Business Process Management (BPM) Definition and Solutions

• What is BPM?


• Can I see a quick example?


• What does BPM provide that other enterprise applications do not?


• How does BPM fit in with legacy, ERP and other enterprise systems?


• What kinds of processes are typically the best candidates for BPM?


• It seems like everyone is selling BPM—what does the BPM vendor landscape look like?


• How is BPM related to service-oriented architecture (SOA)?


• Are there any standards being developed for BPM?


• What does BPM cost? What are the hidden costs?


• What is involved in implementing BPM?


• How do companies organize their BPM projects? Who should own a BPM initiative, business or IT?


• How do I build a business case for BPM?


• How do I measure and actually get ROI from a BPM project?

How do companies organize their BPM projects? Who should own a BPM initiative, business or IT?

(Also see, "Who Controls Business Process Improvement.")

A typical BPM project includes an executive sponsor, business analysts who have detailed process knowledge, IT staff who can enable the necessary data and systems integrations, and developers who build user interfaces that guide users through the new process. Consultants are often used on initial projects, but the goal should be for the organization to be self-sufficient on future BPM initiatives. Often, BPM initiatives require staff from different functional areas of the organization. The project team may resemble a typical IT project, with the exception of increased involvement of business staff in process modeling and user interface design.

BPM often comes into an organization through the IT group. This sometimes makes IT the de facto leader of BPM projects, especially for early BPM efforts. IT's cross-functional mission also fits well with enterprise BPM capabilities. Many organizations have established internal process improvement teams, and BPM is a natural fit with their cross-functional mission.

However, BPM is an approach to continual process improvement that leverages technology. Ongoing process change requires intimate knowledge of the process and improvement capabilities. In addition, the BPM team has to be empowered to make decisions quickly. These factors make the business owners more suitable to lead and drive BPM initiatives, with facilitation, examples and integration support provided by IT.

How do I build a business case for BPM?

First, you need to analyze the opportunities within your particular organization to determine if BPM will help or just add to the confusion and legacy burden. Remember, BPM is an approach to solving these problems and will likely outlive a particular vendor's platform in your organization.

BPM is most valuable as an enterprise capability; however, it is usually brought into an organization to tackle a specific process pain point. It then spreads in a "viral" nature as internal champions see the initial results and apply BPM to other pain points. For example, HR processes often serve as an entry point for BPM in an organization.

Here are the high-level steps in building a BPM business case:

• Identify candidate pain points/broken processes.
• Pick a few and analyze specific payback into an opportunity chart.
• Build an ROI model.
• Identify revenue growth, cost reduction, compliance and cost-avoidance benefits.
• Identify intangible benefits.

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