Innovative facilities management boosts business excellence

The BPS team - helping Africa succeed.

A business excellence consultancy and new tenant at the Hub, Business Process Support (BPS), is using IT and SAP as key process improvement and project management enablers to instill business best practice in the local market.

Their product portfolio consists of four main components: BPS Engineering & Construction (powered by mySAP All-in-One), FLEXISPACE @ the Hub, BPS Virtual Office, and specialist SAP-related process improvement consulting. The company also runs a small computer hardware, software and consumables retail business unit which differentiates itself from larger retailers through its service excellence.

"Our strength lies in our ability to build SAP-based micro-vertical focused industry solution templates that we can implement at any company for "the price of the MD's car"," says BPS managing director Rian Bezuidenhout. Stand-alone environments are replaced with a wall-to-wall, integrated business management system that allows single source information to be shared throughout the organisation. With SAP being based on best practise, small and medium businesses can move from being reactive to pro-actively responding to predictive business and risk management information. BPS E & C is the first SAP template solution for local engineer-to-order type businesses, such as mechanical and fabrication workshops.

Formulating process improvement and business excellence solutions requires constant innovation. The company's focus on innovation has already resulted in an Innovation Grant from the Department of Trade and Industry's Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII).

"A new and exciting industry solution for a very large global market is on the cards. We would like to invite members of the Hub community that could benefit from exposure to a global market of high-end consumers to help realise the solution by participating as sponsors. The Hub will certainly play an important role in the research required to blue-print the proposed solution template," according to Bezuidenhout.

FLEXISPACE @ the Hub - another BPS offering - is a temporary office accommodation solution that provides a cost-effective, configurable replacement for floating space. The development of this innovative concept led BPS to The Innovation Hub. "We noticed that shared services is one of the key value-adding factors at the Hub and realised that it would be the perfect location to pilot the FLEXIPASCE concept and test market response to it," he says.

In addition, the culture of innovation at the Hub is aligned with BPS's own philosophy. "The Hub is essentially a community of innovators. The drive for collaboration, sharing and putting South Africa on the map fits neatly into what BPS aims to achieve. The dynamic environment is a great incubator for innovation", adds Bezuidenhout. Product manager, Juanita Lesch agrees, "The benefits for network expansion are tremendous. Being part of a community of like-minded people who are modern, out-of-the-box and lateral thinkers can only add to our own growth".

Initially developed as a project office solution, FLEXISPACE @ the Hub also has a number of applications for use by organisations. Subscribers are provided with fully serviced, cost-effective working space and access to a variety of shared infrastructure - including meeting rooms, auditoria and catering facilities, as well as a number of other services. Companies can use the space for business continuation during, for example, refurbishments or disaster recovery, or even as accommodation at the end of a lease while sourcing a new location. According to Bezuidenhout, FLEXISPACE @ the Hub will allow any company "to smooth the capacity curve in terms of office accommodation".

The positioning of FLEXISPACE within the Hub precinct is supported by functional infrastructure that has been specifically designed to promote connectivity and collaboration, not only amongst tenants already on site but also externally, with peers and other organisations.

A related product offering is BPS Virtual Office. Subscribers are provided with a prestigious business address and professional office services without the need to physically occupy the office space or hire additional staff to manage another office. Each Virtual Office subscriber receives a dedicated telephone number and personalised answering service, access to fax, mail and package handling, meeting facilities and secretarial services.

Looking to the future, Bezuidenhout hones in on the company's "education" challenge. "The South African business community is largely uneducated about business best practice. This impacts negatively on achieving business excellence and on the economy as a whole. There is a need for a paradigm shift and we can certainly make a contribution. Those using the tools that we develop need the education to use them effectively", he says. He adds that educating the market is a significant challenge and is often compounded by the lack of corporate investment and solid BEE partnerships. "Our strategy to address the education problem is to face it head-on by taking business best practice to the classroom. In this regard we are well by our partnerships and knowledge and information sources. This is now further enhanced by being at the Hub and benefiting from its linkages to the University of Pretoria and the CSIR, amongst others.

Bezuidenhout maintains that despite the challenges, BPS is making great strides. His vision is to build on the success of FLEXISPACE and Virtual Office to eventually create a "Project Corner" at the Hub precinct as a stand-alone, project-centric building that provides the kind of services that enable companies to manage projects with maximum efficiency.

For more information on Business Process Support, contact Juanita Lesch on
(012) 844 0500.

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