The Power of Systems and Process Maps
Ever since reading Gerber’s E-Myth books and Rich Schefren’s original “Manifesto” document, I’ve become a big fan of creating systems within my business and describing them with process maps.
If you don’t know what a process map is, it’s a simple flow chart that describes how to do something. You have start and end points and then boxes containing the steps needed to complete the process, all linked by arrows so that you can easily follow it through. Sometimes you might have a decision box that asks a question and the flow branches depending on the answer.
Click on the example image to see it full size.
I currently have about 14 process maps that I use in my business. Rather than sit down and try to think of all the processes I need to map out and then draw them, I like to create them when I’m actually doing the task. That way, I know I’ve got all the steps in place at the right level of detail and my set of process maps therefore grows organically over time. Most of my maps are hand drawn on squared paper then, once they’ve been refined and corrected and when I get the time, I draw them using a software package. I happen to have a copy of Microsoft Visio so I use that but there are some much cheaper programs available that will do the job just as well (Google “flow chart drawing software”).
So why do it?
The main reasons that I create process maps are for consistency, to avoid making mistakes and to avoid having to think so much. They’re also a very good way of documenting the business so that anyone can do the work and can also be a valuable asset if the business is ever sold. At another level, you can use them to analyse the business and see if there are any areas that can be automated or made more efficient.
Some of the processes (such as “Order Processing”) I do on such a regular basis that I don’t need to refer to the process map each time. But even then, I sometimes get distracted part way through or I might be feeling a bit fuzzy headed one day so it’s really useful to have the process map there to refer to, just to make sure I’m doing everything I need to do.
Where they really come into their own though is with the occassional, monthy or annual tasks. I have process maps for performing the monthly payroll and filing my annual accounts with the Government, for example, that are extremely useful. I’d hate to have to figure it all out each time and I wonder how I managed without them before.
Even seemingly simple processes can benefit from being documented in a process map. I have one for paying cheques into the bank. I mean, how hard can that be, right? Well, first of all, the vast majority of my customers pay online by credit card or by bank wire transfer so it’s rare that I have to deal with cheques. That means that, however simple the process might be, I’ve probably forgotten what’s involved each time so the map is a useful reminder. But in this case, even a seemingly simple task like paying in a cheque has quite a few steps. I need to locate the customer invoice in my accounting package and mark it as paid, move the printed invoice from my “unpaid to chase up” section to my “paid” section, fill in all the right deposit slip entries and do a few other accounting chores. It’s a real pain actually. I hate being paid by cheque. But having the process map certainly makes it all easier.
Now one of the reasons I’m mentioning all this about process mapping now rather than at any other time is because of the “OMS3 Process Maps” launch that may or may not have escaped your notice during the last few weeks.
Without going into too much detail, these guys have set up a consultancy business using a large and cheap labour force in India to take some of the grunt work out of business by doing a lot of the traffic generation work for paying customers. They say they have more clients than they can handle so best of luck to them. But what they’ve just launched is a set of process maps that they use to do all this work, the idea being, why figure it all out yourself when you can buy their ready-made and ‘proven’ processes.
Now I pretty much ignored the whole pre-launch thing and didn’t even read the sales letter but, almost on a whim yesterday, when it did actually launch I bought the package. Now I’m not actually interested in all of the processes they have described. My main motivation was to see just how they’ve put the process maps and supporting documentation together – a kind of education on how to do it properly as it were. I also thought the $97 price was a reasonable expense if they lived up to expectation.
So what did I think?
Well let me get my negative, moany criticisms out of the way first. The download instructions were incorrect and some of the downloads had the same name. I think they really should have spent the extra 15 minutes or so to use a consistent and systematic naming convention and structure for all of their files, especially considering the whole point of the exercise is to make things simple and reduce errors. As it was, I had to rename a lot of the files and come up with my own naming convention.
The quality was also a bit disappointing. I’ve looked at most of them now but the one on sending out a press release initially caught my eye because I’m about to do that myself. Now I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting but the described process goes something like this:
- Gather the information from the client.
- Pick an online free press release site.
- Enter the details and hit “Submit”.
And that’s about it. The supporting documentation shows screenshots of this for a single chosen site. To be fair, there is a small amount of info at the back about what makes a good press release but this particular process map itself has little value (for me at least). Maybe if they’d provided their list of free submission sites that may have had some use.
It reminded me of all the ’sales letter generation software’ that I’ve been pitched over the years. You know, the ones that say they can generate a complete and professional looking sales letter in less than 5 minutes. All you have to do is supply all of the words and pictures…
I’ve said that even simple process maps can still be very useful and maybe the press release process was a poor example (some of the others are better) but, overall, I’m not very impressed. I haven’t yet seen any major insights into extra steps that I might be missing in order to be more successful.
On the positive side, erm… well, it shows how little you need to put together to create an info product to sell. Also, if they really are using this information to train their staff to do this work then it’s an indication of how simple the process maps and supporting documentation can be while still being effective. And that’s useful to know.