“Supplier-producer-customer” model
This model is used in order to define who the customers of a business process are and what requirements they have.
It is important to mention that this model can be used in case when the result and the customer of the last procedure of a business process are primary. Adjusting to the requirements of secondary customers is a less prioritized objective and should be provided after adjusting of a business process to the requirements of a primary customer. In this case there should be a primary procedure, result and customer defined in a business process and the model “supplier-producer-customer” should be used.
External customer
If a sales business process is optimized, it is necessary to analyze an external customer, having provided external marketing researches. Within the frames of such researches you should define customers, groups these customers can be divided to according to various characteristics, make the portrait of a customer and to define his requirements to your product. At this stage you should realize that it is hardly possible to adjust a business process to requirements of all customers. If you try to make it, a business process will be cross-functional, i.e. complicated and ineffective. In this case you should take into consideration only top-priority customers and their segments.
The chain of processes
After defining of requirements to a product of a business process you should make appropriate corrections in work of employees responsible for this business process in order to make a product respond the requirements of customers. Very often it cannot be reached only by correcting of the work of performers but also you should work with the sources used in the business process. Usually the sources of a business process are the results of functioning of a previous business process, so it also needs a business process optimization. Each employee responsible for a business process should form a list of requirements to the sources which are the results of previous business processes. This will help to build the chain of optimized business processes which are functioning well.
Internal customers
The technology of this method is the same and even gets simpler when it concerns internal customers of a business process. It’s much easier to define requirements of internal customers than external ones.
In general, a business process optimization should be provided starting from a pinch-point. The pinch-point on the developed and competitive market is always a customer. That’s why when you run a business or improve business processes in your company, it is important to use the method of coordination of the results of a business process with the requirements of consumers directed from a customer to a supplier of a business process.