The first step in a business process optimisation project is as-is process mapping, a structured effort to document and understand how your current processes actually work before changing anything. Without this foundation, any optimisation effort risks solving the wrong problems or introducing new inefficiencies in place of old ones. The sections below unpack each stage of this critical first phase, from identifying where to focus to choosing the right tools and people for the job.
Most process optimisation projects fail at the starting line because organisations jump straight to solutions before fully understanding their problems. Teams reach for new software, restructure workflows, or automate tasks without first establishing a clear, shared picture of how things currently work. The result is change built on assumptions rather than evidence.
This pattern is understandable. Business pressure is real, and leaders want results quickly. But skipping the discovery phase almost always creates rework down the line. Processes that look broken from the outside often have workarounds, dependencies, or root causes that only become visible once you map them in detail. Optimising without that clarity is like renovating a building without checking the foundations first.
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A sound digital transformation strategy begins with honest, ground-level analysis. That means resisting the urge to start with technology and instead starting with the question: what is actually happening in our business today, and where is value being lost?
As-is process mapping is the practice of documenting your existing business processes exactly as they operate today, not as they were designed on paper. It captures every step, decision point, handover, and system interaction in a given workflow, giving your organisation a factual baseline from which to measure and plan improvement.
In practice, this means combining structured interviews with process owners, observation of day-to-day operations, and analysis of system data. The goal is to surface the real process, including the informal workarounds and exceptions that never appear in official documentation. These gaps between the intended process and the lived reality are often where the biggest inefficiencies hide.
The output is typically a visual process map or flow diagram that all stakeholders can read and validate. This shared artefact becomes the foundation for every subsequent decision in the project, from prioritising improvements to building the business case for technology investment.
You identify which processes to optimise first by evaluating them against two dimensions: the impact of improving them and the feasibility of doing so. Processes that are both high-impact and relatively straightforward to address should move to the top of the list. This approach ensures early wins without overextending resources.
Practical criteria to apply when prioritising include:
For organisations exploring business process optimisation for the first time, starting with a single end-to-end process, such as order-to-cash or procure-to-pay, often delivers the clearest picture of where technology and redesign can have the greatest effect. You can also browse TheValueChain’s range of solutions and accelerators to find the right starting point for your organisation.
The first phase of a process optimisation project should involve a cross-functional group that includes process owners, frontline employees, IT representatives, and at least one senior sponsor. Each brings a different and necessary perspective: operational reality, technical constraints, and strategic direction.
Frontline employees are particularly critical at this stage. They are the people who actually execute the process every day and know where it breaks down, where they compensate, and what the real bottlenecks are. Excluding them from discovery almost always produces an incomplete or inaccurate as-is picture.
Senior sponsorship matters too, not because executives need to attend every workshop, but because the discovery phase often surfaces uncomfortable truths about how the business operates. Having visible leadership commitment ensures that findings are taken seriously and that the project has the authority to recommend meaningful change.
For organisations considering why to implement an ERP or a broader digital transformation, this cross-functional team also becomes the group that translates process insights into technology requirements, making their early involvement an investment that pays dividends throughout the entire project.
The most commonly used tools for mapping and analysing existing business processes range from simple diagramming software to advanced process intelligence platforms. The right choice depends on the complexity of your processes, the scale of your organisation, and how deeply you need to analyse process performance data.
At the foundational level, tools like Microsoft Visio or Lucidchart allow teams to create clear visual process maps quickly. For organisations that need more analytical depth, dedicated process mining and modelling platforms offer significantly more capability. SAP Signavio, for example, enables organisations to visualise processes in real time, identify bottlenecks using actual transaction data, and benchmark performance against industry standards. This moves process analysis from a subjective exercise to a data-driven one.
Process mining tools are particularly valuable during the as-is phase because they extract process flows directly from system logs, revealing how processes actually run rather than how people remember them running. This objectivity is hard to achieve through interviews and workshops alone, and it often uncovers variation and inefficiency that would otherwise remain invisible.
