BPI: Behind the Acronym

Always wanted to learn more about the business process improvement services at A2J? Read on to learn more about what BPI is, what our approach is at A2J, and how to determine if your organization needs a little TLC in the BPI department.

What is business process improvement, anyway? 

Business process improvement may sound fancy, but it’s the art of analyzing your current processes – whether that be how you as an organization screen and determine which applicants you will ultimately go on to serve, or how you manage your grants and other funding sources, or even how you staff certain teams or units. Part of the project might even be documenting these processes; often, we find we’re in such a rush to get things done that we just do what works in the moment and keep repeating it until we run into some new issue. In that sense, some people may associate BPI with burning the system down to start fresh. But BPI strives to take a good, hard look at those processes and question, is this working? If not, why not? What in particular isn’t working, and, if it’s a good process, why is this working and how do we replicate and preserve it? This allows us to recommend meaningful changes that will not only help revitalize processes currently, but lay the foundation for increased growth – however you define growth! – in your organization for years to come.  

In general, BPI projects at A2J have three phases: 

1. Data collection. You can think of this like discovery: we document what the current state of processes are and metrics like call reporting, case volume, rejected cases, etc. and more depending on your goals for the project.
   
   
2. Synthesis. Here’s where we put together the trends and patterns seen in the first phase to pinpoint and diagnose pain points and processes that are working well.
   
   
3. Reporting. Once all the findings have been gathered and recommendations drafted, the finished report is presented to the team for feedback and implementation. 

What makes how A2J Tech approaches BPI different? 

We know we’re not the experts for your organization – you are. We are, however, experts in change management. We take a holistic, collaborative approach because we know that it’s easy for us as outsiders to come in and tell you what changes to make, but we also know that you have to put those changes into action. That’s why we take an attitude of listening and observing first, and we’re always seeking feedback from our BPI clients on what is and isn’t possible for their organizational needs and what fits into their organizational goals. To that end, how we measure success isn’t necessarily in how many of our recommendations clients take, but in how successfully they implement any changes. While each set of recommendations is tailored for the organization’s unique circumstances, we always recommend a phased, moderated approach to ultimately improve the experience for their staff and their own clients to better serve the low-income populations in their communities. 

Just like how a client who receives legal services from your firm or legal aid organization isn’t being served by just one paralegal or one attorney but the whole organization instead, when you hire A2J as your contractor, you are hiring and benefiting from our entire team of innovators, data analysts, project managers, and accessibility experts.

How do I know if my organization needs BPI? 

That’s easy: you do. We all do – business process improvement is an ongoing project, just like self-improvement. No organization is perfect, and it’s good to have set goals and missions, and assess on a regular basis how you’re lining up with those goals. The truth of the matter is as long as there is still an access to justice gap, there will always be a conversation about how we can allocate our limited time and resources to addressing that gap. But some targeted questions you can have to determine what to focus on can be:

• Does my online intake function serve my organization effectively? 
• Does my phone system efficiently direct applicants to my intake function or functions? 
• Are cases efficiently routed to the appropriate unit or to pro bono depending on what they are with minimal back-and-forth or “bouncing around”?
• How do external stakeholders like community partners assess my organization’s role in the community? 
• Are attorneys involved in the intake function being utilized to the top of their license? 
• Is my centralized intake function fully and appropriately staffed? 
• Does my organization have a way to consistently gather feedback about intakes from clients, and if so, how?

These questions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to targeted focuses for a business process improvement project. For more information about BPI or to start your own BPI project with A2J Tech, reach out to Victoria Pan or Shelley Whitcher, and follow along for more!