At Skura, we believe that well-defined business processes are the cornerstone of any successful technical implementation. Regardless of whether it is transactional or analytical, the key to ensuring that the solution designed to optimize the performance of your business lies in the creation, validation, streamlining, and adherence to well-defined processes that are aligned to, and directly in support of, your key business objectives.

Our Approach

As a result of our belief in the importance of well-defined business processes and the tremendous level of success that we’ve had with this approach, we strongly recommend this approach to all of our clients. We work with you initially to identify the key processes that must be supported by the solution. From that list of key processes, we capture and validate the corresponding business process maps using a series of interviews, discovery and validation sessions, as well as cross-departmental workshops.

In order to facilitate the business process mapping and validation exercise, we have developed a set of best practice Business Process Accelerator Maps that we created, refined, and tested in real-life implementations with Life Sciences companies around the world. If you don’t have the key processes already mapped out, use these accelerator maps as a starting point so that you can hit the ground running. Alternatively, you can use these maps as a basis for comparison to help streamline your existing processes based on industry tested best practices.

These business process mapping and validation sessions are facilitated by our highly experienced business process analysts and are conducted with your subject matter experts (SMEs); individuals from each of the various groups and levels of the organization that will be using the system. We recognize that every company is unique, and this approach ensures that we understand how your business operates and the unique challenges and “pain points” that exist within your current environment. We then work with you to identify areas where improvements can and should be made to the existing processes that will be supported by the solution.

Key Benefits

In addition to helping the business analyze and improve their internal processes, the business process mapping and validation approach helps significantly in the gathering and definition of business requirements. By tying every requirement back to the business process(es) that it supports, we ensure that we are focusing our time and energy on those requirements that are the most critical to the success of both the system and the business. 

You can use the business process maps to capture the data required at each step in the process, or to display any screen or report mock-ups created in the Discovery or Design phase of the project. In addition to the inherent benefits this visualization provides to user acceptance and understanding, these maps can be used as the foundation for the development of test scripts (providing the “who”, “what”, and “when” for scenario development) or to support change management initiatives, such as end user training.


Award Winning Approach

It is for all of the above reasons that our Business Process Mapping and Validation approach enabled one of our clients to receive an Aberdeen Group TOP 10 CRM Initiative award in 2003.