Whether big or small, every business has thousands of processes running behind the scenes. So, what happens when you don’t manage these processes?
When processes are left unattended, inefficiencies and blockages start to emerge, leading to delays, additional expenses, loss of productivity, etc. These are the issues that no business can afford to deal with.
This is where Business Process Management (BPM) comes into play and is a necessity for businesses of all sizes and industries. BPM is a discipline that helps you map, analyse, improve and continually monitor your business processes.
Done right, it brings in many benefits to drive your business growth.
Read on to know the Top 10 advantages of adopting BPM.
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- BPM is for every industry
- Benefits of BPM
- Streamlined Processes Resulting in Increased Efficiency
- Improved Knowledge Management and Collaboration
- Better Resource Management
- Data-Driven Decision Making
- Improved Customer Service
- Compliance and Risk Mitigation
- Be Future Ready
- Identify Automation Opportunities
- Cost Reduction
- Boost Employee Morale and Engagement
- Choosing the right BPM software
BPM is for Every Industry
Regardless of their size or industry, BPM enables businesses to stay agile and adapt to changing market conditions, making it an essential component of any successful business strategy.
From BFSI and education to manufacturing and government departments, BPM helps every industry gain a competitive advantage and achieve sustainable growth.
For instance, BPM can help automate loan processing and customer onboarding in the banking industry. At the same time, it can streamline administrative tasks and improve student enrollment processes in the education sector. In the manufacturing industry, BPM can optimise supply chain management, inventory control, and production processes.
Benefits of BPM
Here’s a look at the top 10 benefits of BPM with real-life examples of how different industry segments are using it:
Streamlined Processes Resulting in Increased Efficiency
One of the primary benefits of BPM is that it helps businesses to eliminate inefficiencies and optimise their processes. BPM enables organisations to identify and remove process waste and non-value-adding activities, bringing greater efficiency and improving the outcome.
For example, The Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ), an independent statutory authority responsible for the impartial conduct of elections in Queensland, is using BPM to review and improve every stage in the election process and drive efficiencies.
Improved Knowledge Management and Collaboration
BPM empowers organisations to become process-dependent rather than being people-dependent. The documented processes facilitate process standardisation, empowering front-end employees to carry out their day-to-day operations effectively.
A centralised process repository eliminates silos across the organisation and improves collaboration across departments, ensuring alignment of employee efforts with corporate goals. The standardised processes also show significant benefits in employee training and induction.
For instance, one of the QLD state government departments has used BPM effectively to document processes and has been able to reduce onboarding time for the staff from 6 weeks to 1 day.
Better Hiring decisions and resource management
By giving visibility into processes and eliminating duplicate/redundant tasks, BPM ensures proper resource utilisation. Streamlined processes give insights to drive better hiring decisions. Further, BPM brings in transparency to track and analyse staff performance and identify opportunities for optimising resource management.
For example, using BPM, one of the Philippines’ largest insurers, Insular Life, has identified overlapping functions and estimates around a 30% reduction in workforce, which can be skilled and transferred to other units requiring additional staffing.
Data-Driven Decision Making
BPM software provides organisations with a wealth of data that can be used to make informed decisions about process optimisation. This data-driven decision-making approach can help organisations identify areas for improvement, track progress, and continuously improve their processes over time. Many organisations have been leveraging this data to gauge tool requirement and even gain executive buy-in for the tool purchase.
Improved Customer Service through Reduced Cycle Time
When used effectively, BPM can prove to be a game changer in improving customer service efficiency. Using BPM techniques, organisations can reduce the cycle time of customer-facing processes, such as order processing and complaint resolution, leading to faster and more efficient service delivery. Shorter cycle times can improve customer satisfaction by reducing wait times and improving overall responsiveness.
For example, a regional council in Victoria has brought down time for customer refunding process from 4 weeks to 1 to 10 days.
Compliance and Risk Mitigation
By leveraging BPM to manage compliance and risk, organisations can minimise the risk of regulatory violations and associated penalties, as well as mitigate the risk of fraud, data breaches, and other security threats.
For instance, Maptek, a leading provider of innovative software, hardware and services for the global mining industry, is using BPM to establish appropriate controls and governance for achieving process compliance and audit requirements of the highly regulated mining industry.
Be Future-Ready
Today’s organisations need to be future-ready because of the rapidly changing business environment and the need to stay competitive. BPM allows organisations to quickly modify existing processes or create new ones in response to changing market conditions, customer needs, or regulatory requirements.
For instance, specialist solutions and services provider to the financial services industry Data Action has adopted BPM to be agile and future-ready for ever-evolving technical and regulatory changes in the banking industry.
Identify automation opportunities
By analysing and mapping out existing business processes, organisations can highlight areas where automation could be applied to streamline and optimise workflows. Identifying repetitive manual tasks that can be automated reduces the need for human intervention and minimises errors. This leads to significant improvements in efficiency and productivity.
Cost Reduction
All the above benefits from data-driven decision-making to improved resource management and automation, result in sustainable cost savings. With BPM, processes can also be standardised to reach the most cost-effective ways of doing things.
For example, system replacement, process redesign and workforce reduction due to BPM implementation have ensured significant cost savings for Insular Life. The firm estimates $7.52 million in saving annually from projects.
Boosting Employee Satisfaction and Engagement
In addition to quantifiable benefits, BPM also ensures intangible benefits, such as employee satisfaction, which is a critical factor for any organisation’s performance and success.
Streamlining processes and automating repetitive tasks enables employees to focus on higher value tasks. Employees also get more control over their work as they have clarity in their roles and responsibilities and can take complete ownership of their work.
Choosing the Right BPM Software
An effective BPM strategy can be a game-changer for filling gaps in business processes and enhancing operational efficiency. Choosing the right BPM software is key to achieving these goals.
An end-to-end BPM software that allows mapping, analysing, improving and automating business processes from a single platform goes a long way in getting sustainable results from business process management.
BPM software that comes equipped with a built-in methodology and is based on quality management principles like Lean Six Sigma, helps driving standardised documentation and helps in identifying the right improvement opportunities. One such tool is PRIME BPM.
PRIME BPM software is a powerful cloud-based BPM tool designed to help organisations streamline their business processes. Due to its intuitive capabilities and easy-to-use interface, the software is helpful for both process experts and business users.
Some of the functionalities in PRIME BPM software that can help you maximise your BPM results are One-click Process Prioritisation, an In-built analytics engine, in-built compliance and risk management module, simulation engine, and low-code, no-code automation.
Explore how PRIME BPM’s advanced functionalities can help you drive BPM benefits. Get the Premium license for free>> https://www.primebpm.com/premium-license/
