What is BPM software and how can businesses benefit from it?

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What is BPM software?

Putting it simply, Business Process Management refers to the way we can analyse and perfect or eliminate processes in a work or production flow. It is a way of discovering where problems such as bottlenecks and wastage are and removing them. BPM Software is a tool that automates this process intending to help a business achieve their goals. It is a way of being able to look at a business’s processes holistically, seeing how processes interact with each other and how they function individually. It can, however, become a little more complicated, as this article shows.

Why companies need automation

There are many benefits for a business to consider automating their processes. Principally, these are increased opportunities for saving time, lowering labour expenses and ensuring a better customer experience. Automation helps maintain control over the business by keeping processes to a rigorous standard; they can be replicated with exactitude. 

Time can be saved be diverting staff attention elsewhere. Repetitive tasks that were once performed by personnel can now be completed by a machine. This not only frees up personnel to complete more necessary tasks, it also often means that staff feel more useful. This can have the positive effect of increasing staff morale and wellbeing. Furthermore, having personnel perform repetitive tasks is expensive. A business can free up labour costs and only need to make the initial investment in an automation system. 

A business can maintain control over their processes by being able to see them all as part of the same workflow. From here a business can make informed decisions about the future by comparing past and present performance. Basically, automation does all the heavy lifting for your business.

Stages of business process management 

Business process management is not just automation, however. As well as automation, BPM is concerned with the monitoring, design, modelling and optimising of business processes.

Monitoring 

BPM software monitors each individual process by following its state and providing information on its performance. An example of this could be the way a retail business monitors the progress of an order throughout the system. The information then collected can be used to determine where improvements need to be made and how best to make them.

Design

Design involves the identification of already existing processes, deciding what functions and what does not, and from this building functional processes. The aim in the design of processes is to cause as minimal disruption as possible, avoiding stoppage and other obstructions. 

Modelling

Modelling takes the design stage a step further and makes statistical analysis of the proposed performance of the process. It models different scenarios that might have an effect on the process and attempts to explore the whole range of variables. 

Optimisation

The optimisation stage in business process management is where enhancements are made to the process. The BPM software can discover the potential for bottlenecks and other causes of outage. It can then show the user where to make improvements and how to implement further cost-saving measures. 

How BPM software can benefit a business (it is not just the software…software is a tool…it is the function of BPM and tools to support it)

There are several ways that a business can benefit from BPM software. One is that they can be more reactive to unknowns such as demand and economic change. This is because of the way modelling is implemented, by exploring all variables and possibilities. BPM software ensures that companies can react to problems at greater speed than a human can. 

Another way it benefits business is by increased security. A properly managed process can be reactive to changes in compliance and security regulations. A detailed BPM system keeps records of every process and therefore can help with providing security analysis.

The most attractive way it benefits a business, however, is through the way it can make increases in efficiency. 

BPM software simplifies, improves and maintains processes

BPM software has the potential to improve all aspects of process for any kind of business. Whether it is in logistics, healthcare, finance or information technology, BPM can help save costs, increase efficiency and improve the security of a business.