While business process management (BPM) has long been recognised as a core driver for organisational success, legacy BPM initiatives have tended to focus on the technical aspects of the BPM process and overlook much of what is needed to realise the full potential of a process initiative.
The result, according to Signavio, a Berlin, German-based BPM software vendor, is that many organisations that have invested significant time, money and resources in BPM initiatives, find themselves with only high costs, high usage of resources and disappointingly low outcomes to show for their efforts rather than the hoped for improved operations, increased transparency, and process comprehension and communication across departmental boundaries.
Signavio says it is time to change from the old-fashioned, legacy BPM approach to the modern world of managing business processes - what it calls "modern BPM".
While the end goals of both legacy and modern BPM are the same - a strong focus on business processes, improved operations and a company-wide understanding of end-to-end processes - the major difference lies in the approach taken to reach these goals and the technology supporting it.
So, for example, Signavio maintains that legacy BPM tends of focus almost exclusively on process modelling with an emphasis on tools that offer a full process repository (a central location for storing information); and a thorough modelling methodology that eschews simplicity and equates complexity with technical prowess.
Because of this complexity, expert modellers, tool administrators and even methodological consultants have to be trained and/or employed, adding costs and additional layers of resources to what is meant to be an efficiency-boosting undertaking. Often, Signavio says, the process modelling itself becomes the goal of the BPM team, while employees use Excel, Powerpoint or Visio to work around the complex, legacy BPM tool.
XHead = Tips for success
According to Signavio, a modern BPM tool is easy to use, focuses on business users and enables collaboration across company borders.
The company offers the following tips to ensure the success of a modern BPM undertaking:
1. Recognise that process is everybody's responsibility.
People who are actively involved in the process on a day-to-day basis have the deepest insight on how things work and where things go wrong. All employees - and even partners and customers where appropriate - should contribute to good process, not just technical experts.
2. Be outcome-oriented.
Process modelling for its own sake does not make any sense. Organisations must be pragmatic; have their goals in mind; and define the main driver of the BPM project in order to decide upon the required level of detail and identify the processes that need to be covered.
3. Choose the right tool that supports the initiative.
If, for example, involving everyone in the BPM initiative is important to the project's success, it must be made easy for them to contribute. That is a function of the available technology. If people refrain from using the new tool and use Excel and Powerpoint instead, it is a clear signal that the tool chosen is too complicated and exclusive.
4. Recognise that process change is itself a process.
Collecting the right sign-off and issuing notifications to the right people is a challenge in itself. Status tracking and workflow are always important considerations.
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