A function is a purposeful activity, a way of behavior of elements in an active system. The results of the action of each element in the system are summarized and lead to a useful result as a whole. Correspondence to this general resulting effect of a given element is its correspondence to the system, the whole. Therefore "function in its systemic sense can be defined as such a relationship of a part to the whole in which the very existence or some form of manifestation of the part ensures the existence or some form of manifestation of the whole"(Setrov M.I. Fundamentals of the functional theory of organization. - L., 1972. - P. 31).

As you can see, the function characterizes an active, cybernetic system. Active system- a system of organized nature (plant, animal, human, man-machine, technical and technological objects, etc.), which has a purposefully ordered structure and achieves some goal in the process of functioning.

Functional approach guides the researcher to identify features, laws and patterns functioning of systems, abstracting from their substrate-structural basis. The beginning of the formation of the functional approach can be attributed to the use of the method of purely functional research under the term “black box”. A “black box” is a system whose structure and internal processes are unknown or very complex. Disregarding the contents of the “black box”, attention is focused on the task of detecting functional dependencies between the input and output parameters of the system in the process of inputting predetermined influences (signals).

In its most general form, the functional approach solves a range of problems that are determined by the set of relationships and connections between the object under study, as a certain integrity, and the environment. These, for example, include:

firstly, problems of adaptation and equilibrium of systems. In biology, issues of adaptation of organisms to living conditions and further acclimatization of populations with changes in heredity are solved here. Social adaptation considers the interaction of an individual or a social group with the social environment, during which the requirements and expectations of its participants are agreed upon. The most important component of social adaptation is the coordination of the subject's self-esteem and claims with his capabilities and with the reality of the social environment. Adaptation of technical objects is associated with the creation of adaptive systems, i.e. automatic control systems that remain operational under conditions of unforeseen changes in the properties of the controlled object, control goal or environmental conditions by changing the operating algorithm or searching for optimal states;

secondly, problems of information transfer; management problems; a set of problems solved within the framework of automata theory; problems of constructing decision-making models, problems of optimizing the functioning of systems, etc. (see, for example: Kochergin A. N. Scientific knowledge: forms, methods, approaches. - M., 1991).

In the process of formation, the functional approach established and highlighted a set of principles on which he relies when analyzing the specifics of active systems. Such conceptual means include: the principle of unity of object and environment; the principle of functional closure, including the principle of feedback; the principle of hierarchy of systems; the principle of target management, etc. (see: Yu. G. Markov, Functional approach in modern scientific knowledge. - Novosibirsk, 1982).

The functional approach, functionalism, and functional analysis are most developed in the most organized - social systems and subsystems.

Functional approach in sociology- one of the main methodological approaches in modern social science. Its essence consists in identifying the elements of social interaction that are subject to research, and determining their place and meaning (function) in some connection, the qualitative certainty of which makes its systematic consideration necessary. The functional approach directs the researcher to clarify the functions of some social phenomena in relation to others within a given society. Thus, the functions of the state, law, art, ideology, etc., as well as the basis and superstructure are analyzed in detail; economic, social, political relations; socio-economic, political and cultural institutions, etc. By exploring these functional relationships, scientists strive to understand social mechanisms and methods of their reproduction, repetition, and self-maintenance.

The functional approach in the technosphere is widely deployed and specified in the theory and methodology of scientific and technical creativity. Its logic and methodology are clearly visible in the conceptual apparatus: technical function, functional element, formulation of functions, functional structure of technical systems, functional structure, flow functional structure, functional model of an object, law of correspondence between function and structure, functional criteria of technical systems, functional analysis, functionally justified costs, functional cost analysis, laws and patterns of technical systems, etc. (see: Technical creativity: theory, methodology, practice. Encyclopedic dictionary-reference book. - M., 1995).

Operational management process-oriented management.

The functional approach is that the activities of an organization are presented as a set of functions assigned to functional units in the organizational structure. In this approach, the capabilities of the organization are determined and - What do we have to do-- divisions and performers within the framework of their functions.

Functional specialization, as a rule, ensures high quality of individual work, but requires constant coordination of the activities of departments and employees, whose goals may not coincide. The need to resolve emerging contradictions between specialized units increases the burden on management.

With a functional approach, in order to accomplish a common task, it is necessary to work out a mechanism for interaction between the functions assigned to departments in relation to the business process and intensively coordinate the actions of participants.

With the process approach, the activities of the organization, departments, managers and direct performers are initially aimed at obtaining the final result and are perceived by them as a set of interconnected business processes that ensure the achievement of a common goal - the implementation of the main operational function of the organization. The specific technology for performing each process and operation is determined - how it should be done, to satisfy the consumer of its results - external or internal client.

When implementing a process approach, it is necessary:

Orient the activities of the organization, its divisions and employees towards the satisfaction of the end consumer and consider it as a set of business processes. This creates an appropriate culture of task perception in the organization.

Identify the client and owner of each business process.

Regulate business processes, i.e. describe the sequence of operations, responsibility, the procedure for interaction between performers and the procedure for making decisions to improve the business process.

Determine the key indicators of each business process, allowing you to evaluate the result of its execution and the impact on the results of the organization as a whole.

