BPM strategy and the concept of process management

There is no way to define and implement BPM strategy without first mastering process management, a fundamental concept for any company that is concerned with adding value at each stage of the production chain, efficiently and effectively to deliver a final product that is perceived as being valuable by its customers.

So that the concept of process management is fully understood and then subsequently properly applied in a BPM strategy, its definition and some important features have been addressed in this post.

Process management: concepts and applications in BPM strategy

According to the renowned expert Gart Capote, the concept of process management could be defined as follows:

“Business Process Management is a disciplinary approach to identify, design, execute, document, measure, monitor, control and improve business processes, automated or otherwise, to achieve consistent results, aligned with the strategic objectives of the organization.”

Note that Capote lists 8 activities: identify, design, execute, document, measure, monitor, control and improve. Also, remember that the concept of process management in BPM strategy is not restricted to automated and consistent processes and results, they should converge with the company’s goals.

Among the applications of process management for a BPM strategy in a company presented by the author, we can highlight these 9 topics:

1. Understanding and formalizing business processes.
2. Understanding the value chain and its process components.
3. Quickly providing new services and products to customers.
4. Re-using technological resources.
5. Proactively managing process tasks and activities and monitoring them in real time.
6. Quickly reducing costs and time in adopting new solutions.
7. Using human resources better and consequently appreciating them more
8. Breaking the old habits of traditional corporate management.
9. Simulating and testing improvements in a controlled environment.

In the view of another highly respected author, Roger Tregear process management in BPM strategy is a concept that can be understood like this:

“Business processes are the channels through which organizations deliver value to clients, themselves, and other stakeholders. There is no other way to deliver that value. Functional areas alone are not able to deliver value. Therefore, each organization performs its strategic intent through their business processes.”

Note that BPM strategy is entirely driven by the way the concept of process management is implemented in a company. The sequence that should be followed to apply BPM strategy and turn it into an effective implementation, he said, is the following:

1. Organizations exist to deliver value to customers and other stakeholders. It’s the strategy.
2. They do this through a series of coordinated activities across some functional elements of the organization. It’s the process.
3. It makes sense to optimize these processes so that they satisfy the requirements of customers and other stakeholders. It’s the process improvement.
4. Having a performance coordinated view of the processes by which an organization adds value, optimizes performance. It’s  the process management.
5. Process management enables organizations to focus on processes that create differentiation in the market described by the strategy. It’s the execution.

In short, by following the concept of process management, BPM strategy should follow these 5 steps which involve respectively: strategy, processes, improvement and management of processes and execution.

Process management: What does the concept bring to an organization?

Process management is improving the way companies are run and managed. In this context, BPM strategy based on process management must allow the manager to promote the following business impacts:

• Formalizing and understanding business processes.
• Correctly viewing the entire value chain and its processes.
• Generating more flexibility to offer new products and services to customers.
• Reusing the technological resources dominant in the company.
• Leveraging the legacy of accumulated knowledge and practices.
• Monitoring tasks and processes in real time.
• Cost Reduction.
• Reducing time in performing tasks.
• Appreciating staff and making the best use of their skills.
• Ability to simulate improvements in a controlled environment

No doubt the implementation of BPM strategy with the aid of suitable tools and BPM software will be much easier, especially if this software is agile and intuitive

Check out: Business process management best practices