Business Process Management: A 2010 Snapshot

There has been considerable hype built around Business Process Management (BPM) over the last decade. But the reality is, corporates across the globe have been focusing on improving process management since the Eighties itself. This gathered momentum with the advent of ERP, Six Sigma and Business Process Reengineering.

In my interactions with senior managers over the years & across the globe, I realized that because of its sheer width and depth, the term Business Process Management is perceived quite differently, by different groups. The last decade has witnessed an increasing dilution of what this term connotes, thanks to the advent of several process improvement solutions, tools and methodologies.

For me personally, I have always viewed Business process Management as a systematic approach to analyzing, redesigning, improving and managing the core processes of an organization or even just a specific process.

For some time now, I have been interested in how organizations deploy process thinking to improve business performance. My bias has been to examine the big picture, as I believe that no one process change confers competitive advantage, but taking action on all of a company’s core processes does.

Today, we see that a number of large and small organizations are aggressively focusing on and investing considerable time and money on improving their processes. This is a very positive sign, and we must thank the recent global recession for this positive development, as it rudely shook, many a corporate, and pulled them out of their comfort zones.

The major factors behind any organization’s need to focus on business process change are:

a. Improving process productivity need to save money by reducing costs and/or improving productivity.

b. Focus on improving existing product lines and also development of new products.

c. A conscious effort to reduce operational costs.

d. Increased focus on improving customer satisfaction levels.

e. Clear need to improve organizational responsiveness.

f. Improved management of manpower & IT resources.

BPM Implementation – The Challenges

Most companies struggle in correlating improved process performance to better financial performance. In contrast, successful companies launch process initiatives with a view to improve customer satisfaction and/or get better throughput and then track progress with discipline. The majority of companies find it difficult to ramp up executive collaboration to the needed level. There’s surely more work to do in this area.

Yet, the lack of adequate customer orientation, the deficit of a big picture view, the challenges in correlating process performance results to financial performance, and the difficulty of capturing the needed level of executive collaboration is clearly part of the answer. These factors are especially important as that the financial benefits of process change often lag gains in operational performance

But, it is very heartening to see that organizations, large & small and across the globe are focusing aggressively on Business process Management. They are moving swiftly toward adopting more well-known techniques – like process modeling and redesign – and moving gradually with newer technologies like automated process monitoring systems.

Effective BPM is fundamental to Effective BPO Implementation:

Should business process management be part of BPO initiatives?

We have seen that companies that wring as much efficiency from processes as they can in-house before outsourcing are far more satisfied with their BPO projects. Certainly one way of doing this is with BPM. It helps companies maintain visibility and control over outsourced processes, imparts a deeper understanding of SLAs and can help companies more easily bring a process back in-house if necessary.

For more information about our services please contact:

Mar Hernandez m.hernandez@amicorp.com