Bed Management Technology in Critical Care Units of Midlands Hospital Leads to Sweeping

Microsoft Human Resources Organization Optimizes Process Execution Worldwide

Microsoft HR uses Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) in Visio Premium 2010 to Streamline Business Processes across more than 100 Countries

Overview Country or region: International “Our Visio Premium 2010 solution will help us ensure Industry: Information Technology that the right people are doing the right work at the Customer Profile Based in Redmond, Washington, right time across our business processes” Microsoft is a worldwide leader in Jean O’Connor, HR Project Manager, Microsoft International software, services, and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. Overview Business Situation Microsoft International’s Human Resources (HR) team is made up of approximately Microsoft International’s Human 600 employees and provides HR management support in more than 100 countries. Resources (HR) team lacked standardized business processes and The group uses many global systems and tools across each of the international business process documentation across its subsidiaries, decreasing process Microsoft subsidiaries. However, each subsidiary uses different tools and notation to efficiency and effectiveness. document its HR business processes. As each subsidiary developed its own unique

Solution business processes, there was no standardized way to manage processes or measure The HR team created a custom HR efficiency. The HR team deployed Microsoft® Visio® Premium 2010 with a template based on Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) in Visio customized Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) process template to Premium 2010 to develop develop comprehensive and standardized HR process documentation across each of comprehensive process documentation across all of the sales, marketing and its subsidiaries, significantly reducing time required to execute HR business services locations in Microsoft processes. 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 Situation repeatable errors, and decreases our Microsoft International provides overall effectiveness.” sales, marketing, and services for Microsoft Corporation’s locations The lack of standardized business outside of North America. The processes and process Human Resources (HR) team within documentation had a number of Microsoft International is made up of impacts on the HR team: . approximately 600 employees and Increased the time and cost to provides support for both global and train new employees as there was HR regulation management in more no simple way to describe critical than 100 countries. HR processes . Limited ability to review their The HR team uses many global business processes and make systems and tools across each of the informed decision regarding the international Microsoft subsidiaries. sequencing of steps and roles and One key HR objective was the responsibilities involved standardization of common business processes from one Microsoft . Decreased business process location to the next. However, each efficiency, with wide ranges in time subsidiary used different tools and to complete tasks across notation to document its HR subsidiaries business processes. As each subsidiary developed its own unique Solution business processes for tasks like The team wanted to increase the onboarding new hires, there was no efficiency and effectiveness of its standardized way to compare, resources across subsidiaries, and manage, or evaluate business find ways for them to be more process efficiency or effectiveness. productive. To achieve these goals, This in turn both increased the cost the HR team wanted to formally to perform common activities as well document its current business as the time required to train a new processes across each subsidiary and employee on his or her use the diagrams as a starting point responsibilities. for standardization.

