Our approach to business process improvement is based on a framework that analyses all elements of the business. Our consultants have developed a strong capacity to transform organisations to bring about more streamlined, cost effective and client focussed business processes, systems and structures to support service delivery requirements.

Business process re-engineering (BPR)

The current management environment demands that managers' focus on the delivery of outputs. This requires continuous improvement of business processes, systems and existing work practices to reduce costs and improve service delivery performance. Managers' must examine alternative service delivery options to ensure that the most cost effective business solution is implemented, including opening up processes and functions to market based competition and benchmarking.

FreebodyCogent offers consultants with significant experience in the formulation and implementation of performance improvement strategies. Our consultants are expert in:

• process mapping and analysis to identify the processes and activities performed in core and support business functions;

• cost analysis including baseline costing of processes and activities employing activity based costing and other techniques to derive the full cost.
  [See our Activity based costing capability];

• attribution of corporate costs to business units, processes and activities;

• development of performance based contracts and Service Level Agreements to provide a performance framework to manage the delivery of services;

• financial modelling to evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative resourcing options;

• business case development;

• development of a resource management strategy to determine the appropriate resource mix for each process and activity and the level of investment required for performance improvement initiatives;

• benchmarking of costs to justify the cost structure and to identify opportunities for improvement;

• re-engineering of processes to improve performance; and;

• market testing of services to achieve savings.
  [See our Competitive tendering & contracting capability].

Financial systems development

Fundamental to the any service delivery capability is the effectiveness of the financial management systems. Our consultants can assist organisations through:

• advice and assistance with financial and corporate management systems development and implementation; and
• quality assurance reviews of existing systems implementations.

FreebodyCogent has undertaken many projects involving the delivery of these services in conjunction with business process reengineering. Our consultants play a unique role in these projects in that they effectively fill the "gap" between the system design (typically done by the IT team) and the system implementation (typically done by users). Too often the implementation of a system does not adequately support the financial management requirements of the organisation resulting in a proliferation of subsidiary systems (usually in excel spreadsheets) and processes to cope with the limitations of the primary system.

Our consultants have the capability and experience to develop sophisticated excel spreadsheet and access database models. We have developed models and tools to support key business processes such as output costing, cost attribution, budget development and forecasting, financial reporting and data capture. FreebodyCogent also makes use of up to date software tools where appropriate and value is added. Our consultants are able to assist organisations in the use of these tools.

Training

FreebodyCogent's approach to business process improvement includes the development of a financial management training framework to support BPR based on an investment in people strategy. Our expertise includes:

• documentation of functional design;
• job descriptions;
• schedule of courses by position;
• course outlines and training schedules;
• course development and delivery; and
• documentation of policies and procedures and tailored instructions for each business area.

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