What is Business Process Management (BPM)?
Business process management (BPM) is used to analyze, improve upon, and automate a company's business processes. This discipline evaluates the processes’ current state and determines areas of improvement to streamline the end-to-end processes at the core of their business.
BPM is not task or project-based. Rather it focuses on the repetitive and ongoing processes, looking to correct and enhance where needed, and keep all areas of operation running flawlessly. BPM involves the purposeful, collaborative, and often technology-aided analysis, implementation, and operation of end-to-end business processes that drive results, generate value, and enable an organization to meet its goals and objectives with less friction. BPM facilitates the alignment of business processes to business strategy, prompting better company performance either within a particular department, across the business as a whole, or even between organizations.
Unorganized and unsystematized business processes can lead to a lack of necessary data, redundancy, errors, and wasted time. The main benefits of utilizing BPM include more consistent results aligned with company goals, a push toward digital transformation, optimization of organizational workflow, accomplishing larger-scale goals, and gaining control of previously disorganized processes.
BPM systems are classified based on their purpose. The three types of business process management are Integration-centric BPM, Human-centric BPM, and Document-centric BPM. Integration-centric BPM manages processes that primarily operate between your existing systems (e.g. ERP, CRM) without human involvement. Human-centric BPM is the opposite, managing processes carried out primarily by humans. Document-centric BPM solutions are needed when a document, such as a contract, is at the core of the process.
Our partner, Pegasystems is a recognized industry leader in the BPM category, helping to build business applications that deliver unparalleled customer experiences.
What are the steps of a Business Process Management (BPM) lifecycle?
1.Data collection and workflow - This step identifies who will work on each task in the workflow and defines how data will be collected. This can involve Digital Process Automation (DPA). The goal of this step should be to decrease errors while preserving standard operating procedures or service level agreements.
2.Visual layout - Create a visual model with all the necessary details, such as deadlines, the sequence of events, and the flow of information
3.Execute and test- Implement the changes by first testing them with a small group of beta testers, and then eventually with all users. This can be accomplished by utilizing a business rules engine to regulate process execution.
4.Monitor the metrics- Follow the process as it runs through the workflow, auditing the progress and efficiency, as well as any obstructions. BPM monitoring can be performed via software known as a BPM monitoring tool.
5.Optimize- Notice any changes necessary to correct, enhance, or improve the processes, and implement those changes to make the workflow run more efficiently.