[Sigkm-l] Business Process Re-engineering

[Ken Johnson]

I am a business analyst working with a large business travel management company.


We are looking to introduce web travel booking technology for a number of our
larger corporate clients. In order to do this smoothly and efficiently we need
to integrate the new technology with our existing customer service.

Most of our existing processes have developed in an ad-hoc manner over time
and exist mainly in the heads of our staff across a number of sections.

In order to re-engineer the service we provide to our customers we will have
to first capture our existing processes in a more explicit form.

We could do this in a conventional way by charting the processes in a tool like
Visio, and then working through what needs to change. However, I am wondering
if this might be an opportunity to introduce knowledge management to our company
in a reasonably tangible form. I would especially like to be able to tap into
the key line staff involved in the processes.

Would it be possible for someone to point me in the right direction around a
few of the following questions:

(1) Are there any case studies where knowledge management has been successfully
introduced in a business process re-engineering context? What are the cautions
here?

(2) Are there any particular methodologies that have worked better than others?


(3) Is there any software that can assist in capturing and depicting business
processes so that they can be reviewed, commented on and refined by the staff
and management involved in the processes.

Any help or pointers you can give me will be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ken Johnson