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The comprehensive guide on business process management (BPM)

business-process-managementbusiness process managementbusiness-process-managementbusiness-process-management
TOPICS ON THIS PAGE
  • What is business process management?
  • What is the importance of BPM for organizations?
  • What are the types of business process management?
  • What are some examples of BPM?
  • What are the different stages of the BPM lifecycle?
  • What are the benefits of business process management?
  • What are the challenges when adopting BPM?
  • How to implement BPM in your organizatio
  • What are the features to look for in a business process management tool?
  • How do you choose the right BPM software?
  • What is the future of BPM?
  • How can an AI-powered low-code platform help companies with business process management?

What is business process management?

Business process management (BPM) is a systematic approach to improving the operational efficiency and effectiveness of an organization's business processes. For example, a company may use BPM to streamline its order-fulfillment process, resulting in faster delivery times and lower shipping costs.

What is the importance of BPM for organizations?

  • To increase efficiency and effectiveness

    Business process management helps organizations identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement in their repetitive and ongoing processes, which can lead to increased efficiency and effectiveness.

  • To improve customer satisfaction

    By improving existing processes and making business strategy more efficient, organizations can improve customer satisfaction, leading to better business outcomes and repeat customers.

  • To reduce costs

    Applying business process management can help organizations identify areas for cost savings, which can lead to increased profitability for the organization.

What are the types of business process management?

1. Human-centric BPM

This type of BPM focuses on processes that rely heavily on human input and decision-making. Examples include processes like customer support handling, hiring, or approvals that require manual oversight. The tools used here are designed to support collaboration, task assignments, and ease of use for people involved in the workflow.

2. Document-centric BPM

In document-centric BPM, the focus is on processes where documents play a central role, such as contract approvals, policy reviews, or invoice processing. The workflow is designed around the movement, review, and approval of documents, often integrating with document management systems to keep everything organized and accessible.

3. Integration-centric BPM

This is best suited for processes that require systems and applications to work together without much human intervention, like syncing data between a CRM and an ERP or automating data entry between finance and sales platforms. Integration-centric BPM tools are built to support API connections, data mapping, and seamless integration between software systems.

What are some examples of BPM?

Business process management can be applied to any business function.

BPM for human resources

Say you're a chief human resources manager or an HR manager—BPM could involve defining the core operation of sub-processes like employee onboarding or employee management. You could also apply this to your overall process, human resource management.

BPM for finance

For the finance department, BPM can be applied to processes like business expense management, corporate travel management , or complete business finance management.

BPM for operations

Business operations can benefit from BPM by streamlining sub-processes like facility management, vendor management, inventory management, and order management.

BPM for sales and marketing

Business process management doesn't need to be limited to internal processes alone. Processes like sales management, quotation management, or content proofing can also come under its purview.

Looking for business process management software for your organization?

What are the benefits of business process management?

  • Better process visibility

    Organizations can use business process management to keep track of all workflows across teams. This can help identify bottlenecks and make recommendations for stakeholders to take necessary actions.

  • Improved business's flexibility

    The BPM framework lets businesses identify, track, and optimize their internal processes. This helps them be more agile in their decision-making and operations because they can quickly adapt to changes in their environment.

  • Seamless communication

    BPM can help businesses improve their communication and collaboration, as well as their overall efficiency.

Learn more about the benefits of BPM

What are the different stages of the BPM lifecycle?

The five-stage approach to business process management includes:

Process identification

In this stage, organizations identify which processes need to be improved or created. This is usually done through process mapping, which helps them visualize their current processes.

Process improvement

After identification, organizations need to analyze their business processes and identify ways to improve them. This can involve streamlining steps, automating tasks, or making other changes to improve efficiency.

Process implementation

In the process implementation stage, organizations put their automated business processes into place. This may require changes to organizational structure, technology, or other areas.

Process monitoring

Implementation is followed by monitoring, where organizations track the performance of their business automation to ensure they're working as intended. This requires setting up KPIs and other metrics to measure process performance.

Process optimization

This stage is where organizations continuously ensure process improvement. This means that businesses will make small tweaks to business automation on an ongoing basis or make more significant changes periodically.

Looking for business process management software for your organization?

What are the challenges when adopting BPM?

Data validation

Enterprises often have to deal with large volumes of data, including both redundant and incorrect data. They need to look for tools that are equipped with analytics and business intelligence capabilities that can provide valuable insights and help stakeholders conveniently access data. These tools also help them automate data entry, segregate data into sections and sub-sections, and remove duplicate records.

