How an integrated management system
(IMS) helps companies to remain competitive
Symbio business navigation system
To thrive in global competitiveness and to survive in today's markets, organizations and companies need to
look at every aspect of their business processes. While providing quality products and services, they should
consider other management standards as well i.e. Quality Management, Environmental Management, Safety
Management, Energy Management, Information Security Management, GDPR & Food Safety Management.
Thus, an integrated management system will enable organizations to work as a single unit with unified
objectives. These management standards can be integrated by embedding them with the core business
processes of the organization. With Symbio this is straight forward and easy to achieve.
Figure 1: IMS Overview

Challenges with traditional Integrated Management System (IMS)
In most cases, companies find it difficult to implement and manage an Integrated Management System which
can be used by all employees. Barriers to implementing and continuous usage of the IMS can be traced to:
Business Context – the purpose of an IMS is to have an integrated approach to direction setting which
includes the goals of other in-scope management systems. Challenges to achieving this include:
• Difficult to marry the business strategy with the realizing of business processes
• Difficult to get feedback across the organization for improvement opportunities which can influence
direction setting
• Difficult to define and associate customer journey maps to realizing business processes
• End to end scenarios or value chains that are outdated with no association to realizing business
processes
Business Design – the purpose of an IMS is to have an integrated approach to business design where
interconnected processes realize sustainable products and services. Challenges to achieving this include:
• Difficult to assess the maturity of the core business capabilities due to multiple versions, no ownership
and no traceability to underlying processes
• Difficult to marry change initiatives (projects) to associated processes. It is the newly designed
processes that realize the desired products and services. In most organizations, there is no link
between the project portfolio and realizing business processes
• Difficult to define and manage process definitions due to multiple versions, no ownership and no
traceability to predecessor and successor processes.
• Difficult to define and share process-driven key performance indicators, which leads to misalignment
of goals
Figure 2: IMS Challenges

Business Transformation – the purpose of an IMS is to have an integrated approach to business
transformation where interconnected processes realize sustainable products and services. Challenges to
achieving this include:
• Difficult to integrate business designs across projects which leads to disconnected business
transformation.
• Difficult to associate requirement definitions to processes and to manage them from To-Do to Done
in an agile manner.
Business Operations - the purpose of an IMS is to have an integrated approach to operations and
management of running processes. Challenges to achieving this include:
• Difficult to trace the benefits of creating an IMS in operations, especially employees who can´t see
the benefit in their daily work.
• Difficult to manage business documents and association with business process execution.
Documents soon become outdated due to ongoing process changes.
• Difficult to marry process designs to actual process performance data, which leads to outdated
process definitions.
With all the challenges listed above and limited budgets, executives tend to view an IMS as a good concept,
but not practical to implement.
The Symbio difference, an automated IMS or Business Navigation System
The Symbio methodology and architecture were designed from day one to ensure that you have an Integrated
Management System that is highly automated. Symbio creates a company map, where the streets are the
processes which connect all stakeholders and their processes continuously in an automated manner. With
Symbio, it is easy and cost-effective to realize the goals of an integrated management system.
Figure 3: Company Map
The Symbio methodology and architecture make it easy to define process definitions with associations to all
other aspects i.e. systems, roles, risks, documents, trainings, goals etc. These process definitions are then
connected to give one a trusted holistic company map. The company map serves all employees as a trusted
business navigation aid from direction setting to operations.

