Business Process Management (BPM) solutions automate and manage processes so that they become repeatable by other employees, measurable, trackable and serve up the right information and actions at the right time. They integrate with Content Management solutions, such as Xerox DocuShare, and other IT systems, transforming the traditional paper chain into a trail of auditable electronic information that drives faster performance and decision making.
Administrative staff spend much of their time retrieving, entering and sending information – and then waiting for a response - as part of one of more business processes. BPM solutions seek to reduce or cut out many of these cycle times.
Critically, BPM starts from the basis of understanding the organisation, its objectives and processes – rather than throwing IT applications at specific areas that appear to have a problem. It seeks to map business processes, gather metrics, understand the stakeholders and their requirements, and analyse the enablers that influence how the process operates.
Some solutions incorporate an in-flight process search capability that facilities searching across processes for items that match your criteria. For example, if purchase requisition forms were processed through the system, you might want to know your exposure to a particular supplier by looking at all items that were in the process of being approved.
BPM enables processes to be modelled, refined and modified as business needs change over time - helping organisations understand, manage and continuously re-examine their processes.