The process approach and the development of related cross-functional and inter-organizational integration allows:

direct departments and employees to meet customer requirements;

more effectively differentiate powers and responsibilities using delegation of authority;

reduce the dependence of results on the individual performer;

identify sources of costs and reduce them;

reduce the time for making management decisions;

reduce the amount of cross-functional coordination (operational leadership).

With a process approach, the manageability of the organization increases, the influence of the human factor and costs are reduced, and most importantly, a qualitative change occurs in the organization itself and the formation process-oriented organization, in which the entire team is a conscious participant in the continuous process of activity associated with the final result of product production and consumer satisfaction.

Integration of activities. Policies for integration of operational functions and specialization in operational functions

The development of specialization, which contributes to the emergence of highly qualified employees and the quality of work performed, leads to differentiation, i.e. increasing the degree of independence of individual employees and functional units in the organization. However, to achieve common goals, differentiation requires appropriate integration (ensuring the necessary interaction) between functional units and employees. This problem is solved by the management of the organization, ensuring the necessary degree of interaction between performers of independent areas of work to achieve the overall goals of the organization.

Integration of activities is usually considered at four levels: operational, functional, cross-functional and inter-organizational.

The first three levels (operational, functional and cross-functional) refer to internal integration. However, it should be noted that the functional level already presupposes a certain independence of performers in their interaction with the external environment, therefore, some presence of external integration. The interorganizational level of integration is referred to as external integration.

At the operational level integration is provided for individual operations and functions. For example: Suppliers- transportation - warehousing - processing - warehousing - transportation- Buyers. Each of the structural divisions has local goals and indicators for assessing performance, which are largely isolated from the assessment of their impact on the conditions and results of activities of other divisions or services of the enterprise. Integration at the operational level is ensured by systems for coordinating activities: operational process maps, description and identification of business processes, systems for administrative coordination of activities vertically and horizontally (for example, Gantt charts).

At the functional level integration combines related operations and functions. Limited integrated areas emerge, such as purchasing management, inventory management, warehousing and transportation, manufacturing, sales and distribution management. Their partial integration leads to the formation of a list of main functions and functional areas. For example: Suppliers- supply - production - sales- Buyers. There are still local, but more integrated goals, objectives and performance assessment indicators than at the operational level of integration. With developed integration within each enlarged function and functional area (supply, production, sales), there is functional isolation of various services and functional areas from each other. Therefore, preferences for the goals of managed subsystems over the goals of the control system may arise and overall performance may decrease.

At this level of integration, functional areas are administratively coordinated and budgets of functional units are controlled. The main goal is to control the use of resources and ensure optimal inventory levels within the framework of cross-functional coordination. However, in general, the cost system is focused on functional activities and does not take into account cross-functional components, therefore, the volume of resource flow is often difficult to measure and control, and therefore to determine the cost of the capital associated with it.

At the cross-functional level Integration is developing, making it possible to concentrate the efforts of all structural divisions and services of the organization on obtaining the final result. The works and their performers are united around the final result.

The tools for cross-functional integration are MRP, JIT, and ERP systems. These systems make it possible to more fully coordinate the activities of employees and various departments, encouraging people to interact in a single information system and forming a common view of the business process. To overcome structural contradictions in the organizational structure, departmentalization based on results is used.

However, in modern conditions, cross-functional integration is not enough; its presence is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the successful operation of an organization, therefore the use of inter-organizational (external) integration is required.

Interorganizational level integration proceeds from the fact that the stability of an open system is ensured not due to internal functional hierarchy, but due to developed interaction with the external environment. Understanding the impacts of external factors can lead to greater predictability in the behavior of an open system and to the expedient ordering of the functioning of its component parts.

At this level of integration, interorganizational interaction is realized, as a result of which the efforts of enterprises connected with each other by common business processes or joint transactions are combined.

The most important element of the mechanism for strengthening interorganizational interaction is the information space or information flows, which make it possible to establish such relationships in which it becomes known what kind of demand is generated by the consumers themselves, which allows the organization to more accurately plan its activities and increase the accuracy of forecasts. In addition, building relationships with external links is one of the ways to ensure the sustainable operation of the supply chain.

Traditional vertical integration can also be used, when the enterprise concentrates all or almost all production necessary for the manufacture of final products. However, the effectiveness of this integration tool is known to be limited by the scale of controllability.

Tools for the development of interorganizational relations are the formation of partnerships, strategic alliances, and contractual interactions.

With the development of information technology and telecommunications, ensuring inter-organizational integration is automated and develops into machine integration (Machine-to-Machine). Automation of interorganizational processes and their subordination to certain business rules reduces the need for human intervention at each stage of activity.

When managing an organization, one, several or all of the considered levels of integration of activities as an object of management can be used. Depending on the level of activity being considered, we can talk about managing operations, functional areas, cross-functional or inter-organizational interactions.

The effectiveness of managing individual functional areas depends on the quality of the organization at the operational level of integration of activities. The basis of interorganizational integration is interfunctional interaction in individual organizations, and the effectiveness of this interaction is ensured by the quality of the organization of functional work. The process approach to management makes it possible to ensure the operation of a network of business processes of an organization without distinguishing functional and cross-functional levels.

The enterprise can carry out policy of integration of operational functions or specialization in an operational function.

Operational Functions Integration Policy is that when implementing the main operating function, the organization also focuses on the functions that ensure the functioning of the operating system, i.e. strives to perform as many of these functions as possible in-house.