The company map becomes more valuable when it is updated with live data continuously. Typical use cases
include:
• Actual process performance data married to best practice tasks in Symbio. The integration between
Symbio and Celonis process mining facilitates operational decision making based on actual
operational data.
• Integrated employee task management where tasks can be traced to processes i.e. tasks associated
with trainings, tasks associated with requirements, tasks associated to process changes, tasks
associated to document changes etc.
• Mapping employee engagement levels (engagement surveys) to roles on processes to give insight on
process performance issues.
• Mapping actual system issues to application components to track the impact this has on business
processes and service delivery i.e. Incident Management and Problem Management.
• Synchronize requirements associated with business processes to requirements management tools, i.e.
JIRA.
• Integrate IoT data with business processes, where tasks are automatically assigned to a user based on
the data received from the IoT devices. In addition, the system could assign accountability to a user
and either send reminders until the task is done, route the task to another user or escalate it to the
next person in charge. IoT data can also be embedded into process definitions so that management
can assess trends over time i.e. the impact of faulty machines in service delivery – industry 4.0
Figure 4: Company Map & Real-Time-Data

Employee Assistant
The IMS only has value if it serves employees in executing their daily tasks, with other words a business
navigation aid that can be trusted.
5: Symbio Employee Assistant
The Symbio Employee Assistant connects employees with the processes where they participate in and always
keeps them informed of aspects related to their processes i.e. real-time process performance, customer
requirements, tasks, trainings, guidelines, policies, production figures etc.
Connected Company Maps
Organizations that carefully manage their relationships with suppliers and partners can nurture positive and
productive involvement, support and feedback from those entities. Your business ecosystem goes beyond
suppliers and customers. It encompasses all the organisations that can impact your strategy, your sales, your
products, or your people. When company maps are connected, cross- and intercompany processes will run
more smoothly ensuring a connected business ecosystem. The best ecosystem will survive!
6: Connected Company Maps

From Company Maps to Business Ecosystems
With Symbio, the goals of an IMS is achievable, beginning with a company map that is the business navigation
aid for all employees. Then progressing to a company map that is updated with real-time data and extending
the company map to all stakeholders. The business ecosystem ensures that everyone is always connected
with the latest information.
7: Business Ecosystems
Highlights
Stability to achieve agility
Having a functioning IMS capability gives resolution to immediate and long term risk exposure while allowing
for an agile and scalable control environment. Successful organizations have a stable foundation (core
processes that ensure resilience, reliability and efficiency) that allows then to be dynamic. With Symbio,
business leaders have continuous insight into their processes. After all, it is the processes of the organization
that realize the products and services offered to customers. Having this trusted “company map” makes it easy
to navigate change in an agile manner. A unified operating model for the business with the agility needed to
manage emerging risks.
Optimization
Non-value adding activities are identified, eliminated and value-adding activities are streamlined to reduce
time and any undesirable variations. Replace manual preventative controls with automated detective controls,
which increase efficiency and traceability. The partnership between Symbio and Celonis is unique here, where
Celonis is used to assess actual process performance and Symbio to detail process definitions – the definitive
guide for all employees in executing daily tasks.
8: Process Definition & Process Performance Integrated

Transparency
Symbio creates and maintains a company map, a “single version of the truth” provided to all employees,
auditors and regulatory bodies. Symbio allows the ability to view a more complete picture of the organization
and processes, allowing owners to have access and control over necessary content to understand the business
unit profile and applicable risks and challenges. One could say that Symbio acts as the GPS for business
stakeholders, where processes are the “streets” which connects all other elements i.e. risks, standards, systems,
roles, skills etc.
9: Employee Company Map
Reduced Costs
Lower costs contribute to the overall ROI gains represented by effective GRC activities. There is also reduced
costs in maintaining duplicated controls, tests, issues, actions, and reporting across multiple disciplines.
Reduce your operating costs (headcount & duplicate systems) while increasing your customer service levels
and quality of delivery. Symbio gives business managers insight into operations so that evidence-based
decision making is possible at all levels.
Consistency
Improved alignment of objectives with the mission, vision, and value of the organization, resulting in better
decision-making agility and confidence. Aligning employee goals and key performance indicators with
strategic goals and key performance indicators is simple and effective in Symbio. This is also the case for
projects, where all project goals & key performance indicators are aligned to the strategic goals & key
performance indicators. With Symbio, all employees (managers & workers) have visibility of the direction of
the organization and how they fit and contribute to achieving the goals of the organization.
Typical Use Cases
Business process & SOP alignment (Documents)
▪ An SOP, or Standard Operating Procedure, is merely a documentation of how a process works.
▪ With Symbio, it is easy to define SOP’s and assign them to the relevant SOP owner who takes the
responsibility to ensure that the SOP stays current and valid.
▪ Valid SOP’s can then be associated with sub-processes or activities on sub-processes, which then
serves as a guide to employees.
▪ These crucial process documents contain necessary instructions on how to complete critical processes
in a company.

