Business Process Management (BPM) has many perspectives which can be considered. Let's consider a few of these perspectives, such as:

• A method of controlling the nature and growth of business processes.
• An approach to eliminate waste in a business.
• A form of continuous improvement within the business.
• A discipline to re-engineer or change the business.
• A set of management practices that focuses on the operational success of the business.

What is Business Process Management (BPM)?

Wikipedia's definition of Business process management (BPM) is "a management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It is a holistic management approach[1] that promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. Business process management attempts to improve processes continuously. It could therefore be described as a process optimization process. It is argued that BPM enables organizations to be more efficient, more effective and more capable of change than a functionally focused, traditional hierarchical management approach". In practice, it is a management discipline and approach to understand how the business works.

BPM is more than mapping, modeling, and management?

Often, in BPM efforts, there seems to be a focus on process mapping, process modeling and process management which is quite not quite on target. Certinly, there are work activities in these areas:

• Process Mapping - More than a documenting process.
• Process Modeling - More than creating diagrams.
• Process Management - More than tracking processes.

When examining an business, the analysis of the process is in relation to other business processes, locations, documents, information and data, business strategies, and the reasons (motives) why the process exists. This examination requires diagramming the steps needed to get tasks completed in an efficient and effective manner. Often steps change because of business conditions affecting the overall process which should show how tasks are performed. Certification for the ISO-9000 series is an example of such activities. But, businesses, who treat a suite of processes as an asset, understand the that key performance and result indicators are as a means to identify, document, track, change, create and eliminate wasteful and inefficient process tasks. BPM is but one means to gain a competitive advantage!

Why is BPM done?

There are four (4) basic reasons why BPM initiatives occur in a business, they are:

• A perception or measure of inefficiency.
• A perception or measure of ineffectiveness.
• A perception threat or competitive situation.
• A perceptived opportunity aligned with a strategic direction.

If you sense reasons for BPM initiatives,Information By Design (IBD) can provide you with the consultative, training, and implementation solutions you are looking.