Motivation for the use of BiSL
From March 2007 onwards Petra Fleurbaaij manages a department of business information managers and projectmanagers, who are active for declaration services. In that period she went into the BiSL-model: “Why we went ahead with BiSL? It was time to organize our own house and to organize our processes. We were being engulfed by all kinds of changes: the basic insurance, a new application Oracle Health Insurance. We were mainly busy with the description and support of processes and activities of and for the business. Due to this we did not have time left for the improvement of our own processes. And then an external model convinces more than inventing something yourself. BiSL had already been devised, there are training programs, we can be certified and the interfaces with application and technical management have already been clarified. In addition the BiSL self evaluation model motivates for further development. So why would you invent something yourself?”

UVIT decided to tackle the implementation of BiSL with a project-based approach. “We prepared an implementation plan, we set up workgroups and worked in accordance with Prince2 as much as possible. By enforcing something like that as a projectbased approach you force people to get going and for mutual agreement to be sought between different departments and processes. The business with suppliers, but also with stakeholders like the internal audit division and De Nederlansche Bank, our supervisor. The department of Business Information Management provides projectmanagers and business analysts to the business, next to providing business support. They work alongside the business manager, whereby the added value of business information management becomes visible: we actually provide support, we are able to make a better translation of the business requirements to the IT-requirements and we can execute expectation and relation management better. In this way business information management really serves as lubricant for the business. Exactly as it was meant to be."

“While describing and organizing our business information management processes we decided to start with the processes at the operational level of BiSL. Because it is the closest to the business and most of the gain can be obtained there. We decided not to tackle all the processes at the same time, not everything one by one, but in a tile approach. Especially because of the relation between the BiSL-processes. We started with the set up of 'User Support' and continued like that until 'Transition'. Now we have described and implemented all the processes.”

Central Business Information Management
After the merger from VGZ, IZA, Trias and Univé to UVIT, Petra Fleurbaaij got a new employer. With four merger partners it is difficult to set up one organization for business information management. Not every partner recognizes the same processes and functions: for one the focus is on the IT and for the other on key-users who execute that user support. Meanwhile BiSL has been accepted in the whole UVIT-organization and we can continue with the reorganization and conversion of the processes. What are the pitfalls, which are reviewed in this case?

“What the pitfalls are? The shop must remain open, whatever it may cost. The business must be served. If we get into trouble with the resources, the user organization must ultimately be supported anyway, while we are also trying to bring order to our house. Each work group is chaired by a member of the management team, which is positive and indicates the importance thereof. The people in the workgroups invent the things. By thinking in roles and processes, developments are experienced mainly by the members of the workgroups. We have to ensure even better that everyone is on board, otherwise a subsequent implementation trajectory will have to be performed” , tells Petra as the new chief of the Central Business Information Management department who directed the operational control of suppliers, contract management and the management of business information and release management.