sometimes it's hard to see how IT and
business process fit together so here's
a simple way to think about it let's
start with process business process
happens in the real world let's say we
have a hiring process we advertise a job
we interview candidates we make a
decision and a new guy turns up at work
on let's say we have an Accounts Payable
process we get an invoice from a vendor
we make sure it's valid then somebody
proves it and then we cut a check and
send it to the vendor every day in a
typical business there are thousands of
transactions like these that follow some
process or another in fact there are so
many we could not possibly keep track of
all this information without help once
we did this all by paper armies of
people were required to write it all
down now we use computers and call it
information technology but whatever the
tools are we're doing the same thing
we're making detailed notes of all the
things that happen in the real world so
for example when we hire someone we have
to keep track of the details we give
them an employee ID we add them to the
payroll with a social security number we
set a salary in the payroll system we
update the headcount when you look at it
you'll find a surprising amount of data
that's generated by everyday
transactions like these in a sense we're
creating a mathematical model of where
we are with all our transactions the
data are the building blocks of the
model and it's constantly changing
by reducing the detail to numbers we can
manage the vast amounts of data that get
generated by our transactions we can
capture it and store it using databases
and software programs now you never get
to see an actual database what we do see
is the software that displays the data
the software allows us to capture it
retrieve it change it run reports and
otherwise manipulated so the role of
software is to support the process by
providing the means to create and
maintain the mathematical model but
software does not exist on its own
for that we need the other component of
IT the hardware it takes PCs and servers
and keyboards and networks and all the
other paraphernalia that the guys were
the pocket protectors love now it's a
bit easier to see how all this fits
together the hardware supports the
software that supports the processes
this three layer model is pretty simple
but is a good way to think about what's
going on when you realize that IT is
merely supporting business processes
then you can start to see that fixing
your processes is every bit as important
as improving hardware and software it's
amazing how many smart business people
are ready to spend money on improving
efficiency with IT projects without
getting their processes right first
I hope this model helps you avoid that
mistake there are lots of ways to
improve processes you can find out more
by watching other videos in this series
you can get them on my website the
process consultant comm thanks for
watching I'm Ian James the process
consultant