| If yours is a business with several departments, at | | | | The benefits of BPM adoption are enormous: |
| one point you start to realize that in order to stay | | | | Direct |
| competitive, increase productivity and bring efficiency | | | | - Update processes in real time |
| to your business, you need to optimize and | | | | - Reduce overhead expenses |
| automate some of your business processes. To | | | | - Automate key decisions |
| identify which parts of your business activities are | | | | - Reduce process maintenance cost |
| required to be optimized, first you need to have a | | | | - Reduce operating cost |
| clear understanding of the processes involved in your | | | | - Improve productivity |
| particular business. | | | | Indirect |
| What is a Business Process? | | | | - Improve process cycle time |
| A business process is a series of specific, measured | | | | - Improve forecasting |
| tasks performed by people and systems and | | | | - Improve customer service |
| designed to achieve a predetermined outcome. The | | | | - Improve sourcing time cycle |
| processes have these important characteristics: | | | | How to figure out which of the business processes |
| | | | you need to automate? |
| 1. The processes have internal and external users. | | | | Companies are using BPM systems to automate |
| 2. They take place across or between organization's | | | | virtually every aspect of their businesses. A company |
| departments or different organizations. | | | | for example might have priorities to automate their |
| 3. They are based on how work is done in the | | | | sales activities, requisition process, procurement |
| organization. | | | | process, warehousing, call center, etc. However, the |
| The business processes have three key elements - | | | | focus initially should be given on those areas that |
| Entity, Object, and Task. | | | | meat the following criteria: |
| Entities: Where the process occurs. | | | | - The business process should be crucial for |
| Objects: The processes are results of handling | | | | productivity improvement |
| objects. Objects could be physical or informational. | | | | - Savings from automation is clearly visible |
| Tasks: Works done to handle the objects. | | | | - Return on Investment from implementation is high |
| The followings are examples of business processes: | | | | and preferably immediate |
| Mortgage application processing | | | | Since your business has unique characteristics which |
| Credit verification | | | | differ from others, you might have business |
| Product development | | | | processes that have exceptional business rules. |
| Travel planning | | | | Normally, this type of business processes need |
| Opening a new account | | | | maximum attention and substantial resources. |
| Answering to a Request for Quote | | | | Business Process Management tools are great in |
| Shipping a product | | | | handling exceptions. Use BPM systems to streamline |
| Companies are trying to improve their business | | | | these processes. |
| processes using computer technology starting ever | | | | What are BPM Systems? |
| since the computer technology has emerged. Initial | | | | BPM Systems are applications that help organizations |
| emphasize was given to enterprise resource planning. | | | | to automate their business processes end to end |
| Main areas where automation was adopted were | | | | from a workflow task to process outcome so that |
| production, accounting, procurement and logistics. The | | | | they can reduce process costs, improve productivity |
| next step was sales and marketing automation. Next | | | | and bring efficiency to their business. |
| came customer relationship management and supplier | | | | A successful implementation of BPM systems requires |
| relationship management. Last couple of years we | | | | clear understanding of organization's business |
| are seeing implementation of Business Process | | | | processes, business rules, and willingness of the |
| Management across the board. Companies are | | | | management and workers to embrace new way of |
| adopting BPM in the areas where it could make real | | | | doing business. |
| differences. Some of these processes involve several | | | | Your Enterprise Portal can be the BPM platform you |
| departments of the company and some are result of | | | | need |
| real-time interaction of the company with its | | | | Your company Portal is the access point for your |
| suppliers, customers and other business partners. | | | | customers, vendors, business partners and staff to |
| Interest in BPM is growing really fast, according to a | | | | company information and services. A typical company |
| report from Forrester Research, one-third of | | | | Portal is an integrated website of Intranet, Extranet, |
| organizations surveyed by the firm are currently using | | | | Repositories, Procurement and Sales Systems, |
| or piloting BPM, a dramatic increase compared with | | | | Customer Relationship Services, etc. Today, |
| mid-2002, when just 11% were trying BPM. | | | | advanced Portals are also integrating Business |
| What is Business Process Management (BPM)? | | | | Process Management Systems, which enables |
| BPM automates and streamlines the business | | | | automation of workflows that model end-to-end |
| processes which are crucial for the organization in | | | | business processes. |
| order to improve productivity. From hiring a person to | | | | In any business process the owners of the process, |
| processing a purchase order, BPM helps restructuring, | | | | the users and the objects interact at many levels, |
| controlling and handling workflows involving people | | | | such as starting a process, monitoring the process, |
| and systems to complete a process more efficiently. | | | | doing a task, creating new activity, approving a task, |
| To use BPM effectively, companies must focus on | | | | etc. In order to reflect the business processes, their |
| the outcome of the process and design workflows | | | | progress and interaction with users and owners, a |
| based on the expected result from the process. | | | | dashboard is used. You can easily integrate any |
| There should not be any difference between a task | | | | business process into your company Portal and |
| done by computer systems or people. BPM should be | | | | display needed workflows, notifications, charts, |
| able to map the interaction among the entities, | | | | performance indicators as a dashboard on it. |
| objects and tasks and bring them inline with the | | | | Conclusion |
| process workflow. Business rules used in the process | | | | Investment in BPM is the same as any other |
| also should be clearly defined. While trying to | | | | technology related investment. If you plan the |
| automate a business process you have to keep in | | | | project properly, set a clear goal, educate the people |
| mind that finding a process which should be | | | | those who have to change their mindset once the |
| streamlined is not that difficult! Problem occurs when | | | | system is implemented and get necessary support |
| you try to define which entities are involved and how | | | | from the management, you can count on a massive |
| the evolved method will distribute the previous roles | | | | return on your investment. |
| among the new tasks owners. | | | | |