Business process & alignment to regulations, policies & standards
▪ A policy is a high-level statement of management intent that formally establishes requirements to
guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. Essentially, a policy is a statement of expectation, that
is enforced by standards and further implemented by procedures. External influencers, such as
statutory, regulatory, or contractual obligations, are commonly the root cause for a policy’s existence.
▪ With Symbio it is easy to create a detail digital catalogue of all regulations, policies and standards
applicable to the organization and to associate them to the relevant sub-processes and activities.
▪ With the role-based access in Symbio, each employee now has visibility into their processes and
associated regulations, policies and standards. Symbio not only creates a platform for sharing and
collaboration but manages all content by assigning ownership to artefacts i.e. Policies, Standards etc.
So when there is a request to update or change an artefact, all owners are notified who then manages
the change request to ensure a trusted knowledge environment.
Business process driven risk management
▪ Identify - The risk (or event) identification process precedes risk assessment and produces a
comprehensive list of risks (risk universe), organized by risk category (financial, operational, strategic,
compliance) and sub-category (market, credit, liquidity, etc.) for business units, corporate functions,
and capital projects. With Symbio, it is easy to create the risk universe and to assign risks to risk owners
in the business and impacted sub-processes and activities.
▪ Assess - The next stage of the process is to determine the probability of a negative outcome for each
risk. Each organization must rank the risks based on the probability of occurrence and financial impact
from high to low. Symbio records these values against the identified risks which can then be analysed
using standard Symbio reporting functionality. Symbio also integrates with Power BI where detail risk
reports and dashboards can be configured.
▪ Select - Now that the risks have been ordered from high to low, the leaders of the organization identify
the types of activities that will be undertaken to reduce the probability of a negative outcome. These
activities are called risk controls. The purpose of risk control is to avoid, prevent, reduce, or transfer
the risk. With Symbio, all identified controls and control detail is defined and associated with the
relevant risk.
Employee task management
▪ Employees are participants as roles in business processes. With Symbio it is easy for employees to
view and collaborate on processes where they are participants.
▪ The Symbio Employee Assistant connects employees to tasks related to processes where they
participate in.
Business transformation
▪ Business transformation is about identifying processes that aren’t being serviced to their maximum
capacity, and how alternate solutions can be applied to digitise or streamline technology, to further
gain market share, increase revenue and customer satisfaction or reduce inefficient expenditure.
▪ This strategy ensures that the absolute best processes and systems are being implemented within an
organisation, to achieve measurable improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and, of course,
satisfying shareholders.
▪ Symbio marries business design (projects) with operations in a single digital company map and serves
all employees as a business navigation tool.

Conclusion
An integrated management system that is highly automated and used by all employees in the organization
is the key to sustainable success:
One view of your processes. When an internal team is performing the core functions of the management
system - that team is looking at everything at the same time – Quality, Environment, Safety, Energy,
Information Security, Food Safety etc. This provides a way to see where there are gaps.
One set of documentation. Imagine having just one set of documentation and one system you’re managing,
as opposed to two or three sets of rules. This also means you’re training your employees on one system; they
can be trained once and follow one process. This gives companies a holistic picture of their functions.
One integrated audit. With an integrated system, it can also produce a more effective and valuable audit
because your auditor is looking at the system holistically.
10: Transformation Lifecycle
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