Business Process Management
Business Process Management refers to the way a company handles its day-to-day operations. A typical way is to monitor, analyze and deploy best practices to streamline tasks to get the maximum benefits – be it from a process or from your workforce.
What do you mean by Business Process Management (BPM)?
- Business Process Management (BPM) is a self-descriptive term as it’s all about managing your business processes in an efficient manner.
- It is a collective term that denotes making use of your available resources including your employees, peripherals, and tasks for maximum outcome.
- BPM is primarily about handling repetitive processes efficiently so that they consume less time and human resources.
Business Process vs Task Management
A huge difference prevails between the business process and task management. A business process is the series of tasks handled by any organization to be operational whereas task management denotes a series of work carried out within a project to complete it successfully.
If task management is not streamlined and is stalled, it affects the particular project. Any hurdle in the business process can and will affect the entire organization. In general, it refers to everything ranging from invoice management, and employee onboarding to sending files for approval from top management to complete work on time.
How will bad Business Process Management affect my company?
People work in silos and no one is accountable. Bad BPM is no BPM leading to chaos. Processes are inefficient or non-existent and the organization’s productivity is at the mercy of individuals.
Bad BPM will often lead to,
- Human resources are wasted due to a lack of communication
- Lots of time spent sending files back and forth
- Lack of leadership causes people to play the blame game
- Bad time and resource management
These are some of the possible scenarios and they often happen in an organization where business process management is not implemented. Once you have made your capital expenditure to run the company, it’s also important to have BPM software in place to ensure you get optimal results.
Types of Business Process Management
Business process management or BPM is generally divided into three major types. While most organizations may need all of them, based on the size of a company and the nature of their work, some of these BPMs may become more useful than others.
BPM for Documents
An organization’s everyday process that is largely based on documents such as an insurance company needs this business process management. The business processes are largely based on creating documents, sending them through multiple levels for approval, verification, and storing them once they complete their purpose.
BPM for Workforce
An organization that largely relies on authorized personnel to verify and approve a process requires a business process management that focuses on the workforce. The business process management tool is expected to keep the employee, team leader, and managers in the loop to get tasks done in a timely manner. It makes approvals easier through constant reminders, accountability, and transparency.
BPM for Integration
For organizations that deal with software development and similar processes, the BPM is integrated into their workflow. Versatile solution that works with HRMS, CRM, ERP, and other automation or coder-friendly programs. BPM software handles all 3 types of scenarios and doesn’t require you to purchase for a specific purpose. A good BPM will be complete enough for any organization to streamline its tasks.
Step by Step Explanation on How Business Process Management Can Help
Before venturing into understanding business process management and implementing it in your office, it’s good to spend considerable time understanding the different repetitive processes that need automation. Most organizations require BPM for the HR, Finance, and Operations team while the core team can make use of it to simplify communication and keep track of documents shared. These steps are generic and can be used to understand how business process management works.
1.Examine the process that needs to be streamlined and understand the factors that should be considered when creating a workflow.
2. Create a workflow for the specific process. Make sure to specify all conditions to be met in the workflow software.
3. Introduce the people involved in the process and execute it.
4. Monitor the process and make any changes as necessary.
5. Keep optimizing until the process brings about a significant positive change to your organization.
Why Should You Adopt BPM in Your Organization?
Business Process Management, for obvious reasons, is considered the holy grail of an organization’s success because it has helped millions of companies across the globe achieve their goals in a streamlined manner. The concept is very simple – when there are multiple tasks and a number of people are involved in executing it, it often leads to a chaotic situation unless there is a specific methodology.
The simplest form of business process management is setting up a hierarchy for a process when customer information is collected from a person, entered into the system by an admin and reviewed by the manager. It might later be used by salespeople to make calls or complete a business deal. It works differently according to business needs.
An accounting firm may require a business process management software as Cflow to keep track of documents, save invoices online, maintain spreadsheets with access to the authorized person and for auditing purposes. Similarly, a logistics company require it to maintain goods sent or received and customer contact details. Most business processes are similar in their basic rules but there is no one software program that fits every need.
When implementing BPM software, your company may also require other tools like SAP or ERP for project-based automation. Business process streamlining is done at the organizational level instead of the type of work or project carried out by an organization. The advantage that you gain is you can request the vendor to provide you with a free trial and how effective it is in your organizational setup before going for a paid plan.
By using Cflow for a particular workflow process, it is easier to see how it removes chaos and provides a clear picture of your employees. They can use the BPM software as a guideline to keep in touch with other employees, get tasks approved by their manager, invoices paid on time and work in a cleaner environment.
Benefits of Business Process Management for Different Departments
01 - FINANCE – CREATING A SIMPLIFIED AND STREAMLINED WORKFLOW
The most important team in any organization, the finance team has to handle lots of invoices, employee salaries, operational expenses, and other fiscal requirements.
By introducing Business Process Management in the finance department, you can witness significant improvement in the way they handle invoices in time, maintain salaries, approve purchase orders, and other expenses.
The finance team can automate invoices that are generated every month by vendors and have the same amount
Assigning responsibilities is much easier and it also sends automated notifications to managers who need to approve them
Saves time spent in maintaining paper documents and approvals while getting rid of bottlenecks caused by decision-makers
Auditing finance receipts, invoices, and documents, whenever needed, is the easiest as all of them are available digitally on the cloud
When they have a clear picture of the expense sheet, it’s easy to audit at the end of the year and also save excessive money spent due to last-minute decision-making. Know more about BPM and its benefits.
