What are BPMS?

Business Process Management Systems (BPMS)  are a new family of software systems that automate and simplify the task of managing business processes over the entire lifecycle. In the past, IT-enabled business processes were implemented within the boundaries of particular software applications (Examples include Customer Relationship Management systems and Supply Chain Management Systems) Even when processes required multiple applications to be coordinated, the locus of control would remain within a specific application, which would call on others as and when required. With a BPMS, the process management system specializes in orchestrating every business process, and will call on other applications for services, as required.

When to Implement Business Process Management Systems?

The key advantage of a BPMS is agility - processes can be created and managed with minimal changes to application code, and new processes can be rapidly and easily created. The other primary advantage is conservatism: Past investments in business logic and applications can be reused to create new, composite, processes.

Consider implementing a BPMS whenever:

Business processes need to be maintained in several versions, for different product categories or for different markets Business processes need to be extremely mutable There are opportunities that have been identified for existing applications to work with one another, but these include a huge element of custom code that cannot easily be moved into an ERP

In fact, any occasion where you are considering implementing a new process, or redefining an existing process, is an opportunity to consider moving to a new “process platform”.

Tangible returns from a BPM Implementation

Business organizations are using BPM for different reasons and in different forms. BPM has an overall impact on the business ecosystem resulting in cost savings across the processes inside business ecosystem.

The cost savings from different cost categories are

Reduced labour costs BPM focuses on optimization of processes. The processes that are repetitive are optimized and lead to reduction in labour which translates to immediate cost savings. For example, by automating a task ROI of BPM that requires six hours of manual intervention, one can expect to cut that time to half. Thus, three hours multiplied by the number of times the process is completed in a cycle will yield significant cost saving. Increased Productivity BPM tries to identify the best process for achieving desired end results. The automation of processes that need manual intervention leads to increased productivity with the same resources. Increase in productivity results in higher revenues, better resource utilization and further savings in costs. Shorter Cycle Times Automation of processes leads to less time in completion. The time saving yields significant cost savings in terms of optimized resource utilization. Shorter cycles also mean that more instances of the same process can be completed in the same time. For example, if the time for processing an invoice is halved, the number of invoices processed not only doubles, but the cost per invoice halves as well. Increased Profits  BPM automation of processes that impact revenue generation has an immediate and significant impact on revenues. For example, an improvement in sales processes is likely to improve lead conversion rates and consequently revenues.

Intangible Benefits BPM implementations often result in numerous intangible benefits that translate into tangible savings in costs and increased revenues in the long run. Intangible benefits range from improved processes, better quality, higher employee morale and better decision making. Reduced Error Handling Automation of processes reduces errors due to human intervention. The reduction in errors saves the time of rework and improves quality of processes as well. Consistent Process Handling Consistency comes from having an established procedure and ensuring this procedure is followed every time. BPM has additional advantage of enforcing these procedures by automating routine tasks, which otherwise might complete frequently with flawed procedure. Improved Customer Service BPM makes customer service more responsive in terms of handling complaints, by automating the process of handling grievances and providing better service. Easier Management of IT Infrastructure Application integration which is one of the most powerful phases of BPM leads to reductions in IT management and administration time, development time and costs, and lower support costs