Business Process Management (BPM)

By

C. Loganathan
MBA, Mphil, PGDCA
Lecturer
MBA Department
SSM College of Engineering
Komarapalayam-638 183, Namakkal District
 

Introduction

Business process management (BPM) is a systematic approach to improving an organization's business processes. BPM activities seek to make business processes more effective, more efficient, and more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment. BPM is a subset of infrastructure management, the administrative area of concern dealing with maintenance and optimization of an organization's performance

Business Process Management – The practice of developing, running, performance measuring, and simulating business processes to effect the continued improvement of those processes. Business Process Management is concerned with the lifecycle of the Process Definition.

Business process management (BPM). "...aligning processes with the  organisation's strategic goal, designing and implementing process architectures, establishing process measurement systems that align with organisational goals, and educating the organisation so that the organization will manage processes effectively"

Our approach is both rigorous and flexible, used to solve both critical and chronic problems that are impacting performance or to anticipate performance issues associated with new technology, new strategies, or changes in the marketplace. The approach is rooted in solid project planning and management principles to ensure that work is completed in a timely manner and that business performance benefits can be measured and obtained.

At the same time, the approach uses an appropriate mix of proven analytical tools and techniques adapted to the specific performance improvement objectives and situation of the organisation to help lead it through the rigors of:

1. Performance improvement planning
2. Identifying and defining high-impact process projects
3. Process analysis and design
4. Managing process implementation and changes
5. Managing the organisation's integrated set of processes as a system

Align with Organisation Strategy

Working with both the executive sponsors and the management team, a typical Pacific Intermedia consulting process management engagement will:

1. Ensure that process projects are aligned to the organisation's strategy and critical business issues
2. Assess performance across all aspects of the system: organisational, process, people, and technology
3. Define and develop a process improvement project plan
4. Identify all of the roles and functions across an organisation that should be involved in a project

Identify Opportunities for Improvement

Through systematic interviews of all relevant functions and roles that influence process performance, capture information about the process flow as well as identify and analyse all disconnects and opportunities for improvement.

Enable Group Discovery

Through facilitated group meetings, enable group discovery and validation of disconnects and opportunities for improvement.

1. Develop maps and models that communicate functional relationships, process relationships, and cross-functional process flows, both "current state" and "future state."
2. Develop appropriate metrics and measurement systems for the process(es) improved.
3. Develop new process implementation plans and engage work teams to address organisational policy and structure changes, workflow changes, technology integration, and changes to roles and responsibilities.
4. Integrate all process improvement work into existing quality and  performance management systems.

Conclusion

A BPM system may comprise a variety of independent packages or a comprehensive business process management suite (BPMS), which includes tools for modeling and analysis, application integration, business rules support, business intelligence (BI), activity monitoring and optimization. Advanced BPMSs provide a development tool for creating forms-based applications, which are often the start of many business processes

References:

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=business+process+management&i=38884,00.asp

http://etd.uj.ac.za/theses/available/etd-09012006-112534/restricted/MCom.pdf

http://wfmc.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=57
 

C. Loganathan
MBA, Mphil, PGDCA
Lecturer
MBA Department
SSM College of Engineering
Komarapalayam-638 183, Namakkal District
 

Source: E-mail October 18, 2007

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