Fundamentals of Business Process Management (Part-2)

Understanding of business processes is of paramount importance in managing the process whose design typically depends upon the kind of industry the company competes in, competitive compulsions, opportunities for creating and strengthening competitive advantages through accuracy and speed, which in turn are deciding factors for structures, rules and procedures to be followed.

Primarily business process management (BPM) is about teamwork, customer orientation and empowerment to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of end-to-end processes. Physically a process is a flow of materials and / or information. Even when the process is characterized by flow of materials from one stage to the next, it is actually the concerned information that is equally critical for the process to yield desired results. The fact that flow of information is vital to the success of a process has necessitated the use of Information Technology (IT) to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of business processes. The promise that IT holds as enabler for business process management has opened a new market space for IT applications and is popularly known by the same name Business Process Management (BPM). BPM is now being looked upon, especially in IT circles as software tools that a company may use to optimize its business processes.

Software vendors were quick to pounce upon the opportunity with offers of business process modeling & simulation, business process integration and business process automation all bundled in one package. Modeling maps out the best path for business process flow and is an important design tool in BPM project. Simulation is used as a test tool for BPM implementation of a specific business process before its deployment to simulate real time metrics and match up the output. Business process integration basically refers to information integration – seamless merger of data – not only with in the internal processes of a company but also extending to reach outside the boundaries to customers’ and suppliers’ processes. A high level of integration today is an exception rather than being commonplace. And business process automation in general refers to computer aided coordination of all aspects of process – people, facilities and resources, with a view to optimize the business process.

Software implementation of business processes or BPM software have their genesis in workflow management tools, which essentially was beginning for business process automation where information is passed from one stage to another through electronic means. It is akin to a moving assembly line in shop floor with the difference that here it was information that moved along a predefined path where at fixed points the information was processed and transformed before letting it move further.

Gradually software have evolved into modules to serve distinct business processes like SCM, CRM etc. and enterprise software packages like ERP software offer integrated environment for supporting and linking business processes across the functional divisions in an organization.

BPM tools typically result in benefits such as reduction in cycle times, reduction in number of activities, reduction in errors and reduction of human interface in routine tasks. Human faculty can be better deployed for decision points, handling exceptions, identification of scope for improvement and implementing improvements.

BPM software with their repertoire of graphical tools enable managers base their decisions on visual representation of real time data and analysis. This supports the analytical abilities, instinct, observation and experience of the managers in continuously improving the performance of the business process.

Huge potential of BPM tools in streamlining and improving efficiency of the business processes depends on the most critical success factor of how well the processes are designed, and how strongly the things that get measured are linked with the desired results (as valued by customers, participants and stakeholders) and strategy of the organization.