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Business Process Management, or its abbreviation BPM, is an organised process which is used to make the workflow of organisations more capable of adjustment for a constantly changing environment, and to improve overall efficiency.

How BPM Is Used

In many cases the BPM processes provide a conduit of connection within a company’s infrastructure between the IT or computing offices and the line of business. To ease communication difficulties, two simple to learn and easy to read languages were created, Business Process Execution and Business Process Management, or BPEL and BPMN respectively. These enabled developers to create hard code simply and effectively from the procedures designed by the line of business, or IT areas of the business.

This further aids the main aim of Business Process Management, as it seeks to improve communication flow to reduce the risk of misinterpretations and human error, which ultimately wastes time and resources, in addition to causing the stakeholders to have their attention diverted away from the primary tasks which their roles necessitate. BPM has proved to be a vital administrative tool which prioritises the preservation and improvement of equipment, resources and the central operations within an organisation.

Types of BPM

In practise, there are several types of framework for Business Process Management which is offered in today’s market, and each can be tailored for a specific organisation;

• Vertical- These frameworks are centred on a fixed set of corresponding procedures and templates which allow easy installation and configuration.
• Horizontal- These focus more specifically on creation, development and design of procedures. This particular framework is more suited to where reuse resources and technology based systems need improvement.
• Full Service- These templates have five components to fully integrate, and offer a massive improvement to communication and workflow. These specifically cover –
  • Workflow Engine
  • Project Scoping and Discovery
  • Business Rules Engine
  • Modelling and Design of Processes
  • Simulation and Testing

For many businesses, the modern environment vastly differs to the circumstances of the more recent times of the 1980’s and 1990’s. The systems in place from this era tend to be more based on a set format of functionality and product, with a focus on being data-centric, which can hinder efficiency. Today’s business organisations require constant variation and adaption to change. There is a need for suppliers, customers and clients to interrelate through a variety of channels. The rising demand of self service and direct processing has also added a new dimension to most businesses.

This new era for business requires more intelligent systems which need to be competent and adapt to quick changes in processes, and encompass different legacy systems. They need to be able to receive communications and input from a myriad of previously unused sources, including web services, data feeds, the internet, call centres, and standard forms. This is where BPM becomes indispensable as its associated tools, processes and approaches are adept at enabling the dexterity and flexibility, which businesses and organisations need to cope with this demand.