ISEB Certificate in Modelling Business Processes

Transcription

1 ISEB Certificate in Modelling Business Processes Sample Paper A You are allowed fifteen (15) minutes reading time before the examination starts. You are not allowed to write anything during that reading time. This is an open-book examination. This means that you can refer to written material in addition to the examination paper itself. Attempt ALL questions. All questions are based on the same scenario. There are 50 marks in total for this paper. The mark awarded for each separate question will be shown with the question text. Copying of this paper is expressly forbidden without the direct approval of ISEB. NOTE: There is a sample examination paper, with marking guidelines, for each of the ISEB BSD certificate modules. Each sample paper has been written to help candidates prepare for the module examination by providing an example of the general approach adopted by these examinations. The ISEB BSD Examination Providers are accredited to set the examinations for the certificate modules and part of the accreditation process requires Providers to demonstrate their ability to set rigorous examination papers. The sample examination papers are not intended for use by Examination Providers as a basis for setting their own examination papers and should not be viewed as a template for these examinations. Page 1 of 7

2 This page is intentionally blank. Page 2 of 7

3 SCENARIO VULTURE CREDIT FACTORS Business Scenario Introduction Vulture Credit Factors is a financial organisation that buys debt in the form of invoices from its clients. These clients are referred to as suppliers. Vulture guarantee to pay the suppliers the value of the invoices as they mature. They thus take on the responsibility of sending out the invoices to and obtaining payments from the suppliers customers. These customers are subsequently referred to as debtors. Obviously, Vulture wants paying for doing this job; they levy a service charge that is a percentage of the total value of the invoices provided by each supplier. The advantage for the suppliers is the steady cash flow that Vulture guarantees. Because of the strength of their financial situation (they are part of a large bank), Vulture are in a good position to collect the money owed by the debtors. Overall description of Vulture s operation The suppliers and debtors that Vulture deal with have all been vetted by the New Business Department who negotiate the terms of business with suppliers and decide the credit worthiness of each debtor. Authorisations for dealing with suppliers are sent to Supplier Accounting; authorisations for setting up ledger records for debtors are sent to Debtor Accounting. Suppliers send Debtor Accounting their invoices together with a letter formally offering them to Vulture. Debtor Accounting processes the invoices and passes the Letter of Offer to Supplier Accounting. Debtor Accounting is responsible for telling debtors how much they owe; they send statements each month and, when necessary, dunning letters to remind them that payment is overdue. Payments from Debtors are received by the Cashiers who pass the accompanying remittance advice to Debtor Accounting. Suppliers contact Supplier Accounting when they require payment. Supplier Accounting decide whether to authorise payment and inform the Cashiers and the supplier. Suppliers are sent weekly statements. Details of Apply Invoices Credit Control receives batches of invoices from individual suppliers accompanied by a Letter of Offer that acts as a control document. Each invoice is checked to ensure that the individual debtor s credit limit is not exceeded. Invoices that fail this check are removed. The totals on the Letter of Offer will have to be amended if any invoices are rejected (this happens with 20% of the batches). In this case the supplier concerned is contacted to advise them of the amendment and obtain their confirmation that this has been done correctly. The total on the Letter of Offer is matched against the total for the set of invoices. A copy of the Letter of Offer is sent to Suppler Accounting and the original invoices and Letter are sent to Debtor Accounting. Page 3 of 7

4 Supplier Accounting is responsible for updating the supplier accounts with details of accepted batches of invoices. They calculate the service charge that will be levied against the supplier and send an acknowledgement to the supplier detailing the value of the accepted invoices and the charge. These details are then posted to the supplier account. Debtor Accounting is responsible for applying the invoice details to the debtor account for each supplier/debtor combination. Once all the invoices have been posted to the appropriate accounts for a supplier, a control total is produced and compared with that on the Letter of Offer. Discrepancies are found in 5% of cases this necessitates an enquiry to locate the source of the error. Supplier Accounting are contacted and asked to check the invoice details. Once the corrected details are received they are re-entered in order to update the debtor account. Page 4 of 7

5 1 From the description of Vulture Credit Factors above: a) Identify at least five business processes. These should not include Apply Invoices which is the subject of Question 3. For each process identified, specify the event that triggers the process, the main beneficiary of the process, a major outcome that the beneficiary is looking for from the process and an example of a metric that helps to define the quality of the process. [3 marks for each process description] Sample answer: The processes identified could include: Produce supplier statement Authorise payment to supplier Open new account(s) Produce debtor statement Record debtor payment Chase outstanding debt The description for each process should contain the following information, as shown in the Authorise payment to supplier example: Main beneficiary: Triggering event: Outcome: Metric: Supplier Receipt of request for payment from the supplier Payment received by the supplier Accuracy of payment received b) Show the dependencies between these processes (including Apply Invoices) in the form, for example, of an overall process map. [4 marks] [Total 19 marks] Page 5 of 7

6 2 The Apply Invoices processing is described in detail in the preceding text. Develop a business process model to represent this process. [Total 21 marks] Sample answer: The process model for Apply Invoices can be in a variety of forms and can use different notation. The swimlane diagram below is an example. Up to 21 marks for the process model should be awarded as follows: process steps 11 marks decision points 4 marks swim lanes 4 marks triggering event 1 mark termination points 1 mark Page 6 of 7

7 3 Vulture Credit Factors are aware that their internal processes are inefficient. In particular, they have been compared to those of their competitors and found to be slow and error-prone. Suggest five ways in which the processes outlined in the scenario could be improved. [Total 10 marks] Sample answer:the answer could detail the following improvements: receipt of the invoice batches in machine-readable form to eliminate the need for re-keying automated system to check credit limit violations and reject invoices appropriately on-line notification to suppliers of changes to batches/letter of Offer automatic updating of supplier accounts, including the calculation and posting of service charge automatic updating of debtors accounts and production of control totals. For each of the above and others as appropriate -End of Paper- Page 7 of 7