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60 Monica Copyright 20.Business process changeBusiness processesThe value chain analyses the organisation as a collection of activities, but these activities are also joinedtogether in processes. “A process is a bounded set of activities that are undertaken, in response to someevent, in order to generate an output” (Harmon) 价值链分析了公司是由一系列活动构成的，而这些活动也充斥在各个流程中。Harmon定义：流程是一组能够为客户创造有价值的结果的相互关联的活动。 Organisations may seek to improve their processes in order to:提高流程是为了实现： reduce costs, particularly during an economic downturn降低成本，尤其经济衰退时provide a scaleable platform for expanding production, or entering new markets建立可拓展的平台，拓展生产或进入一个新市场offer better products or services in order to be more competitive提供更好的产品或服务，提高竞争力exploit opportunities offered by technology (e.g. cheaper communication)通过新技术开拓机遇execute a new strategic direction 实行新战略Process – strategy matrixHarmon’s process‐strategy matrix uses two criteria to categorise processes, and the best approach toimproving them:哈默的过程战略矩阵使用了2个要素来分类流程Complexity – simple processes are fairly straightforward, with clearly defined rules to follow andlittle change over time. Complex processes require high levels of judgement and may changefrequently.复杂性：单一的过程相对简单明了，长期来看变化也少；复杂的过程需要很高的自主判断，而且会频繁变化。Strategic importance – how much value does the process add to an organisation’s products andservices. A high strategic importance process is a core competency and a source of competitiveadvantage. A low strategic importance process simply needs to be done so that a company can dosomething else that adds value.战略重要性：这个过程会给产品和服务增加多少价值？战略重要性高，意味着关系核心竞争力和竞争优势的资源。对于低战略重要性的过程，公司宁愿做些其他事来提高价值。Based on this, processes can be categorised as follows: a)Low complexity‐low strategic importance processes need to be carried out as efficiently as possiblebut there is little scope for improving them. These should be automated as far as possible usingstandard off‐the‐shelf software and may be best outsourced, e.g. purchase ledger.这类流程要提高效率，但提升空间可能不大，考虑自动化（现成软件/系统）或外包，比如财务记账。b)Low complexity‐high strategic importance processes are key to the organisation’s success.61 Monica Copyright Automation should be used to reduce costs and gain efficiency. We should also be aiming to improve these processes, e.g. product assembly. 此类流程对公司成败很重要。自动化可以有助于降低成本，提高效率，比如产品装配。 c)High complexity‐low strategic importance these processes will cause problems they aren’t done but don’t add much value. Because they are complex, they may be hard to automate. Organisations may decide to outsource these processes to a specialist, e.g. large‐scale logistics and distribution这类流程不做的话会对公司造成麻烦，但做了的话，价值也不大。这类通常有专业技能要求，所以昀好外包，比如物流。 d)High complexity‐high strategic importanceThese are critical and involve a lot of human expertise. These processes will be a priority for major improvements, e.g. negotiating partnerships, new product development对公司至关重要，需要经验判断和专业技能。如何提升这些流程是首要考量，比如谈判的合伙关系，新产品开发等。 Tips: Bear in mind that the same process may be in a different category for different companies. For a company that provides payroll services, efficient and accurate payroll processing is a core competence and key to competitive advantage, but it is unlikely to be strategically important for other organisations.同一流程在不同公司有不同的意义，比如对于专业提供薪酬服务的公司，有效率和精准的薪酬流程是核心竞争力，但对于其他公司而言，战略上就没这么重要。 Outsourcing If processes are outsourced to an external provider, this may bring the following benefits: The provider should have economies of scale which will lead to cost reductions利用他人的规模经济来达到降低成本的目的 Management time is freed up to focus on core competencies 集中精力提高核心竞争力 The specialist provider may bring greater expertise than the organisation can supply internally 借助外包商的专家专业技能胜于自己内部的能力 On the other hand, some of the problems with outsourcing are: It leads to a reduction of control, particularly in relation to quality. Firms try to mitigate this by having clear service level agreements in place and devoting resources to relationship management失去控制，尤其是质量方面。企业要有明确的服务水平协议来缓解这一关系，并将资源投入到关系管理中去。 Firms may be tied in to long‐term contracts and find it hard to change suppliers even if their supplier is unsatisfactory可能存在长期合同，即使不满意也很难轻易更换供应商 Outsourcing can mean a firm loses competencies and becomes dependent on suppliers, giving them increased bargaining power even when the contract ends公司这方面能力不足，过度依赖供应商，提高对方议价能力 Tips: When processes are outsourced they cannot be a basis of competitive advantage as any company can use the same provider. These processes therefore become commodities and companies need to focus on their truly core processes.当流程外包时，它们不能成为公司竞争优势的基础，任何公司都可以使用相同的供应商来获得这种能力。因此，这些流程只是公司购买的商品。企业需要集中在他们真正的核心过程上。 典型例题：2011/12 Q2答题思路 问题1: Evaluate, using an appropriate framework or model, the suitability of iCompute’s current approach to EACH of these high level processes.（12分） I.Advice on legal issues (currently outsourced) 62 Monica Copyright II.Software support (currently outsourced) III.Time recording (currently in‐house) 1.Introduction The question does