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Microsoft HR uses Business Process Modeling Notation(BPMN) in Visio Premium 2010 to StreamlineBusiness Processes across more than 100 Countries
Overview
Country or region: International
Industry: Information Technology
Customer Profile
Based in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft is a worldwide leader in software, services, and Internet technologies for personal and business computing.
Business Situation
Microsoft International’s Human Resources (HR) team lacked standardized business processes and business process documentation across its subsidiaries, decreasing process efficiency and effectiveness.
Solution
The HR team created a custom HR template based on Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) in Visio Premium 2010 to develop comprehensive process documentation across all of the sales, marketing and services locations in Microsoft International, covering more than 100 countries.
Benefits
Significant anticipated savings in labor hours through increased process efficiency
Anticipated decrease in new hire onboarding time
Improved decision making through visual process analysis / “Our Visio Premium 2010 solution will help us ensure that the right people are doing the right work at the right time across our business processes”
Jean O’Connor, HR Project Manager, Microsoft International
Overview
Microsoft International’s Human Resources (HR) team is made up of approximately 600 employees and provides HR management support in more than 100 countries. The group uses many global systems and tools across each of the international Microsoft subsidiaries. However, each subsidiary uses different tools and notation to document its HR business processes. As each subsidiary developed its own unique business processes, there was no standardized way to manage processes or measure efficiency. The HR team deployed Microsoft®Visio® Premium 2010 with a customized Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) process template to develop comprehensive and standardized HR process documentation across each of its subsidiaries, significantly reducing time required to execute HR business processes.
Situation
Microsoft International provides sales, marketing, and services for Microsoft Corporation’s locations outside of North America. The Human Resources (HR) teamwithin Microsoft International is made up of approximately 600employees and provides support for both global and HR regulation management in more than 100 countries.
The HR teamusesmany global systems and tools across each of the international Microsoft subsidiaries. One key HR objective was the standardization of common business processes from one Microsoft location to the next. However, each subsidiary used different tools and notation to document its HR business processes. As each subsidiary developed its own unique business processes for tasks like onboarding new hires, there was no standardized way to compare, manage, or evaluate business process efficiency or effectiveness. This in turn both increased the cost to perform common activities as well as the time required to train a new employee on his or her responsibilities.
As explained by Jean O’Connor, HR Project Manager for Microsoft International, “Experience with different HR business processes would vary significantly from one location to the next. Without documentation, each new HR employee will need to be trained by someone who may or may not know the process. Teaching new hires an inefficient process can introduce repeatable errors, and decreases our overall effectiveness.”
The lack of standardized business processes and process documentation had a number of impacts on the HR team:
- Increased the time and cost to train new employees as there was no simple way to describe critical HR processes
- Limited ability to review their business processes and make informed decision regarding the sequencing of steps and roles and responsibilities involved
- Decreased business process efficiency, with wide ranges in time to complete tasks across subsidiaries
Solution
The team wanted to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its resources across subsidiaries, and find ways for them to be more productive. To achieve these goals, the HR team wanted to formally document its current business processes across each subsidiary and use the diagrams as a starting point for standardization.
HR staff in Microsoft International reached out to Microsoft headquarters and its Quality Business Excellence Group (QBE). “Before we standardize processes, we need to standardize the language we use to describe our processes,” explains Bibhudatta Dash, QBE Program Manager. The team decided to reach out to Visimation Inc, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and Visio specialist, to develop an HR template for process mapping using Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) in Visio Premium 2010. The template would help HR staff capture, diagram and document standardized processes and associated information to inform decision making and staff training.
Visimation Inc. produced the OneHR customized process modeling solution based on the BPMN capabilities of Visio 2010 Premium. The work was minimal, requiring about one week to create a special template, modify the BPMN symbol set, and develop a small add-in to Visio 2010. There was also a simple setup program that enabled users to effortlessly add the program to their Visio 2010 installation.
The shapes for the OneHR solution are derivatives of the BPMN shapes included in Visio 2010 Premium and were modified specifically to support how Microsoft HR operates. While most OneHR Visio shapes have the same graphic appearance as the BPMN shapes, Microsoft HR required different Shape Data attributes to align with their work methods. The customized shapes include Shape Data fields with pull down menus that enable a user to select from pre-determined lists.
