Article: What Is Business Process Management (BPM)?

Business Process Management, also often called BPM, is a systematic approach on how to improve the business processes in a company.

BPM helps a company to get a clear picture of how the company’s processes are today and how to improve them.

BPM is something that is continuous in the organization. By working with the business processes you improve them, test them in the organization and then improve them again. This not only makes the work in an organization more flexible, but also helps companies to become more capable of changes, something that is very important in today’s volatile economy.

When defining the processes in BPM there are a few questions that need to be asked:

* What is performed?
* How is it performed?
* Who is performing it (preferably a role, not a named person)
* In what order are the activities performed and how long time can each activity take?

To visualize this in a good way we have the BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation). BPMN provides graphical notation for specifying the business processes in something called a Business Process Diagram (BPD).

The main purpose of BPMN is to bridge the gap between the business side and the technical side, since a lot of the process models are used to have the technical side help automate processes. However, it is important to understand that the business process models are very powerful for part of the business even though you do not automate the process using technology. Just having the personnel being guided through a visual design of what should be done, in what order and by who in different processes is invaluable.

In BPM you work with different groups of activities.

* Design, where you identify the processes and define them using the questions above.
* Modeling, where you use the BPMN to create a graphical model of the process.
* Execution, where you work according to the defined model. This is often done with an application, or at least involving an application, to help since a lot of processes are automatic.
* Monitoring, where you monitor the result and the way the execution works.
* Optimization, where you take the information from previous steps and identify bottlenecks and potential possibilities for saving money.

Since BPM is continuous, the steps are repeated every now and then. The frequency depends on several things, for example what kind of process and what type of organization.

There are quite a few BPMS (Business Process Management Suite or System) available to support the business process management. These systems not only help you to define and model the processes, but also to automate and improve them.

The amount of functionality available in a Business Process Management System is varying quite a lot. Therefore it is important that you understand what you are looking for before purchasing a system.

Business Process Management is a great way to get control over your business and what is happening during the daily work. It is important to understand that all processes should be connected to the company’s purpose, goal and vision to be able to understand that they are really aligned with what the company is meant to do. During these kind of exercises it is not uncommon that smaller companies start thinking about the purpose, goal and vision of the company since they have not been defined clearly enough before.

Support and Simplify Internal Business Functions With Business Process Management System

Business process management (BPM) can be defined as the systematic approach to align the existing and future business processes of an organization. Various business enterprises are adopting this advance and highly productive business tool to achieve the maximum internal rate of return and quality customer service. It enhances the business efficiency and productivity, minimizes errors and risks and reduces the total expenditure when executed by the skilled professionals. Some of the key advantages of BPM are as follow:

· Business process management system models -

- BPM’s functions such as Automating, Analyzing, Monitoring, Modeling and improving the business processes help organization to achieve growth and profits within short duration.

- Its business models visualize the functions within the organization and business-to-business (B2B) transactions.

- The BPM’s process and data flow models visualize the process flows within the organization and business-to-business (B2B) transactions. The process flow model visualizes the process flow relationships between process flows as well.

- The decomposition diagrams for process flow diagrams, modeling and data flow diagrams visualize the processes and activities very precisely.

· Workflow -

Its workflow help to define, develop, deploy, automate and manage business procedure within the organization and business-to-business transactions to increase productivity and gain maximum profit.

· Documentation -

The business procedures can be documented in a shared multi-user repository which provides non-technical and technical human resources to understand the various processes of different departments. It helps to analyze the performance and overall profit of every process in business.

· Quality -

BPM improves the quantity and quality of the services or products of organizations.

· Reports -

The BPM reports are very important and useful for the high-rank executives of an organization and the people who require them.

· Resources -

It reduces the total working hours of the employees.

· Exceptions -

In comparison to the manual process, the BPM reduces the errors and exceptions.

· Regulations -

BPM helps the organization to abide by the regulations of the government.

· Business-to-Business transactions (B2B) -

BPM is one of the most important parts of B2B transactions to gain leverage with customers, vendors, consumers and suppliers.

· Competition -

It provides sharp competitive edge and advantages over competitors.

· Simulation -

The simulation techniques of BPM with different scenarios can be used on processes to explore the effect of change.

· Increase Accountability -

The foremost objective of BPM is to provide accountability for the different internal business processes, from tracking to monitoring expenditures to ensure the on time delivery of services and products. It creates a system of balances and checks by reducing the potential for frauds, loss, errors and affirming.

· Improve reliability -

The BPM improves the information reliability and its dissemination effectively. It records and monitors the business processes, locates the required data and produces relevant reports.

