Business Process Management (BPM) Best Practices

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Business process management (BPM), the buzzword in business circles, continues to generate excitement across many industries. With BPM's benefits extending from very small companies to the even the largest ones, BPM represents the future of business technology. But which business process management software yields the best on-going benefits in terms of improved ROI, efficiency and dynamic organizational behavior? Experience shows that companies adopting the best practice approach both in software applications and in BPM deployment will be winners in the end.

What are BPM Best Practices?

Best practices are tried and tested methods for carrying out tasks or processes, for example, the best processes to implement a task like BPM. Other examples include best practices for processing accounts payable, customer relations management or human resources development.

Why Choose Best Practices?

Best practices are instantly adaptable solutions. They optimize business processes to meet primary corporate objectives, eliminating the need to "re-invent the wheel." They are crucial in change management, for example, to give companies the "on-the-fly" responsiveness needed in the current economic climate. BPM best practices empower companies to meet multiple economic and operational challenges in an organized fashion. Rather than resorting to management by crisis, companies can navigate through difficult economic climes to resolve issues and develop strategies. By leveraging best practices from previous or existing business process management deployments, companies can easily find ways to

• Develop objectives for each BPM application
• Support BPM implementation
• Act on BPM feedback
• Adopt an ongoing dynamic approach to business performance
• Create a goal-oriented financial management focus throughout the organization
• Set responsibilities and expectations for planning and goal achievement in critical financially leveraged areas
• Manage operational goals and communication in line with key underlying corporate objectives
• Promote transparency and accountability
• Formalize assumptions on the business environment and its drivers
• Plan business events
• Expand into related areas

Business process management best practices are not just tools for competitiveness in the rapidly changing economic environment of today, however. They are effective methods for achieving efficiency in all areas of a business, even uncompetitive or non-revenue-generating ones. Using business process management best practices in payroll applications, for example, helps to process employee paychecks efficiently, without making a company more competitive in market terms. By maximizing resources and keeping costs low, though, using best practices helps to boost the bottom line.

Best practices in BPM Software Applications

The core processes of BPM, IT and best practices give organizations control over the lifecycle of processes to achieve business agility. For example, many IT software solutions use the best practice approach for process support. Employing a formal standard for best practices to optimize corporate goals empowers IT departments; they can instantly access adaptable solutions and service organizational needs to provide customer value. Best practices in IT provide organizations with a logical framework to:

• Automate and streamline tasks
• Deploy an effective change management system, allowing quick response times
• Align IT to business processes to serve corporate objectives
• Employ a framework for consistently following policies, steps and rules
• Act on BPM findings
• Maintain an audit trail

Best practice BPM software also enables organizations to:

• Manage IT departments at consistently maximal efficiency levels to meet key goals (e.g., cost efficiency and profit maximization)
• Create IT department accountability for business performance and results
• Measure business performance and effectiveness
• Isolate and underline areas to implement cost cuts, enhancing quality and growth
• Provide customers with helpful information
• Locate procedural loopholes and superfluities
• Organize IT needs optimally with maximal efficiency and control

Implementing BPM Using Best Practices

To maximize BPM's potential, companies must implement business process management throughout the enterprise. Best practice BPM implementation strategies are relevant to any solution or application, regardless of software type or industry. Essentially there are four inter-related components in the strategy to successful business process management implementation. These are:

1. Conduct a test-pilot run
2. Involve other key departments
3. Plan for organizational change
4. Establish core expert group

BPM Best Practice #1: Conduct a Test-Pilot Run

The best practice approach involves identifying one departmental project in line with key corporate objectives for the pilot run. This project can vary from one organization to another, depending on where its critical focus lies. For example, the help desk in an insurance company might focus on improved customer service, or a mortgage company trying to gain a competitive edge by fast processing times might focus on processing new mortgages.

The pilot run establishes the benefits of BPM implementation. By quantifying the findings and extrapolating them enterprise wide, companies can establish the benefits that BPM could yield to the entire organization.

BPM Best Practice #2: Involve Other Key Departments

The best practice approach simultaneously involves professionals from other key departments so that they can:

• Benefit from the same solution
• Access interdepartmental process efficiencies
• Cut implementation, support and training costs

Involving other departments in the pilot run ensures that the same effort is invested in BPM implementation across the entire company.

BPM Best Practice #3: Plan for Organizational Change

BPM implementation affects many aspects of the organization. From finance to service integration, companies must:

• Analyze, find and assess the level of change
• Determine how the change will be implemented
• Determine how systems will be used forthwith

BPM Best Practice #4: Establish a Core Expert Group

Concentrating expertise from IT departments, systems integration staff and key business users within the organization into a core discussion and action group brings shared experiences and fosters best practice discussion. The core group is also responsible for BPM:

• Evaluation
• Research
• Implementation

Conclusion

BPM best practices have much to offer companies, giving them a leading edge in difficult market conditions. Companies using best practices in BPM while focusing on key processes can navigate any economical climate. Using BPM best practices, companies that work this way remain consistently agile. In essentially what is a top-down management approach, these organizations meet the ideal objective of best practices and BPM; namely, maintaining continual flexibility, innovation, accountability and competitiveness to meet key corporate objectives.