The arguments for standardisation of common processes are compelling.
Customers and suppliers have a consistent interface. There are economies of scale in training, IT development and operation, document control, process improvement, change management, performance measurement and quality assurance.
Are these benefits enough to sacrifice local variations that respond to local needs?
The arguments for allowing, indeed promoting, local variation in common processes are also persuasive. The balance between global efficiency and local effectiveness must be resolved if process management is to be the core management philosophy.
In this download, one of our Consulting Directors, Roger Tregear, presents his chapter of the book Handbook on Business Process Management 2 (Eds.: J. van Brocke & M. Rosemann. Springer 2014). The second edition of this two-volume collection of BPM knowledge has recently been published. Roger discusses the complex issues around process standardisation and the costs, and benefits, of process variations.
The paper was originally written as a model for an organisation operating in some 30 countries with 6,000 staff. However, the concepts are just as useful for smaller organisations operating in a single country.