The advantages of such a policy are: centralized control; the ability to increase system reliability before problems arise related to the scale of controllability; reduction of costs for attracting contractors and subcontractors.

However, refusal to involve third parties and centralized control leads to an increase in the supporting subsystem of the operating system, which can lead to the development of an organization that is cumbersome and ineffective from the point of view of controllability, diverting significant forces from performing the main operating function.

Policy of specialization in the operational function consists of specializing in one area of ​​competence and transferring auxiliary operational functions to other performers (contractors) located outside the organization.

Outsourcing– this is the transfer of production of auxiliary activities to third-party organizations (counterparties). In practical terms, this is the cooperation of various enterprises producing products and services based on the specialization of each of them in one type of activity, which allows each participant in the process to concentrate efforts and resources on this activity and contributes to the achievement of better overall results.

For example, the manufacturer of the final product may abandon its own production of any components and parts and transfer their production to an enterprise that produces these components for many consumers. Do not deal with the issues of packaging and shipping your products, but transfer this work to an independent specialized company that forms shipments, packs them, ensures delivery of goods anywhere in the world, solving all the necessary customs and other clearance procedures. Refuse your own transport facilities and entrust transport services to another company. Refuse to maintain a department for repairing technological equipment and use the services of specialized companies. Many activities, such as catering, cleaning, creation and maintenance of computer and security systems, have become completely outsourced.

This allows:

concentrate efforts on implementing the main operating function;

reduce efforts in solving auxiliary tasks;

use the core competencies (products) of high quality contractors and subcontractors, which provides an opportunity to improve the quality of their products;

reduce the number of employees, increase the productivity and controllability of the organization.

However, when implementing such a policy, the following disadvantages may appear:

loss of control over part of the process of creating your products;

dependence on suppliers;

risks associated with violation of counterparties (suppliers) of their obligations.

When deciding whether to transfer support functions to contractors and subcontractors, the following factors are usually assessed:

available production capacity;

special knowledge and own competencies;

level of development of the quality management system in the organization;

demand characteristics important for the release of a product or service;

opportunity to reduce costs.

Policies of operational specialization and outsourcing came into use later than policies of integrating operational functions, but are now widespread. As a rule, organizations that focus on the main operational function and use outsourcing for these purposes achieve higher quality results.

The efficiency of any organization (bank, industrial enterprise, trading company) is largely determined by the effectiveness of management, its compliance with the internal and external conditions of the organization's activities. Changing these conditions cannot but cause changes in management methods. In the last decades of the 20th century, the traditional functional approach to management began to be replaced by a process-oriented approach. It goes all over the world in all industries, including banking. But it seems that this transition is hardly observed in the Russian banking industry. Why? Maybe Russian banks are not yet “ripe” for process-oriented management? Or is it a matter of tools, or rather, the lack thereof? First, let's clarify the difference between functional and process approaches to management.

So, with a functional approach to management, each structural unit (employee, department, management) is assigned a number of functions, the area of ​​responsibility is described, and criteria for successful and unsuccessful activities are formulated. As a rule, horizontal connections between structural units are weak, while vertical connections along the “superior-subordinate” line are strong. The subordinate is responsible only for the functions assigned to him and, possibly, for the activities of his department as a whole. The functions and results of the work of parallel structural units are not very interesting to him.

With a process approach to management, each structural unit ensures the implementation of specific business processes in which it participates. Responsibilities, areas of responsibility, and criteria for successful performance for each structural unit are formulated and make sense only in the context of a specific business process. Horizontal connections between structural units with this approach are much stronger than in the case of the functional approach. Vertical connections between structural units and along the “superior-subordinate” line are somewhat weaker.

An employee is responsible not only for his functions, but also for the business processes in which he is involved. The functions and results of the activities of parallel structural units that participate in the same business processes as him are important to him. Mutual responsibility for the result of the business process arises between all its participants.

The functional approach is most optimal in cases where the entire business process (or a significant part of it) is concentrated within one structural unit. For example, in the case of an industrial enterprise, when a certain structural unit performs the full cycle of production and sale of a certain product: from the purchase of raw materials to the sale of the finished product. In general, this scheme is most suitable for enterprises with stable business processes operating in markets with a low level of competition. Such markets also include markets for natural monopolies.

But modern enterprises are characterized by a complex organizational structure, within which responsibility for the release of the final product is distributed among several structural units - highly professional, but highly specialized. And in this case, the advantages of the process approach become obvious, especially for enterprises operating in highly competitive markets, when business processes have to be changed frequently. And Russian banks are now intensively moving into this class of enterprises.

Let's try to assess the need for process-oriented management for Russian banks, based on development trends in the Russian banking sector over the past few years.

Increasing dynamics and competition characteristic features of the Russian banking services market. Over the past seven years it has undergone the following changes:

• the vector of attractiveness of banking instruments has radically changed its direction at least three times (GKOs, the real sector of the economy, retail);
• By the nature of consumption, the banking product has turned from individual to mass;
• increased competition in the banking services market has forced the modern bank to take management, innovation and the search for new banking instruments seriously.

In the last two or three years, according to experts, a significant increase in the complexity of the products offered and an increased focus on the client, primarily on mass servicing of individuals, have come to the fore.

For example, a loan product in a Russian bank in recent years has turned from the simplest (regular loan; line of credit; overdraft) into a complex mixed product (loan against acquiring and collected proceeds; consumer loan with annuity payments and with the possibility of early repayment of the loan; car loans: communication with collateral and insurance contract).

