Business process management (BPM) is a discipline that involves identifying, analyzing, modifying and monitoring business processes to improve operations. Virtually everything an organization does on a regular basis can be seen as a “process.”
- Executing a marketing campaign
- Onboarding new customers
- Developing or upgrading products
- Providing support to existing clients
- Capturing and managing data
Companies that focus on BPM see every process as a valuable company “asset.” What are the benefits of optimizing these assets?
- Cost savings. Increased efficiency means less time and fewer resources are needed to obtain the same results.
- Increased customer satisfaction. By improving the speed and reliability of your interactions with customers, you provide a more positive experience.
- Increased transparency and accountability. Documenting and tracking your processes helps everyone understand all the moving parts and each person’s role in ensuring success.
- Greater business agility. When you have a detailed understanding of your business processes, it’s easier to alter them if circumstances call for a change.
- Improved ability to automate. After you have fine-tuned your processes, it’s much simpler to automate them – and much safer. You never want to accelerate ineffective processes!
Business processes related to digital asset management can be especially crucial to a company’s operations. For most organizations, information in its many forms (documents, email text, photos, graphics, etc.) arrives in a constant, high-volume flow. As a result, inefficiencies in handling it get magnified. On the flipside, creating more efficient processes produces significant positive results quickly.
Conclusion
Business process management is not a one-time project, but rather an ongoing endeavor. The “monitoring” part of the definition can, and should, lead to a continual reassessment and evolution of even very efficient processes. Changes in company strategy and objectives, staffing, available technology and other factors mean that no mode of operation is ideal for long. Ultimately, BPM is most effective when it becomes a part of a company’s culture.
My team and I are a close-knit group comprised of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) experts skilled in design, development, implementation and support. We take a personal interest in every project we tackle and every client we work with. I invite you to follow Buddha Logic’s LinkedIn Company page and our Twitter account or to reach out to us by email.
About the Author
Charles Weidman is the President and CTO of Buddha Logic. Charlie has over two decades of experience in the design, development and implementation of enterprise content management, business process management and enterprise resource planning solutions. He founded Buddha Logic with the idea that well-architected digital document capture and management processes are both beautifully simple and powerfully logical. Find and connect with Charlie on LinkedIn.