What Problem Does BPM Solve?

BPM puts the order from chaos in the life of an organization.

BPM is to manage knowing from flow, processes underpin business capabilities, more specifically, what problems do BPM help solve?

BPM projects serve mostly to reduce the chaos and put some order in the business life of an organization. And the cost of chaos is significant. Not just burned man-hours. Bad decisions, lack of decisions, higher external operational costs

BPM provides orchestration (guidelines), in respect of the performance of work. ­­­­Whereas traditional BPM was critiqued as being "rigid," when you manage work in a Case environment where BPM sits in the background providing orchestration, and your environment also accommodates governance, you have the wherewithal to "manage" work. Workflow management with BPM and Adaptive Case Management yields improved efficiency, decreased errors, increased throughput, improved compliance with internal and external rules and regulations, setting the stage for improved outcomes.

BPM improves operational excellence. Any company that would like to achieve operational excellence to get a competitive advantage, will get a benefit from BPM approach. BPM is a key factor for business success in the current dynamic and competitive environment. Of course, there are some challenges to adopt it right. Otherwise, the BPM approach will fail to meet a high expectation for it. Success with BPM occurs, when organizations well align the people, process and technology, roll out templates of best practices and encourage (without forcing) staff to use them, well balance standardization and creativity, management practices, and governance discipline.

BPM is a "business" tag that recognizes the need to focus on people and their processes. As such, the problems addressed and benefits gained will be different depending upon where you sit:

• To business, it opens the door to "buy a solution to their problem"
• To "IT," it might help understand how business really works
• To users, it will remove the fear of asking for change
• To “third parties”, it should improve the interactions as customers or suppliers
• To management, it will contribute to a new model that empowers their people

BPM should be led by the business and for the business. IT as a key enabler will contribute to and support its success. BPM is to manage the seamless connectivity between the process and the mess of legacy so it is delivering real adaptive capability at the enterprise level where it matters with people. The focus is on people and processes. It is business people associated with "IT" who see the need as the gap between "IT systems" and people in the real world of work widened so "BPM" emerged and engaged.

BPM must be driven by business people and focus on HOW to solve business problems, it shouldn't be too ‘rigid’ to discourage innovation; and it needs to be dynamic to adapt to the changes.

Posted in: Business Process Management,Problem Solving