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IT, economic trends aligning to create demand for BPM

Ben Farrell
September 21, 2012

Many IT departments are facing significant challenges in the wake of the relatively steady, though slow economic recovery throughout much of the world. A recent Computerworld report explained that companies seeking relief from financial struggles worked to quickly cut IT costs and enable technologies that drive efficiency. However, the continued slow nature of recovery has left many organizations continuing to look at IT for cost reduction, but CIOs are running out of areas to reduce expenses because the low-hanging fruit has been plucked.

In response, the news source explained that more organizations are striving for a way to look more deeply at IT procedures and find ways to improve efficiency and return on investment while reducing spending. In many ways, business process management software is ideally positioned to help CIOs meet this need.

The report identified a few practices that IT departments should begin completing, noting that BPM software, process automation and similar solutions can play a major role in enabling the operational shift. One of the first things businesses need to do is identify ways to minimize long-term spending while taking advantage of ways to reduce current costs. To accomplish this, CIOs should focus resources on projects that can drive cost reductions over time and focus on streamlining day-to-day operations.

Another key step in meeting current IT needs created by economic conditions is to develop methodologies that drive IT toward efficiency. This involves re-architecting the underlying infrastructures and systems to breed operations and optimizing operational elements of day-to-day procedures through service catalogs and automation, the news source said.

The report explained that BPM solutions can play a major role in this process by enabling organizations to align their diverse technological solutions and ensure that process-level improvements are achieved through new projects.

Many experts agree that cloud computing, mobility and social media are among the key tools enabling IT departments to cut costs and improve operations. But as these technologies are deployed at scale, they become extremely complex to manage. Often manual tasks and can bog workers down in excess data and procedures. BPM can step in under such circumstances and provide the process-level improvements needed to gain the most from IT innovation.