To simplify the tool for the HR group, Visimation also reduced the total number of shapes from 135 in the full BPMN solution, to 10 total shapes in OneHR. These changes promote consistency and compliance with Microsoft standards while providing a familiar look that makes the diagrams easier to understand. The OneHR solution includes a simple add-in that incrementally numbers certain process shapes as they are inserted into a diagram. The Activity shape displays this number in the drawing while other automatically numbered shapes track their values in the Shape Data attributes without displaying the text. In addition, with the standard Visio reporting feature users can easily export the information contained in these diagrams in a variety of data formats such as Excel, HTML, XML, or a Visio Shape and check for consistency.
“We were able to leverage the great new BPMN features that are in Visio 2010 Premium, including its powerful drawing validation feature. With a very modest amount of customization, Microsoft HR now has exactly what they need to efficiently design and document their processes with industry standard nomenclature,” explains Brett
Newman, Managing Director of Visimation Inc.
The HR team used Visio Premium 2010 and the customizedBPMN process template to develop standardized HR process documentation across all of the sales, marketing and services locations in Microsoft International, covering more than 100 countries. To do this, Visimation developed training content on the Visio solution to teach HR employees in each subsidiary to use Visio Premium 2010 to document and analyze their business processes.“We asked local HR teams to start by documenting their process diagrams at a high level, and drill down into process steps where required. For example, documenting a ‘new hire’ process requires knowledge of local regulations, visas or government notification, etc., and all of this would need to be captured in a standardized process map. This allows local HR teams to review and analyze current process to drive efficiency and maintain a repository of process documentation,” explained O’Connor.
“We chose the Visio Premium 2010 product because it was easy to model our process training efforts. There’s minimal training required on the solution due to the Visio Premium 2010’s similar look and feel to other Microsoft Office applications,” explained O’Connor.
Benefits
Microsoft International’s HR team realized a number of importantbenefits from the Visio Premium 2010 solution, including increased productivity, reduced employee training, and increased software adoption.
Increased Productivity
One key benefit expected through the Visio Premium 2010 solution is increased HR staff productivity across subsidiaries. “The key benefit for the HR organization is increased productivity through the creation of standardized process documentation across all of our sales, marketing, and services processes,” explains O’Connor.
The increased standardization will further help clarify roles and responsibilities across HR employees, and reduce time HR teams spend on administrative tasks. O’Connor estimates that the HR team will be able to realize significant reductions in the number of HR resources performing administrative work across all subsidiaries.“This will help us ensure that the right people are doing the right work at the right time across our business processes,” said O’Connor.
Reduced Employee Training
With the process documentation in hand, it will be much easier to onboard HR resourcesin each of the Microsoft International subsidiaries. No longer will the quality of training depend solely on the trainer’s recollection of local processes. According to O’Connor, “The nature of our HR training will improve. We can take our training to a new levelby focusing more on HR operations as a whole.”
As common HR processes are standardized from one subsidiary to the next, it also becomes easier for an HR staff member from one country to move to another with relative ease, as the roles, responsibilities, and process steps will be more similar in all locations. This further reduces the time and cost associated with training.
Increased Adoption
In the past, Visio had been a tool that few people within Microsoft International’s HR team would have used. In many cases this was because the HR staff members did not have a formal process management background.
One of the key benefits of Visio Premium 2010 is its simplified ease of use. According to O’Connor, “One of the things about previous versions of Visio is that it wasn't as intuitive to use as other Microsoft Office products. The new Office Fluent User Interface in Visio Premium 2010 is great for finding features by graphical icon in the tab menu, which will help HR teams to use the software more effectively.”
Microsoft Visio 2010
The advanced diagramming tools of Microsoft® Visio® 2010 help you simplify complexity with dynamic, data-driven visuals and new ways to share on the Web in real-time. Start by building your diagram with a diverse set of professional-looking templates and modern, pre-drawn shapes. Then, easily link your diagram to popular data sources (such as Microsoft® Office Excel®). You’ll see data automatically refresh right within your diagram, reflected in vibrant visuals such as icons, symbols, colors, and bar graphs. Finally, with just a few clicks, publish your data-linked diagram to Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2010, and provide access to others on the Web, even if they don’t have Visio. Together, simplicity, data-driven shapes, and Web sharing make Visio one of the most powerful ways to see and understand important information.
For more information about Microsoft Visio 2010, go to: