Subscribe
The Premier Virtual Financial Services Gathering of Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Leaders & Senior-Executive

Virtual Event

March 21, 2023

The Largest Premier Gathering of Process Mining Industry Leaders & Senior-Executives sharing key solutions to current & future challenges

Virtual Event

April 4, 2023

The Largest Premier Gathering of Supply Chain Industry Leaders & Senior-Executives sharing key solutions to current & future challenges

Virtual Event

May 9-11, 2023

The Largest Premier Gathering of Enterprise Agile Industry Leaders & Senior-Executives sharing key solutions to current & future challenges

Virtual Event

May 16-18, 2023

The Largest Premier Gathering of Enterprise Architecture Leaders & Executives sharing key solutions to current & future challenges

Virtual Event

May 23-25, 2023

The Premier Virtual Gathering of Oil & Gas Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Leaders & Senior-Executives.

Virtual Event

May 30-June 2, 2023

The Largest Premier Gathering of IT & Cloud Industry Leaders & Senior-Executives sharing key solutions to current & future challenges

Virtual Event

June 6-8, 2023

The Largest Premier Gathering of IoT Industry Leaders & Senior-Executives sharing key solutions to current & future challenges

Virtual Event

June 13-15, 2023

The Premier Virtual Financial Services Gathering of Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Leaders & Senior-Executive

Virtual Event

March 21, 2023

BTOES Insights Official
By
July 02, 2022

INSIGHTS ARTICLE: CELONIS - Lars Reinkemeyer: How to leverage CoE to accelerate execution excellence at scale.

BLOGS COMPANY LOGO - 2022-03-03T184933.616pillar%20page%20line%201

How to leverage a CoE to accelerate execution excellence at scale

Driving operational excellence at scale is a key challenge for any organisation aiming at process transformation and automation. Successful transformation samples show the biggest value when it’s a continuous process that touches every corner of an organization. 

Operational excellence is a continuous challenge, a virtuous cycle of process improvements. It takes deliberate, diligent work to set up and maintain (let alone optimize) this continuous evolution and there are a couple of best practice learnings. 

Experience and statistics indicate an increasing prevalence of Centers of Excellence (CoE) in successful enterprises. At Celonis, our State of Process Excellence report revealed in 2021 that, of the 500+ process leaders surveyed, 71% of the successful deployments have a CoE in place as a central accelerator for change. 

And we are seeing huge interest in establishing CoEs, defining operating models and deploying change management to drive value across organisations. CoEs are typically at the heart of the process transformation initiative, which speaks to the growing recognition of operational excellence as a critical strategic initiative. But not all CoEs are created equal. To put it more bluntly, not all enterprises are building their process CoE the right way.

There are many best practice examples how CoEs can accelerate and propagate organizational change. I’ve done it myself at Siemens, and I’ve worked with dozens of organizations doing similar work since I joined Celonis in early 2021. 

My experience has taught me that if we’re to build a CoE to unlock the full potential of operational excellence, we must first get more closely acquainted with some key success factors of the CoE itself.

RESEARCH REPORT NO DATE

Your Center of Excellence should fulfil three essential roles 

As a kind of ‘command and control’ for enterprise transformation, your process execution CoE has three key purposes. 

As a catalyst it has to ensure executive alignment around purpose, turning strategic targets into operational KPIs, and enabling a data-driven organization. Executive sponsorship is crucial to prioritize process transformation and the CoE needs to facilitate executive engagement. 

As an evangelist, it establishes a communication platform, coordinates across business units and functions, shares best practices and innovation, promotes success stories and change champions. 

And as an enabler, it provides the right technical platform, collects data and drives technical implementations, manages data access and performance, and provides onboarding and training. 

The challenges you will face 

So good things come in threes — your CoE should be a catalyst, an evangelist and an enabler, thus becoming an accelerator for process transformation. But unfortunately, so do the challenges. 

Three of the toughest tasks you will take on when establishing your process execution CoE relate to the three Ps: purpose, people and process traces. 

As a first priority, you must define a clear purpose and value proposition that’s aligned with the overall company strategy. The purpose may be generic (e.g. driving digital process transformation) or specific (e.g. reducing working capital costs by xx%). 

You will need the right team of people dedicated to driving this purpose, and to ensure the organization changes as required. Not everybody is keen to drive change and move away from a comfort zone. So it is important to work with change agents first. 

And you will need those all-important process traces, the event logs from business systems that enable you to have full visibility and identify the execution gaps to address. And the easier you can access these event logs from transactional systems e.g. for P2P or O2C processes, the quicker you can drive impact and value.

GSOER_Ad_Revised (Page 1)

Which setup is right for your organization? 

Organizational setup is a critical decision process leaders must make when establishing their CoE. Where will it live? The answer will trigger further consideration about the nature of the CoE and its relationships with the broader organization. 

Let me offer a few examples. Some CoEs have their organisational home in the IT department, while others reside on the business side. The challenge here is bridging the gap between the two. How will you align a technical CoE with the requirements of the business, or vice versa? 

More and more, we see CoEs hosted in shared services units. This is no surprise. As a function defined by its commitment to operational excellence, shared services seem the natural home for a process execution CoE. But you must make sure the technical foundation is in place, and build bridges to any non-horizontal domains your shared services might not prioritize. 

There are a number of other possible organizational setups. These include a holding structure or private equity firm, where you must demonstrate the value of operational excellence to the operating companies. Or a CoE led by a chief digital officer, which can be a powerful driver of an enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy as it provides data- and fact based insights. If you’d like to understand these setups in greater depth — and learn more about ensuring your CoE can drive operational excellence — you can hear me explore the topic further in this video. 

Ramping up your CoE 

As you launch and grow a CoE, your focus areas will evolve, too. Broadly speaking, we can break the journey down into three stages. 

First, you plan. This is when targets are defined, a strong leader is appointed, and pilot use cases are chosen. It’s a good idea to focus on quick (but still strategic) use cases that can prove early value and cultivate enthusiasm for more. 

Next you establish the CoE by expanding to more process owners and use cases, and by nominating champions from the process domains who can fuel adoption and inspire others. 

Finally, you scale. This is the stage when business process owners from the wider organization are brought in, the CoE’s purpose is further aligned with overall business strategy, and your automation and transformation efforts can be pushed to the next level. 

Get to operational excellence faster 

I don’t mean to make establishing a process COE sound like a long, gruelling task. I’ve seen CoEs ramp up and generate impact within a few weeks. It’s simply a journey with many twists and obstacles, and it’s better to know what to expect before you set out. 

The transition through the stages from plan to scale doesn’t need to be a drawn-out process. In fact, quick scaling is beneficial to build and maintain momentum. My colleague Niralee Shah has some excellent insights on scaling successfully in the context of automation — which you can read in this very report. 

I’m fascinated by process execution CoEs in all the different forms they take, but they’re only successful if they fulfill their purpose and become that catalyst, evangelist and enabler of operational excellence for your organization.

 

Research Report 2021/22 - The Global State of Operational Excellence: Critical Challenges & Future Trends 

pillar%20page%20line%201

About the Author

Lars_Reinkemeyer_--author_imageLars Reinkemeyer,
Vice President, Customer Transformation,
Celonis.

Lars Reinkemeyer is VP of Customer Transformation at Celonis. He joined Celonis from Siemens, where he held multiple senior executive roles and expanded the company’s implementation of process mining. At Siemens, Reinkemeyer created a Center of Excellence and nurtured a large user community of process and execution experts. Reinkemeyer is the author of Process Mining in Action: Principles, Use Cases and Outlook.

pillar%20page%20line%201


Proqis Digital Virtual Conference Series

View our schedule of industry leading free to attend virtual conferences. Each a premier gathering of industry thought leaders and experts sharing key solutions to current challenges.

Download the most comprehensive OpEx Resport in the Industry

The Largest Leadership-Level Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Event

The Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Awards Video Presentation

Proqis Events Schedule

Proqis Digital

The Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Awards

Welcome to BTOES Insights, the content portal for Business Transformation & Operational Excellence opinions, reports & news.

Submit an Article

300x3001c (1)
24097-Proqis-Media-Pack-Banner-300x300
ACCESS 50 VIDEO PRESENTATIONS
Access all 75 Award Finalist Entires
RESEARCH REPORT 2021/2022
BTOES AWARD - NO DATE
BTOES UNIVERSAL GRAPHIC - NO DATE
Subscribe to Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Insights Now
btoes19.png
png
DO NOT TOUCH - SPEX  - Proqis Digital Event Graphics for Forward Schedule Email (47)
10-Feb-07-2023-01-57-32-2488-PM
14-Feb-02-2023-08-38-19-1475-AM
15-Feb-02-2023-08-38-54-5518-AM
16-Feb-02-2023-08-40-53-6692-AM
17-Feb-02-2023-08-41-37-8227-AM
png

Featured Content

  • Best Achievement of Operational Excellence in Technology & Communications: IBM
  • Best Achievement of Operational Excellence in Oil & Gas, Power & Utilities: Black & Veatch
  • Best Achievement in Cultural Transformation to deliver a high performing Operational Excellence culture: NextEra Energy
   
Operational Excellence Frameworks and Learning Resources, Customer Experience, Digital Transformation and more introductions
  • Intelligent BPM Systems: Impact & Opportunity
  • Surviving_the_IT_Talent_deficit.png
  • Six Sigma's Best Kept Secret: Motorola & The Malcolm Baldrige Awards
  • The Value-Switch for Digitalization Initiatives: Business Process Management
  • Process of Process Management: Strategy Execution in a Digital World

Popular Tags

Speaker Presentation Operational Excellence Business Transformation Business Improvement Business Excellence Process Management Continuous Improvement process excellence Process Optimization Process Improvement Award Finalist Case Study Digital Transformation Leadership Enterprise Excellence Change Management Lean Premium Organizational Excellence Lean Enterprise Lean Six Sigma Execution Excellence Capability Excellence New Technologies Changing & Improving Company Culture Agile end-to-end Business Transformation Enterprise Architecture Execution & Sustaining OpEx Projects Insights Article Leadership Understanding & Buy-In Lack of/Need for Resources Culture Transformation Adapting to Business Trends Changing Customer Demands Failure to Innovate Integrating CI Methodologies Lack of/Need for Skilled Workers Lack of/Need for Support from Employees Maintaining key Priorities Relationships Between Departments BTOES18 RPA & Intelligent Automation Live BTOES From Home Financial Services Technology Customer Experience Excellence Process Mining Healthcare iBPM Healthcare and Medical Devices Process Automation Culture Customer Experience Innovation BTOES Video Presentations Exclusive Webinar BTOES HEALTH Cultural Transformation Strategy Execution Business Challenges Digital Process Automation Report Industry Digital Workplace Transformation Manufacturing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) IT Infrastructure & Cloud Strategies Supply Chain Planning Automation BPM innovation execution AI Lean Manufacturing Artificial Intelligence Oil & Gas Robotic Process Automation IT value creation Agility Business Speaker Article Systems Engineering RPAs Insurance Process Design Digital Speaker's Interview data management digital operations Awards thought leaders BTOES Presentation Slides Business Process Management Cloud Intelligent Automation Machine Learning Data Analytics Digital Transformation Workplace Transformation Banking and Capital Markets Data Finance Professional Services Education IT Infrastructure IT Infrastructure & Cloud Strategies Live Blockchain Interview BTOES White Paper investment banking BTOES19 Consumer Products & Retail Enterprise Agile Planning Government Operational Excellence Model Project Management Solving Cash Flow with AI Algorithm Analytics Insight Automotive and Transportation Banking Business Environment Digital Bank Hybrid Work Model Primary Measure of succes Relationship Management Sales business expansion revenue growth Adobe Sign Agile Transformation CoE Delivery solution E-Signatures Electricity Global Technology HealthcareTechnologies Innovation in Healthcare Transportation Accounts Receivable (AR) Big Data Technology CORE Cloud Technology Cognitive learning Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) Enterprise architecture as an enabler Logistics Services Operational Excellence Example Risk Management business process automation transformation journey Covid-19 Data Entry Digital Experience Digital Network Digital Network Assistant (DNA) Digitization Drinks HR Internet Media NPS Net Promoter Score Program Management Portal (PgMP) Six Sigma Sustainability TechXLive The Document is Dead The New Era of Automation Automated Money Movement Banking & Financial Services Biopharmaceutical Blue Room Effect Building Your Future Workforce in Insurance Capital Market Creative Passion Digital Transformation Workplace Live Digital Workforce Digitalization ERP Transformation Effective Change Leaders Finance Global Operations (FGO) Financial Services Software Frameworks Hoshin Planning Human Capital Lean Culture Natural Gas Infrastructure Natural Language Processing Organizational Change Pharmaceutical Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences Project manager Reduce your RPA TCO Supply Chain Management Sustainable Growth The Fully Automated Contact Center Transformation Initiatives Workplace Analytics eForms eSignatures 3D Thinking BEAM BFARM BTOES17 Big Data Processing Business Analytics Business Growth Business Process Governance Centralized Performance Monitoring System Communication Creativity Digital Technologies Digital Technology Educational Psychologist Energy Management Health Insurance Health Maintenance Organizations Hospitality & Construction Human Centered Design Integrated Decision Approach Integrated Decision Making Intelligent Document Processing Kaizen Medicare Moodset for Excellence Natural Language Processing (NLP) Offering Managers Oil and Gas Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences Photographing Price and Routing Tracking (PART) Process Design Document (PDD) Product Identifier Descriptions (PIDs) Python Quote to Cash (Q2C) Resilience SAP Sales Quota Team Work Telecommunications Text Mining Visually Displayed Work Culture master text analytics virtual resource management

Proqis Digital Virtual Conference Series

View our schedule of industry leading free to attend virtual conferences. Each a premier gathering of industry thought leaders and experts sharing key solutions to current challenges.

Webinars

 

Delivered by Progressive Thought-Leaders

 

Watch On-Demand Recordings For Free

Watch On-Demand Recording - Access all sessions from progressive thought leaders free of charge from our industry leading virtual conferences.
 

Best-In-Class Training

Delivered by the industry's most progressive thought leaders from the world's top brands.
Start learning today!
 

BTOES From Home - On-Demand

The premier Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Conference. Watch sessions on-demand for free. Use code: BFH1120

Proqis Digital Virtual Conference Series

View our schedule of industry leading free to attend virtual conferences. Each a premier gathering of industry thought leaders and experts sharing key solutions to current challenges.

Webinars

 

Delivered by Progressive Thought-Leaders

 

Watch On-Demand Recordings For Free

Watch On-Demand Recording - Access all sessions from progressive thought leaders free of charge from our industry leading virtual conferences.
 

Best-In-Class Training

Delivered by the industry's most progressive thought leaders from the world's top brands.
Start learning today!
 

BTOES From Home - On-Demand

The premier Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Conference. Watch sessions on-demand for free. Use code: BFH1120