With an estimated 20% loss of its workforce in under a year, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) implemented an innovative business process management solution to retain baby boomer knowledge and transmit it to the “new” generation of utility workers. The project’s outstanding results positioned the SFPUC as a finalist for the 2009 Global Awards for Excellence in Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow; the project will be published in the 2009 edition of BPM Excellence in Practice by Future Strategies Inc.
The SFPUC deployed a process standardization and automation program to drive culture change across the organization. Leveraging Interfacing’s BPM software, the Enterprise Process Center® (EPC) to model and publish processes with associated procedures and instructional work videos to all utility workers on an on-demand basis via the web.
Enterprise Process Center® is easy to use requiring little or no training for rollout therefore lowering resistance especially by our non-tech employees. It also allows us to easily train new employees with the knowledge relevant to their roles and responsibilities. EPC took data and turned it into usable information. It appeals to the millennial generation and their (web-oriented) learning style, we hope this will help us to attract and retain them as well.
The SFPUC analyzed roles and responsibilities across departments to distribute process ownership and define clear accountability. Furthermore, with a new process-oriented vision of its operations and sound business architecture, the SFPUC has the foundation required to effectively automate human centric manual tasks and monitor the performance of these processes over time. The analytical data collected from these processes will provide management with the business intelligence to uncover inefficiencies and strive to achieve a continuous process improvement and governance culture across SFPUC.
About San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
A department of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and municipal power services to San Francisco. The SFPUC has over 2000 employees and provides four distinct services: Regional Water, Local Water, Wastewater (collection, treatment and disposal), and Power to 2.4 million customers.
About Global Excellence Awards in BPM and Workflow awards
Now in their 16th year, the awards are presented to user organizations that implemented business process management projects that stand on their own in terms of excellence, lessons learnt, and demonstrable benefits that go beyond organizations’ boundaries to reach out to end users. SFPUC’s BPM project proved not only to improve its processes, but it instituted a new level of operational standards for other governmental institutions to ensure quality and efficient service for the citizens of San Francisco. BPMFocus.org and BPM.com jointly sponsor the Awards with support from industry associations Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) and Object Management Group (OMG). The Awards program is managed by Future Strategies Inc., publisher of unique books and papers on BPM and Workflow.
About Future Strategies Inc.
A publishing and information technology company, specializes in international research and dissemination of information about information and workflow technology, business process redesign and electronic commerce. As such, the company contracts and works closely with individuals and corporations throughout the USA and the world, collaborating on joint projects using state of the art information technology. Future Strategies Inc., publishes the business book series, New Tools for New Times and the information technology case study series, Excellence in Practice. Both series are edited and/or authored by Layna Fisher, WARIA Chair.
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Map, model, and execute your business processes with Interfacing’s Enterprise Process Center® (EPC) to achieve the process visibility necessary to optimize your activities. Positioned amongst Leaders by Gartner in its latest Enterprise Business Process Analysis (EBPA) MarketGuide.
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