It’s the goal of every business. All organizations want an ROI from their initiatives, including their technology projects. While the concept of an ROI from IT may seem foreign to many business leaders, I assure you it’s possible. Think about it. Your employees rely on technology to get their jobs done. If it’s not working properly, how will that impact their productivity?
To help you gain an ROI from your technology, let me introduce you to a concept called the Business Process Lead (BPL). In short, they are the people in your organization responsible for all the technology within your individual departments.
BPLs are essential to maximizing the value and efficiency of your IT projects. In other words, they’re critical to gaining an ROI from your technology. Let’s talk about who they are and their role in more detail.
What Is a Business Process Lead (BPL)?
If you’ve never heard of the term Business Process Lead, it may sound a bit confusing. Simply put, a Business Process Lead is typically a supervisor or functional manager in your organization. This person is responsible for overseeing the core business applications and software systems in their respective departments.
For example, the Business Process Lead in your Sales department might manage applications like Salesforce, Constant Contact, Zoom, etc. That means, for each of these apps, they’ll be responsible for maintenance, process documentation, support, new team member training and optimizing workflows as new updates are released. Basically, any duties related to how your team uses applications are managed by your Business Process Leads.
It’s important to stress that each Business Process Lead is responsible for a department or functional area, not an application. What does that mean?
For example, SAP can be used in various ways across your Finance, HR, and Sales departments. Some business owners may mistakenly assign a single BPL to oversee SAP across all departments. However, it’s more effective to have an HR BPL manage SAP within the HR department, a Finance BPL do the same for Finance, and a Sales BPL oversee its use in their department. Why?
A department-specific BPL will have the expertise needed to optimize the application for their team’s unique needs. In contrast, a single BPL overseeing an application across multiple departments may struggle to tailor it effectively for each functional area, potentially hurting overall productivity and even impacting your profits.
Key Responsibilities of a BPL
Now that you have an idea of what a Business Process Lead is and how they support your technology and applications, let’s explore some of their key responsibilities.
Document Business Processes
For a business to operate at peak efficiency, documenting processes is essential. As such, one of the main responsibilities of your BPLs is to document the processes for your technologies and applications. However, this isn’t a one-time task. Your BPLs must regularly update these processes as each department adopts new technologies and as apps roll out new features—all while ensuring that the documentation remains clear and easy for team to follow.
For example, if a new financial reporting tool is introduced, your finance department’s BPL would update the reporting process to incorporate the feature. By doing this, the BPL helps the finance team improve decision making in budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning.
Train Team Members
Technology evolves fast, often making it hard for your employees to keep up. This is why it’s critical for your BPLs to take the reins on team training. They’ll be responsible for either conducting the training themselves or coordinating it for team members.
In some cases, your BPLs may use the train-the-trainer model. If you’re unfamiliar with this approach, it involves selecting a few employees to undergo intensive training on new software or technology, often led by an external expert or vendor. Once trained, these employees will then educate the rest of the department on the specific technology. The train-the-trainer model is a great way to save costs and ensure new knowledge is disseminated consistently throughout your organization.
Stay Current with Technology and Update It for Maximum Impact
The team under your BPLs aren’t the only ones who need to stay current on technology. It’s critical for the BPLs themselves.
As your BPLs must maintain the workflows of your software and systems, they’ll need to update them when an app rolls out new features or when regulatory changes occur. Along the same lines, BPLs tend to play key roles in business process improvement reviews, as they’ll lead their departments in new technology initiatives. Keeping current with IT industry innovations is vital to being an effective leader for these projects.
To stay on the cutting edge of technology, it’s important for BPLs to attend relevant conferences and join user groups dedicated to the various software and apps your company uses.
Seek to Continuously Improve Operations and Technology ROI
This is what it all comes down to. Whether documenting processes, training team, or staying current with the latest tech, the main goal of your BPLs is to improve your technology ROI. How do they achieve this?
BPLs focus on continually improving your operations and how your team utilizes technology. When they implement a new process, update, or software, they regularly assess whether the change is delivering the expected ROI. What’s more, they also strategize for the future. Which new technology could boost team productivity? Is the benefit of this software update worth the time required to train team on it? BPLs ask themselves these questions as they plan and propose technology changes for your business.
