Business Process Management
Every organization performs a collection of structured activities that help in achieving its business and strategic goals. These activities, called Business processes, are a series of linked tasks that help in the delivery of a service or product to the client. Business Process Management (BPM) systems are tools that help organizations achieve this flow of activities in a more structured and efficient manner.
From the daily flow of work to a series of repeatable steps, business processes often form the backbone of all organizations. For instance, on the manufacturing floor, the business processes would include the product assembly process followed by quality check and the corrective and maintenance processes.
What is BPM?
Business Process Management is not just a software or a system, it is a best practice empowered by the latest technologies that can identify and optimize existing organizational processes. The system further helps to build an efficient and transparent direction of information and workflow in the organization.
BPM begins by capturing an organization’s business processes. After identifying its workflow, it allows the definition of business rule logic. Once the rules and logic are established, BPM helps to create forms and other interfaces in a digital format. Since there are integrations with other tools for data, there is a clear flow of data and exchange of information. This eventually helps to optimize processes and also lets business managers use this data to make strategic and intelligent decisions.
What does BPM do?
Simply put, BPM systems let you automate your workflows. The basic of all BPM systems track a series of tasks using technology. However, today most of these systems do much more. They use advanced and sophisticated technology that can help organizations automate not only simple tasks but also complex and dynamic workflows.
For instance, a field-based company that sends field agents out for delivery and installation could accept orders, seamlessly transfer information to its field agents, track their location, oversee installation and receive customer feedback using a Business Process Management software.
The ultimate aim of BPM is to improve all processes of an organization. By increasing process transparency and removing the redundancy of repeated tasks, BPM promotes efficiency. It also helps employee productivity and harnesses their true potential.
Functional areas of BPM
- The setting of Goals: The organization sets strategic goals that define the direction of the workflow of information and processes and this forms the basis of BPM.
- Workflow Assessment: A complete overview of the operational processes helps to identify gaps in processes. It also helps to remove gaps and redundant work.
- Analytics: A key component of BPM is to derive process innovation and overhaul through a data-driven analysis of workflows, costs involved and time spent.
- Optimization: The real value add of BPM is through optimization of processes. An integrated environment of BPM identifies metrics and builds inefficiency.
BPM can also be classified on the basis of the function they perform:
- Integration-centric: A system that effortlessly handles processes between existing software such as ERP, CRM and so on.
- Human-centric: A system that brings human-executed processes online and automates them, eliminating both incremental costs and error.
- Document-centric: A BPM module that innovates and reorganizes processes related to documentation.
Trends and Industry Needs
- Migration to the cloud: BPM products are now hosted on the cloud and this is a trend that is here to stay, as it assists user adaptability and mobility.
- Automated workflow building and process-focused low code platforms: Keeping low IT costs and ability to personalize BPM solutions is another dominant trend in the BPM industry. Most organizations now prefer low code solutions that are easy to implement at their end without incurring excess IT maintenance costs.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): The availability of continuous data helps to use AI and ML algorithms to continuously adapt and improve efficiency and effectiveness of business processes.
- Robotic process automation and bots: The increasing use of bots to handle tasks, especially those that are repeated and error-prone, has the potential to make workflow tasks error free.
Top BPM software vendors
- Nintex: One of the market leaders, Nintex provides complex workflows, intelligent process automation and advanced customization to organizations. A low code platform, Nintex provides the flexibility to automate even the most complex processes with ease.
- Kissflow: Suitable for SMBs and mid-market companies, Kissflow provides a human-centric drag and drop interface that is extremely user-friendly and agile.
- Pegasystems: The Pega Platform provides digital transformation and business innovation using powerful visual tools and is one of the popular BPM systems used by modern enterprises.