In another life, as CTO of a startup company that attempted large scale Process Improvements in the Auto Insurance Claims Processing area, I have met with multiple, large, Insurance Companies.
To the last person in those companies, they all instinctively understood the power of the Internet and the Web to automate, simplify, move to self-service where it can be done, the end to end business process with Auto Claims. It was not a question of selling the concept. They already a good sense of what it meant for their business.
That said, quantifying the Before and After states of Business Processes when they move parts to self-service is still a worthwhile exercise.
I currently have Auto Insurance with GEICO insurance, who offer a fantastic self-service interface, all the way from signing up for auto insurance to handling all of the accident claims online. We have done a couple of accident claims, entirely through the Internet, all very welll handled and fast!
In another blog entry here, one of the readers asked "How do we measure the Before and After of such Process Improvement efforts?".
In general, most Business Processes can be subject to two groups of metrics - Efficiency Metrics and Effectiveness Metrics.
Efficiency Metrics measure the mechanics of the Business Process. These could be metrics such as End-To-End Cycle Time (how much time did it take from the time you fill out a form on the web till all formalities are completed), Number of Work Items completed in a day or an hour. These usually deal with how fast the business process is completed.
Effectiveness Metrics deal with whether the right things are done right in the business process. These usually have to do with things like End-user Satisfaction or Dissatisfaction scores, ease of use of the interface, etc.
Both are sort of important, since you can move a lot of business processes to self-service and leave a lot of end-users/prospects/customers very unhappy. They not even know about it since they will be talking to an impersonal, automated interface as opposed to dealing with people. The word of mouth will do its part and the organization may come to know about the effectiveness of the business process after it is too late.
By measuring the same metrics above Before and After the change, you can see how well the project has contributed to the organization.
It does not have to be complicated. By using an Efficiency and Effectiveness framework, you can easily design a set of metrics that make sense for the organization, business process and the current task at Hand! By measuring the same things Before and After the change you can document solid evidence!
If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. ~Mary Engelbreit
You make some very good points in this post. A lot of BI tools focus on metrics alone and not the business process as a whole. To understand before/after impact of self service improvements you need to find the root cause for the process change and then measure after the change.