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What is Process Mapping? Benefits and Examples of Process Maps

What is the definition of process mapping?

A process map visually describes what happens in a business process. Process mapping involves specifically defining all the steps in a process, who is responsible, and what the outcome should be, to create a series of steps that work towards an end result.

It is quite literally a map to guide you through your business process, identifying the data, activities, material, and people involved.

 

Why would I need to map a process?

Process mapping is a useful exercise when defining exactly what happens in a process and understanding the current state of how your organization works. Mapping the linear sequence of activities that make up a business process helps to identify bottlenecks or unnecessary steps in the process. Having a visual representation of this makes it easier to explain both the current state and new changes to users.

For example, you could map the process for onboarding new employees to check that all appropriate people are informed and all necessary equipment is ready for their start date. Seeing all the steps laid out gives the opportunity to streamline the process and make it as efficient as possible.

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What are the benefits of process mapping?

Understand processes – visually communicating a business process helps to explain the process to other users

Ensure compliance – mapping processes visually shows you are meeting all necessary requirements and helps to further streamline and standardize processes to strictly adhere to regulations

Uncover and eliminate waste – Identify unnecessary steps in your processes so you can make the process as efficient and possible

Aid problem-solving – an effective visual diagram helps decision-making and identifying solutions

 

Start mapping your business processes for free in Bizagi Modeler.

How is process mapping used in Business Process Management (BPM)?

According to Gartner’s definition, BPM covers a broader range of activities and methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, and optimize business processes. Process mapping is an important component of BPM as during the discovery element, process maps are a useful visualization to demonstrate how tasks lead from one to another to reach the end product.

Processes can then be modeled – a more dynamic, agile approach that puts the processes in the context of the entire organization, which supports process lifecycles and continuous improvement.

 

Examples of process mapping

Chain of hotels and casinos – The 5-star hotel has the ability to administer loans to patrons on its casino floor to enable them to keep playing longer, but this required intense scrutiny to ensure regulatory compliance. The process was mapped to provide complete transparency, before it was integrated with the casino’s systems, generating single-click reports and security checks that were mapped within the process.

Global logistics organization – Deutsche Post DHL used Bizagi to further connectivity within its operations, acting as an orchestrator of its tech stack and enabling end-to-end automation of 24 processes. They now have a 95% automation in the Duty VAT billing process, handling a daily volume of 2,500 shipments.

Healthcare provider – A healthcare trust needed to provide its staff with smart cards to allow secure access to patient information. The new solution was mapped, tested, and implemented in under four weeks. The cards can now be issued in less than 2 weeks, ready for new starters, when it used to take up to 6 weeks.

 

Do I need process mapping software?

Process mapping software provides an effective way to digitally capture your business processes. Using software means you can take advantage of intuitive features like drag and drop when building your mapping your processes.

Bizagi Modeler, which has millions of users, allows you to create and optimize process models using BPMN standard notation. When you’re finished, you can publish processes to the secure Bizagi process library, or in a range of formats. Best of all, once your process models are complete, you can build them into business applications in Bizagi Studio. 

Download Bizagi Modeler for free now to get started.