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BPM goes beyond the technology

Malcolm Ross, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy, Appian
December 30, 2013

Any firm struggling to optimize its business process management efforts may be hitting one of several key stumbling blocks. According to TechTarget, issues such as viewing BPM solutions as just a technology investment or simply having a lack of full understanding of operational needs can hold a company back from realizing the true potential of BPM software and making the optimal adjustments for success.

BPM as holistic management practice

The key, according to Steve Weissman, BPM consultant for The Holly Group, is for companies to view BPM as a holistic management technique rather than a technology. By focusing their efforts on the overall business changes that BPM solutions bring to the table, firms can eliminate information and service silos while empowering their employees to work more effectively.

"It is true that you buy software and services that are geared towards facilitating these different forms of information management and process management, but you are much better off thinking about these as best practices for the way your organization wants to work," Weissman told the news source.

Understand the difference in operation

Having a stronger understanding of workplace needs, the way the business works and how different employees function both individually and as a team will provide the foundation needed to successfully launch BPM initiatives. In order to accomplish this, some firms may want to consider social BPM to provide the collaborative tools as well as the actual process management software.

"The folks who actually do the work tend to have a very different view of how the work gets done than the people in the corner office," Weissman said. "That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you have to reconcile those viewpoints before you can start changing anything."

The correct application of channels, tools and resources along the lines that employees need them to work as a unit will establish the processes for growth that firms need to see ROI from their BPM strategy. This will help companies leverage individual worker knowledge as well as enterprise data as a whole.

Rather than allowing challenges to rule the success of BPM investments, businesses can eliminate and overcome them with ease by having a stronger sense of what process management can do for them as a whole. This practice will lead to increased value and more returns on later investments as well, and promote a stronger business-wide understanding of the best practices needed to succeed on an advanced level.

Malcolm Ross

Vice President of Product Marketing