It is the desire of every business organization to have a systematic approach while carrying out their functions so that they can have efficient and effective business processes . BPM uses a systematic approach in an attempt to continuously improve business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. It can therefore be described as a “process optimization process.” BPM enables organizations to be more efficient, more effective and more capable of change than a functionally focused, traditional hierarchical management approach. If you are thinking of business process management, then here are some of the facts you need to understand beforehand.
The activities performed by business process management can be categorized in five main categories and they are as follows:
* Design
* Modeling
* Execution
* Monitoring
* Optimization
Design – Conducting design involves identifying the existing business processes and formulating other processes that the business might need in the future for growth and expansion. This stage will evaluate the standard operating procedure for the business, representation of the process flow and the participants in each section, the levels of service agreements etc.
Modeling – In modeling, the business process management will come up with a theoretical design and introduce a number of variables to try and simulate the operations of the model under different situations. The factors that can be varied include things like an increase in rent, a reduction in the cost of materials, increasing the number of employees etc.
Executions – Once a suitable model has been developed, it will be tested to see its performance in a real life scenario. Theoretically, it is possible to buy an application that can execute all the processes but in practice, this will involve the combination of both human intervention and software. It is not possible to have every execution done without human intervention though this can be minimized to the bare minimum.
Monitoring – Monitoring in business process management involves checking out on the performance of the proposed model to see how effective it is. During this stage, every process is tracked and the relevant information in each state is collected. All the flaws of the processes are noted down for further improvement.
Optimization – Optimization aims at improving on the performance of the processes. In this stage, all the data and observations from the modeling and monitoring phase are used to improve on the efficiency of the processes. Any processes or potential risks that may pose a threat to the smooth functioning of the business are identified here and the necessary corrections made. The results of the optimization process are then applied in the design process to come up with a much better product.
More information about business process management can be found at Domain. You will also find useful resources such as the ROI calculator for Accounts Payable optimization.