Such trends could not but affect the requirements for bank management and, above all, for the management of banking products, as well as for the core banking system as a bank management tool.

Some of them can be fully satisfied within the framework of a functional approach to management.

Some, but not all. For example, providing timely and adequate support for frequent changes to existing and the development of many new banking instruments and products. The functional approach to management (and the modern ABS that supports it) becomes inadequate under these conditions. You can’t create a new division (or temporary working group) every time for a new product or group of products...

So, changes in the Russian banking services market are objectively pushing Russian banks to switch to process-oriented management.

The psychological and organizational difficulties of transitioning to a new management scheme are clear and obvious. Instrumental support (in our time this is IT support) of process-oriented management is a less obvious and more complex thing.

The functional approach to organizing management has existed for a long time and its implementation even in our time is quite possible without the use of modern IT.

In contrast to this approach, the implementation of process-oriented management is practically impossible without modern IT and, above all, without the use of workflow class systems.

The information environment created on the basis of a workflow class system is optimized for automating the management of business processes. The main task in this case is to ensure accounting, control, analysis and planning of the business process. To do this, she formulates tasks for specific performers, provides the necessary tools and information to complete the task, processes the result obtained, and controls the deadline for completing the task.

Workflow ideologists from the Workflow Management Coalition believe that without workflow, a process-oriented management structure is not viable in practice.

To transition to process-oriented management, an enterprise must describe business processes “as is” and “as should be.” Then, so that these descriptions do not remain a pile of documents, but serve as the basis for the reorganization of enterprise management, mechanisms are needed to encourage employees and departments to accept and carry out the reorganization. One of these mechanisms (from the IT side) is the workflow class system.

As a result of the transition to process-oriented management, the quality of business processes and their management should be improved, and, in general, the efficiency of the organization's core business should be raised to a new level. And for the organization’s IT infrastructure, the main results of implementing workflow technology will be:

• separation of functional application logic from business process rules;
• linking functional applications with business process stages;
• improving interaction between the IT technologist and the business analyst (or banking technologist).

Modern enterprises operating in a highly competitive and dynamic environment (this is precisely the environment in which Russian banks operate in 2002-2003) are characterized by constant changes in the totality of their business processes. Some business processes disappear, new ones appear, existing ones are modified. It can be said that such enterprises are in a constant process of reengineering their business processes and it is highly desirable for them to be aware of this fact and act accordingly.

In some simple cases, for example, when moving from sequential loan approval to parallel, it turns out that there is no need to create new business process functionality; the existing one is quite sufficient, which perhaps just needs to be redistributed between business processes (this is possible thanks to the separation logic of functional applications from rules for business processes). So, for a successful transition to process-oriented management, after the stage of describing business processes, a stage of work on introducing a workflow environment is necessary. To begin with, at the pilot project level, it is necessary to implement several formalized (using workflow technology) business processes “as is,” thereby proving that this environment is viable and ready to support process-oriented management for the enterprise as a whole.

The introduction of advanced management methods and information technologies is proceeding in Russia with some delay in comparison with Western countries.

Therefore, it makes sense to familiarize yourself with the experiences of those who go first. The use of process-oriented management based on the workflow environment in Western banks is growing, but it is worth noting that workflow is very widely used outside the context of supporting process-oriented management to support individual bank business processes in order to increase their efficiency. We call this approach “piecewise automation.” The most well-known examples of the use of workflow in Western banks are, as a rule, the support of large-scale business processes, which Russian banks have not yet “grown up” to (these examples can be found on the page http://www. e-workflow .org/case_studies /financial/index.htm).

Of course, when studying Western experience, it is necessary to take into account not only the difference in the scale of business processes and business, but also the differences in the operating conditions and work culture of Western and Russian banks. In particular, while Russian banks are just approaching the release of a variety of banking products, Western banks have been working in this mode for a long time.

Therefore, we will give a very simple hypothetical example of the application of process-oriented management in a bank.

The bank's marketing department, together with banking technologists and financial analysts, developed a new banking loan product. A number of organizational measures are required to implement it.

Reaction of departments and employees: changes in the work of the credit department will most likely be perceived positively by employees of this department; the introduction of a new product will bring additional profit from the activities of their department. The remaining divisions involved in its implementation (accounting, reporting department, operations department, etc.) will only incur “expenses” in the form of performing previously uncharacteristic additional functions. This will especially reduce the motivation of employees of “profitable” departments.

With a process-oriented structure, all involved participants in the business process will make a clearly defined contribution to support the new banking product. The departments will not only have a positive attitude towards the new, more efficient product, but also, being interested in the final result, will quickly carry out “practical” adjustment of the business process: correct technological errors, make changes aimed at optimizing the process.

It is worth noting that workflow-class systems that Western (and some Russian) banks use are external to the main functional banking systems and with this method of application, workflow capabilities to support process-oriented management are not fully realized.

Banks can take advantage of process-oriented management based on a workflow environment only if this environment is also the environment for the main functional banking systems, i.e. it will be built into the ABS. More precisely, the ABS itself will be built on the principles of workflow.

The management of the Quorum company, based on these trends in the field of management and changes in the Russian banking services market, as well as from an analysis of the development of modern information technologies, decided to develop the core banking system NEXT a new generation banking system of the workflow class.

