Introduction

Apple, which was established in 1976, is a well-known electronics company and respected for its innovative, cutting-edge technology and devices. Though the company was established in California, it has grown to a global company and a very diverse customer base. Among its many devices and apps, the iPhone XR is Apple’s “most mainstream product” (Fortune, 2018). Focusing on improving processes which enable the company’s most commercial product to function will yield great value to the company’s bottomline.

For the purpose of process modeling and analysis, consider the following fictitious scenario:

The company’s Information Systems (IS) Department produces business production apps which caters to senior executives. Apps produced by IS include calendar, mail (for e-mail accounts), keynote, pages, numbers, calculator, and more.

The company is struggling to maintain records about cost
The company is is not able to provide a statement which shows how much the client has paid and balance owed

The company's current process model is illustrated below:

Currently, the CRM database is considered the source of truth, however it is not always updated. The Finance, Accounting and CRM databases do not integrate seamlessly. As a result, the project management team cannot accurately answer any questions about what was actually charged to the client. Many records are kept outside of the databases in spreadsheets which works well for individual sub-teams but does not grant the entire department visibility as needed. Due to the aforementioned issues, a business model will be proposed to improve the relationship between records management and client management, as well designating a central location / owner for records validation.

Proposed Business Model

As stated previously, the CRM database is considered the source of truth, though it is not always updated. In addition, the Finance, Accounting and CRM databases do not integrate seamlessly. As a result, the project management team cannot accurately answer any questions about what was actually charged to the client. Many records are kept outside of the databases in spreadsheets which works well for individual sub-teams but does not grant the entire department visibility as needed. Due to the aforementioned issues, the following business model will be proposed to improve the relationship between records management and client management, as well designating a central location / owner for records validation. The new model will ensure that reports are accurate, information and insights can be accessed in a timely manner and improve client communication. It will streamline data among systems and make accessing client cost possible in real-time by all authorized parties. The process also includes a new analyst role and shows how adding a Business Intelligence (BI) tool which is already available to the company can help streamline data short-term. Ideally, an Enterprise Data Warehouse would be a great option to integrate data from all participating databases, but that would need to be a long-term initiative, considering how quickly the current process needs to be improved.

The new model is illustrated below and demonstrates changes with the current process. This model will not only improve the quality of the data but will also ensure that necessary metrics will be tracked and ready for routine and ad hoc reporting for the internal client and management.

Cost Analysis

To accommodate the new business process model, a Tableau Desktop Professional license and Portfolio Analyst are required. Upon conducting research, all software / service costs were documented as Pro Forma costs since they are not actual contracted costs from the vendors. Below estimated costs as well as cost analyses are listed. A line graph also illustrates the costs for the new model vs the old model and gives a quick glimpse of the advantage of choosing one model over the other. Based on the cost analysis, the new model is more beneficial, financially.