As explained by Jean O’Connor, HR HR staff in Microsoft International Project Manager for Microsoft reached out to Microsoft International, “Experience with headquarters and its Quality & different HR business processes Business Excellence Group (QBE). would vary significantly from one “Before we standardize processes, location to the next. Without we need to standardize the language documentation, each new HR we use to describe our processes,” employee will need to be trained by explains Bibhudatta Dash, QBE someone who may or may not know Program Manager. The team the process. Teaching new hires an decided to reach out to Visimation inefficient process can introduce Inc, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and Visio specialist, to makes the diagrams easier to develop an HR template for process understand. The OneHR solution mapping using Business Process includes a simple add-in that Modeling Notation (BPMN) in Visio incrementally numbers certain Premium 2010. The template would process shapes as they are inserted help HR staff capture, diagram and into a diagram. The Activity shape document standardized processes displays this number in the drawing and associated information to inform while other automatically numbered decision making and staff training. shapes track their values in the Shape Data attributes without Visimation Inc. produced the OneHR displaying the text. In addition, with customized process modeling the standard Visio reporting feature solution based on the BPMN users can easily export the capabilities of Visio 2010 Premium. information contained in these The work was minimal, requiring diagrams in a variety of data formats about one week to create a special such as Excel, HTML, XML, or a Visio template, modify the BPMN symbol Shape and check for consistency. set, and develop a small add-in to Visio 2010. There was also a simple “We were able to leverage the great setup program that enabled users to new BPMN features that are in Visio effortlessly add the program to their 2010 Premium, including its Visio 2010 installation. powerful drawing validation feature. With a very modest amount of The shapes for the OneHR solution customization, Microsoft HR now has are derivatives of the BPMN shapes exactly what they need to efficiently included in Visio 2010 Premium and design and document their were modified specifically to support processes with industry standard how Microsoft HR operates. While nomenclature,” explains Brett 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 Newman, Managing Director of benefits from the Visio Premium Visimation Inc. 2010 solution, including increased productivity, reduced employee The HR team used Visio Premium training, and increased software 2010 and the customized BPMN adoption. process template to develop standardized HR process Increased Productivity documentation across all of the One key benefit expected through sales, marketing and services the Visio Premium 2010 solution is locations in Microsoft International, increased HR staff productivity covering more than 100 countries. across subsidiaries. “The key benefit To do this, Visimation developed for the HR organization is increased training content on the Visio productivity through the creation of solution to teach HR employees in standardized process documentation each subsidiary to use Visio Premium across all of our sales, marketing, 2010 to document and analyze their and services processes,” explains business processes. “We asked local O’Connor. HR teams to start by documenting their process diagrams at a high The increased standardization will level, and drill down into process further help clarify roles and steps where required. For example, responsibilities across HR documenting a ‘new hire’ process employees, and reduce time HR requires knowledge of local teams spend on administrative tasks. regulations, visas or government O’Connor estimates that the HR notification, etc., and all of this team will be able to realize would need to be captured in a significant reductions in the number standardized process map. This of HR resources performing allows local HR teams to review and administrative work across all analyze current process to drive subsidiaries. “This will help us ensure efficiency and maintain a repository that the right people are doing the of process documentation,” right work at the right time across explained O’Connor. our business processes,” said O’Connor. “We chose the Visio Premium 2010 product because it was easy to Reduced Employee Training model our process training efforts. With the process documentation in There’s minimal training required on hand, it will be much easier to the solution due to the Visio onboard HR resources in each of the Premium 2010’s similar look and feel Microsoft International subsidiaries. to other Microsoft Office No longer will the quality of training applications,” explained O’Connor. depend solely on the trainer’s recollection of local processes. According to O’Connor, “The nature Benefits of our HR training will improve. We Microsoft International’s HR team can take our training to a new level realized a number of important by focusing more on HR operations which will help HR teams to use the as a whole.” software more effectively.”

As common HR processes are standardized from one subsidiary to the next, it also becomes easier for

an HR staff member from one Microsoft Visio 2010 country to move to another with The advanced diagramming tools of relative ease, as the roles, Microsoft® Visio® 2010 help you responsibilities, and process steps simplify complexity with dynamic, will be more similar in all locations. data-driven visuals and new ways to This further reduces the time and share on the Web in real-time. Start cost associated with training. by building your diagram with a diverse set of professional-looking Increased Adoption templates and modern, pre-drawn In the past, Visio had been a tool shapes. Then, easily link your that few people within Microsoft diagram to popular data sources International’s HR team would have (such as Microsoft® Office Excel®). used. In many cases this was You’ll see data automatically refresh because the HR staff members did right within your diagram, reflected not have a formal process in vibrant visuals such as icons, management background. symbols, colors, and bar graphs. Finally, with just a few clicks, publish One of the key benefits of Visio your data-linked diagram to Premium 2010 is its simplified ease Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2010, of use. According to O’Connor, “One and provide access to others on the of the things about previous versions Web, even if they don’t have Visio. of Visio is that it wasn't as intuitive Together, simplicity, data-driven to use as other Microsoft Office shapes, and Web sharing make Visio products. The new Office Fluent User one of the most powerful ways to Interface in Visio Premium 2010 is see and understand important great for finding features by information. graphical icon in the tab menu, For more information about Microsoft Visio 2010, go to: www.visio.com