The Importance of Process Design and Business Process Management (BPM)
In our current corporate economic ecosystem, organizations are constantly striving to streamline business methodologies to stay current with global and corporate trends. The development and evolution of workflow trends and technologies have required organizations to buckle up on meeting industry standards and stand the test of time by embracing continuous business strategy innovations and digital transformation.
Reflecting on the recent world pandemic experience, corporations and the workforce have had to adjust and create a balance with our new reality of work-from-home and hybrid work initiatives, and, most importantly, embrace the constantly evolving technological transformation of the workplace. This new reality of our ways of working has prompted a need for organizations, large or small, to embrace and implement even more proactive Business Process Management (BPM) strategies.
Business Process Management is the implementation of diverse approaches to build, analyze, evaluate, document, and strategically improve an organization’s business operations. By creating a BPM strategy, organizations can enhance efficiency, optimize operational capabilities, and, most importantly, improve customer experience.
BPM plays a pivotal role in the success and growth of organizations across various industries. The value of Business Process Management cannot be overstated, as it empowers organizations to stay agile and responsive to industry trends.
The importance of Business Process Design and Management includes:
Key Performance Indicators:
Through Business Process Design, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are identified to measure the real-time efficiency of processes, roles and business goals. These KPI metrics include turnaround time, error rates, resource utilization, schedule variances, and others. By using process modeling to map out the current state, business processes can be efficiently redesigned to optimize business outcomes with measurable targets.
Clear Roles and Responsibilities:
Analyzing, designing, and documenting any new process helps in the identification of business roles and responsibilities. Utilizing BPM tools like a RACI assessment - Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed - helps clarify workflow management, ownership, and objectives. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities can also improve employee morale, productivity level, increase retention rates, and overall improve organizational competence. The level of transparency, properly defined roles and responsibilities also ensures that there is ample opportunity for collaboration and process improvement.
Identify Process Gaps and Risks:
Mapping out your business process management will help your organization identify opportunities for process improvement in areas where workflow processes are not properly aligned with the required business outcome. Process lapses are caused by unclear or outdated methodologies, lack of clear roles and responsibilities, and lack of measurable metrics, which indicate a current state of ineffective operational and project management.
Evaluating existing process bottlenecks against proven industry best practices and competitors to build competency across the organization mitigates the risks of higher operational costs, substandard quality of work, inefficiencies, and project failures. Risk Assessment should be conducted by prioritizing risks associated with processes according to the probability of occurrence and their level of impact. Meeting compliance and industry-specific regulations becomes easier for organizations that are continuously thinking through best business practices by utilizing a dynamic Business Process Management Framework.
Data Collection for Continuous Improvement:
Data collection is another type of business process management that can be automated or carried out manually by using surveys, cross-functional stakeholder interviews, system reports, or direct observation. Defined and standardized data collection points in the BPM cycle provide an opportunity to optimize process improvements from insight gained through the evaluation of performance against target.
Overall Cost Reductions:
Effective implementation of the Business Process Management framework reduces business costs through accurately anticipated resource needs (human, systems, time, materials, etc.) planning, elimination of waste, and non-value-added practices.
Opportunity for Training Plan:
Organizations that focus on achieving operational excellence in their business strategy apply a growth mindset to achieve results. Developing a BPM strategy stresses a need to invest in and optimize your employees’ capabilities and skill sets.
In summary, the development of a Business Process Management framework requires rigorous, end-to-end analysis to streamline a functional workflow process by ensuring people and systems work simultaneously to maximize the intended operational output or productivity.
Business Process Management and Project Management go hand-in-hand. Learn more about best practices for your PMO HERE and HERE.
