact@ergostrat.com
What is an Expert Review?
An Expert Review maps your business workflow: where work comes in, which people and tools it passes through, where it waits, and where it is typed in again. Process optimisation comes after the review, as a separate task. Unlike the Digital Accessibility Review, which starts from one conversation, here we sit with everyone who runs a part of the process and record the flow as it happens. The result is a Workflow Map and a Findings Report, ordered by impact, with the value of the time each finding costs today.
Who is this for?
- Work passes through more than two people or more than one department and nobody sees the whole path.
- You have three or more tools with no link between them, and someone carries the data across by hand every week. If it is only one process, Automations fits better; this review is for three or more linked processes.
- A Digital Accessibility Review has shown there is more than one conversation can cover.
- A big change is coming, new software, a new website or a new hire, and you want to know first what really happens today.
What do we look at?
The scope of the review is written down in the first week and does not change afterwards: which processes, which people, which tools. Usually that is between three and six processes linked to each other.
- Every process end to end: where it starts, who picks it up, where it waits, where it ends.
- Every link between processes: which number, file or email is carried from one to the other, and how.
- The people: how many hours a week go into each step, in the words of the person doing it and in the traces left in the tools.
- The tools: website, email, spreadsheets, documents, order and reporting systems. Read access only.
How does it run?
- 01Scope.Week one: a conversation with the manager, a list of processes and people, read access. We write the scope down and both sides sign it.
- 02Mapping.Weeks two and three: one conversation with everyone who runs a part of the flow, and a reading of the traces in the tools. Every step on the map carries a person, a tool and a time.
- 03Measuring.Every finding traces back to a row you can check: which process, which step, how many hours a week, where the number comes from.
- 04Report.Week four: the map and the findings report are with you. We walk through them on a call with the people who took part, so every point is clear.
What do you get?
A Workflow Map and a Findings Report.
The map shows the whole flow on one page: the processes, the links, the people and the tools, with the time of every step. The report orders the findings by impact, not by ease: first what costs you the most, even when it is the hardest. For every finding: what it is, where it is, what it costs today, and what would remove it. Where three paths exist, we give all three: change the order, automate it, or drop it. Sometimes the answer is to build nothing, and we say so.
The Findings Report stays current for twelve months. After that your processes will have changed enough for a fresh look to be worth it.
How long does it take?
Three to four weeks from the signed scope to the report, depending on the number of processes and people.
What happens next?
The list is yours and you owe us nothing further. If you continue, every finding is already a separate task with a clear result: the automation of one process, a fix on the website, or a new route for the information. We work on one task at a time, prove it, hand it over, and return to the list.
Articles
- The actual process, or the one on paper?The diagram shows how a process is meant to run. The actual process is what people really do, workarounds included. The gap between them is the finding.
- How do you map a process that crosses several departments?A swim-lane map separates roles or departments into lanes and shows the steps and hand-offs between them in their actual order.
- Can you map your own processes with a template (BPMN, Visio, Miro)?BPMN supplies a notation; Visio and Miro are diagramming tools. You still need the conversations, the exceptions and a plan to keep the map current.
- How many hours a week does a business lose to inefficient processes?Webexpenses reported 26% of working time in a 2019 survey of office workers. That is self-reported time, not a measurement of your business or a promise of recoverable savings. Measure your own hours.
- What's the difference between process mapping and process automation?The map records what happens and who does it. Automation executes specified steps. Without a documented process, it is harder to check which steps and exceptions the automation handles.
- How is a business process review conducted, step by step?Start with the current process and the people doing the work; then examine the intended process, suitable tools and how the map will be maintained.
- What is value stream mapping?A diagram of every step in the material and information flow from order to delivery. A tool built by Toyota, different from an ordinary process map.
- What is process mapping, and why does your business need it?A visual layout of the steps in a workflow, who does each one, and where it runs into trouble. It makes visible what is otherwise a secondhand account.
- When do you need a process consultant instead of doing it yourself?A merger, falling customer satisfaction, preparation for automation or a dispute over responsibilities can justify an outside review. Start with the problem and the evidence you need.
Questions
How is it different from the Digital Accessibility Review?
In scope. The Digital Accessibility Review starts from one conversation and looks at what already works. In the Expert Review we sit with everyone who runs a part of the flow and map, end to end, usually three to six linked processes and the links between them.
Will you get in the way of the work while you look?
No. We ask for one conversation of about an hour with each participant and read-only access. Nothing changes during the review.
What does "signed scope" mean?
A list of the processes, people and tools included in the review, written in the first week and signed by both sides. That way the deadline and the Findings Report rest on something clear.
How many processes are included?
Usually between three and six, linked to each other. If there are more, we split them into two reviews and say which comes first.
Will we be told to buy something?
Sometimes. More often the recommendation is to change the order or drop a step. Every recommendation carries the value of the time it saves, so you can compare it with what it costs.
Do we need a review before a new system or an automation?
It is not required, but it helps most when the new system will take over a process that runs through several people or departments. The map shows which steps and hand-offs the system will take over, which of them can be dropped before they are carried over, and who does them today. Without a map, the risk is that the new ERP, CRM or order system inherits the old workarounds as well.
How is the cost of an hour worked out?
You give us the hourly rate: gross salary plus employer contributions, divided by working hours. If you do not, we report hours only, with no money figure. We check the hours two ways: what the person who does the work tells us, and the traces in the tools, such as email timestamps and record times. Where the two differ, we use the lower figure.
How will we know a change has worked?
By the same number the review measured before it. Every finding carries the hours a week a specific step takes, counted during the review: that is the baseline. After the change, the same step is measured the same way and the two figures are compared; repeated later, the same measurement also shows whether the change has held. If you continue with us, an automation task is proven against that figure. If you continue on your own, the row in the report gives you the baseline and the KPI to track.
How much of our people's time does it take?
About an hour for each participant in the mapping, one conversation with the manager in the first week, and one joint call at the end to walk through the map and the findings. The number of participants is written into the signed scope, so the hours on your side are known before the mapping starts.
What does it cost?
The price of the review follows the signed scope: the number of processes, people and tools in it. It is written into the proposal before the first week starts and does not change unless the scope does.
What if we disagree with the report?
Every finding rests on something you can check yourselves: a conversation, a document, a screen. Tell us which one does not match what you see and we check it again. The argument is about facts, not opinions.
Next step
The entire process, end to end.
Write to us with one line about the process that costs you the most. We reply by the end of the next working day (Sofia time, UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer), with what we need to write the scope.
Ask about an Expert Reviewor write to contact@ergostrat.com