02 - MARKETING – IMPROVE CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS AND SALES
The marketing department is responsible for bringing customers to a company and selling its products or services.
With so many customers to follow up, a database to maintain, and emails or calls to be made, it could be a big hassle if everything is done using email or paper documents.
BPM automates it every time a new customer or vendor is brought on board. It also makes it easier to track progress, identify talented employees and create an overall business goal for the organization to achieve.
The sales and marketing departments can witness significant benefits when their workflow is streamlined through efficient business process management software such as Cflow.
Client relationships are better handled when everything is saved in the cloud and followups are easier
It is easier to manage a large number of customers without having to invest in large marketing teams
Automated emails and notifications can be sent to teams as well as customers with useful features such as scheduling
Sending invoices in time and getting them approved will go a long way in creating a professional environment. Now the sales team can contribute better to the entire organization
03 - HUMAN RESOURCES – THE MOST FAVORABLE TEAMS
Human Resources are in charge of bringing talented employees on board. Why not allow them to focus on their primary goals and not on managing tons of papers?
Business process management helps automate the majority of HR processes including the crucial employee onboarding process, handling induction, and retaining employees by solving their discrepancies in time. They can also easily coordinate with the finance team when it comes to travel reimbursement, employee appraisal, and other benefits paving way for better HR operations that contribute to the organization’s growth.
Employee onboarding is simplified as the repetitive process can be handled through the software and documented automatically
Maintaining employee documents and photocopies of their certificates are all saved on the cloud as soon as they upload them
Induction and another basic training process can be assigned to respective tutors to be conducted at the right time
Assigning employees to different teams and notifying the finance, and operations team automatically
Getting ID cards and new bank accounts can be automated
04 - ENGINEERING – EMPOWERING THE ENGINEERING TEAM WITH CFLOW (BPM)
The engineering team is the core area that helps generate revenue for all other teams and also ensures projects are done with assured quality. Their workflow leads to happy clients and contributes to a strong economy for the organization.
Gets rid of multiple bottlenecks created by team leaders, managers, and decision-makers
The workflow is transparent and everyone involved will have a good idea of the overall picture
Promotes better quality in the services and software being developed as it eases communication among team members
Meeting deadlines and getting notified when really needed helps different teams work towards a common goal
While these are some of the core teams that contribute immensely to an organization’s performance and growth, BPM can also be used with other teams and for lots of other processes to streamline the workflow. Cflow also works with third-party integrations making it an all-around solution for every organization.
Is BPM expensive?
With all the features that BPM brings to business processes, it is quite natural to expect it to cost a fortune. Contrary to the expectations, when compared to the benefits offered by BPM the cost is very reasonable.
A typical business process management software can cost up to $250,000 per year. You will recover the investment on BPM within no time. Optimized business processes and streamlined workflows with BPM translate business processes into a profit center in no time.
Are there hidden costs in Cflow?
A no-code, Cloud BPM software like Cflow costs much less than typical BPM, but the benefits are much more. There are absolutely no hidden costs in Cflow. Cflow is designed to suit the unique requirement of every business. Almost all major business processes can be automated with Cflow.
The best part is even a person from a non-technical background can set up Cflow and automate work processes. There are no maintenance costs or in-app purchases in Cflow. The pricing of Cflow is transparent, you’ll only be paying for the per month cost per employee. We do not charge additionally for customer care or initial setup.
You can experience the Cflow advantage free of cost by signing up for our 14-day free trial. Have we given you enough reasons to go for BPM?
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Importance of Business Processes
Business success solely depends on its business processes. A well-planned and designed business process translate to optimal business operations. Business processes are a sequence of steps that are executed to achieve a specific business goal. Processes are repeated several times and are carefully planned and designed to produce specific results. Continuous optimization of business processes is required in order to maintain their relevance and effectiveness.
Businesses choose from different business process management methods for continuously improving and optimizing their business processes. Depending on the end goal, business processes may be categorized as core processes, support processes, and management processes. Core or primary processes play a direct role in revenue generation for the business. Product development, marketing, and after-sales support are some examples of core business processes.
Support processes serve internal customers, they do not interact with customers directly. Finance, HR, and Admin are examples of support processes. Management processes are those used for measuring business outcomes. Now that we have understood the different types of business processes, let us delve into the importance of business processes.
A well-planned and designed business process helps businesses to:
Minimize costs and risks
All the steps (tasks) in a business function are organized and sequenced by the business process. Assignment of tasks is done clearly, which avoids any confusion in the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders. Business processes minimize the costs and risks by laying out the most efficient process workflow by eliminating redundancies and repetitions. Future upgrades and market trends are anticipated and included in the business process design.
Minimize human error and bias
Designing a business process helps in identifying repetitive, mundane tasks that can be automated. Workflow automation helps increase the efficiency of the process and minimize human error and bias.
Improve compliance
Standardizing processes enable better compliance with regulations and policies. Automating the business process brings more transparency and accountability into the process.
Improve time management
Automating repetitive processes helps save time. The process can be completed in less time with lesser effort.