BPM vs Workflow. There can be some confusion about the differences between BPM and workflow, partly because they are used interchangeably by some professionals. The confusion is understandable. Early business process management (BPM) solutions focused on the coordination of processes--they were focused on workflow. Today, workflow is a component of a good BPM, but they are not the same.
Simply put, workflow helps organizations to see an overview of a process to monitor results, reduce inefficiencies and incorporate automation. At its best, it serves to align the processes with the business goals and systematize how documents and tasks are completed and executed for quality and/or compliance.
Workflow software is a tool for automating the process. It can provide support for steps in the business process and can trigger alerts for the appropriate users to take action. It is a single process within a more complex system.
As an analogy, it would be the steps for making the crème in a Twinkie, but not the entire creation, assembly or packaging of such.
BPM is a larger system of processes that incorporates multiple workflows, automation tools and human capital to optimize them all. It is a system that gets all the cogs working together in harmony to create an ideal end result.
All companies use business processes to produce the end result, and BPM software streamlines those processes to create a more agile and efficient business.
“BPM has been defined as a method of efficiently aligning an organization with the wants and needs of its customers, both internally and externally.” --Jay O’Brien, CTO BP Logix, Inc.
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BPM software looks at the current state of the business and its processes and works with the management team’s goals to identify future objectives. In the most ideal situations, this team would create an ever evolving feedback loop and a continuously improving process that grows with the business. Automating workflow to make it faster, more efficient, and more consistent creates a measurable result on the company’s bottom line, while at the same time improving the organization’s compliance capabilities.
The structure of BPM incorporates policies, procedures, methods, metrics, human tasks, software tasks and IT to manage and optimize all levels of business functions.
Overall, BPM monitors, evaluates and even activates processes for better management. This allows businesses to serve more customers, have a better workforce and profit margin, just to name a few of the benefits.
The need for streamlining and automatization tools come from the increasingly competitive nature of business. Eliminating wasteful practices and procedures to achieve optimal performance allows businesses to control quality and costs and can be the difference between success or failure. So instead of thinking it as BPM vs workflow, think of it as BPM and workflow operating together to improve efficiencies. However, BPM takes it a step further by allowing multiple workflow scenarios, across multiple channels, to run in peak way. Simply put, BPM improves at the organizational level.
To learn more about BP Logix BPM tools and how they can help you, request a demonstration. Before the demo, we will contact you to learn about your goals and requirements so we can tailor the demonstration to meet your specific needs.