Organizational agility

Organizations need to be agile and adaptive in every respect. This is why businesses should look for solutions that are easy to use, even for non-technical users, enabling them to quickly address issues and ensure smooth operational processes without bottlenecks.

Lack of adoption by leadership

In large enterprises, business units are often led by multiple people, which can result in a lack of alignment on the use of BPM tools. To overcome these challenges, it's ideal for leaders to involve the process owners in the process modeling phase. Since they're the ones who will ultimately use the tool, it’s crucial to choose one that will help them manage their tasks effectively.

Employee empowerment and training

Many enterprises use tools that aren’t user-friendly for non-technical employees, leading to increased reliance on IT teams. This is why enterprises need to choose BPM tools like cloud-based solutions with intuitive interfaces and provide training to help employees use them effectively. If a process is redefined, process participants should be able to make necessary customizations themselves. This reduces the reliance on IT teams and empowers business teams to handle the system independently.

Integration capabilities

Product, marketing, sales, and operations teams often rely on different apps to manage their business functions. It's essential to leverage tools that can seamlessly integrate with existing legacy systems and third-party software. By doing so, departments can break out of silos and create a connected ecosystem.

Financial and time constraints

Business owners often wonder if opting for a lower-priced option will compromise quality and flexibility or if a higher-priced solution with more features will exceed the budget. Businesses should focus on the "why" behind their solution choice, evaluating it based on its return on investment. Modern approaches, like low-code, help enterprises win in both cases—they can customize a solution tailored exactly to their needs and deploy it in less time and at a lower cost.

Regulatory compliance

As data is stored and shared across different systems, there's often a risk of breaches, putting sensitive data at risk. To avoid this, businesses must leverage BPM solutions with features like data encryption, access control, and regular audits. It's also crucial to ensure that the tools comply with relevant industry standards and regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA.

Continuous performance measurement

Systems need time to be properly tested and assessed on whether they can deliver the intended outcomes. That's why enterprises should approach performance measurement as an ongoing process. A good approach is to optimize one process at a time, monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) to achieve defined business outcomes.

How to implement BPM in your organization

Establish a clear and achievable goal

When setting goals, it's helpful to use frameworks like SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) to ensure clarity and focus. Consider setting both short-term and long-term goals; short-term goals might focus on quick wins that can build momentum, while long-term goals might involve more complex changes that require significant time and resources.

Build a team

When building a team, it's best to look for people who are not only knowledgeable but also open to change. In addition to having the right skills, team dynamics are important. Creating a culture of collaboration and open communication ensures that team members feel comfortable sharing ideas and feedback. Regular meetings, clear roles and responsibilities, and an environment that encourages innovation are key to a successful team.

Choose the right software

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Before diving in to the options, it's essential to conduct a thorough needs analysis. This involves understanding the specific requirements of the organization, such as whether there's a need for workflow automation, new process modelling, real-time analytics, or integration with other systems. While evaluating software, a few major things you have to think about are how it will integrate with your existing systems, how easy it is to use, and whether it offers the features you need. It's also better to consider the level of support and training available, as implementing processes and new software can be a learning curve.

Plan and map

This is where the real work begins. Start by documenting your existing processes in detail, which involves creating flowcharts, SIPOC diagrams, or other visual representations. After your processes are mapped out, you can start identifying bottlenecks, redundancies, and other issues. And after identifying them, you can start designing new processes that are more efficient and aligned with your goals. This might involve reassigning tasks, eliminating unnecessary steps, or automating certain parts of the process.

Monitor and measure

It's important to monitor your processes closely to ensure they’re working as intended. Monitoring should involve both quantitative and qualitative data. While KPIs will give you a clear picture of how things are going, it’s also important to gather feedback from employees and, if possible, from customers to see if the changes are having the desired effect. Regular audits can also be beneficial in assessing the effectiveness of your processes over time and ensuring they remain aligned with organizational goals and compliance requirements.

What are the features to look for in a business process management tool?

  • Support for a variety of business processes

    BPM tools should support a variety of business processes, including common processes like project management, order processing, and invoicing.

  • Flexible process modeling

    The software should allow users to model processes in a way that is adaptable to changing business needs—ideally following the business process model and notation (BPMN) standard.

