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BPM can support IT framework implementation

Ben Farrell
August 1, 2012

Current economic trends are pushing businesses to increase investments in IT frameworks that allow IT to improve governance, risk management and operational efficiency. As companies strive for better operations within IT, investing in business process management software can take that technological innovation and ensure it pays off in process-level enhancements.

According to a recent CIO magazine report, the current economy has left many businesses in a position where they are dealing with limited financial and workforce-related resources. At the same time, spending on technology is fairly healthy because new IT systems can help reduce operational costs and improve efficiency. As a result, companies are focusing on implementing more solutions to help IT run as effectively as possible.

In the past, many IT departments were kept distinct from the rest of the organization, with the data center functioning as a separate entity. But in an era when fiscal responsibility is a key theme, more companies are expecting IT to operate with the same efficiency and governance as the business side of operations, the report explained.

Because IT is facing greater scrutiny, organizations are turning to IT frameworks, such as the ISO/IEC 2000 and IT Infrastructure Library, which are designed to establish a set of IT best practices that allow for greater oversight within the data center, the report explained. Such frameworks enable organizations to better handle risk management, governance and performance optimization. Essentially, aligning IT with defined best practices lets CIOs more accurately evaluate the configuration, figure out what is working well, what is inefficient and make the strategic changes necessary to improve the setup.

These IT-level improvements provide essential oversight and strategic vision for the technological side of operations. But if they exist within a vacuum in the data center, they may not lead to process-level improvements. Companies making major improvements in their IT setups gain the most when those benefits are integrated with business operations, allowing the technological innovation to permeate the company and lead to better day-to-day functionality.

One of the best ways to ensure IT investments lead to procedural advances is to implement BPM solutions that help align diverse technological platforms and data sources into a format more accessible for users. Essentially, BPM automates many of the data gathering and integration processes that can bog down end users, allowing them to focus on using the data generated by technological improvements to streamline day-to-day processes.