Collaborative BPM for Business Transformations in Telecommunications: The Case of “3”

Many business changes in the telecommunications sector are initiated by mergers and acquisitions, and the fast pace of this sector requires that businesses adjust or extend business processes in a minimum of time. “3,” the mobile communication brand of CK Hutchison Holdings, whose headquarters are in Hong Kong, is a leading global mobile telecommunications, data services operator, and pioneer of mobile broad-band technology. Therefore, “3” constantly faces the challenges associated with take-overs and mergers. To master these challenges a comprehensive social BPM environment with predefined process structures was developed to master these challenges within given time restrictions. Corresponding process structures support the merging of telecommunication processes during a merger and can be used for collaborative drafting of business processes across organizations. The key task in these projects is to use the knowledge and experience of all parties involved efficiently and in a short amount of time in order to carry out process consolidations or to build comprehensive processes. Therefore, support for collaborative work was implemented on all project phases, from requirements specifications for designing, implementing, and testing the respective software components to launching the new processes and providing training. (a) Situation faced: Many business changes in the telecommunications sector are initiated by mergers and acquisitions, and the fast pace of this sector requires that businesses adjust or extend business processes in a minimum of time. “3,” the mobile communication brand of CK Hutchison Holdings, whose headquarters are in Hong Kong, is a leading global mobile telecommunications company, data services operator, and pioneer of mobile broadband technology. Therefore, “3” constantly faces the challenges associated with take-overs and mergers. (b) Action taken: A comprehensive social BPM environment with predefined process structures was developed to master these challenges within given time restrictions. Corresponding process structures support the merging of telecommunication processes during a merger and can be used for collaborative drafting of business processes across organizations. The key task in these projects is to use the knowledge and experience of all parties involved efficiently and in a short amount of time in order to carry out process consolidations or to build comprehensive processes. Therefore, support for collaborative work was implemented on all project phases, from requirements specifications for designing, implementing, and testing the respective software components to launching the new processes and providing training. (c) Results achieved: A business process repository with predefined process and function documentation was built, and a collaborative BPM environment, embedded self-service training components, and integrated test management system were established to provide the basis for conducting projects during acquisitions, mergers, and other businesses transformations. (d) Lessons learned: Four lessons learned were identified: (a) Successful implementation of BPM in a company requires combining it with other fields of operation, such as testing and training; (b) interconnecting a variety of model types helps to manage the increasing demands regarding speed of change and complexity of both business and IT; (c) embedding BPM in a collaborative environment also supports active knowledge management; and (d) business transformations require that management provides the necessary strategic control.