When this system enters the Russian market, which is scheduled for April 2004, it will contain the following functional blocks:

• general ledger;
• external and internal payment document flow;
• client file;
• lending to legal entities;
• deposits of legal entities;
• comprehensive services for individuals, including:
• deposits of the population;
• payments and transfers;
• consumer, mortgage and car loans;
• back office of plastic cards.

The main purpose of this system is to create and support a process-oriented management structure in the bank, which gives the bank management a reliable management mechanism for real control over the technological processes in the bank. To transition to process management, ABS NEXT provides an environment that will ensure the execution of formalized business processes, i.e. workflow environment.

The delivery package for ABS NEXT will also include a set of standard models of business products.

Bank technologists can not only describe and configure the execution of business processes, but also create their own completely new banking product using these standard models.

The second main feature of ABS NEXT is the solution to the problem of integrating ABS with other information systems used by banks. In reality, all banks use a variety of application systems, and for IT departments, ensuring the collaboration of these systems is one of the main tasks. This task is often a headache for bank IT departments.

I would like to note that the problem of integration into NEXT ABS has been solved at a qualitatively higher level than in existing ABS thanks to the development of a special NEXT Platform, which is part of the ABS. The platform is based on products from Oracle and IBM corporations. It allows you to use various methods of integrating functional applications developed both by the bank’s IT department and by third-party developers.

The idea of ​​such an approach, as they say, “was in the air.” A similar approach to the creation of a modern core banking system was proposed by the expert of the Association of Russian Banks (ARB) Alexander Lysenko (see the article “Outlines of the modern architecture of banking automation” in the magazine “Banks and Technologies”, No. 3/2000, p. 4-

9): “...A star-shaped architecture, where the center of the star is not the basic application of the “Transaction Day” type, but the application of the “Glue” type. All business applications, including even the main one, are equal - each does its part of the processing and interacts with others on an equal basis.

…Application interaction is the main goal of automation...”

When developing ABS NEXT, special attention was paid to achieving high performance, especially for the accounting core (posting mechanism), which was separated into a separate software layer optimized for performance. The productivity problem, which seems to be quite satisfactorily solved in existing core banking systems, will become very acute as new banking products for individuals are implemented, as well as due to increased requirements for management accounting.

Changes in business processes, as a rule, cannot but affect the code of functional applications, so the problem of managing application code and its changes was recognized as a separate task when creating the NEXT core banking system. ABS NEXT can be developed not only by its developers, but also by bank specialists. When installing a new version of the system from the Quorum company, either automatic or semi-automatic merging of it with system applications modified by bank specialists is ensured.

And last but not least: ten years ago, when the Russian software development industry for banks was just emerging, there was a lack of practical experience in creating banking systems. Now ABS NEXT is being developed by a professional team that has practical experience in creating banking systems and is well aware of both the strengths and weaknesses of most solutions currently presented on the Russian market.

The time for process-oriented management in Russian banks has come!

Thanks to the changes in the banking services market, which we discussed above, Russian banks are “ripe” for the transition to process-oriented management.

In addition, unlike Western financial institutions, Russian banks have not yet acquired ingrained management stereotypes that reject new approaches, and a considerable flow of instructions from higher organizations forces banks to almost constantly modernize their business processes, which employ many employees, even without regard to changes in the banking services market. Process-oriented management will allow them to carry out these changes faster and with fewer errors, since with this approach it is easier (compared to the functional approach) to determine what exactly needs to be changed and in which departments.

The bank’s transition to process-oriented management may well occur in an evolutionary manner, with maximum preservation of investments already made in management technologies and IT infrastructure. Actually, this is exactly what Western banks are switching to, which are gradually transferring to a new management scheme those areas of their activities, primarily emerging ones, which benefit to the maximum extent from process-oriented management. Russian banks, naturally, can also follow this path, but at the same time, the specifics of their activities provide grounds for considering more radical, faster options for the transition to process-oriented management.

The need to use process-oriented management in recent years has been increasingly recognized by the Russian banking community. This is also evidenced by the interest shown by bank specialists in such events as the Process-Bank conference; the topic of process-oriented management is increasingly being discussed at various industry events; the most recent Forum of Banking Developers, held in September 2003, stands out in this regard.

Moreover, many domestic banks have already begun to work on improving their business processes within the framework of the concept of process-oriented management. They improve their work efficiency; without increasing staff, they offer new services, reduce customer service time, and reduce costs. And the use of formalized processes can reduce the development time of new products. Moreover, these results were obtained without full instrumental support from IT.

But this is only the beginning, within the framework of which basic ideas and methodologies are mastered, such as the Balanced Scorecard (BS) methodology; if you have a clearly formulated bank development strategy for management, you can effectively use a system of key performance indicators (Key Performance Indicator, KPI) and etc. The use of BS, KPI and other techniques at the first stage is desirable, but not mandatory. Even rationalization, “straightening” of business processes based on common sense is already having an effect.

But to the greatest extent, the potential of process-oriented management is realized with its full support from the bank’s IT infrastructure through the use of general and specialized (for banks) software products, and primarily based on workflow technology. The current lack of supply of such products on the Russian market is one of the factors that hinders a broader transition of banks to process-oriented management. But this situation is beginning to improve.

1. Workflow Management Coalition is a non-profit organization that aims to expand the use of workflow technologies by developing common terminology and standards.

