To BPM or not to BPM?

Ever wondered whether your company should address their business processes? Many of you believe that managing business processes is a good idea, but it is too expensive. So, let’s look at some reasons to address your business processes.

My Thoughts…

Looking to contain costs?

The ‘ax man’ approach is likely to leave gaping holes in your business processes. BPM provides the management disciplines and the tools to surgically target problem processes and put them on the path to recovery. Improve your business processes and cut costs at the same time.

Looking to improve customer relationships?

Everyday we interact with companies – we give them the opportunity to meet or exceed expectations. Our experience with a company determines whether we will buy from them again or whether this will be a one time sale. Customer expectations management is a process that BPM is well suited to manage.

Looking for more visibility into your company processes?

Do your managers complain about the lack of visibility into their processes and projects? Do you have trouble identifying who or what is impeding your processes? Does it take hours to determine the status of a process? Have you hired a program manager to solve this problem? BPM software provides visibility.

Looking for more control of your business processes?

Are the cycle times of some of your high value processes taking too long? Are the people involved in the process spending too much time looking for information; looking for the descriptions of their next activity; determining the next person in the process; etc? BPM software brings control to your business processes.

Looking for improved agility?

Do you fear that your processes are not adapting to changing business requirements because ‘this is the way they have always been done’? Using BPM, a company is better equipped to switch gears and respond to its changing business environment – faster than its competitors.

Need to prove Compliance?

Facing regulatory requirements like PCI DSS, 21 CFR Part 11, OMB A-123, etc.? Facing audits from ISO, the DoD, etc.? Implementing internal practices like Lean Six Sigma? BPM software provides discipline and an audit trail.

Your Thoughts…

What would you change or add to the list?

Process Management – Keeping it Real!

BPM Creates Value

From a Ziff Davis Media Survey…

BPM provides a solid return on investment by decreasing costs, increasing revenue and improving agility.

Organizations across all market sectors are utilizing BPM as a technology to orchestrate and integrate end users, applications and data defined business processes. Companies are also using BPM as a management practice to support the continuous process improvement needed to drive market advantage, reduce cost and friction across all facets of the business.

More and more organizational leaders are realizing that business process management creates significant competitive advantage. Gartner states that BPM is one of the fastest growing segments in software and it is forecast to remain so during the next five years. Many organizations are now focused on making BPM a program, not just a project.

My Thoughts…

In previous blogs, I have defined a company as a collection of processes. The 80/20 rule applies here – 20% of your processes will provide 80% of the value. Since these 20% are key to your company, their inefficiencies will have a direct impact on your bottom line.

Without software, you can accomplish plenty.

Identify the key Processes – Document – Test [be sure you have documented them correctly] – Measure [before measurements] – Improve – Measure [after measurements].

Process management activities have a much smaller chance of success without management involvement. Many company leaders are realizing that business process management creates a significant competitive advantage.

With Software, you can do more – BPM Software provides control, visibility & agility.

Control – dictate how the process works; who performs what activities; how long do they have; what information do they need; what information will they create; etc.

Visibility – Quickly see the status of a process; where is it now; what has been done; what needs to be done; build reports; etc.

Agility – Change is constant. You must be able to quickly and easily change the process to meet current needs.

BPM Results – A solid return on investment by decreasing costs, increasing revenue and improving agility.

Your Thoughts…

Has your company identified their [20%] key processes?

Process Management – Keeping it Real…