By: Nicola Dihmes, Director of Consulting Services
We have been witnessing continuous and significant digital evolution over the last decade alone. Consequently, the way we handle business has completely changed especially with modern, emerging technology. Even with the flow of digital discoveries, new solutions, and innovations, there is one approach that stands even stronger in the face of the digital revolution.
Business Process Management (BPM). This approach stood the test of time, it has developed into a necessity for organizations, a major business driver, and a powerful method to maximize capabilities. Process management refers to a powerful methodology that is utilized to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, and optimize business processes. It directly enhances the agility, efficiency, and effectiveness of a business.
In fact, using Business Process Management framework in any process increases the project success rate by 70%, based on Gartner reports. Meanwhile, the BPM industry is forecast to record growth at $26.18 billion by 2028 on a global scale, compared to the $11.84 billion registered in 2021.
Process management offers a wide scope of essential benefits to organizations that take on this systematic approach. Those benefits mainly include improved agility, compliance, risk management, and customer experience, as well as optimized processes and staying competitive in a rapidly changing business environment.
The Journey of BPM Amid Technological Breakthroughs
Here is what was well established through many experiences: emerging technology strengthened the presence of business process management and encouraged businesses to maintain their reliance on it. One thing became clear, business process management is the cornerstone of companies.
Modern technology has built a stronger resilience for process management, highlighting that powerful BPM tools can make all the difference for the success of businesses. The journey of process management and technology is closely linked, both develop amid milestones and through eras.
For instance, the 1980s was a key era when client-server computing was introduced which therefore enabled the creation of more flexible process management systems and hence empowered the workflow together with user interaction.
The 1990s to the 2000s also marked momentous eras, from web-based systems to cloud-based systems that supported the innovative development of process management. These improved systems opened the door for ideal remote work conditions, on-demand computing resources, and reduced resources.
Jumping forwards to this era of intelligence and modern technology, it marked a progressive time that facilitated AI-powered process management systems. This, in turn, significantly changed the way organizations manage their business and offered privileges such as automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks, process improvements, and providing access to real-time insights into process performance.
The journey of business process management, which goes hand in hand with digital evolution, still continues in this ever-changing world of business and digital transformation, and intelligent enterprises. Process management has not reached its limit yet but is rather becoming stronger by the day and delivering greater efficiency and effectiveness.
Digitization Impact on BPM’s Key Role in Improvement
Business process management has been playing a non-ending, crucial role in improving the processes and operations of businesses, which ultimately means the overall success and flourishment of companies and organizations in all industries.
Case in point, 62% of businesses today are using up to two software for task management while 70% utilize one software to model their processes, based on reports conducted by AI Multiple. The same report also indicated that the BPM market is experiencing consistent growth, with an estimated global market value of $14.4 billion by the year 2025.
BPM’s continuous role in fostering a sustained culture of process improvement was not diminished by the rise of digitization. On the contrary, its key role was affected in a positive manner by the many transformed aspects of business operations that paved the way for new business opportunities.
With digitization, business process management has presented evolved features mostly in relation to data management. Companies can now use BPM to swiftly and smoothly collect reliable data and analyze them, along with keeping track of processes and maintaining unfailing monitoring and analysis capabilities.
At the end of the day, digitization did have an impact on BPM’s key role in improvement: it considerably strengthened it. When process improvement is implemented the right way, it carries waves of benefits to companies from delivering high value to customers to retaining a valuable presence in the market to having a solid competitive advantage.
New Opportunities for Full Visibility & Reliability
In the midst of the digital revolution and modern technology advancement, the BPM industry is witnessing more demand for process analysis, process simulation, and process mining as companies are seeking to obtain comprehensive visibility, ensure reliability, outline fortified planning, and make decisions driven by data.
New opportunities are being made available with each new digital innovation in the industry. Take business process analysis for example, it allows companies to assess their business processes and identify points of improvement within their operations. This approach is used to identify opportunities for business to enhance their operations, and over the years, it has become an even more efficient method thanks to the ceaseless development of this digital age.
Likewise, business process simulation has become easier and faster as a result of new innovative solutions and tools. This approach is primarily deployed to analyze the efficiency of the process before the implementation phase is initiated. The need for process simulation has increased, and its effectiveness increased with it in the wake of the arrival of new opportunities that followed the digital evolution.
Process mining has also commemorated new opportunities created along the way, strengthening its purpose of discovering, validating, and improving workflows. What makes this approach important for businesses is its capability to mine log data from information systems to understand processes’ performance while also unraveling areas of concern and allowing for improvements.
Achieving comprehensive visibility and reliability is essential to attain true success and facilitate the path for smooth operations and workflow. Hence, it has been an incredible journey to experience all the new opportunities that we have available now and will have access to in the future.
Process Management Connection to Process Automation
Business Process Automation (BPA) is another powerful methodology utilized to improve business operations and increase organizations’ efficiency and agility. Process automation supports business processes in streamlining business operations, reducing costs, and improving productivity. Mainly, process automation is an approach for organizations that seek to document, analyze, standardize, and improve their processes.
Process management and process automation can work in unison to realize maximum agility, efficiency, and effectiveness in the workplace and to experience the power that could be unlocked when those two methodologies are applied together. This is for organizations to snatch the opportunity of obtaining the highest value in the market and gaining an exceptional competitive advantage.
Both approaches, when utilized together, reinforce organizations’ efficiency and capabilities. The two approaches give businesses the opportunity to effectively boost productivity and performance, obtain comprehensive visibility to operations, improve customer experience, develop collaboration and communication, enhance compliance, and of course, reduce their costs.
The two methodologies of BPM and BPA are closely tied together and deeply complement one another. Together, those approaches can successfully give the highest value to clients and employees while also ensuring powerful outcomes for the business.
In the end,
Digital evolution has always been the answer to the development of processes and operations. With the advancement of technology comes the advancement of business process management systems and tools, thus creating new prospects and opportunities for a more effective, thriving business. It is fundamental for organizations to evaluate the scope of the marketplace and the landscape of modern-day industries to flawlessly reach their objectives and deliver prosperous results. All things considered, Business Process Management (BPM) practices have been evolving alongside technology to provide what all companies need from comprehensive visibility to competitive advantage, and to present a way to successfully adapt and keep up with the constant digital changes of the world as we enter a new decade.
About the Author:
Nicola Dihmes is the Director of Consulting Services at Technology Strategies Middle East (TSME). He offers 19 years of experience in the technology industry and management consulting. Mr. Dihmes has been building a set of comprehensive understanding of many vital areas including Organizational Development, Human Resources Management, Process Improvement & Business Process Management (Modeling & Optimization), as well as Strategy and Quality Management & Sciences. He played a decisive role in multiple projects with top-tier clients in the public and private sectors specifically within the GCC and MENA regions. He is an extremely skilled and focused professional who strives to achieve the best outcome, and who encourages his team to always thrive and reach for excellence, his determination and growing capabilities were key to many accomplishments and commendable successes.
