Adefined set of business rules can maximize and optimize procurement performance. Its performance can be further enhanced with enabling technologies.
What is a Business Rule?
A business rule is a set of applied criteria that define the behaviour of a particular activity. Within requisitioning to payment, a series of activities represent a process, each activity represents a series of tasks. For each task a decision point must be met to complete that task. Once all tasks have been completed for a particular activity, it will allow for a new activity to commence. After all activities have been completed, the process will have occurred.
Improving procurement processes per-se must be related to “Why” is this activity performed? “How” will the activity be performed? “What” support is given to a user? and “which” decision framework a user must adhere to?
“Each business rule defines the prioritisation of the requisitioning process so that activity (as the requisitioning example above) can be performed as efficiently as possible.”
If we look at the “requisitioning” activity in particular, requisitioning business rules must address the following aspects represented below.
- Why is this activity performed?
- How will the activity be performed?
- What support is given to a user?
- Which decision framework a user must adhere to?
- How will a measurement system be implemented?
Each business rule defines the prioritisation of the requisitioning process so that activity (as the requisitioning example above) can be performed as efficiently as possible.
The improvements lie in “how an activity behaves as part of an overall process” – it will be a mistake to improve a particular activity on its own. Doing so may create bottlenecks in other parts of the procurement process.
Procurement Performance must be tackled as a whole throughput improvement in the same way an athlete works on various parts of his/her body along with nutritional supplements to perform at his/her best. Each business rule area must be optimised as a key component of the business chain from the requisitioning to payment throughput to maximize and optimize procurement performance.
Finally, each business rule area mentioned above must be defined, implemented, maintained, and communicated to users. People are more likely to adopt change in response to a combination of new experience and communication, than in response to communication alone.
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