As companies struggle with an unsettled business environment, new competition from around the globe, and rapidly changing technology, many companies are turning to business process management (BPM). By having executive leaderships initiate a BPM strategy into their organization, they can understand more clearly how well their key business processes are functioning, —where they can be streamlined, reinforced and automated. This results in value-driven BPM, a discipline that transforms strategy into execution and enables businesses to respond to changing consumer market and regulatory demands faster than competitors can, thus creating a competitive advantage.
To begin the process of building a BPM Strategy here are some points to consider
- Process Architecture Design. This illustrates the processes within an organisation and their dependencies.
- BPM Approach. Identify the BPM approach to be adopted. Are you reviewing processes with the main objective of continuous improvement, achieving competitive advantage in a certain area of the business or going for drastic organisation-wide reengineering?
- Process Selection Criteria. The BPM strategy should take into consideration how processes will be selected for improvement.
- Business Process Documentation & Analysis. Processes need to be documented to understand how they can be improved.
- Key Performance Indicators. KPIs should be identified for processes to facilitate process review, monitoring and optimisation.
- Technology. In designing a BPM strategy, it is necessary to consult IT to find out what is technically feasible, if technology is to be introduced. BPM Technology typically involves integration with applications at the back end to ensure that data feedback is received based on process activity. This integration can be achieved using SOA and web services.
- Design of a Process “Center of Excellence” to define the tools, techniques, templates and overall methodology for managing business processes across the organisation.
- Standardisation of business processes.
- Change management should be built into the BPM strategy to ensure that end users are carried along on any changes made. Process owners should also be carried along before and during implementation.
- Process Review & Monitoring. This verifies that target objectives were met and that data can be collected to facilitate further improvements.