Business Process Management Software

What is BPM Software?

An extremely important discipline for companies who are looking to simplify their operations is business process management. This has been the purview for highly-trained, highly-skilled individuals, business analysts, solution architects, and management consultants who are paid well. Best Business Process Management Software, otherwise known as workflow management software, is becoming more accessible to all businesses instead of just large enterprises.

Business process management, or BPM for short, is a solution that involves a combination of optimization, measurement, control, execution, automation, and modeling of business activities in support of partners, customers, employees, spanning systems, and enterprise goals beyond and within the boundaries of an enterprise. This software will assist you in conceptualizing the workflows of your organization, planning out potential path deliverables that should be taken through your processes and web of people, so you’ll effectively be able to identify areas that can be automated or steps that can either be streamlined or eliminated to increase productivity and efficiency.

Business process management software allows businesses to easily and quickly plan their workflows in an electronic environment, thus allowing them to see the bigger picture of their procedures. The environment can also be manipulated to accommodate ‘what-if’ analyses and varying business scenarios. Moreover, the majority of business process management software solutions can enable the incorporation of numerous applications and processes by acting as an engine block to the component parts of accounting, ERP, or CRM, respectively.

This article will discuss how business process management software will help buyers by identifying a case study of a solution, a brief overview of business process management software vendors, industry trends, and common features.

Business Process Management Software: A General Overview

As discussed in the above paragraphs, business process management software allows businesses to streamline their operations, automate integral processes, and plan out their workflows, which is similar to software that automates and/or maps and models some or all of a particular process or function inside a business. There is often a good amount of similarity between business process management software and other software including salesforce automation systems, professional services automation tools, and project management software. As an example, if you have a project-based business that uses one of the more popular solutions like LiquidPlanner, Mavenlink, or Wrike, you can plan out your entire workflow as well as build visualizations for important processes and make problems and progress more evident to your team. Project management software is basically a specialized BPM solution created for project-based companies.

Common Features

Depending on whether you use a BPM suite tailored to your specific industry or you are using a generic BPM solution, there are several functionalities included with most business process management systems.

1. Visual workflow map - A visual workflow map is an integral part of any BPM software. It’s a workflow editor with simplistic drag-and-drop features which allow managers to visualize and construct their workflows in an electronic environment for easy and quick modification and conceptualization. Depending upon the application (e.g. Kanban), mapping a company’s workflow can take on many forms.
2. Invoicing and billing - It’s just as important to have a solution to collect payment for the work that’s being done. BPM systems include a built-in invoicing and billing system that serves as an endpoint for business processes related to generating revenue. It is not meant to replace your accounting software.
3. Email integration - Social collaboration tools including chat systems are making email a less important form of internal communication. But it is still necessary for contacting clients, partners, and suppliers which is why email is included in most BPM suites just like document management.
4. Sharing and document management - Document management systems are the heart of many BPM systems though they are now less common with cloud storage vendors like Dropbox or Box. However, they are allowing some of their products to be integrated through other business software such as BPM suites.

Things to Consider When Choosing a BPM Suite

There are a number of options that must be taken into consideration before you purchase a BPM software system.

• Custom or turn-key. While most BPM software will allow your business to come up with their own workflows or integrations, there are some companies that prefer a custom-built system which includes functionalities that are not normally part of a typical BPM suite. There are custom software engineering services available that can help you design a BPM tool with all of the functionalities you need while eliminating the ones you don’t.
• Industry-specific or generic. Various departments, businesses, or industries are able to use BPM software products, but some companies prefer a system that’s tailored to meet their specific needs. One such example of an industry-specific BPM tool includes ArchiOffice, a BPM suite used by architects.
• Mobility. You want access to your business process management system anytime, anywhere as it is essential for today’s increasingly mobile workforce. By design, cloud-based systems allow mobile access, but it’s imperative that your mobile application or website be verified in order for them to be optimized for viewing on smartphones or tablets, especially if you have remote workers, maintenance technicians, or sales agents that might need access to the BPM software.
• On-premise vs. the cloud. Server space is becoming commoditized and cloud-based systems are quickly growing in popularity, but many companies still prefer an on-premise server to host their own BPM. A majority of BPM vendors offer solutions for both kinds of delivery models, but it’s still important that you do some research to help you narrow your scope.

Three Types of BPM Software

BPM not only takes on different forms, but is shaped by a business’s strategy, segment, and size. We will take a closer look at three types of BPM software in the paragraphs below.

1. Basic BPM platform - The basic BPM platform is the most elementary platform in existence. These platforms include tools that are designed to make sure your new IT applications will lead to the desired outcomes of your business. Basic BPM platforms offer user-friendly, basic interfaces such as those that help model or test workflows and other tools which support the expansion of applications to increase efficiency. Smaller organizations choose basic BPM platforms as many are meant to be used outside of the IT department by staff.
2. BPM suite or BPMS - These suites have a broader scope and include tools which are used by both non-IT and IT staff. BPM initiatives at this level frequently require coordination between IT and other departments and business units. They are useful for companies searching for uninterrupted improvement and process refinement and include options which increase flexibility and agility. Organizations that need deeper integration with existing IT infrastructure typically use BPM suites to achieve their goals.
3. Intelligent BPM suite or iBPMS - They are the most advanced suites available and add rapid application development, operational intelligence, and advanced analytical tools to a mix of BPMS and BPM tools. iBPMSs increase the speed of a company from insight to action by creating automated goal-directed, self-adapting processes. These suites are generally used by organizations that want to incorporate external and internal complex, real-time operational intelligence from customers or partners in order to make significant improvements to their processes.

BPM Software Market Trends

While we cannot predict which processes businesses will manage tomorrow, we do know that some general trends in BPM strategy and technology are expected to continue.

With one or more aspects of a business’s transformation strategies, it is believed that some companies will fail because a BPM was not involved in the planning – not because the IT selection or strategy was incorrect. It takes a concentrated effort between departmental stakeholders and IT to make sure that dividends from all digital revolution projects are dispersed in the form of enhanced business procedures.

As companies attempt to adapt their processes and workflows to a greater variety of customer interaction scenarios and change customer needs, exploration and creation of unstable procedures will increase.

Companies with stringent organizational structures will have a more difficult time realizing BPM improvements and gains, while companies that are more comfortable with iterative process development and more agile companies will receive the best return on their investment from the initiatives of their BPM.