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BPM software can get companies over the final hurdles in process management plans

Malcolm Ross, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy, Appian
October 11, 2012

When companies employ business process management, the first step in the process is not always technological. In many cases, turning to BPM is an ideological move that focuses on aligning business processes with corporate needs.

Importance of BPM practices

In many organizations, functions are completed in isolation, with employees in different departments all having a distinct approach to how things get done and not necessarily understanding the big picture. This model inherently breeds inefficiency because it compartmentalizes each department, limiting its impact on broad operations.

By implementing BPM as an operational principle, organizations can develop a more holistic operational scheme. Boiling operations down to repeatable decisions and processes that require direct input from a worker not only allows the organization to improve efficiency, it also allows it to align procedures between different apartments to improve efficiency.

When BPM projects hit a wall

Almost universally, a well-established BPM program will run into a point when all of the process-related activities can be optimized to the greatest extent possible on an ideological level, and help is needed to push the solution to an even better place and optimize gains. BPM software manages to accomplish this on two separate levels.

The first level is that of process automation. Using BPM to streamline processes on an intellectual level can helps workers get the job done more effectively, but employees often have to deal with tedious operations that are the same day in and day out. By implementing BPM software solutions, companies can enact process automation to enable technology to handle those repeatable processes. This frees workers to give more attention to complex issues, like customer interaction, and can create productivity and revenue gains.

Even with process automation, however, it is possible that a BPM program will hit a wall. Businesses now face an operational climate in which workers have to manage data coming in from cloud applications, social media and mobile sources. Because of this, automation alone cannot necessarily keep them from being overwhelmed by the information overload. Using BPM software to integrate these diverse technological channels and deliver data more efficiently can enable companies to overcome this data deluge and get the greatest possible value out of their BPM initiatives.

While BPM can start as a management and ideological principle, businesses working to get the most out of the process often do so through advanced technologies.

Malcolm Ross

Vice President of Product Marketing

Malcolm Ross