BPLs and the End of IT Project Abandonment
Abandoned IT projects are unfortunately far too common among SMBs. Why is this? Often, it’s due to lack of ownership. In many cases, no one is officially assigned as a lead. That means when team working on the project need direction, they have no one to turn to, and the project stalls. Which eventually leads to it never being completed.
However, it’s not just projects that need ownership. The management of applications in each of your departments needs a leader as well. Without one, how will you ever know if you’re using your tools to their full potential? There could be untapped features that could skyrocket your team’s productivity. For these reasons and more, BPLs are critical to maximizing the ROI of your technology.
It can’t be overstated enough, success with your technology all comes down to ownership. The BPLs own the management of your technology and apps in each department and are responsible for overseeing any new IT projects. When team members have tech questions or need guidance on an IT project, your BPLs are there to provide answers and direction.
From a management perspective, you can also check in with your BPLs about the statuses of IT projects and if your technology is truly improving company efficiency. BPLs oversee all these areas, so they’ll always be able to update you. Simply put, BPLs are the pulse of technology use in your organization.
Who Will Your BPLs Collaborate with?
Just because your BPLs take ownership of your IT projects and the management of your technology, doesn’t mean they go it alone. They’ll collaborate with your vCIO and other stakeholders, which may include your other department heads, your executive leaders, legal and finance teams, etc.
As the projects your BPLs work on will often impact the business as a whole, it’s critical that they work with stakeholders to plan and implement any necessary changes. This planning often involves regular meetings with you and the stakeholders to get updates on various initiatives, align technology projects with your organization’s strategic goals, discuss security and compliance, and similar issues.
However, collaboration doesn’t stop at the planning phase. When your BPLs encounter challenges or need specialized expertise, they’ll seek assistance. This might involve reaching out to your IT department for support with process documentation or turning to software vendors when handling upgrades.
For instance, when a new software update is rolled out, BPLs may coordinate with IT to ensure a smooth implementation with minimal disruption to daily operations. They might also ask your IT team for help with documentation to ensure any new processes are clearly defined.
In some cases, your BPLs may get help from external consultants or specialized third-party service providers who have deep expertise in specific software solutions. This can be particularly valuable when dealing with complex upgrades that require custom configurations. By engaging external experts, your BPLs can ensure the updates are not only implemented correctly but also optimized for performance.
How BPLs Play a Key Role in Your Business’s Strategy
You’ve learned about what BPLs are, their responsibilities, and how they operate. Now, let’s talk about their ultimate benefit—to help with strategy and get a return on your technology investments. Clearly, BPLs streamline processes within your individual departments, reducing errors through careful documentation, team training, and other initiatives. However, their work also extends to managing your data.
BPLs standardize data usage across departments by documenting processes, training employees on data input and management, and overseeing data migration during transitions to new technology. Simply put, BPLs are the guardians of your data. This is why it’s important to choose them wisely. The quality of their work directly influences the integrity of your data, which helps you and your leadership team make the best decisions for your business.
As mentioned, BPLs play an important role in your business strategy. They align technology with your business goals and assess whether their departments have the right people, processes, and tools to achieve those goals. These tasks are critical to ensure your technology investments yield high returns. By collaborating with your leadership team and other department heads, BPLs support your overall business strategy and objectives—using technology as a key driver of growth, profits, and innovation.
Identify Your BPLs and Gain ROI from Your Technology
By now, you hopefully understand that gaining a return on your technology investment is possible. BPLs are key. They will take the reins of your technology initiatives, manage your apps on a daily basis, evaluate their impact, and so much more. They are absolutely essential to maximizing your technology ROI. But how do you find them?
If you’re unsure of who should fill the roles of your BPLs, our Navigate Digital Transformation service can help. We’ll not only identify the BPLs in each of your departments, but also train them in their roles and lead the development of a technology strategy for your business. With over 20 years of experience helping businesses achieve ROI from their IT investments, we’ll ensure your entire company benefits. Contact us today to learn more.