Skip to main content

Focus BPM on goals, not individuals

Ben Farrell
February 24, 2014

Business process management provides key support for operational growth and innovation. However, businesses can stunt their own success by focusing these efforts on the employees, rather than the end goals it hopes to achieve.

According to TechTarget, most companies will launch BPM solutions with specific employee preferences in mind. While this is fine when first establishing new processes and improvements, companies need to evolve past this initial strategy in order to see real growth and optimize BPM software ROI. Furthermore, if that worker is replaced, it could throw the entire system into chaos because, suddenly, processes specific to a single individual no longer apply to workflows. While such problems can be as basic as extraneous reports being printed for an executive because his or her predecessor requested them and the process never stopped, they can be much more critical and cause serious problems in efficiency if expanded to actual production workflows or customer service.

A clear sign that a business may be focusing too much on personalized processes is "turf wars" - arguments over "who" a process belongs to. While taking responsibility is important, employees should acknowledge that a process is the domain of the company as a whole, not the individual, and optimization comes from streamlining a process so that anyone can perform it, not a single worker. If employees fail to acknowledge this, it is likely the company needs to reevaluate its process management efforts and start migrating toward overarching BPM strategies.

Enterprise-level BPM software will provide the foundation for improved process management and ensure that individualized workflows are optimized without focusing on personalizing processes. This is particularly important when new processes are developed, or key changes are being made to existing operations. According to the news source, its nearly impossible to eliminate the fact that long-standing processes will reflect the personalities of those that created them. However, deploying improved process management software can shift the company mindset from a focus on this to more intelligent workflows, supporting modifications that might otherwise by avoided to maintain comfort levels.

As technology improves and opportunities for growth abound, businesses have to embrace change and ensure their employees are onboard for these enhancements. The right processes will drive productivity and remain flexible enough to adapt to new technologies or demands on workflow, companies simply need to invest in the right software to develop them.

Ben Farrell

Director of Corporate Communications

Ben Farrell