Management of an organization can involve handling various genres of tasks; and Business Process Management, or BPM as commonly known, is one of them. This article is a brief introduction to business process management and its associated concepts. Read on to understand about it in detail.
BPM or Business Process Management
Business process management is an approach that aims at aligning all aspects of the organization with the needs of the clients. It is an approach that aims at managing the effectiveness of the business from an overall manner. In other words, the approach is a holistic one which aims at efficiency, innovation and flexibility all in a single flow.
The BPM techniques ensure that the processes and business procedures undergo a continuous improvement at all the time. This is the reason why the BPM model is also known as ‘Process Optimization Model’. In comparison to a traditional, functionally focused approach; BPM techniques have been known to produce better and more effective processes. It is also believed that customer satisfaction, quality and turn-around time are all higher in the BPM model as against the traditional ones.
In the concepts associated with BPM, processes are considered to be strategic assets of an organization which are analyzed, managed, and improved to deliver quality and value-added services and products to clients. BPM is thus an approach that can integrate a change in an organization whether human or technical.
Uses of Business Process Management
Though the initial focus of Business Process Management was on the automation of processes with the help of information technology, it now accommodate integration of human-driven processes where in the human interaction is a process that is done in parallel with technology.
Business Process Management models are used to understand business processes through expanded views that are not normally available for organizing and presenting. These include the relationship between the processes to one another and the analysis of the integration levels between them. The model also helps establish advanced reporting structures based on the integration model. This makes Business Process Management models as the backbone of enterprise process management.
Benefits of Business Process Management
As BPM allows organizations to abstract business process from technology infrastructure, it is not restricted by automation or resolution of business processes. The Business Process Management ensures that business responds to frequently changing market, consumer and regulatory demands faster than their competitors so as to create a competitive advantage.
The Business Process Management models can be coupled with many other methodologies. As an example, the recent technical advancements have made it possible for Business Process Management to relate with Six Sigma technologies. It lets the user simulate the needed changes to the business processes based on real-life measured data. The BPM model can also be coupled with industry methodologies allowing users to streamline and optimize the business processes ensuring that they are on par with the market needs.
Business Process Management – Life Cycle
The activities of the BPM model can be grouped into five main categories: design, modelling, execution, monitoring, and optimization. Following is a brief description of each of the phase.
Design – The main aim of this phase is to ensure that effective and accurate theoretical designs are prepared. The process design phase includes the identification of existing processes and the design of the desired processes. The areas of focus here includes representation of the business process flow, the components within it, alerts & notifications, Service Level Agreements, Standard Operating Procedures, escalations and task transition mechanisms.
Modelling – The modelling phase takes the theoretical design prepared in the design phase and introduces combinations of variables like material cost, rental charges, etc. to obtain an overall idea of the prepared design.
Execution – Once the theoretical design is prepared, it is needed that the steps are executed. This can be done in an automated manner though in practice the process can never become completely automated. This can also be resolved by using a combination of human and software intervention to run the modelled processes. This approach is however difficult than the other steps as it requires thorough understanding of the business process and the technical aids.
Monitoring – The monitoring phase encompasses the tracking of the individual processes, so that information can be easily seen. The phase also provides statistics on the performance of one or more processes as and when required.
Optimization – The optimization process includes retrieval of the performance measurements from the modelling or monitoring phase. It also helps identify potential or actual bottlenecks and opportunities for cost savings or other improvements.