QMS Ensures Consistent Products and Service Output

A Government Department was in need of an effective process management and quality control mechanism to ensure consistently effective product and service outputs.

Concerns over consistency, quality and efficiency of products and services, including projects outcomes, prompted the Government Department to seek out expert assistance in implementing an Enterprise Process Management System. Having already chosen the system, but basing it upon a flawed model, the client engaged SMS to establish a baseline of all of the ‘as is’ processes across the organisation, and to develop and implement a change management project to assist the organisation in mapping its total end-to-end processes. The dual goals of integrated process and cultural change sought to ensure the consistency, quality and efficiency of products and services created.

SMS undertook a process of rigorous auditing, expert assessment and detailed project planning to identify the ‘as is’ processes, integrate them into effective end-to-end process model, assist the organisation with mapping their integrated processes and identify gaps in the model requiring management attention.

SMS’s engagement was characterised by an approach that drew upon 20 years of experience in auditing and assessment to:

• engage key stakeholders across the CIO group to identify existing high level processes
• conduct a detailed analysis of all relevant information gathered
• develop a project plan to address the engagement of process owners across the group
• identify policy and process gaps to be addressed, and a means to achieve continuous, ongoing improvement in all areas of the project cycle
  

SMS produced a detailed report, outlining key areas for improvement; with options to affect a move towards a more intuitive and integrated approach.

SMS highlighted a series of key deliverables in the process of implementing a suitably robust, consistent model of quality control. In addition to the report, SMS also developed a number of model options to provide the CIO with credible and viable choices in process development and implementation.

The report contained expert recommendations on:

• development of approved project plan and enterprise process model for mapping high level processes against the current CIO group model
• initial implementation - and ongoing support - of the suggested process mapping facilitation 
• development of an overall detailed and workable blueprint for success
  

SMS's recommendations will, over time, enable the Department to achieve every one of its initial requirements in relation to product and service output quality, consistency and efficiency.

SMS’s expert recommendations enabled the Department to take significant first steps in identifying workflow processes across the entire CIO Group, clarifying work responsibilities and highlighting areas of duplication and potential streamlining.

As well as facilitating accurate measurement of customer based output performance, the recommendations presented the Department with one component of a Knowledge Management system to establish a significantly improved process for retaining and utilising business critical information.