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BPM Tools Prepare CIOs for Constant Change

Appian Contributor
June 29, 2016

The rapid pace of innovation taking place in the digital world is forcing CIOs to embrace change as a constant part of functioning as a business. A recent study from Accenture found that approximately 15 percent of the economy was made up of digital functions in 2005. By 2015, digital represented 22 percent of the economy. That figure will expand to 25 percent by 2020.

Business process management (BPM) software gives organizations the foundation needed to support consistent change in response to the growing digital world. These BPM tools can also serve as mobileapplication development platforms that provide rapid, simple app creation capabilities that allow companies to sustain innovation.

Transitioning to a digital economy

According to the study, the increased dependence on digital tools in the enterprise is pushing businesses to respond to a wide range of shifting conditions. These include:

    • A need to support change on an almost constant basis

    • New customer and employee expectations

    • An influx of data from diverse sources

    • A growing need for collaboration both internally and externally

"Digitization is leading to a huge cultural shift in the enterprise."

All of these new trends are leading to a huge cultural shift in the enterprise, forcing CIOs to rethink how they support business users. The study explained that the digital culture shock facing organizations presents huge challenges for CIOs, and they must enact new business processes and methodologies in response.

Using BPM to keep up with digital innovation

BPM tools empower organizations to keep up with the rapid pace of digital change in a few key ways, including:

    • Standardizing business processes to allow for cross-departmental collaboration

    • Automating repetitive tasks so users can focus on high-thinking processes

    • Allowing IT and business users to work together on apps

    • Providing process improvement tools to customize and easily update apps to simplify changes through the entire product life cycle

Change and business transformation are only feasible if companies have stable business processes in place from the outset. This stability provides a degree of predictability and serves as a strong foundation upon which CIOs can build upon. Change is easier to deal with when organizations have a clear understanding of their current capabilities and process frameworks. With this knowledge standardized in BPM platforms, companies can more easily sustain the fast-paced, change-focused operations required in the growing digital world.

Digitization is taking over the modern enterprise, and BPM tools empower organizations to effectively keep up with the shifting dynamics presented by a digital economy.