How can companies achieve an increase in quality and increased customer satisfaction while saving costs at the same time? The answer is Business Process Management (BPM). With this, business processes can be controlled and adjusted in a targeted manner in order to ensure the economic success of an organization in a rapidly changing business area.
Was ist Business Process Management (BPM)?
The abbreviation BPM stands for Business Process Management. Behind this is the management, i.e. the organization, control and adjustment of processes or workflows. In process management, a distinction is made between a functional and a technical BPM.
if professional BPM is understood as the technical process consulting and process optimization including the related activities, i.e. the optimization of the processes from an exclusively technical point of view.
Technical BPM includes the consideration, adaptation, modeling and monitoring of the technical processes using software, process automation and the concepts and methods required for implementation.
The goal of business process management is the continuous optimization of processes and information transfer in companies. It thus reduces throughput times, lowers error rates, saves costs and increases customer satisfaction.
What are the benefits of Business Process Management?
Both the technical and the IT-focused optimization of business processes offer significant added value for companies. Successful business process management offers these advantages:
more transparency
By continuously and purposefully measuring, linking and evaluating the process parameters, companies achieve a new level in terms of the transparency of their processes. Based on the data obtained, they are able to make better strategic decisions.
process harmonization
Business process management aims to harmonize business processes. In this way, companies ensure that their processes are aligned with the strategy they have set and promote the standardization of their business processes.
Cost savings
With targeted business process management, companies are able to reduce the throughput times of their business processes. This results in significant cost savings and a reduction in time to market.
quality improvement
Business Process Management reduces the error rate in business processes. Due to the possibility of monitoring each process instance separately, imprecisions in processes can be identified and eliminated.
Increased customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction increases by introducing a process-oriented way of thinking and aligning the processes to the customer, as well as the possibility of promptly considering change requests from the customer.
Relevant fields of BPM in the areas of automation and IT management
Was ist Robotic Process Automation?
In robotic process automation (RPA), software bots are used to relieve employees of recurring activities by automating them. In many companies, simple processes with a high volume of work are still carried out by the staff and often lead to bottlenecks, delays and frustration. The use of robotic process automation is therefore particularly recommended for time-consuming and error-prone activities.
With business process management, business processes can be controlled and adjusted in a targeted manner in order to ensure economic success.
There are close connections between business process management and technical optimization measures, particularly at the interfaces to IT management. IT service management (ITSM), for example, includes a range of methods and measures for the best possible support of strategic business processes by IT. Business Service Management (BSM) forms the methodological and operational interface between BPM and ITSM.
Configuration management: avoid problems in advance
Configuration management helps manage related work products and keep processes, computer systems, and software in a consistent state. It can be used to control and document changes in complex systems. For example, it is possible to trace which employee has changed a file. Configuration management is often referred to as the four-pillar model:
- Versionsmanagement
- change management
- Releasemanagement
- Buildmanagement
The four pillars of configuration management have the goal of continuously directing and controlling corrections and extensions so that problems can be avoided in advance.
Network Automation: Reduce Human Errors
Network automation automates manual tasks and processes within the network lifecycle. A distinction is made between script-controlled and software-based network automation. For example, the registration with routers and switches as well as the device check and configuration check is possible automatically. The most significant benefits of automating networks include improved efficiency, reduced operational costs and reduced human error.
What is patch management (and automation)?
Patches close security gaps, fix bugs, and add new features to operating systems and applications. But even in small companies today there are a large number of systems, which means that administrators often lack an overview of which systems have already been patched and which have not. This is where patch management comes in. It can be used to identify system functions that need improvement or correction. A corresponding patch is then created, deployed and the installation validated. Automating patch management improves patch accuracy, among other things, and helps reduce errors. It also reduces the manual effort required to patch systems.
Security automation as part of increased cyber security
The infrastructures and networks in companies are becoming ever larger and more complex. If these are also largely managed manually, they are an easy target for cyber attacks, since a human can hardly handle the sheer number of attacks. Security automation, as part of a comprehensive cyber security strategy, can improve information security by automatically detecting, investigating, and mitigating threats. A company’s security experts are no longer held back from solving other more important problems and can devote themselves to more demanding tasks.
Infrastructure automation: Accelerate operations
The IT infrastructure in most companies is becoming increasingly larger and more complex. This can result in the deployment of updates, patches, and resources falling behind. By automating tasks like provisioning, configuration, and deployment, operations can be simplified and accelerated.
Different phases in the implementation of BPM
The implementation of BPM to automate important business processes can be divided into five different steps:
- Planning & Analysis
The first phase is primarily about analyzing the existing business processes. This makes it possible to identify where improvements are necessary and which ones must be optimized as a matter of priority. Defining key performance indicators (KPI) later makes it possible to measure the success of the optimizations.
- modelling
In the modeling phase, the company selects processes and defines them individually according to its circumstances and wishes. For example, can certain sequences of a process be automated for greater efficiency? In this phase, the documentation is also modeled in order to be able to understand how a process is structured and who is involved in it.
- implementation
During implementation, the modeled business processes are recorded, documented and then executed.
- monitoring
The fourth phase serves to monitor and analyze the processes. It is checked whether the revision was effective and whether the new process is actually better and more efficient than the old one.
- optimization
In order to avoid problems and inefficiency again, the processes introduced with BPM should be continuously optimized. It should therefore by no means be regarded as a one-off affair. Long-term success can only be ensured through constant optimization.
CONET service catalogue
The introduction of process management is worthwhile for companies so that they can adapt their business processes quickly and flexibly to new requirements and their strategic orientation. CONET offers you holistic support in optimizing your business processes from advice and identification of suitable processes to actual implementation.
Our BPM service offering
Was this article helpful to you? Or do you have any questions? Write us a comment or give us a call.
Niklas Ludwig has been Communication Manager at CONET since March 2020 and is responsible for the internal and external communication of the CONET group of companies.
Source: https://www.conet.de/blog/business-process-management-bpm/
