Business Process Management
Business process management (BPM) refers to the tools and methods used to discover, model, measure, analyse, improve, and optimise processes. It supports the organisation’s strategic goals by coordinating and synchronising the behaviour of the staff, systems, and information to develop either structured and repeatable or unstructured and variable processes. BPM also involves the automation of workflow systems, ERP systems, and XML languages. The workflow engines control and measure processes and integrate the work end-to-end.
The benefits of BPM
BPM helps companies create, update, and analyse predictable processes that form the business’ core and its benefits include the following:
- Sets standard processes for departments to collaborate and coordinate on task and project management, control process, and case management.
- Simplifies unmanaged and chaotic processes that cause wastage of time, process errors, blame game, demoralised employees, and loss of revenue.
- Identifies the bottlenecks and inefficiencies across departments and processes and implements corrective solutions.
- Uses solid frameworks across processes to increase productivity. Documents, monitors, and optimises critical tasks and eliminates those that add no value.
- Makes teams and processes agile. When everyone knows the processes, the roadmap is clear, changes are flexible, and teams are scalable.
- Complies with all internal and external policies department-wise.
- Sets the standard operating procedures and eliminates any micromanagement.
- Has a company-wide platform that eliminates data silos and facilitates collaboration.
Steps in a BPM lifecycle
Design > Model > Execute > Monitor > Optimise
Step 1: Design
— Collect data, build workflows, and identify the person or team that will own each task in that workflow.
Step 2: Model
— Transform the workflows into a visual layout with a clear indication of conditions, sequence of events, and deadlines.
Step 3: Execute
— Test the process with a small sample size of users in a testing environment before releasing it live.
Step 4: Monitor
— Use metrics to monitor the process as it moves through the workflow and measure its efficiency and isolate bottlenecks.
Step 5: Optimise
— From the steps above, note and implement the process improvements necessary for maximum efficiency.
Features of the competitive BPM solution
A competitive BPM solution spans all your departments, including HR, sales, finance, procurement, marketing, etc. Further, it should leverage cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, and robotic process automation. The features should include:
- A tool for visual process diagrams
- Drag-and-drop forms
- Mobile compatible
- Role-based access
- Single sign-on across applications (SSO)
- Powerful admin features
- Analytics and reporting for data-driven decisions
- Scalable for a large user base
- Performance metrics
- Cross-department integrations
- Third-party integrations with powerful APIs
- Tools for communication and collaboration for a seamless workplace