BPM Best Practises
BPM is a must for every organization if they plan to stay in the game. Regardless of the organization's sector, there are countless processes, and the key to success heavily lies in how the organizations manage these processes.

That's where BPM tools come in, and they really make it easier if we are talking about managing business processes. However, tools are not just enough by themselves. Below, you will find the best practices that are needed for every organization that plans to digitalize its business processes.

BPM tools are designed to help automate your business processes and make them more efficient than before. However, this doesn't mean that you should try to implement complicated solutions when creating new ones or improving existing ones — keep it simple!

Here are some tips on how to do that:
  • Make sure all processes are clearly defined and understood by everyone involved.
  • Don't overcomplicate the process flow diagram with too many steps or branches (keep it simple).

Focus on People

Many BPMs fail due to a lack of understanding of the people involved. The most crucial part of any BPM is the people that make it work, so you should always keep their needs at the top of your mind.

The goals for your BPM should be based on what will help your employees achieve their full potential and give them a great experience doing it. This means that you have to emphasize things like job satisfaction, empowerment, being treated fairly and with respect, being listened to by management when needed etc., instead of focusing solely on productivity metrics or cost-cutting initiatives (which tend not to work).

Before starting any BPM project, it's important to define your goal. In addition, you should be clear about what problem you're trying to solve. This will ensure that your efforts are focused and that they align with the business needs at hand.

You should also seek input from multiple stakeholders. This will help you get a clearer picture of the problem and the best way to solve it.

Don't Make It Too Rigid

When it comes to BPM, it's easy to get carried away with the process. And unfortunately, you can go too far with the process. Make sure your process is not rigid and not over-engineered; otherwise, you'll end up with a system that doesn't work well for your team and doesn't help the business grow.

BPM solutions should be flexible and scalable so that they can evolve as your business grows and changes over time. You want technology that will allow you to adjust things easily when necessary—like new hires or new projects—instead of making you change everything at once because your processes are overly complicated by design (or lack thereof). It's better if teams can tailor their own approach based on their unique needs rather than being locked into one method of doing things across the board.

Encourage Your Users

You should encourage your users to be involved in the process to get the best results from your business process management (BPM) implementation. One way of doing this is by ensuring they understand BPM's benefits and how it will help them do their job more efficiently. You can also use surveys and interviews to find out what they think about the process automation project so far, as well as what they expect from it in terms of productivity improvements and other key metrics.

Another aspect of user involvement involves taking advantage of their knowledge and expertise when building processes. When creating a new business process or modifying an existing one, make sure there are opportunities for input from internal stakeholders—this participation will increase buy-in for both users and leadership alike. If possible, allow users some flexibility when performing tasks within particular processes; this will improve satisfaction levels because people feel empowered instead of controlled by others' decisions.

Don't Get Carried Away with Technology

BPM is about improving the way your organization works. It's not about replacing people with technology—your employees are the ones who know how best to do their jobs, and they should be at the heart of any change. Of course, technology can make it easier for them to do their jobs, but you shouldn't let it get in their way or replace them entirely.

The best BPM solutions are those that work alongside humans, not against them. If a process can be done manually by an employee with no difficulty, then there's no need for software or automation; a human being should be able to handle that task just fine! And if someone needs help completing a task because they don't know how (or simply wouldn't think of doing it themselves), then consider using technology to give them a hand--but only when necessary: don't design every part of your business around automation unless absolutely necessary!

Start Small and Grow as You Go

The most successful projects start small and grow as they go. You can't expect to hit the ground running with a huge project and massive goals. If you have a large, complicated business process that needs changing, start with something manageable. Start with one small project or one group of users. Then, slowly add more until you've made significant changes to your entire company's business processes!

For example, let's say you want all employees in your company to be able to use the BPM tool for all their workflows—you'll need a way for them to log into it from anywhere and see which workflow is assigned at any time (and who assigned it). This might take some time if there are many different types of users in your organization; however, if you start with just two employees who use email heavily (for example), then implementing this feature would be much easier because they're already familiar with how email works!

Find the Balance Between Efficiency and Effectiveness

While you may be tempted to focus solely on efficiency, it is important to remember the bigger picture. The most effective BPM projects are those that involve the whole organization, including all levels of management and staff. All stakeholders should be involved in establishing goals for each project so that everyone strives for a shared vision.

If your company is looking to streamline operations and cut costs, then cost reduction should be your primary goal as opposed to efficiency gains alone. However, if improving quality or time-to-market are what are most important, then these metrics should take priority over cost savings measures like reducing headcount or eliminating overhead expenses such as IT support or training programs which might seem superfluous in times of austerity.

Be performance-driven — not technology driven 

BPM involves a lot of different technologies and software, but it's important to remember that these are just tools. They're not the goal — they're just ways to help you achieve your goals. Make sure you know what success looks like before you start. Define your targets, and measure your progress. Set goals, measure your progress against them regularly, and adjust as needed.

Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement

If you want to see actual results from BPM, everyone in your company must be on board with the idea of continuous improvement. It's not enough to implement new processes once and call it a day — instead, you need to constantly evaluate how things are going and make adjustments as necessary. And to accomplish this, bear in mind the following three topics;
  • Open to learning and being open to feedback.
  • Don't be afraid to try new things or fail.
  • Don't be scared to ask for help or admit when you are wrong.

Measurement is the key

A process improvement effort aims to improve processes and quality, which requires measurement. There are three criteria for measuring:
Measure the right things. What you measure should be aligned with your goals and objectives; otherwise, you won't get any useful information from it. For example, if your goal is to reduce customer complaints by 1%, then the number of customer complaints should be an important metric for you to track on a regular basis.

Measure at the right time. You need to know where you're starting from so that when changes are made in response to data collected through measurements, there's some context for those changes—and they can also be evaluated against previous performance levels or targets as appropriate.

Measure correctly using appropriate tools such as dashboards or scorecards that allow users access without having to dig into underlying data too much but provide enough detail when needed.

Conclusion

In this article, we covered the basics of BPM. We discussed why it's crucial to have a process in place and how it can help your business. We also outlined some best practices to get started with BPM without breaking the bank.

If you're new to BPM, these tips will help get you started on your journey towards becoming better at managing your time, resources and tasks. And if you're an experienced practitioner of BPM who wants to learn more about what's new in the world of process management, please keep following our articles!

By Ecem Kurumsuz 15 Apr, 2024
We're absolutely thrilled to announce that we'll be exhibiting at the UNLOCKPOTENTIAL @BEYOND2024 segment of the 4th BEYOND Exhibition in Thessaloniki this April.
innovation days
By Ecem Kurumsuz 21 Dec, 2023
Emakin was at Huawei Cloud Retail Industry Innovation Day!
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