In general, the first question that a team embarking on a BPM initiative needs to
clarify is “what business processes are we intending to improve”? Right at the outset
and before the possibility of applying BPM is put on the table, there will probably
already be an idea of what operational problems the team has to address and what
business processes are posing those operational problems. In other words, the team
will not start from scratch. For example, if the problem is that site engineers com-plain that their job is being hampered by difficulties in securing construction equip-ment when needed, and knowing that this equipment is to a large extent rented, it
is clear that this problem should be addressed by looking at the equipment rental
process. Still, one has to delimit this process. In particular, one has to answer ques-tions such as: Does the process start right from the moment when rental suppliers
are selected? Does it end when the rented equipment is delivered to the construction
site or does it end when the equipment is returned back to the supplier, or does it
continue until the fee for equipment rental has been paid to the supplier?