Structured business process management (BPM) software aids in developing, automating, monitoring, and fine-tuning processes within an enterprise from start to finish. BPM software removes email communications, spreadsheets, and follow-ups through clearly defined, rule-based workflows. Workflows enable the automated movement of tasks among people, applications, and departments.
For large-scale organisations, BPM provides one common tool to manage business workflows. The path for each request, approval, escalation and decision is established beforehand to ensure that all work will occur in the correct sequence and to provide transparency and accountability. In addition to traditional BPM, modern BPM solutions offer enterprise-grade workflow automation, approval, data capturing and reporting in a single digital process automation solution.
Why Enterprises Need BPM Software
When organisations grow in size, the informal ways of doing things tend to stop working. A team of 1,000 may have several opportunities for informal relations among its members; however, as the organisation grows to 2,000 employees, this type of relationship will only create chaos and confusion. BPM is one way to address this challenge by creating structure to allow enterprises with many moving parts to operate efficiently.
To maintain compliance with regulatory requirements and company policies, enterprises need BPM to ensure they can handle large volumes of requests in an orderly fashion and provide timely responses. Without BPM, it is challenging to ensure that actions taken by enterprises align with their policies; therefore, BPM must provide enterprises with the necessary tools to ensure compliance.
Because BPM provides enterprises with a process for maintaining compliance with regulations and offers real-time compliance reporting capabilities, it enables enterprises to execute all processes in a consistent manner at the speed of business.
Key Features of BPM Software for Enterprises
Enterprise-level BPM software must also include an assortment of advanced workflow tools to allow companies to build and manage their processes visually and without extensive coding. Approvals & workflows are typical features of enterprise BPM systems that manage which users have authority within a given process and appropriately route requests through the different levels of authority.
Other features, such as audit trail functionality, document every user, task, and approval within a workflow. Additionally, the tracking of SLA and TAT procedures allows organisations to pinpoint potential obstacles to success and resolve them before affecting overall productivity. Dashboards provide managers with immediate visibility into the productivity of their departments, the workload within each department, and the turnaround time of tasks, enabling them to make informed, data-driven decisions as opposed to relying on guesswork.
As a result, a combination of these functions allows BPM to go beyond traditional task management capabilities and offer comprehensive workflow automation solutions for all levels of enterprises.
BPM Software vs Manual Workflows
Workflow management systems can take on a number of forms, and most organizations currently utilize a variety of methods to manage their workflows. These methods often rely heavily on manual workflows (e.g., via email) combined with an increasing use of electronic spreadsheets. This approach leads to confusion around what information exists, who is responsible for what, and when (and how) approvals take place within an organization.
With BPM enterprise workflow automation, this uncertainty is removed from the process by automating many components of the workflow, including task assignment, deadlines, escalation procedures, and tracking activities. Moving from email notifications to using BPM software for managing coordination and tracking has increased both speed and reliability in the management of workflows.
Common Enterprise Use Cases for BPM
Organisations are now adopting BPM software in several departments or business units. Common examples of BPM software use are in approval processes for budget approvals, onboarding vendors, approving travel request and approving policy exceptions. HR departments rely on BPM software for onboarding employees, exiting employees and transferring employees internally. Procurement departments benefit from the automation of vendor approval processes, purchase requests and contract review.
Finance departments use BPM software for expense approvals, processing invoices and performing compliance checks, while IT departments use BPM software to manage service requests, provision access and track incidents. All these examples highlight how a single BPM workflow management system can provide value across many different business processes.
Business Outcomes and Benefits
Utilising BPM software positively impacts the organisation. The amount of time taken to process business records is significantly reduced, as employees can complete tasks in a timely fashion without the delays associated with having to “wait in an inbox” for information from a colleague or supervisor. Additional time savings are achieved through reduced errors associated with standardising processes and having established validation and verification processes at each step of the process. The organisation establishes greater accountability throughout the entire process, with clearly defined lines of ownership for each task in the process.
Additionally, BPM software will provide organisations with faster turnaround times, better compliance with service level agreements (SLAs), and increased productivity of employees. Leadership will gain better overall visibility into work processes through informative dashboards and reports, which will enable them to optimise their processes continuously and not just reactively respond to issues as they arise.
How to Choose the Right BPM Software
Before selecting BPM software for an organisation, consider the importance of how the system integrates with existing systems, including ERPs, CRMs, Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS), and Financial Systems. The level of data security and access control within the BPM software should also meet both enterprise and regulatory requirements.
Scalability is another consideration, as BPM software solutions will need to grow and support a greater volume and complexity of transactions over time. Consideration for customisation flexibility and adaptability in BPM software will enable organisations to adjust workflows as business rules change. Finally, BPM systems must provide usable analytics that enable actionable intelligence rather than just presenting raw data.
Final Thoughts
The increasing demand for enterprises to operate as quickly as possible while ensuring compliance requires organisations to implement Business Process Management (BPM) as the basis of their successfully managed processes. BPM will allow an organisation to unify all of its processes into one seamless automated solution that will give the organisation the ability to move quickly, maintain accountability for all actions taken, and have a higher degree of visibility throughout the organisation.
If your organisation is looking for a great BPM solution for enterprise-level automation, Snoh Flow allows organisations to create clearly defined workflows with automation and optimise them.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is business process management software?
Business Process Management (BPM) software enables organisations to create, manage, automate, and monitor their business processes to allow for a controlled and smooth movement of work between teams with complete control and visibility.
How is BPM software different from workflow automation software?
BPM software can also help organisations automate all facets of a business process, including approvals, SLAs, audits, and the tracking of performance throughout the entirety of the business process.
Why do enterprises need BPM software?
BPM is essential for large enterprises to manage processes that are larger than the organisation itself, create a compliant organisation, eliminate delays, and create accountability and visibility in real time throughout their organisation.
What types of processes can BPM software automate?
Examples of BPM automations include approval processes, HR Onboarding, procurement processes, finance requests, IT service requests, and other recurring business processes.
Is BPM software suitable for large organisations only?
Both large and rapidly growing mid-size organisations will need to implement BPM solutions in order to create a structured business process as they continue to grow and expand, before they become overwhelmed with process chaos.