The Challenge
A private equity firm was running its back office on a combination of spreadsheets, email chains, and informal procedures. Portfolio monitoring, investor reporting, capital call processing, and compliance workflows were executed differently by different team members — creating inconsistencies, audit risks, and a dependency on institutional knowledge that lived in people rather than systems. As the firm scaled its AUM and investor base, the operational model was becoming unsustainable.
The Solution
We implemented a BPM layer using Camunda as the process orchestration engine, with Appian for workflow applications and Microsoft Power Automate for lightweight integration tasks. Core back-office processes — investor reporting, capital call management, portfolio company data collection, and compliance monitoring — were modelled, standardised, and deployed as managed workflows. Each process step was documented, assigned, tracked, and logged. The BPM layer provided live operational dashboards and historical data to drive continuous improvement.
The Impact
Twelve core back-office processes were standardised and deployed. Execution variance across the team was eliminated — every process runs the same way, every time, with full audit trails. Compliance reporting became straightforward. Onboarding new team members became faster. The firm now has the operational infrastructure to scale without proportionally scaling headcount.
Reflection Question: How many of your back-office processes depend on tribal knowledge rather than documented, managed workflows? What would consistent execution across your entire team unlock?
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