5 Ways to Identify Gaps in Your Business Processes

If you have gaps in your business processes, you might also have complaining or grumbling customers.

Perhaps you have too many manual steps in fulfilling requests for products or services. It takes too long for orders to arrive or techs to fix issues. In addition to upsetting your customers, you slow down your cash flow.

Other gaps in your business processes make you wait for information to be manually rekeyed from one system to another. As an operations professional, seeing business performance not in real-time is a major issue.

That means you can’t determine the status of product orders and service requests. You end up wasting a lot of time sending emails and making calls—taking time away from making decisions that allow you to direct your staff on how to work more efficiently.

In this blog, we will dive into five ways to identify business process gaps to help you overcome the challenges of underperforming business processes. At the end, you can take a short quiz to learn the specific gaps your business needs to fill.

Let’s jump straight into the five ways.

#1 – Maintain up-to-date process maps

Mapping your processes using diagrams and descriptions of all the steps will often identify gaps. Even if you think you already know them. Documenting all the processes may find new areas for improvement.

The keys are to get input from all departments, make your maps detailed, and keep them up-to-date.

If you haven’t gone through this task in the past year, chances are there’s something new you should work on. How you handle processes changes rapidly as your business grows, as you expand your product line, enter new markets, and take on new types of customers.

#2 – Assess technology integrations

Lack of integrations between systems—such as ERP, CRM, operations, and field service platforms—will usually create major gaps. Signs your systems are not fully integrated include your staff having to rekey information from one system to another or sharing information by sending emails or making phone calls.

These gaps often result in customers thinking your departments don’t talk to each other. Accounting doesn’t realize a service incident has not been closed out yet. Or marketing sends an email to a customer trying to get them to buy a product they just bought.

These are important issues to consider on your journey to identifying possible gaps.

#3 – Evaluate automation and efficiency

Ideally, you want to create workflows within your ERP, CRM, and other enterprise workflows that automatically kick off processes. This eliminates manual intervention and allows your staff to work more efficiently.

For example, if a customer orders 500 items and you have 250 in stock, does your system require someone in purchasing to recognize the shortage and place an order with your vendor? Or can your ERP system place the order automatically?

Better yet, can your system generate sales and inventory forecasts to recognize an issue like this is imminent? You should have enough in stock when the customer places that order, or at least know you can’t fulfill it.

Check out the video below to learn how Microsoft Power Platform gives you a powerful suite of low-code tools designed to help businesses develop custom applications quickly:

4 – Analyze change management practices

Change management is often an area that’s neglected when it comes to building processes. And those that do exist likely have large gaps.

How does your business manage change? Have you implemented a change management process?

If change does not happen easily, this too may be caused by business process gaps. It can seem to take forever to upgrade software or implement a new system. Many projects end up getting canceled.

To overcome this, the change management process must include protocols for…

• Requesting
• Determining attainability
• Planning
• Implementing
• Evaluating

…changes to a system. The process should also trace changes to interconnected factors. To learn more about how Velosio can help you navigate change management, watch the video below:

#5 – Review collaboration and communication effectiveness

Collaboration and communication are also often neglected areas without formal processes. No matter which communication tools you use—collaboration platforms, instant messaging, or email—they won’t work well without documented processes that your employees follow.

Colleagues need to know how to get in touch and when to expect responses, particularly across departments. If people seem to wait forever on each other, projects bog down, customer orders sit in the warehouse, and techs show up unprepared at customer sites.

A Quiz to Discover Your Gaps

Identifying your process gaps across all areas of your business is vital to the long-term health of your business. When you close your gaps, efficiencies improve. And that will lead to happy customers who keep coming back!

Not sure if you have gaps in your processes? Take our short quiz to find out so you can start your journey to improve your business operations. For more information on how to eliminate gaps in your business processes, contact Velosio—we’re here to help.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I identify inefficiencies in my business processes?

Identifying inefficiencies involves mapping out your current processes, assessing technology integration, and evaluating automation. Tools like Microsoft Power Automate can help streamline workflows, making it easier to spot and eliminate inefficiencies.

What are common signs of gaps in business processes?

Common signs include delays in service or product delivery, frequent manual data entry, poor communication between departments, and customer complaints. These issues often point to underlying gaps that need to be addressed.

How can technology help in closing business process gaps?

Technology, especially tools like ERP and CRM systems, can automate workflows, improve data accuracy, and enhance communication across departments. Integrating these tools effectively can close gaps and improve overall operational efficiency.