Business Process Analytical Plan
Amazon is a multinational e-commerce business that was established in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. The organization is one of the biggest online retailer deals with a variety of consumer items. Amazon serves consumers through physical and online stores and focuses convenience to the consumer. The stores have been intended to enable a great number of unique items to be vended by other third parties’ product sets. Customers have been able to access and buy products through mobile apps, websites, and physically visiting the stores. In the current business world, Amazon has utilized business process management that does work for the creation and direction of business activities to facilitate success.
Business process management (BPM) entails an enterprise process which can be conducted by a comprehensive examination, monitoring as well as modeling of the commerce scenarios (Lohrmann & Reichert, 2016). Companies have relied on business process management systems to map everyday operations and processes to evaluate business costs, eliminate bottlenecks, and facilitate the effectiveness of the people involved in the business (Hammer, 015). Amazon online shop has been selected in the analysis of the roles and benefits of BPM.
Role of BPM at Amazon
The two models, As-Is and To-Be models, are discussed in the study to illustrate the application and benefits of business process management at Amazon. BPM is done through an analytical plan in order to ensure that the necessary actions are achieved to meet the significant enterprise goal (Rahimi, Møller & Hvam, 2016). The two models have been used in the management of the business activities in two varying ways. For Amazon, As-Is business processes reveal the contemporary condition of the business process (BP) within Amazon. Typically, the analysis of the “as is” BP entails putting together the existing condition of the BP as well as clarify exactly how the BP at Amazon online shop works today with respect to the organization’s culture, capabilities, and business activities. The essence of “as is” business model is to capture the present visual picture of the commerce process and breakdown to examine the risks and changes demanded.
On the other hand, the to-be business model has defined the future condition of BP. Considerably, the evaluation goal is to examine the future BP clarifying how the commerce process will work in the future after some changes have been made (Gazova, Papulova & Papula, 2016). To-be business model has enabled amazon to evaluate its future conditions regarding its performance success and capabilities in online shopping. The model has impacted the future process of change and predicted the future business activities at Amazon online shop. As-Is and To-be models have been essential in recognizing the difference between the forthcoming and present processes at Amazon. The main variance amid the two models is that Amazon has utilized “as is” process model to illustrate and examine the current business plans for the organization while the to-be process model is only utilized in the changing or modifying the present business strategies to facilitate future success.
Application of As-is Business Process
As-is business process focuses on the current operations of the business. As-is business model at Amazon online shopping illustrates the activities involved in the process of purchasing a product. This begins with the input of the purchase order by the client until the supply of the item. This process has been appropriate and has promoted the operations of Amazon as an online retail shop. The whole procedure from purchase order by the business flows in a systematic approach for the consumer to receive the item they have ordered successfully.
The whole business transaction begins when the online order is placed by the buyer. The sales personnel check the availability of the product in the stock of the demanded item to determine whether the order can be accomplished. On an occasion where there is sufficient stock for the item, the consumer purchases the product, and the item is packed and dispatched for delivery to the client with its dispatch note. The process is complete when the client successfully gets the item they purchased. Relatively, in case the item stock is insufficient or unavailable, the client is alerted on the page where they can order the product. As is process under review is presented in a diagrammatic as shown below:
Figure 1: As-is Business process
Customer
Check Stock Level
Purchase Order
Invoice
Stock Availability
No
Yes
Order
Ship Goods
Request Packing Goods
Suggest Change
To-be Business process
To-be model is beneficial to the organization in facilitating modification in the growth procedure and success of the BP. The aim of the to-be business process is to improve the present business practices to further improve imminent applications. The evaluation of the process is grounded, having all the aims of the business to expand and clarify the business activities more efficiently to achieve them in the future. To-be business model at Amazon has been essential in improving retail sales as well as consumer supplies. Amazon has created the to-be business process to improve its delivery and key business objectives.
Figure 2: To-be business process
Customer
Check Stock Level
Suggest change
Order Processing
Ship Goods
Purchase Order
No
Yes
Order completed
Order Delivered
Request of changing PO
Stock Availa
Critical Analysis of the Two Mappings
Associated Benefits of As-Is Business model
The business process model is beneficial in the occasion of facilitating a new underpinning for making improvements in the applied business analytical plan. Considerably, the as-is business model is utilized by Amazon in its commerce process in order to improve the current activities for better consumer experience. The model has been utilized by the company to bring accuracy in their online transactions as well as the invention of new capabilities that are not currently available such as the automation of the entire business transaction with the clients. The major necessities are obtained from the documentation process to be properly utilized in the process model and provide each step in the business process.
To-be business model Benefits
To-be Business model is essential in the business analytical process since it can be utilized for improvements in the business activities. To-be model effectively introduces novel techniques as well as modifying and changing the current business practices (McIvor, 2016). Relatively, remodeling the processes and existing strategies can facilitate Amazon in making business processes more effective.
The to-be model enables the user and the client to have a better overview of the business processes and strive forward in making changes and putting forward the best solution possible through the generation of new possibilities. Through to-be model mapping can be investigated, and how to attain the improvements can be ascertained. Compared to the previous benefits of as-is perspective, using the to-be process in the generation of new solutions, the focus is on how the business will change as well as how the stakeholders will foresee the implementation of the new business practices.
Associated Risks and Implementation Process
As-is and to-be processes, models are helpful for Amazon; however, there are some risks that are linked to the models that need to be examined while applying the plans. These include analysis of the invalid process as well as design and data techniques for the process. Invalid mapping has contributed to misinterpretations and improper application of the models (Mendling et al., 2018). One of the major risks that Amazon has faced is the risk linked to miscommunication, which has led to the development of various assumptions in the business process.
Miscommunication arises from the diagrammatical means of representing the business activities (Vom, Zelt & Schmiedel, 2016). Due to poor and improper collection of data, there are various risks that arise while forming as-is model. Over-analysis has been mentioned as one of the risks to-be business model. The company spends so much time detailing the minor changes that result in a highly complex process that is hard to understand and manipulate. The possibility of over-analysis leads to a potential drawback on the beneficial aspects of to-be process model.
The implementation process can be conducted with the support of the documentation process, as well as the collected data. Ideally, this will enable the business to recognize the effective business process and help in comparing the current achievements and future targets. Thus, the necessary modifications can be implemented effectively for which Amazon can effectively improve the sales and their stock efficiently. Relatively, the implementation process demands expert employees to meet company requirements.
Conclusion
In summation, the Amazon BPM makes contributions to the study on the business process models. Amazon’s as-is to-be business models have illustrated the BPM approaches and the allied risks as well as the implementation process. A proper business process for Amazon demands effective business analytics. As-is and To-be process model is essential in comparing the current achievements and future objectives of the business.
References
Lohrmann, M., & Reichert, M. (2016). Effective application of process improvement patterns to business processes. Software & Systems Modeling, 15(2), 353-375.
McIvor, R. (2016). An analysis of the application of process improvement techniques in business process outsourcing. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 33(3), 321-343.
Mendling, J., Weber, I., Aalst, W. V. D., Brocke, J. V., Cabanillas, C., Daniel, F., … & Gal, A. (2018). Blockchains for business process management-challenges and opportunities. ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS), 9(1), 4.
Rahimi, F., Møller, C., & Hvam, L. (2016). Business process management and IT management: The missing integration. International Journal of Information Management, 36(1), 142-154.
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