Traditionally, the activities of an organization are viewed through the organizational structure of management of the organization. The corresponding functional approach to management is that the activities of an organization are presented as a set of functions assigned to functional units. To carry out certain business processes in an organization, it is necessary to work out a mechanism for implementing the functions assigned to departments.

The mechanism for implementing functions aims functional units to achieve their local goals, between which there may be objective contradictions. Personnel concentrate their attention within individual structures. There may be a shift in the main and supporting operational functions and a decrease in operational efficiency.

The main disadvantages of the functional approach to managing an organization, resulting from a lack of focus on the final result, are recognized as high overhead costs, long lead times for developing management decisions, and the risk of losing clients.

The process approach to management ignores the organizational structure of managing an organization with its inherent assignment of functions to individual departments. With the process approach, the organization is perceived by managers and employees as an activity consisting of business processes aimed at obtaining the final result. The organization is perceived as a network of business processes, which is a set of interconnected and interacting business processes, including all functions performed in the organization's divisions. While the functional structure of a business determines the capabilities of the enterprise by establishing what should be done, the process structure (in the operating system of a business) describes the specific technology for achieving set goals and objectives, answering the question of how it should be done.

Principles of the process approach to management. The process approach is based on the following principles:

• 1. The company's activities are considered as a set of business processes.
• 2. The execution of business processes is subject to mandatory regulation or formal description.
• 3. Each business process has an internal or external client and an owner (the person responsible for the result of the business process).
• 4. Each business process is characterized by key indicators that describe its execution, result or impact on the outcome of the organization as a whole.

The principles of the process approach to management determine the basic rules, guided by which it is possible to organize the effective functioning of a business aimed at the final result.

The first principle defines the vision of the company’s activities as a set of business processes. It is he who determines the new culture of perception of the organization in the process approach.

The second principle of the process approach, which requires mandatory regulation of business processes, is based on the fact that a regulation is a document that describes the sequence of operations, responsibilities, the procedure for interaction between performers, and the procedure for making decisions to improve a business process.

Isolating a business process is always associated with identifying a client or consumer of the process result that has a certain value for him. In addition to the client, each business process has an owner - an official who has the necessary resources at his disposal, manages the progress of the business process and is responsible for the results and efficiency of the business process. The owner of a business process is an official, a formal leader, therefore he has the necessary powers, has the resources required to implement the process, manages the progress of the business process and is responsible for its result.

Advantages of the process approach to management.

When discussing the content of the process approach to management, its undeniable advantages over the functional approach are obvious. The main advantages of the process approach include:

• a) focus on meeting customer requirements;
• b) freeing management from the routine of operational management;
• c) the ability to identify bottlenecks and work reserves;
• d) creating standards for the sequence of personnel actions;
• e) the emergence of the possibility of “replicating” a business - opening new business platforms based on formalized business processes;
• f) implementation of the principle of continuous improvement of activities.

These advantages guarantee high performance of the organization, the management of which has a pronounced process-oriented nature.

Process-oriented management allows you to qualitatively change the activities of an organization at the operational, cross-functional and inter-organizational levels of its integration. Functional integration ceases to be a source of difficult to resolve interfunctional conflicts. The operational level of integration receives a new vision thanks to the network of business processes of the organization and allows:

• a) more effectively delineate the powers and responsibilities of personnel;
• b) develop an effective system of delegation of authority;
• c) ensure standardization of requirements for performers;
• d) minimize the risk of dependence on an individual performer;
• e) reduce the workload of managers;
• f) reduce costs;
• g) increase the efficiency of personnel management;
• h) identify sources of reducing costs and time for executing business processes;
• i) reduce the time for making management decisions.

As a result, the controllability of the organization increases, the influence of the human factor and the cost of products and services are reduced. All this leads to a change in the quality of the organization itself and the formation of a process-oriented organization in which the entire team is a conscious participant in the continuous process of activity associated with the final result of the production of products or the provision of services.

The development of a process approach to management has received wide resonance. As the Fortune 1000 ranking shows, virtually all of the world's leading organizations are process-oriented organizations.

Based on an understanding of what business processes are carried out in an organization, it is possible to build an effective organizational structure for managing them. If the organizational structure has developed traditionally, the business operating system can help in analyzing its quality.

The world of economic phenomena is diverse and dynamic, it is characterized by the internal unity of its constituent elements, which objectively determines the need to use a systematic methodology for studying increasingly complex economic problems. The textbook implements the principle of unity of structural-genetic and functional approaches to the study of economic phenomena. In particular, when identifying the essence of property, the market, as well as other socio-economic phenomena, a dialectical method is used, aimed at searching for internal contradictions that determine the development of economic processes. The analysis of consumer and producer behavior was based on subjectivist and positivist research methodology, etc. As a result of the application of the systemic method when considering socio-economic phenomena, the individual appears as a “collapsed society”, and society is seen as an “expanded personality”.

Sections 11.2 and 11.4 help to understand the fundamental differences between deterministic (functional) and stochastic (probabilistic) approaches to the study of factor systems of economic activity.

The limit (marginal) approach to the study of economic processes represents a special case of the analysis of functional relationships, which are usually specified in three ways: graphical, analytical, and tabular. Let's give an example of the graphical method.

What are the essence and features of target, situational, functional, process, reflexive and systemic methodological approaches to the study of control systems?

