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3 ways BPM makes it easier to optimize social initiatives

Staff, Appian
October 3, 2014

The enterprise social movement is maturing, and organizations need to find ways to take the functional capabilities of social media and optimize them. The overarching goal is finding a way to become a social enterprise - an organization in which ideas are shared naturally, collaboration is a natural component of operations and processes flow just as easily between users as social interactions. Business process management software plays a critical role in taking the core functionality of enterprise social solutions and adapting it to create a social enterprise.

Using process management solutions to optimize social tools is key as more organizations are investing in specialized solutions.

The rise of enterprise social software

A recent TechNavio study found that many organizations are beginning to invest in the kind of internal social media solutions that make it easier to create internal conversations, manage intranets, blogs, wikis and other social content. As such, the research firm estimates that the enterprise social market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.4 percent over the period of 2013-2018.

With so much enterprise social growth on the horizon, organizations need to think about how they can maximize the value of their social solutions. A few ways BPM investments make it easier to make the most of social initiatives include:

1. Optimize process workflows

Simply moving data between users is not enough. Unstructured information that is not directly attached to an actionable process can leave users overwhelmed with information that they cannot feasibly use. Alternately, process management gives information context, allowing data that moves socially through the enterprise to create immediate value. This is possible when process workflows between users are fine tuned to create the greatest ROI possible.

2. Connect disparate users

Social tools are great when it comes to supporting users that are accustomed to working together. However, businesses increasingly need to connect users across departmental boundaries, and process management tools make it much easier to pass projects between disparate groups and support social tools as they connect various user groups.

3. Align strategies

Process differences between groups using social tools can lead to tension as different users either do not connect to communications methods used by others or become resentful of having to step out of their usual processes to work with individuals in another department. Social BPM solutions make it easier to avoid these types of problems by ensuring social strategies and process management functionality are aligned.

Enterprise social goals are rising quickly and companies can use process management software to maximize value of social investments.