What is business process management (BPM)?

How BPM actions are performed in an enterprise?

Companies perform different steps to implement BPM. It is noted by some experts that the five-step model (design, model, execute, monitor, and optimize) is quite popular along with models containing six or more steps using different names for the steps (analyze, model, implement, monitor, manage, automate).

We define BPM steps in a general format (DMIMC) which includes:

• Design the business process as it should ideally exist, analyze the process as it currently exists and understand what needs to be done to improve the same
• Model, or consider, how the business process operates in different scenarios
• Implement, or execute, improvement solutions, including standardization and process automation
• Monitor improvements and continue to optimize the business process.

The role of BPM in process optimization and automation

Ideally, Process Management deals with monitoring and optimizing existing processes along with analyzing the scope of new processes. Usually, companies use manual work steps to handle BPM. But with digitization, can such processes be bound by technology?

The answer is yes! Automation of the BPM process has been shown to increase the profitability and customer focus in many companies as it focuses on optimizing process quality.

Modern technologies like “Robotic Process Automation” and “Artificial Intelligence” have contributed to automating BPM processes to a great extent. RPA process automates the manual, repetitive process that primarily focuses on classic administrative tasks. AI on the other hand evaluates unstructured data and performs a subsequent analysis. Hence, such processes get implemented can reduce the manual dependency of employees and utilize such resources for more value-adding activities.

Hence, integrating AI and RPA with the BPM process will create new business models with the main role of optimizing business processes.

Benefits of using BPM in organization

1. A holistic, top-down management approach
2. Focuses on optimizing business operations to maximize customer satisfaction
3. Strong emphasis on continuous process improvement
4. Organization around clearly defined and documented processes and managing process lifecycles

When should Organizations Implement Business Process Management?

Implementing the BPM process in businesses can result in a high return on investment. This can be illustrated with the below examples:

1. Dynamic processes: Such processes require regulatory compliance changes, such as a change in customer information management requires changes in finance or privacy laws.
2. Complex business processes: these require orchestration and coordination across multiple business units, divisions, functional departments, or workgroups.
3. Measurable mission-critical processes: these processes directly improve a crucial performance metric.
4. Business processes: such processes require one or more legacy applications for their completion.
5. Business processes with exceptions that are handled manually and/or require quick turn arounds.