    Note: BPMN is a standard for modeling business processes in a graphical way. It's a standardized notation that can be used to visualize and document business processes in a clear and unambiguous way. BPMN is used to model business processes at different levels of abstraction, from high-level processes down to low-level details.

  • Process automation

    BPM software must support process automation to help users optimize business processes, improve business outcomes, and increase efficiency and productivity.

  • Process monitoring and reporting

    The tool should provide users with visibility into process performance through monitoring and reporting features.

  • Integration with other systems

    Business process management systems should integrate with other business systems to support end-to-end process management.

How do you choose the right BPM software?

Here are some key points to consider when choosing the BPM software for your organization:

Identify requirements

Begin by understanding your organization's specific requirements for process and application development automation. Then identify the business processes you want to optimize.

Evaluate user experience and ease of use

One of the main advantages of low-code BPM software is its simplicity. Ensure that the platform has an intuitive visual interface that allows you to automate complex business processes with ease.

Check for integration and compatibilities

Check the BPM software's compatibility with your existing systems, such as your ERP, CRM, HRM, and other essential business applications.

Ensure security and compliance

Data security is a critical aspect of any BPM implementation. Ensure that the software adheres to industry-standard security protocols and has the necessary features to protect sensitive business information.

Compare cost and licensing

Compare the pricing models and licensing options of the different BPM software providers. Ensure that you understand the total cost of ownership, including any additional fees or ongoing expenses.

What is the future of BPM?

Intelligent automation (IA)

BPM will increasingly combine with AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation (RPA) to create intelligent workflows. This means that business processes won't just be automated—they'll be able to make smart decisions, adapt to new inputs, and learn over time, leading to greater accuracy, speed, and efficiency.

Predictive and real-time analytics

With access to real-time data, BPM tools will become more proactive. Businesses will be able to anticipate process breakdowns, customer needs, and operational risks before they occur. Predictive analytics will allow companies to make data-driven decisions and continuously optimize their processes.

Hyper-automation

Hyper-automation takes automation a step further by automating as many processes as possible using advanced technologies. BPM platforms will evolve to support end-to-end automation that spans across departments and apps, helping enterprises achieve more with fewer manual inputs.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

AI will play a central role in reshaping how business processes are designed, executed, and improved. From natural language processing that enables chat-based workflows to machine learning models, AI can make processes more adaptive and self-improving. AI-driven BPM systems can analyze large volumes of data, recommend optimizations, and even make real-time decisions.

How can an AI-powered low-code platform help companies with business process management?

Low code is a type of software development that emphasizes the use of graphical user interface (GUI) tools to enable rapid application development (RAD). Low-code platforms, like Zoho Creator, provide a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to create custom applications without needing to write much code. Low-code helps in business process management by allowing organizations to quickly develop and deploy custom applications without the need for expensive and time-consuming coding and skilled resources.

What sets platforms like Zoho Creator apart is the addition of built-in AI features that enhance business process management. From predictive analytics and intelligent data extraction to sentiment analysis, these AI tools help users automate smarter and create more adaptive workflows. Some of these low-code platforms also come with the option to create digital blueprints of the business process that companies are trying to digitize.

Looking for business process management software for your organization?

Frequently asked questions

What is business process automation and how does it facilitate BPM?

The practice of identifying and automating repetitive and manual tasks across an organization is called business process automation (BPA), and it's critical to any successful BPM system implementation. If your aim is to improve productivity, reduce errors, and save costs, then BPA is a proven approach to efficient business process management. While a clearly mapped business process management blueprint in itself can result in business gains, adding the software layer of business process automation to this system ensures even greater business value.

Business process automation involves using technology to automate specific tasks or processes, focusing on streamlining and optimizing repetitive activities. It often employs robotic process automation and aims to replace manual efforts with software solutions.

On the other hand, business process management is a comprehensive approach that manages and improves an organization's entire set of processes, both automated and non-automated. It includes design, modeling, execution, monitoring, and continuous improvement to achieve strategic goals and enhance overall efficiency.

BPA is a subset of BPM, as it deals with automating specific tasks, while BPM addresses all processes within an organization.

A BPM system refers to a set of technologies, tools, and methodologies designed to streamline, automate, and optimize business processes within an organization. It's a systematic approach to improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and overall performance of business operations.

BPM systems help organizations identify, model, analyze, design, automate, monitor, and continuously improve their business processes. They allow businesses to manage both the sequential and parallel workflows involved in various processes, ensuring that they're executed in a consistent and standardized manner.