Five key benefits of business process management

1. Innovation through analysis
The first key benefit of BPM is that it helps companies realize that allowing a business to innovate existing processes "on paper" (before committing implementation resources) and to project return on investment through simulation analysis are beneficial. Process modeling is the first step of nearly any BPM methodology, and a comprehensive BPM usually include a process-modeling tool that allows business analysts to document the current (as-is) process and specify new (to-be) processes in a structured way, and then project business metrics from those models using simulation analysis.

The analyst does not need to know the technical details of the implementation, just the business-oriented parameters such as who performs each step and what that resource costs, how long each step on average should take, the relative probabilities of taking one flow path versus the other, etc.

Modeling is an important first step because you don't want to simply "pave the cow paths" in your organization. Many companies have no idea what an entire end-to-end process looks like, or why things are done the way they are. In most cases, the processes in place today were put in place long ago, before the Web, virtual teams, BlackBerries, and outsourcing began to affect the workplace.

Modeling gives the business the opportunity to rethink and simplify before plunging into design.

2. Improved operational efficiency
One of the biggest business drivers of BPM today is improved operational efficiency -- shorter cycle times, lower costs, and the ability to handle additional work with no increase in staff. Much of this benefit derives from BPM's workflow automation component. The process engine routes allow users to take action directly from their Web-based workspace, managing task priorities and deadlines, and even automating escalation procedures when exceptions occur or deadlines cannot be met.

3. Compliance and control
Another key benefit of BPM is that it helps deliver improved control over business processes, fostering standardization across the company and compliance with regulations, policies, and best practices.

Today's global enterprises are far from homogeneous; new operating units are constantly being added through mergers and acquisitions, each with its own systems and procedures.

Each division or geographic unit may have its own procedures as well. Because BPM includes a common set of tools used by developers, IT, and business participants to manage business processes, it drives standardization of procedures, policies, and business metrics across the company and ensures there is always "one version of the truth."

Process models can be shared in a repository and reused across the company. Moreover, every step of a running process can be logged, which not only ensures compliance but makes that compliance easily auditable.

4. Agility
Agility is a fourth key benefit of BPM -- helping businesses bring new products and services to market more quickly and respond more easily to changing requirements.

The most common barrier to agility in the past has been the dreaded "IT backlog" -- finding available resources capable of integrating diverse business systems, building custom Web applications, or writing code.

BPM avoids the IT backlog because it does not rely on programming; its process logic is like a flowchart, enhanced here and there with scripting. Executable designs can be created quickly and changed easily. Integration adapters make connecting to diverse business systems simple, again without code. Reusable artifacts in the process component catalogue further enhance agility. With BPM, implementation cycles are typically measured in weeks, not months or years.

5. End-to-end performance visibility and optimization
A final key benefit of using BPM is that it makes end-to-end performance visible to process owners, and provides a built-in platform for problem escalation and remediation.

As processes run, the engine is continuously capturing snapshots of instance data and aggregating them in visible performance metrics, both built-in and user-defined. BPMS provides the ability to measure performance across organizational and system boundaries. It then provides tools that display these metrics graphically in management dashboards, often with drilldown to investigate the root causes of bottlenecks.

Another capability, business activity monitoring (BAM), computes KPIs in real time and monitors them using rules that trigger automated alerts or process actions when they move outside their target range. Process owners can respond instantly to events that affect the bottom line.

[via: http://www.enterpriseinnovation.net]