· Simplify regulatory compliance

The implementation of the best BPM solutions results in sound financial management with proper feedback on the organization’s performance. There are various business process management consulting firms offering smart advice with effective and advanced solutions.

Beginners’ Guide to Business Process Management

Introduction

Albert Low, the Author of Zen and Creative Management provide the following definition of a company:
“A company is a multidimensional system capable of growth, expansion, and self-regulation. It is, therefore, not a thing but a set of interacting forces. Any theory of organization must be capable of reflecting a company’s many facets, its dynamism, and its basic orderliness.”

Though many of the interacting forces discussed above are often beyond human control, the introduction of a comprehensive Business Process Management (BPM) solution would enable an organization’s management to align key business processes in a manner suitable for responding to and benefiting from rapidly changing market conditions. BPM is certainly not a separate process, but actually a convergence of various aspects of leading industry practices such as Six Sigma, business engineering, total quality Management (TQM) as well as various technologies including Web-enabled Services, XML coding, transaction management, workflow design, service-oriented architecture, system integration and application development, which can provide greater flexibility to a company’s operations and aid in its overall growth.

As BPM is not a separate process/application entire in itself, it is combines several operational facets including Business Process Automation (BPA), which is often an initial step towards implementing an enterprise-wide BPM process. Depending upon key organizational requirements, custom software development companies configure BPA processes to align with end-user requirements by introduction of customized interfaces or new coding. The requirements served by such solutions as well as the development procedure of BPM processes implemented in an organization are often documented by enterprises in their business process management journal.

The BPM solutions provided by most software development companies in India are designed to be comprehensive, flexible and user-friendly to facilitate easy adoption by business users. The main benefit of such solutions is the relatively short learning curve, which is suitable for even the most novice users and the support for various user generated/configured customized interfaces as well as processes. The comprehensiveness of these BPM solutions ensure collaborative, consistent process management along with integrated analytics as well as reporting capabilities, which are aligned with other enterprise-wide solutions.

Key BPM Deployment Benefits to Organizations

Superior Compliance

The custom software development procedures of many companies ensure the availability of relevant logging and audit information pertaining to the actions performed by all members of the staff. Availability of such information ensures that the company’s operations comply with all relevant regulations including various Services Level Agreements.

Real-Time Information Management

BPM systems can be configured to record every transaction carried out using the system and such information may be retrieved by authorized personnel as and when required. This real-time recording/retrieval system is an integral part of the business process management methodology, which allows the accurate analysis of various activities. Such information is usually presented through user-customized dashboards and features various capabilities to ensure detailed analysis of all available information.

Collaborative Workspace Support

BPM solutions may be customized to support a collaborative workspace structure, which allows IT and business users to co-operate in designing, creating as well as implementing executable business processes. The collaborative workspace design enables multiple users to contribute significantly in designing, creating and implementing executable business processes, to facilitate a significant reduction in the overall time to market. This type of workplace design allows reassignment options as well as the use of various tags and memos, which enable business users to collaborate with members of other teams. Key benefits include a decrease in overall costs and lead times required for developing/improving new or currently operational business processes.

Improved Flexibility and Agility

In the current market situations businesses need to be flexible and agile in order to keep pace with rapidly changing market conditions. BPM solutions provide organizations with a flexible environment, which allows business users to rapidly adjust processes and fulfill emerging market requirements. This functionality is achieved by providing enterprise users with support for re-assignment of tasks between employees, supporting the alternative routing of work as well as the creation and compliance with existing or new rules/regulations for conducting business.

Superior Process Visibility

Leading Business Process Management systems developed by companies globally are customized according to the requirements of a single specific environment to provide complete visibility as well as transparency of all processes in the organization. Subsequent to implementation of BPM solutions, authorized personnel are provided access to a customized dashboard, which displays critical business data to facilitate refinement as well as improvement of key business processes. The use of BPM solutions helps significantly in the identification of process exceptions and bottlenecks, while simultaneously improving efficiency as well as control of the business processes.

Conclusion

In the current business environment, no company can be complacent about the way they operate and special attention to implementing suitable business process management methodology is necessary for an organization. The implementation of BPM tools and systems help companies overcome potential as well as existing problem areas while simultaneously improving process visibility throughout the enterprise. In the short as well as long term, BPM processes provide companies with increased flexibility and agility to help them gain a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing business landscape. Considering the global crisis we are currently facing, implementing a proper BPM solution may actually be the deciding factor in a company’s continued growth and existence.