Strategic business process management is an important concept that has been studied and developed by several minds in the corporate world.
To begin our discussion on the subject of strategic business process management, we have chosen a classic quote from one of the world’s best marketing gurus. This phrase is intended to define one of the most important steps when deciding the strategic business process management of a company, i.e., Strategic Planning:
“Strategic planning is a management methodology to establish the direction to be followed by the organization seeking a greater degree of interaction with the environment.”
Philip Kotler
Okay, so after using this method and discovering the direction that’s to be followed, it is necessary to study how business processes are contributing to achieving this direction, which also involves understanding how each process adds value from the supply end to the consumer or end user, whether they are product or service based.
In this context, often it is clear that it’s necessary to improve or create new processes.
This leads us to BPM tools, which facilitate the implementation of many important stages of strategic business process management.
To more clearly show how the use of BPM tools will make a difference in the implementation of a strategic business process management plan, we will show how its use fits into various stages of this process.
1- Determining the strategy
A wise man once said:
“He who doesn’t know where he’s going, will never get there.”
Usually, this initial stage of the strategic plan involves the analysis of the internal and external environment to find strengths and weaknesses in your business. And then how to use these characteristics or even modify them (internal). The well-known SWOT matrix can help a lot with this analysis.
A valuable component needs to be in your hands to do this environment analysis: reliable, secure, current and readily available information. And with a BPM system already implemented in your business, all of this is available to be consulted, through friendly, intuitive and easy to understand graphics and reports.
More: Check out BPM Management dashboards
2- Informing all managers with the strategy
It is much easier to communicate top management decisions to lower management levels through clear data, reliable reports, and transparent information.
So that the management team can fully understand based on clear facts and data, BPM software can help a lot.
BPM software helps to make much more reliable strategic decisions and creates engagement and synergy in the management team.
Check out: How to improve interdepartmental communication with BPM.
3- Clearly defining the objectives in other levels of the organization
After setting the strategic business process management objectives, good strategic management requires that objectives are set in the other levels of the company as well, i.e., the tactical level (management) and the operational level (execution/production).
Again a BPM tool will be of great value for this.
Not only by helping to define how processes should run, that is, helping to improve or redesign processes to fit the strategic objectives, but also to help find and clearly define KPIs: clear, measurable and attainable objectives.
See also: Discover 10 process performance metrics (KPI)
4- Constantly monitoring strategic business process management
So it’s all set: You know where you are going and how to get there. But, are you getting there? How do you monitor if the defined KPIs are being achieved or not?
Efficient BPM systems not only monitor results quickly and efficiently, but they are also designed to easily relay this data into communication systems, to make it accessible to anyone who should be aware of it.
5- Making fast decisions
“Managing is not just about passive and adaptive thinking; it’s about taking action to create the desired results.”
Peter Drucker
With the possibility of continuously monitoring results, an accurate analysis of the information provided by the BPM system will help in making quick and assertive decisions in the pursuit of efficiency and effectiveness in the process.
6- Reviewing the strategy
At regular intervals or not, depending on the analysis of the external environment, companies undertake a review of their strategic plans to always improve the acquisition value of the company and the perception of value in its products and services from customers.
During these times, it’s crucial to have a BPM tool that provides historical data, charts, maps, tables, matrices, and other essential information to redefine strategic planning, restarting this methodology and adapting, once again, to the new market reality.
View more: The Kaizen continuous improvement process
As you can see, this is a cycle that does not stop, requiring much determination, knowledge, and adaptability from managers, whether middle or strategic level.
Find out more about what a BPM tool can offer.