The term “business process management” (BPM) might not seem particularly exciting at first. However, focusing on BPM within your organization could be the key to unlocking efficiencies and taking the next step as a business.
As defined by Gartner, BPM is “a discipline that uses various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve and optimize business processes.”1 At its core, BPM is all about working smarter versus harder, and that often involves technology and automation. There can be a stigma regarding BPM, because some employees may think it leads to uncomfortable or unnecessary change. This does not need to be the case. Here are four tips for taking a thoughtful approach to BPM and giving your business a boost.
Create a dedicated BPM team
A dedicated process improvement team contributes to organizational success by driving efficiency, fostering innovation, enhancing quality and creating a continuous improvement culture. Process engineers, analysts and other similar roles often make great team members.
Organizations with dedicated BPM teams are also better positioned to gain competitive advantages by staying ahead of industry trends and delivering higher value to customers.
Get organizational buy-in and support
After implementing a dedicated BPM team, the next step in building a successful BPM framework across your organization is to educate employees on what process management is and how they can benefit from the shared resources the team can offer.
Historically, process management has been a responsibility of business units, often falling on the back burner when up against running the business and delivering services to customers. A dedicated BPM team can shoulder much of this burden and help business units do more. Working with employees to show them this added value is key to a successful partnership.
Focus on small, quick “wins” first
One way to educate employees and show the value of a dedicated BPM team and framework is to focus on delivering smaller improvements quickly. This demonstrates the “art of the possible” and paves the way for building a curious mindset within business units. It also encourages business units to work collaboratively on additional improvements throughout the organization.
Quick wins can come in many forms. They may involve simply adjusting a process to remove unneeded steps. For example, consider a process where an employee saves a document to a personal drive, a shared drive and a software platform. However, if everyone uses the platform as the single “source of truth,” it’s possible to remove the redundant steps and save time.
Another very simple improvement is identifying a process that is no longer needed or providing value. An example in this instance would be to review historic reporting and ensure that all reports are still being used. Reporting that is no longer useful can be consolidated or eliminated to create some efficiency gains.
Embrace automation
Automation is a powerful ally when it comes to process improvements. Automation can and should be used to streamline routine, mundane and manual tasks. This allows team members to focus on their more value-added responsibilities. Embracing automation enables teams to work smarter and innovate faster, and sets organizations up for a future where technology compliments and supports strategic goals.
By following these four tips, your organization should be on its way to developing a solid BPM foundation. Once that’s in place, lean on it to drive innovation within your business, and remain open to opportunities to continually improve your processes.