Marketing, we read in the final section of the chapter, is an area of ​​rapid obsolescence of tasks, policies, strategies and programs. Each firm must periodically re-evaluate its overall approach to the market, using a technique known as marketing audit (p. 598). This is what is called strategic control. It is curious that the author insists that the marketing auditor be given complete freedom to conduct conversations with any persons both within the company and outside it, to analyze any documentation, etc. A marketing audit is an in-depth study of all aspects of a company’s activities, from the marketing environment to the functional components of marketing. Recommendations

Conclusion. This section discussed the simplest models and approaches to analyzing production incentive systems under conditions of uncertainty. Currently, methods are being developed for analyzing incentive systems in a dynamic setting, with random factors, etc. However, so far in such studies it is possible to analyze only simplified, model economic mechanisms, which, perhaps, reflect the essence of the phenomena, but are still far from complexities of economic mechanisms that exist in real life. The main drawback of these studies is that the description of behavior based on the concept of maximizing some reward function does not reflect reality, it causes distrust among practitioners and criticism from specialists in the field of social psychology. Therefore, in studies aimed primarily at obtaining practical results (and not at developing research methods), they try to describe the behavior of production units more simply and at the same time more plausibly. Since the results of the analysis of the economic mechanism depend directly on the response of the production unit, and not on the internal mechanism for generating this response, the required simplification may consist in constructing a functional model of the production unit. In such a model, the response will be described as a function of the influence. Despite the significant simplification of the functional description (and largely thanks to it), such studies have found their practical application. They are discussed in the next paragraph.

With traditional design methods, the cost-effectiveness of structures often comes last. Justification of costs determined by technical solutions has long been spontaneous and random. A systematic approach to carrying out economic research appeared during the Second World War, when the need arose to replace scarce materials with more affordable ones while maintaining the basic functions of the product. In the post-war years, an independent direction of technical and economic analysis was born, which later received the name functional-cost analysis.

To consider all the issues that arise with this approach to the phenomenon, the theory of marginal utility, and after it special marketing research of the consumer market, involves demand functions, indifference curves and surfaces, preferences, which are based on speculative constructions within the framework of the so-called functional approach. These constructions are based on the fact that under certain market situations certain universal characteristic relationships arise between prices and volumes of the same product.

This topic involves clarifying the content of such key categories as goods, cost, price, money. At the first approach to the study of these concepts, the problem of methodology arises: will we use a functional or causal (i.e. cause-and-effect) approach to the analysis of these phenomena? Simplifying the problem as much as possible, we can explain it as follows: the functional approach considers the interrelations of economic phenomena horizontally, not posing the question of what is primary, what is secondary - for example, price determines demand or, conversely, demand determines price. This approach does not ask the well-known joke question What comes first - the chicken or the egg, because, according to supporters of this approach, in economics everything is determined by everything.

The expansion of the scope of strategic decision-making to lower functional levels (marketing, production, finance, research and development, personnel, electronic data processing, etc.) contributes to the formation of a completely new approach to business in the company and expands the possibilities of choice for the appointment of performers who also require business knowledge. The development of a functional strategy implies the active behavior of managers within a given function. Thus, a functional strategy comes down to the orientation of a particular functional unit (department) in accordance with the overall business strategy, which every employee related to it perceives as a logical continuation of their activities.

At the same time, integration into a single whole took place of all the previously named three approaches to organizing marketing activities - functional, institutional and product - and an understanding of marketing arose as a system covering all types of enterprise activities related to the production of products and their promotion from manufacturer to consumer. A new element of marketing appeared, such as marketing research, which later became the basis of all marketing activities.

Not surprisingly, advocates of the organizational-functional approach were not willing to easily abandon 50 years of accumulated scientific work and research, and the administrative approach was not accepted with equal enthusiasm. However, as demands for more rigorous training of managers grew in the 1950s and early 1960s, the management school came to dominate and was destined to maintain this status for almost three decades.

On the one hand, the efforts of a number of large research teams are aimed at developing projects of experimental giant robots, which simultaneously integrate many complex functions for perception, motion control, decision making and communication with the operator. On the other hand, numerous isolated works are being carried out on individual key aspects of the problem. At the same time, it is characteristic that, despite the seeming excessive diversity of research and disparate results, a common ideological basis is visible in the approaches to the construction of integral robots, which, as expected, in the near future will be able to lead to a unified understanding of the functional structure of integral robots and to the establishment of common views for the prospect of their technical implementation.

After the manager has studied the competitiveness indicators of his company's products, he needs to begin implementing specific measures to increase and maintain competitiveness at the achieved level. Work in this direction begins with choosing an approach to considering the management of product competitiveness. There are several known such approaches: systemic, reproductive, complex, and functional. The systems approach is a direction in the methodology of special scientific knowledge and social practice, which is based on the study of objects > as integral systems. The most important principles of the systems approach are the following

In our opinion, such control should be based on the principles of democratization of pricing and involve several stages. First of all, it is necessary to justify the standard cost of the basic product of the parametric series. We have already talked above about how to approach the justification of standard cost. Here we will add that the justification of the amount of costs under the conditions of a “standard enterprise” must necessarily be supplemented by a study of the standard value of costs using the methods of functional cost analysis (FCA), which is still practically ignored by pricing authorities.

