This is how the church can successfully redesign or reorganise its processes in administration

Pastoral action and church administration should always go hand in hand. The church administrative offices have a support function which makes the core activities possible in the first place. We have summarised what constitutes good administration in five principles. 

We would now like to deepen this approach and draw a target picture of church administrations across five dimensions - from the vision to the necessary IT infrastructure. We are taking a closer look at the process organisation, because processes are the central element of good administration: Processes ensure transparent action in the departments. They guarantee legal compliance and they are the starting point for setting up IT systems. Processes are a logical linkage of several activities carried out to achieve a specific goal (e.g. ordering and paying for goods and services). Several processes are combined into sub-processes and main processes. Processes usually have several elements: a trigger (such as a requisition), activities (such as checks, releases, orders, goods receipts, invoice checks or invoice releases), supporting IT systems, responsibilities and the process outcome (such as an outgoing payment). 

Since many processes are repeated in administrations, they should run as smoothly as possible. Errors, loops and ambiguities cause work overload and additional costs for employees. Good processes, on the other hand, are the "lubricant" for transparent, comprehensible, targeted and economical action. 

For this reason, five points in particular should be taken into account when processes are redesigned or reorganised:  

1. A decision should be made as early as possible as to whether existing and established processes should be further developed or whether the process organisation should be newly developed. Depending on this decision, the target conception with the necessary changes will be developed.
2. As a rule, harmonised, standardised and automated processes are more resource-efficient and effective in the end.
3. All processes must be documented to ensure uniform application by staff.
4. This results in a process map in which all main processes are logically arranged. This "map" provides orientation for all employees and at the same time sets the requirements for the organisational structure and the required IT architecture.
5. If there is a desire for a new IT solution, all technical and process-related requirements should be defined in addition to the technical requirements. On this basis, the IT can be tendered, selected and introduced. The selection and introduction of a new IT solution is usually associated with a high expenditure of time and money. The following applies: the more standardised the processes or the more similar they are to the usual industry standards, the simpler and thus cheaper the IT solution will be. The adjustments during implementation are thus less. Processes are also the basis for determining the organisational structure. The process map can also be used to define the layout of the organisational areas.