The discovery phase of a process optimisation project typically takes between two and eight weeks, depending on the scope of processes being mapped, the number of business units involved, and the availability of relevant data. Smaller, well-defined projects can move faster; enterprise-wide programmes with multiple geographies or legacy systems take longer.
A common mistake is treating the discovery phase as something to rush through to get to the “real work.” In practice, the quality of what you discover in this phase directly determines the quality of every decision that follows. A thorough discovery phase shortens the overall project by reducing rework, misaligned requirements, and mid-implementation course corrections.
For organisations undergoing business process automation or a migration to a modern ERP platform, the discovery phase also produces the documentation needed to configure new systems accurately. Investing time here is not a delay, it is the most efficient use of project resources available at this stage.
TheValueChain guides mid-to-large enterprises through every stage of process optimisation, from the very first discovery workshop to full-scale implementation and continuous improvement. As a certified SAP partner recognised at the SAP BeLux Partner Awards 2025, TheValueChain brings both the technical depth and the hands-on pragmatism that complex transformation projects demand.
Working with TheValueChain means your organisation benefits from:
Whether your organisation is taking its first steps toward digital transformation or is ready to move from strategy to implementation, TheValueChain brings the specialist knowledge and genuine partnership ethos to make that journey successful. Get in touch with TheValueChain to start your process optimisation discovery phase with a team that treats your business challenges as their own.
As-is process mapping documents how your processes actually work today, capturing every step, workaround, and inefficiency in the current state. To-be process mapping, by contrast, defines how those processes should work after optimisation — the desired future state. You cannot produce a credible or realistic to-be design without a thorough as-is baseline, because without it you risk designing improvements that conflict with real operational constraints or miss the root causes of existing problems.
The most effective approach is to frame the discovery phase as a listening exercise, not a performance review. Make clear from the outset that the goal is to understand the process, not to evaluate individuals. Anonymous input channels, small group workshops rather than large formal meetings, and visible senior sponsorship that reinforces a blame-free culture all help frontline staff feel safe enough to share the real picture — including the workarounds and shortcuts that official documentation never captures.
The three most common mistakes are: mapping the process as it was designed rather than as it is actually performed, relying solely on interviews without validating findings against system data, and scoping the exercise too broadly so that the team never reaches the level of detail needed to be useful. A focused, well-scoped process map that reflects operational reality is far more valuable than a comprehensive but idealised diagram that stakeholders cannot recognise in their day-to-day work.
Process mining is a powerful complement to workshops and interviews, but it rarely replaces them entirely. Tools like SAP Signavio can extract actual process flows from system logs with remarkable objectivity, surfacing variations and bottlenecks that human recall would miss. However, system data alone cannot explain why deviations happen, what informal workarounds exist outside of logged systems, or what the business context behind an anomaly is — that qualitative layer still requires direct engagement with the people who run the process.
A good rule of thumb is that your as-is map is ready when frontline employees who execute the process can read it and confirm it reflects their daily reality, and when it is detailed enough to make bottlenecks, handover points, and decision logic clearly visible. If stakeholders are still regularly saying ‘but what about this exception’ or ‘that’s not quite how it works,’ the map needs more refinement. Completeness is not about capturing every edge case — it is about capturing enough of the real process that improvement decisions can be made with confidence.
This is actually one of the most valuable outcomes the discovery phase can produce. Finding that processes are more complex, inconsistent, or inefficient than leadership assumed is not a setback — it is precisely the kind of evidence needed to build a compelling business case for investment and change. The key is to document findings objectively, prioritise issues by impact, and present them to senior sponsors as opportunities rather than failures. Organisations that confront this reality early avoid far more costly surprises during implementation.
As-is process maps are a foundational input for any ERP selection or implementation. They translate your operational reality into concrete functional requirements, helping you evaluate whether a given platform can support your actual workflows rather than just your idealised ones. During implementation, they also serve as the baseline against which new system configurations are validated, reducing the risk of going live with a system that does not reflect how your business genuinely operates. Skipping this step is one of the leading causes of ERP implementations that go over budget or underdeliver on expected benefits.