Rethinking Service Departments: Value Chains, BPM, and the myKaarma Approach

When you walk into a dealership service department, you’re stepping into a high-stakes environment where every minute counts, every customer experience matters, and every inefficiency echoes across the entire value chain. Yet, many organizations still view service departments as cost centers—necessary, but not strategic.

At myKaarma, we see it differently. We believe service departments are profit centers in disguise, with largely untapped potential that can be unlocked through Business Process Management (BPM) and value chain thinking.

Departments Don’t Create Value—Processes Do

In his book Business Process Change, Paul Harmon makes a powerful distinction: “Departments do not produce profits. Value chains and processes produce profits.”

Think about it—no single department, in isolation, delivers the full customer experience. A service advisor might write the repair order, but the real value to the customer comes from the seamless flow across scheduling, technician diagnostics, parts availability, approvals, payments, and communication. These are all processes, not just job titles on an org chart.

That’s why BPM matters. It helps us see the big picture, map the actual flow of work, and identify where value is created—or where it’s leaking out due to bottlenecks or poor communication.

myKaarma: BPM in Action

At myKaarma, we enable dealers to optimize the entire customer service journey, not just individual touchpoints. Our platform doesn’t just handle payments or scheduling—it connects everything from inbound messaging and repair approvals to video MPI and CSI follow-ups.

In BPM terms, we help dealers redesign their service value chain to be faster, more transparent, and more profitable.

Here’s how it plays out in real life:

• A customer drops off their car and gets automatic updates via text—streamlining communication flow
• The technician performs a digital inspection, sends a video, and the customer approves work instantly—compressing the approval loop
• The cashier process is automated, reducing friction at the final touchpoint

Each of these touchpoints might sit in different departments, but they’re all part of a single process from the customer’s perspective. BPM helps dealerships stop managing tasks in silos and start managing value creation as a flow.

From Cost Center to Competitive Advantage

When service departments adopt BPM and value chain thinking, they move from reactive operations to strategic differentiators. They become more than just the back-end—they become the brand experience, the revenue driver, and the loyalty engine.

At myKaarma, we’re proud to help dealerships make that shift. Because in the end, it’s not about technology for technology’s sake—it’s about redefining how value is created in automotive service.