When developing terminology, the specificity of solar energy systems and their difference from other large artificial systems were put at the forefront. The general technical theory of reliability (GTR) deals with technical objects - from simple products (element, device) to complex ones (functional unit, subsystem, system). A technical object may consist of hardware, software, or a combination thereof, and may, in particular cases, include people who operate, maintain, and/or repair it. The theory of solar energy reliability examines energy objects that cannot always be reduced to technical ones. The versatility of the problem of solar energy reliability using the example of large pipeline systems, its dependence on a large number of technical, technological, economic, environmental and social factors, and the need for an integrated approach to solving it are shown in the monograph. In conclusion to the work, it is noted that the features of solar energy systems distinguish them into a special class of large production systems. However, what is the difference from the standpoint of research and ensuring the reliability of production systems from technical ones is not disclosed in the works.

The dispersed approach is used when risk factors are significantly different between functional and business units, and also when functional and business units operate quite independently. This approach lacks any focused effort to examine the risks of the organization as a whole or typical methods that apply to all production units. This approach also requires management to allocate the organization's resources taking into account the multiple demands of capital. At the same time, enterprise management may deliberately adopt a diffuse approach to risk management, but in practice this occurs as a result of a common desire. A highly dispersed approach to risk management allows each function or business unit to create its own information field and its own risk management language, as well as its own tools and methods.

The theoretical novelty of the above classification of values ​​lies in the fact that for the first time, in our opinion, scientific approaches such as systemic, dynamic, reproductive, functional, complex, optimization, situational, etc. have been applied to the study of one of the most important objects of strategic marketing - values. These approaches are covered in topic 4.

Theoretical ideas about what functions managers perform and what types of skills they need still do not provide a complete description of their actual activities. Functional and empirical approaches to management help us understand what managers do, but they provide little insight into how they do it. A number of studies on the time management of practicing managers have been undertaken to help prospective managers imagine how they would spend their workdays in this field.

The article is devoted to the study of one of the approaches to creating fault-tolerant systems of a discrete type, based on the use of functional properties of the behavior of an object in the presence of faults. The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant 98-01-00835.

Consequently, the integrative-convergent approach to the study of control systems is a research process methodology that integratively uses systemic, target, process, parametric, functional, situational, behavioral, reflexive and other approaches (Fig. 3.4).

Methodological problems: how to form a modern approach to personnel How to train and cultivate in managers a correct and adequate attitude towards the nature and potential of personnel, who should do this and how to train these specialists It is obvious that there is a difference in approaches to training linear and functional managers in non-behavioral areas, on the one hand, and managers in the field of personnel management, on the other. Teaching in all cases should be carried out by scientists and specialists whose knowledge in the field of personnel management is fundamental and who conduct independent research in this area.

The approach we have adopted to the development of AIS involves a method for selecting information sets according to the scheme presented in Fig. 1. In the step-by-step determination of the information fund (III) of the AIS, a functional approach is used - decomposition of the final goal of the operation and development of the object in order to identify the information fund of the AIS that is really necessary for managing the object (stage I) functional-objective approach - decomposition of the necessary and retrospective information needs to identify the composition AIS data bases (stages P and F) object approach - study of the capabilities of the used database, information language of indicators (ILP) and program software to identify the nomenclature and range of products that the AIS is capable of producing (standard III).

K. e. considers the economy, as well as its structural and functional links, as systems in which processes of regulation and management take place, realized by the movement and transformation of information. Methods of K. e. make it possible to standardize and unify this information, to rationalize the receipt, transmission and processing of economic information. information, justify the structure and composition of technical. means of processing it. A systematic approach to the economy, highlighting and combining within its framework the aspects of regulation, management and information, determines the internal unity and nature of research into economics. They contribute to the comprehensive development of measures to improve people management. x-vom n serve, in particular, theoretical. the basis for the creation of automated control systems (ACS) and data processing systems (DPS) in the people. x-ve. In a number of countries, respectively. Research has not yet been separated from the problems of systems analysis, operations research, management science, for example, in the USA and Great Britain, or computer science, for example, in France. K. e. is still (mid-70s) in its infancy. For the first time the term K. e. appeared in the beginning 60s in the works

Research by proponents of economic technology is focused on developing a criterion for effective competition and determining the state of the industry when the state should intervene in economics. mechanism to maintain effective competition. Two main approaches to solving this issue are called structural and functional. Proponents of the first approach draw the basic attention to economic industry structure, consisting of two sides of economy, concentration, or the share of the largest firms in the industry market, and barriers to new competition, or the conditions for new firms to enter the industry. Barriers to new competition, characterizing the degree of monopolization of the industry 1) economics of large sizes. If a high level of concentration is associated with the economy of large-scale production (at the plant level) or large. scale of activity (at the firm level), then in this case the new company must take into account the need to build a fairly large enterprise. 2) Degree of product differentiation. The presence of differentiation makes it difficult for a potential competitor to act, since he has to overcome the commitment of buyers of industry products to a certain type of product. 3) Absolute cost advantages of existing firms (access to limited sources of raw materials, patent protection of the industry, availability of production facilities, secrets essential for the effective organization of activities, government regulatory measures). 4) The amount of capital required to organize effective production. With an extremely large amount of initial capital investment, characteristic of a number of industries, an invasion of these industries can be made either by a company with large internal resources. savings, or a company related to finance. intermediaries.