Simplify, Optimize & Automate
Business process management (BPM) is a systematic approach to making an organization's workflow more effective, more efficient and more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment. A business process is an activity or set of activities that will accomplish a specific organizational goal.
It should be stated that Business Process Management (BPM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are often confused and whilst there are some similarities between them, there are also some key differences. Both systems are generally implemented into an organisation to help increase efficiency, reduce costs and increase profit, but which system you choose will ultimately depend on the specific goals and functional needs of your organization.
What is a Business Process Management System? (BPMS)
Business Process Management is an approach that focuses on capturing and improving business processes to make an organization more efficient. This can be achieved by first capturing an organizations’ current-state end-to-end processes and then documenting the steps in process maps which can be using modeling BPM software providers like Camunda or Bonita, right down to using Microsoft Visio or even like we tend to start with, a MindMap which allows you to visually diagram the flows rapidly.
Once a department or organization as a whole processes have been mapped out, you can begin to see where the inefficiencies and bottlenecks are present. This insight allows you to make informed changes to each process to reduce costs and improve overall efficiency.
What's the key difference between Business Process Management and Enterprise Resource Planning systems?
The main difference between BPM and ERP systems is that BPM is more process-focused, whereas ERP tends to be focused on organizational functions.
It is important to note that BPM can be used to actively support an ERP implementation and its management and that is how we tend to use BPM.
How does Browserweb interpret Business Process Management? (BPM)
At Browserweb, we tend to rely on BPM as a starting point to any forensic fact-finding audit and enterprise review. Most growing businesses that we consult with, tend to have less structured documentation than an established enterprise which has successfully implemented these methods.
BPM allows us to sketch out the current business model and then identify where automation via software solutions can help substantially e.g. as documented on the website, we may recommend solutions from CMS to CRM to Data Management to ERP which help improve the highlighted business processes that should be addressed for improved productivity and performance.