Years ago I was talking to the Director of Human Resources at large local hospital, HR was the only functional area without a VP, and he listened politely as I discussed the benefits of a process-oriented approach to Human Resources. But he was having none of it, "HR is not a process, it's task driven." Moreover, he added "Process is not friendly or people focused, it's too mechanical." I thought about what he said and after some thought I realized that he had a point, on both scores. In fact, the hospital was currently practicing HR as a series of unrelated tasks, in a reactive mode, always putting out fires. So for the Director this was reality, and in this reality HR was not a process. And he was also right about process orientation quickly lapsing into a mechanical, inhuman approach to human problems; we've all been victim to the service person who is going to follow the script no matter what, regardless of whether your case falls squarely into the pre-ordained process or not. (Strangely, hospital billing and collections operate like this.) Though process has its own hurdles, and though it may not be how your business operates today, it's worth a look again, especially if you are seriously considering NetSuite. NetSuite is a software service that was specifically designed for the common business processes of the Small and Medium Enterprise. My life as a business technology consultant has offered me an extraordinary view of how businesses of all kinds handle process. But I have observed one strange phenomenon many times: Management believes that the business runs on a set of well-tuned business processes, however the staff works with no regard for process I could never find any process anywhere. Alternatively, management has no regard for process yet the staff's work is process driven from beginning to end and they can recite the process like the Pledge of Allegiance. Now how can both of these situations occur and what do they tell us? First, process is not especially successful when driven from the top down only. People have to be convinced that process is a good way to go and they have to see some value in it for themselves. If they have come to expect an extra hour of overtime on Thursday and Friday, perhaps they disregard process because they believe it will hurt their bottom line. I once sat down next to a staff person while doing process analysis simply to observe and within 5 minutes they were sobbing, so afraid were they of losing their job. It took me another half hour to reassure them that their job was not on the line and that any changes we fostered would be an improvement. I don't think she was convinced. She transferred to another department a few weeks later. We can also say that a good understanding of process within the staff really assists in putting process into play and deriving its true value. Some people whether from personality, past experience or sheer force of will just understand and require process and they will be process champions. In many cases they have already implemented well thought processes on their own, prior to any review. Now many SMEs practice process and simply are not aware of it. Again, some people naturally work in a process orientation. They want the same results over and over so they instinctively tend to follow the same inputs, in the same order, every time. They may not call it process but it comes to process in any event. So what does NetSuite have to do with process? You will notice that NetSuite laid out the product with real attention to the process. Even the menus are process driven, you can follow down a menu and move from the opportunity to the sale to invoice to pick, pack and ship. Likewise the forms offer the same support for process, whether its selling or buying. Tomorrow we will begin to talk about the main processes of the system. We will look at the processes that end up in Accounts Receivable and then from AR to Cash. We will also talk about the processes, on the other side of the ledger, that end in Accounts Payable. | 
