Around 31% of local companies are exploring business process management (BPM), according to results from the ITWeb and Global 360 BPM 2011 survey.
The survey also found that 27% of South African companies are committing to BPM for high-level process projects, and 10% have no interest in BPM. In addition, 47.9% of companies say they have a holistic management approach when it comes to BPM.
Tim Stanley, Global 360 regional sales director for Africa and the Middle East, says: “I believe that improved service delivery is a continual driving factor in the market, and as competition grows between companies, the internal awareness of processes and the adoption of BPM technologies will continue to grow.”
The survey respondents claim they are turning to BPM in order to cut costs and improve productivity. Stanley points out that BPM has a reputation of being used as a head-cutting exercise; however, he notes this seldom occurs in reality.
“Instead, we see that people can now be more effective in their work, rather than being burdened by manual and inefficient workload, so it is no surprise that this is seen as the initial focus of a company adopting this approach.”
According to survey results, 43% of companies cite multiple process change efforts competing for attention, as a major challenge.
In order to create a process-centric approach to running a business, Stanley recommends companies establish an internal centre of excellence made up of both IT and business people to map, simulate and automate business processes.
“In addition to this, it is essential that any process automation project adopted in a company should have a high level of involvement from an executive sponsor. Most BPM projects fail when it is simply handed over to IT to deliver and all responsibility is than abdicated to IT,” concludes Stanley.
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