The client is one of the largest vendors of communication products in the world, serving both enterprise and service provider (Telecom, Wireless and Internet) markets. The customer’s offerings include products, services and networking solutions, which are the foundation of Worldwide web and most corporate, education, and government networks around the world. The customer provides the broadest spectrum of solutions for transporting data, voice and video within buildings, across campuses, or around the world.

There was a rapid realization in the group IT that they first need to align the IT tools to the current business processes and then work to bridge the gap to enable evolving business processes to support the new partner management program. To effectively leverage the IT applications, there was an urgent need to understand the business processes. The key to success was effective mechanism to capture the business processes and representation in simple templates so that it could serve as a benchmark for further improvements or effect any changes.

The Consulting team faced challenges that inhibited the path to realization of the leadership team’s vision:

• Existence of functional silos
• User cynicism
• Tool engrossed business functions
• Geographical barrier
• Need for transformation to foster process orientation

A project team consisting of technical consultants and process consultants was formed; macro and micro level activities were identified and defined through intensive interviews and process mapping with a cross section of the business users. Process knowledge and ‘best practices’ from other engagements were introduced and ‘relevantly’ inducted. The business process blueprint was in place. Process workshops, focus groups and champion led user teams were part of the mapping process.

Revalidation Workshops and ‘management reviews’ gave people a taste of what was to come. Business Process Maps, process decomposition templates, Inter-relationships maps, brought a new holistic understanding of the business. Mapping of Process handoffs, overlaps, roles and responsibilities led to identification of areas of improvement and communication. IT application portfolio - the key enabler, was now mapped on to the business processes. Using standard techniques of Gap analysis, gaps were identified in the tools that needed immediate attention.

The key business results from the above exercise were:

• Holistic business process view
• Identification of process improvements
• IT Application portfolio mapping
• Identification of the gaps
• Increased partner satisfaction owing to quick and accurate field response
• Faster dissemination of process knowledge to field sales and operations
• Process Benchmarking