Business process management (BPM) is a disciplined approach to identify, design, execute, document, measure, and monitor. Your business processes refer to any repetitive and ongoing processes that occur at regular intervals or in predictable patterns. These processes make up the bulk of your business operations, and it’s a good idea to let automation handle them as much as possible. That’s exactly what business process management (BPM) is about.

While often confused with these two other types of management, BPM isn’t the same as project management or task management. Project management is need for one-time projects or for events that occur irregularly. Task management focuses on individual performance within larger tasks. Business process management is concerned with eliminating bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your everyday processes. A BPMS solution can help you with this.

Types of BPM Software

BPM can be applied to any business activity where precise process execution is important to produce a positive business result. BPM software seeks to automate the process as much as possible, so business leaders can be freed up to focus on core tasks. In a world dominated by digital transformations and big data, your enterprise needs as many advantages as it can get to stay ahead of the curve. Here are the basic types of BPM tools.

Document-Centric BPM

Automatic document management like this is important for any business processes that have documented at the heart of them. A great example is in the human resources department, where application process forms need to be digitized; and gathered in one location to improve the workflow for HR employees and make things easier for applicants. Automation capabilities can make employee onboarding much faster and easier as well. You can set business rules to control exactly when and how new hires receive their onboarding materials; and these can be automatically formatted, routed, and even verified, once they’re complete.

Human-Centric BPM

Of course, no matter how much you try to automate things, there will still be jobs for humans. Even on manufacturing floors that adopt robotic process automation (RPA) as much as possible, some tasks will still require a human touch.

A BPM solution in this area will generally be focused on quick ways to track progress on tasks; rather than requiring employees to slow down and report to supervisors every step of the way. With a simple user interface and activity tracker; workers can report their progress as they go, and supervisors can check in when they have time. This keeps the workflow going for employees at all levels.

Integration-Centric BPM

These systems handle business processes that typically travel through your automated systems anyway. Having more integrations within your systems means that they can share data and communicate more effectively. Consider your customer relationship management (CRM) system, for example. With digital communications integrations, a CRM system helps you provide convenience for a better customer experience. It can also be integrated with your sales system; so customer data can be used to help the sales team pursue leads more effectively.

A full business process management suite will generally include solutions for each approach; but these are the basic methodologies to ensure operational excellence.

The Importance of Data Virtualization

The benefits that business process management software can bring your enterprise are only made possible thanks to advanced software; and its ability to design, model, and test new business solutions in a virtual environment. Thanks to data virtualization techniques, computer algorithms can essentially create digital copies of your business and your workflow. This allows them to simulate a variety of possible solutions for workflow automation; so they can select the best one for deployment.

Conclusion:

Of course, business leaders can manually design their own solutions as well. An ideal software solution will provide simple, visual design tools and an easy-to-use interface to facilitate this.