Many companies have business processes that are unique to its
business model. Since these processes tend to evolve over time as
the business reacts to market conditions, the BPM
solution you choose must be easily adaptable to the new
conditions and requirements and continue to be a perfect fit for
the company.
In order to use BPM effectively, organizations must stop
focusing exclusively on data and data management, and adopt a
process-oriented approach that makes no distinction between work
done by a human and a computer.
The following example illustrates the power of
BPM:
When a B2B partner needs some inventory, he can log into the
web site and order required inventory. An email will be
generated and sent to the supervisor responsible for the
partner's inventory. The supervisor can click on the link in
the email, login to the site and approve the inventory. The
partner will be notified of the allocation and the inventory
will be shipped.
- BPM Components
A Business Process Management (BPM) Solution has Six
Components:
-
BPM IDE. Business Process Management
(BPM) IDE is an integrated design environment used to design
processes, rules, events and exceptions. Creating a
structured definition of each process is very important to
any business and the IDE enables a business user to design
all processes with no help from IT.
Process Engine. The process engine of a
Business Process Management solution keeps track of the
states and variables for all of the active processes. Within
a complex system, there could be thousands of processes with
interlocking records and data.
User Directory. Administrators define
people in the system by name, department, role and even
potential authority level. This directory will enable tasks
to be sent automatically to the defined resources.
Workflow. This is the communication
infrastructure that forwards tasks to the appropriate
individual.
Reporting/Process monitoring. Enables
users to track the performance of their current processes and
the performance of personnel who are executing these
processes.
Integration. Enterprise Application
Integration (EAI) and/or Web services is critical to BPM as
business processes will require data from disparate systems
throughout the organization.
- What is Business Activity Monitoring or
BAM?
-
Business Activity Monitoring or BAM, is the the automated
monitoring of business process activity affecting an
enterprise. BAM is generally implemented as a module of ERP,
BI, EAI or BPM products. BAM requires a business to identify
its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and create a system
that allows monitoring and responding to changes, preferably
real time.
Virtually for everyone in a organization can benefit from
BAM. Business Activity Monitoring enables a company to
respond faster to new opportunities and threats. BAM is not
just about technology, but about recognizing a business' KPIs
andimplementing the right technology in place to monitor
them.
BAM provides Real-Time, Graphical Key
Performance Indicators & Analysis
BAM enables control and manage ongoing
business operations using closed-loop visibility.
BAM will enable you to respond quickly to
change based on business events as they occur.
BAM enables zoom in on cross-process
metrics with real-time analysis to determine which processes
are creating bottlenecks or which customer is most
profitable.
The Right Metrics
Creating an effective BAM environment is not only
about having the right technology and processes. Enterprises
should define the right set of metrics, which will prevent
information overload and overreaction to business exception
reports.
- Business Process Management (BPM)
Advantages
-
BPM makes it easy for companies to program their current
processes, automate their execution, monitor their current
performance and make on-the-fly changes to improve the
current processes. The process managed enterprise is the
company of the future.
A BPM software enables you to automate
those tasks that are currently being performed manually. Many
of these tasks require some type of application process,
approval or rejection process, notifications and status
reports. A BPM solution can make these processes automatic.
Handling exceptions is an area where
BPM really shines. Organizations have few problems
when its process run smoothly ninety nine percent of the
time. However, it's the one percent that are exceptions that
dominate the majority of the company's time and resources.
BPM is excellent for processes that
extend beyond the boundaries of an enterprise and communicate
with processes of the partners, customers, suppliers and
vendors.
BPM Gives businesses the agility to stay
competitive
BPM reduces the time elapsed in a
business process
BPM Increases the productivity per person
Business process consists of many steps.
A typical BPM initiative reduces the number of steps by 50%.
A Business Process needs many people and
resources. A good BPM should reduce the number of resources
needed for the same process.
BPM helps improve coordination across
departments and geographic locations of a company
- What is Workflow?
Workflow is an essential element of business process
management (BPM).
Workflow is a term used to describe how
work is defined and how work is allocated and scheduled.
Workflow defines the sequence and
conditions based upon which work flows.
Workflow handles the routing of work
between resources. The resources can be people, systems or
machines.
Workflow manages the order in which these
steps are handled.
Workflow enables employees to monitor and,
reconfigure the flow of a business process as needed.
The following example illustrates a BPM
workflow
In a content management business process, an editor edits
the content and the manager approves the content. If you define
editing of the content as a unit of work and approving the job
as another unit of work, then the editing job needs to happen
first for the approval job to start. Further, if the editing
job fails, the approval job can't start