What Is Business Process Management精选.pdfVIP

Chapter 3 What Is Business Process Management? y defi nition, operational risk is “the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people, and systems or Bfrom external events.” Absent people or systems performing, or failing to perform, a business process, operational risks are unlikely to occur. Therefore, based on the preceding defi nition, and as suggested in Chapter 1, one might conclude that all roads to understanding opera- tional risk management (ORM) should begin with an understanding of business processes and their management, or business process manage- ment (BPM). As we will see in this chapter, a formal interest in business processes and BPM has emerged from a number of evolutionary and revolution- ary changes in management practices over the past 100 years. Before examining that history, it will be useful to review a relatively recent exam- ple of one organization’s experience in managing a critical business process, namely, the processing of online, real-time charge transaction authorization requests at American Express Travel-Related Services Company (TRS). 49 50 w h e r e w e a r e n o w A Study in Green, Gold, and Platinum In the mid-1950s, when the American Express card was introduced, the customer base was a relatively homogeneous group of business- people who used the card in a limited number of venues, mostly for business travel and entertainment with airlines, hotels, and restaurants. Highly effi cient online charge authorization request processing sys- tems were developed to speed approvals of charges to the requesting merchants. The simplicity of the operating model helped the systems to quickly approve high numbers of the requests. Part of the customer ser