An Introduction to BPM

An Introduction to BPM
September 2003

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The Information contained in this document is accurate as of September 2003. Because of the speed at which technology is advancing, the information recorded herein is dated and may have changed since this document was authored. All the contents of this White Paper are protected by Copyright Laws and International Trade Agreements. Copyright © 2003 Ultimus, Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction Business Process Management (BPM) is one of the hottest market segments in the software industry today. BPM is the discipline of modeling, automating, managing and optimizing business processes to increase profitability.
The rapid growth of BPM is driven by the increasing recognition that success in today's economy is driven by the efficiency and effectiveness of your organization and its business processes. Depending on the process, a BPM focus can improve organizational productivity and responsiveness, reduce costs, and/or accelerate cycle times. Ultimately, a quality BPM focus is a key driver for profitability. "Evidence is pouring in that BPM is Six Major Characteristics of BPM initiatives: delivering cost benefits, while reducing error cycles, increasing value and enabling 1. Convert paper-based business process into differentiation. A recent survey cited many electronic processes that eliminate paper forms, benefits of BPM. Although some of the file folders, documents, and the inefficiencies benefits, such as employee satisfaction, were associated with these. "soft," others provided concrete cost 2. Completely automate steps by integrating with savings, including the following: enterprise applications. . A reduction in time for process 3. Add intelligence to forms to reduce errors of completion omission (required data not filled out) or . A reduction in the number of steps inaccurate data (e.g. pull part numbers from a . A reduction in error cycles database, rather than having user enter it) 4. Incorporate control features that ensure . Automation of administrative tasks integrity of processes and compensate for . A reduction in the number of human or system failure. workers required." 5. Provide real-time feedback about the status of processes. 6. Measure the time and cost of processes so that they can be optimized. 2Gartner Group December 2002 The remainder of this paper will take a closer look at the evolution from workflow to BPM, business processes in general, the benefits that BPM can bring to your organization, the key technologies and considerations for choosing between them, and finally the non-technical issues associated with BPM initiatives.
From Workflow to BPM The BPM market is composed of vendors whose products address the market needs from four different perspectives: . Business Process Modeling and Analysis - which is focused on gaining a detailed understanding of business processes and the potential impact of changes to those processes . . Workflow Automation - which is focused on automating human-centric processes. . Enterprise Application Integration - which is focused on the exchange of information between heterogeneous systems. . Business Activity Monitoring - which is focused on analyzing the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes and activities. A complete BPM solution must provide capabilities in all of these areas. Of these perspectives, Workflow Automation has the most in common with BPM, due to its relative maturity and the evolution of solutions to address processes that involve a basic level of systems integration. The following table illustrates some of the differences between a traditional workflow solution and BPM. Workflow alone is not BPM. Workflow Business Process Management Process Focus . Human to Human . Human to Human . Human to System (secondary) . System to System . Human to System . System to Human Scope . Single Application/Workgroup . Enterprise Platform . Multiple Processes Approach . Increasingly found embedded in . Separate layer within IT applications Infrastructure to connect to multiple systems Integration . Limited . Extensive Expectations Focus . Task routing . Lifecycle managemen... [download for more]