Business process management (BPM) is the way a company manages (i.e., creates, edits, adapts, tests) its internal processes within the company.
While each department typically creates and manages its own processes and ways of completing tasks, BPM allows the company to take a step back and look at every single one of its processes as a whole.
It’s a great way to ensure the company isn’t utilizing too many different software that can all do the same thing, and ensure they’re all working in the most efficient way. Every department within a company doesn’t need to work off of a different project management software, so it’s a good idea to manage processes company-wide every so often.
BPM can seem like a daunting task, especially for larger companies. But it’s a very necessary strategy to ensure the business isn’t overpaying and is getting things done as quickly and efficiently as possible.
To help ease you into your next steps in BPM, we thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to some BPM definitions and vocabulary so that you’ll better understand exactly what kind of project you’re undertaking.
1. Business Process: A set of tasks that once completed will accomplish a goal for the company, whether it’s deliverables for a client, setting department budgets, and more. Each department within the company has its own business processes that need to be managed.
2. Continuous Process Improvement: The act of making continuous adaptations on and improvements of processes, products, and services within the company. It’s important to note the key word “continuous” here – it is not a one and done process. The improvement of operations within a company must be done regularly. Plus, just because a process may be optimized at one point, as the business grows and changes, the process should as well.
3. Document-Centric BPM: A type of business process management that focuses on processes surrounding documents (i.e., a contract) and the sending, verifying, filing, etc., of those documents.
4. Integration-Centric BPM: A type of business process management that focuses on processes integrated between systems and doesn’t involve much human touch.
5. Human-Centric BPM: A type of business process management that focuses on processes worked on and completed by people within the company.
6. Process Identification: Defining sets of business processes the company must complete as well as setting the scope, the actions needed, and the team members involved in completing them. This is the first step in business process management, and all processes must be identified in order to properly manage each stage.
7. Process Monitoring: The act of keeping an eye on and evaluating a process’s progress to determine if it needs to be improved or changed. Understanding how well your processes are being executed is key to understanding if they need to be improved or optimized, or if they’re already performing at their best.
8. Process Optimization: Adjusting a process just so in order to make it flow as smoothly and optimally as possible. This helps you determine what needs to be done to achieve optimal results from each of your processes.
Ready to get started with your company’s BPM? PerfectApps’ BPM Software is designed for small and medium businesses to manage business processes without the need for a programmer. Contact us today to learn more about how we can fit into your business model.
