BPM-Business process management
Business process management (BPM)
Business Process Management (BPM) is the concept of shepherding work items through a multi-step process. The items are identified and tracked as they move through each step, with either specified people or applications processing the information. The process flow is determined by process logic and the applications themselves play virtually no role in determining where the messages are sent.
Business process management attempts to improve processes continuously. It could therefore be described as a “process optimization process.” It is argued that BPM enables organizations to be more efficient, more effective and more capable of change than a functionally focused, traditional hierarchical management approach.
A business process is a series or network of value-added activities, performed by their relevant roles or collaborators, to purposefully achieve the common business goal.
As a managerial approach, (BPM) considers processes to be strategic assets of an organization that must be understood, managed, and improved to deliver value added products and services to clients. These processes are critical to any organization as they generate revenue and often represent a significant proportion of costs.
BPM goes a step further by stating that this approach can be supported, or enabled, through technology to ensure the viability of the managerial approach in times of stress and change. In fact, BPM is an approach to integrate a “change capability” to an organization – both human and technological.
Business Process Management Services transform, manage, and run key business processes, including customer relationship management, sourcing and procurement, and employee services, applying e-business technologies to achieve significant operational improvements.
BPM can be used to understand organizations through expanded views that would not otherwise be available to organize and present. These views include the relationships of processes to each other which, when included in the process model, provide for advanced reporting and analysis that would not otherwise be available. BPM is regarded by some as the backbone of enterprise content management.
Because BPM allows organizations to abstract business process from technology infrastructure, it goes far beyond automating business processes (software) or solving business problems (suite). BPM enables business to respond to changing consumer, market, and regulatory demands faster than competitors – creating competitive advantage.
Advantages of Business Process Management (BPM):
1)BPM Models: The activities of BPM are Modeling, Automating, Monitoring, Analyzing, and improving the business processes. BPM helps an organization to get good profits in less time.
This process models visualize the activities within the organization and business-to-business transactions. It flow models visualize the process flows within the organization and business-to-business transactions and the relationships between process flow. Its decomposition diagrams for business process modeling, process flow diagrams and data flow diagrams visualize the processes and activities in a detailed manner.
2)Workflow: Its workflow helps to define, create, execute, automate and manage processes within the organization and business-to-business-transactions to get more productivity.
3)Documentation: Business process management provides technical and non-technical persons to understand the different processes that occur in each departments of the organization, its performance and the outcome of each business processes.
4)Quality:Business process management increases quality and quantity of a product or a service provided by the organization.
5)Reports: Business process management reports can be very useful to the topmost executives of an organization and whoever needs it.
6)Resources:Business process management reduces the working hours of the employees.
7)Exceptions:Business process management reduces the errors and exceptions when compared to a manual process.
8)Regulations:Business process management helps an organization to abide by the regulations of the government.
9)Business-to-Business Transactions: Business process management is the core of transactions to gain leverage with vendors, customers, consumers, and suppliers.
10)Competition: BPM provides significant competitive advantage over competitors. Simulation techniques with different scenarios can be used on business processes to explore the effect of change.
Benefits of Business Process Management:
Business process management allows tremendous efficiency gains as the technology does much of the hard work. No longer an invoice be hidden in someone’s in-tray and no longer a staff expense claim is lost. There are three key advantages that BPM can bring to the table:
1. Transparency
Business process management makes a business process absolutely transparent, greatly improving visibility and efficiency. Bottlenecks can literally be seen, and removed. It can show where the most delays are occurring, and where is each transaction stuck as it passes from one stage to another.
2. Process refinement
The initial configuration and design exercise coupled with the data that emerges after running processes for some time can allow refinement.
3. Centralization of Data
Data about each and every transaction is logged and can be retrieved as and when required. Therefore, it is possible to analyze accurately what happened. Referencing is also easier as embedded searches allow for data to be picked up as required for study.
4. Financial Benefits
BPM Benefit Creates additional/new revenue, cost savings through tax avoidance, Enables cost avoidance, returns on investments, Increases cash flow, and profitability of existing products/services.
5. Organizational Benefits
BPM Benefit Builds company reputation, Creates new customer opportunities, Fosters company vision and mission, Improves market position relative to competitors, Improves the ability to serve customers.
6) Operational Benefits
BPM Benefit Decreases employee work loads for undesirable work, Eliminates non-value added activities, Improves employee morale / team spirit, internal communication between departments and group, use of workspace, Reduces external inputs to processes.
7) Information Technology Benefits
BPM Benefit Decreases maintenance/support costs, Enables service level agreement (SLA) obligation, Improves application/system performance, Improves application/system utilization rate, Increases efficiency of support activities, and productivity through automation, Maintains intellectual property investment, Preserves value of technology, Reduces application/system variation.
