Business Process Excellence Programme for BPO

published on 11 March 2021

Charles Darwin already knew that “nothing in the history of life is as constant as change”. In order to be well prepared for change, the Business Process Excellence Programme (BPE for short) was developed specifically for BPO. Its goal is to successively implement a continuous improvement system in Rödl & Partner's BPO departments worldwide.

Our Rödl & Partner colleagues in Poland were the pioneers in this matter, who inplemented the so-called Lean Management Methodology in their BPO teams together with an external consultant several years ago.

“BPE has helped me to plan, do, check and act better.”
Saana Tangri, Rödl & Partner Gurugram, India

The programme objective was, among other things, to achieve at least a 30 percent increase in productivity in each country, to reduce process times by 30 percent, to implement 20 improvement ideas per team and to basically involve all colleagues in each team in such a way that a strong "together" feeling develops, that everyone is enthusiastic about the idea and cooperates positively and with commitment.

They were so successful that the set targets were exceeded. In October 2016, the Managing Partners then decided to make the findings and experiences from the pilot project a permanent part of Rödl & Partner with the “BPE Programme” and thus offer all other BPO teams worldwide the opportunity to participate and get the ball rolling, so to speak, in their own country.

“For me and my colleagues who use BPE it allows us to see either graphically or number based which side should be improved. Even though we still have a way to go to improve our data output but at least we can see the goal.”
Alan Agassi, Rödl & Partner Jakarta-Tangerang Banten, Indonesia

In the meantime, BPE has been rolled out in 22 countries, and in some countries employees have agreed to be trained as BPE masters, an expert who can also pass on their knowledge to other teams in their own country or in other countries and be available as a “buddy” for new BPE teams.

“BPE allows me to self-analyse my work routine and optimise my time.”
Gleice Kelli, Rödl & Partner São Paulo, Brazil

In order to be able to meticulously record and analyse the respective BPO processes, a new time recording tool called KliX was specially developed. In cooperation with BPO colleagues from all over the world, a whole list of suggestions for improvement has been collected since the kick-off and compiled in a catalogue to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience. Furthermore, an Excel Excellence Initiative was created, which aims to provide BPO employees with tips and tricks for working with Excel that will make their work easier on a daily basis. A lot of time saved resulted, for example, from the use of Excel formulas.

“The BPE Programme together with the BPE team makes the best combination of support and analysis tools in the day-to-day consulting world to optimise processes and profitability for people that are willing to put in a little bit of effort. It brings a variety of people from many different countries together to discuss about problems that are faced as well as solutions and provides support to each other whenever needed to create a better environment as a whole to employees and clients. The BPE Programme has initialised and encouraged the analytical thinking process in everyone and has resulted in a lot of open-mind discussions with innovative suggestions for improvements or problem-solving methods. It is an investment in self and team development at the same time, growing slowly, getting better.”
Cherryl Lim, Rödl & Partner Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Over time, the processes created in the time tracking tool have been adapted again and again – in the meantime, the terms used in the time tracking tool can also be found in the quotation process. That way, a clear thread runs through the entire BPO process. Furthermore, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning elements are used in a targeted manner to ensure constant improvement.

The programme is designed for a total duration of about 3-5 years and is divided into 5 individual sectors. Each of these sectors essentially focuses on one topic, the fundamentals of which are internalized within the team. Only after the criteria have been successfully achieved can a sector be completed and the team move on to the next one.

“I think BPE is useful in terms of system runtime. Easy to use and not complicated. I spend very little time on each step, so I don't waste time doing routine tasks. I used to use another system that takes a lot of time to record and put in the data. Which affects the work and the cost of the business.”
Darawan Phinthanon, Rödl & Partner Bangkok, Thailand

Once a year, country representatives of all those involved in the BPE programme meet for a general exchange of experiences as well as the presentation of news, a summary of what has already been achieved and a strategic outlook for the future. Not only do our clients benefit from this programme in that we ensure our BPO processes are transparent, lean and efficient, we also achieve high satisfaction levels amongst the participating teams as each individual employee is empowered to make a change and influence their work environment.