How Your Business Will Benefit From Business Process Management Software (bpm)

By Author: Miranda Von Stockhausen
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With the Computer Age bringing information overload as well as a multiplicity of new technologies to businesses large and small, management struggled to get a handle on the processes that drove their companies. For a time it seemed it would be impossible to bring everything-communications, data storage, scheduling, inventory, accounting, shipping/receiving, compliance-into focus at the same time, to see all the parts of the business puzzle at once. It was time to bring management tools up to the same blazing speed as the computers at the core of the new business paradigm.

Where's there's a need, solutions will show up soon. In this case, some talented folks developed what they called Business Process Management (BPM) software. These applications, simply put, help organizations stay organized by automating business processes. This empowers employees to collaborate across technological and corporate boundaries, control the overall flow of business and make quick adjustments to changing markets and financial signals. The goals are cost control, operating efficiency and risk reduction, all of which lead to increased profitability.

How, ...
... where and why it works

In every company, of any size or industry, there are daily work procedures that require specific, definable processes to be managed. Everyone from the janitor to the Chairman of the Board contributes to the operation of the business via these processes, and it's the totality of these tasks that add up to a well-run business or mismanaged one. BPM software provides the framework within which the Information Technology (IT) component of your business works in concert with the management one.

Working together with shared tools and a swift, seamless process, the information providers (IT) and the visionaries (management) can arrive at solid conclusions that support organizational goals right now, while positioning the firm for future challenges. BPM can create the "common vocabulary" that allows both IT tech-heads and non-tech department heads to revise and refine their company's "rules of business" in real time, with a practical method that allows for change, version tracking and straightforward execution of predefined tasks.

BPM software is the very definition of flexibility for your business. Not only can analysts or managers both monitor and measure improvements, they can do so in a variety of ways, within a single process or across a range of them, similar or diverse. In the same way, with the same flexibility, managers can automate both routine transactions as well as dynamic, fluid, creative interpersonal and interdepartmental collaborations.

Specific BPM software benefits

There are as many benefits to BPM software as there are distinct tasks in the business world, because benefits can accrue to every single one. Greater efficiency, lower cost, reduced waste and increased productivity can be seen in every process that contributes to a business enterprise. Some of the specific benefits of using BPM software include:

- the leveraging of existing standards to allow the continuing use or reuse of important legacy applications;
- increased operational efficiencies, facilitating faster time to market as well as time to service;
- the creation of completely new, tailor-made IT assets;
- improved regulatory compliance, a natural result of optimized process controls, rule descriptions and monitoring; and
- better customer retention, attained by smarter, quicker, broader and deeper integration of customer relations and sales management systems.

The psychological benefits of BPM software

One of the greatest benefits of BPM software is psychological, which is not to say it isn't "real," because it is, very much so. The psychological benefit is the attainment of that "common vocabulary" mentioned previously, which allows technical IT employees to speak to, and be understood by, the business managers of the enterprise, and vice versa. In fact, when BPM software is combined with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), it bridges the gap between the technically-minded IT service designers, and the business-minded service users.

When everyone gets on the same team, using the same playbook and using the same game rules, things have a way of going much more smoothly. The simple idea behind BPM software-that business can be broken down into discrete steps and tasks, that those tasks can be defined with rules that control their activity-took a lot of creative thinking to develop into a working tool. That tool is here today, ready to give businesses greater control, flexibility and accountability. Throw in the bonus benefit of creating a more cohesive team out of company departments that used to misunderstand each other at best, or battle at worst, and the reasons for delaying your company's adoption of BPM software start approaching the famous "zero, zip and nada."
About Author:
As the business process management (BPM) trailblazer, Savvion.com moves enterprises beyond ordinary BPM with groundbreaking business-critical software, solutions, and services that make them more competitive, agile and cost-efficient in today's tough economic times. Visit online today.