Business Process Management: Usages, Life Cycle, Benefits, and Types

Business Process:

A business process is any sequence of events or tasks that must be performed for a business to operate. For example, a customer’s purchase resulting in a delivery is a key business process that exists in all profit organizations.

Business Process Management:

Business Process Management (BPM) is the process of analyzing and improving business processes to create a more efficient and effective organization. Business process management is neither task management nor project management (although it can occur within the context of a project). BPM is focused more on repetitive and ongoing processes that follow a predictable pattern.

Some business processes are simple enough to use a checklist, but business process management (BPM) comes in when things get a little more complex. Checklists are about not forgetting certain tasks; BPM is about doing a step in a process at the right time.

Usages:

Business processes need to be updated frequently. (i.e. regulatory compliance changes)Certain business processes span across multiple people, regions and business units.Processes involve the use of different software. (i.e. Accounting, CRM, and HR)Processes need the capability of being over-ridden manually from time-to-time.Some business processes involve exceptions.

BPM also addresses many of the critical IT issues underpinning these business drivers, including:

Managing end-to-end, customer-facing processes.Consolidating data and increasing visibility into and access to associated data and information.Increasing the flexibility and functionality of current infrastructure and data.Integrating with existing systems and leveraging service oriented architecture (SOA).Establishing a common language for business-IT alignment.

In simple words, Business Process Management (BPM) provides a lot of value to companies. It reduces human error, decreases miscommunication, digitizes manual processes, and moves the responsibility of completing a process from humans to a program.

Life Cycle of BPM:

1. Design the process in its ideal state and examine all the conditions that need to be built.
2. Model the process using a business process management software.
3. Execute the process, or put a system in place.
4. Monitor the system and gather data about how it is functioning.
5. Business Process Optimize and make changes to the process to improve it.
6.  When the process becomes too complex or inefficient, and optimization is not fetching the desired output and so the entire process cycle should be re-engineered. Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) has been used by organizations to attempt to achieve efficiency and productivity at work.

Benefits of incorporating BPM into a business:

• The application of business process management (BPM) has helped millions of businesses around the world take control of chaotic processes and streamline their workflows in a very time-effective way. For instance, leaders in worldwide logistics can benefit from BPM to track shipments, manage customer feedback, handle transit red-tapism, and ensure timely deliveries.
• The mapping of a business process management (BPM) typically flows through a five-step process, i.e. designing, modeling, executing, monitoring, and optimizing. A BPM software helps businesses create, map, analyze, and improve their business processes.
• Implemented well, business process management (BPM) can take care of an entire business process lifecycle. Not only does this help enterprises run their everyday operations more efficiently, but it helps them realize their bigger organizational goals over a desired period of time.

Simply put, business process management is a method to improve tangled operations and optimize them so that they can focus more on their deliverables and less on the hurdles along the way. This is the reason why business process management is hailed as a booming market in both the technology and service sectors.

Types of Business Process Management:

BPM systems can be categorized based on the purpose that they serve. Here are the 3 types of business process management:

Integration-centric BPM:

This type of business process management system mainly focuses on integrating with the existing systems you have like HRMS, CRM and ERP. A smooth integration is something which every BPM software in the market is faced with and this kind of business process management solves it, as it’s primary focus lies on the same.

Human-Centric BPM:

There are few BPM software out there whose primary purpose is to route the tasks in a business process via every person who is involved in completing the process. Their focus lies on getting the tasks done by the stakeholders at the right time. A typical use case of this type of business process management tool would be an approval process.

Document-Centric BPM:

Such business process management solutions are required when document is the heart of the process. They enable routing, formatting, verifying and getting the document signed, as the tasks pass along the workflow. An ideal BPM (Business Process Management) system should incorporate each of these aspects.