Business process management (BPM) is a discipline that organisations use to optimise their processes, become more efficient and deliver a better customer experience.
In this guide, you’ll learn the benefits of business process management, the key steps of the BPM lifecycle, and some best practices for getting started.
What is business process management (BPM)?
Business process management (BPM) is a structured approach to process improvement to make business operations more efficient. Your business processes are strings of tasks and activities that work together to achieve a specific goal. Business processes have specific start and end points and are generally repeatable, flexible and measurable.
Why is business process management important?
Business process management is important because it helps streamline workflows, cut costs and boost efficiency. It lets you coordinate people, systems and information to enhance your operations and grow your business. BPM can also accelerate digital transformation by helping you optimise and automate your processes.
Types of business process management
There are three types of business process management, each focusing on different processes. These are:
Integration-centric BPM
Integration-centric BPM focuses on streamlining business processes that don’t involve much human input. The goal is system integration – connecting your enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to your customer relationship management (CRM), for example. This lets you view all your key information on one dashboard, making it easier to find opportunities for business process improvement.
Tip: Use an integrated ERP system like MYOB Acumatica. It has your business-critical functionality already built into the software: financial management, payroll management, inventory distribution, project accounting and more.
You can also add seamless integrations from hundreds of pre-vetted apps. By implementing MYOB Acumatica, you’ve already made huge progress towards integration-centric BPM. Plus, unlike many ERP systems, MYOB Acumatica has a CRM module – no need to integrate third-party software.
Human-centric BPM
Human-centric BPM focuses on optimising processes that require your team’s active participation. The aim is to balance automation with human input and decision-making. This approach emphasises user experience, ease of use and collaboration. It could involve installing applications with well-designed interfaces, alerts and notifications to guide people through tasks.
Tip: With MYOB Acumatica, you can automate tasks and activities, set notifications and reminders and collaborate securely online via its intuitive user interface.
Document-centric BPM
Document-centric BPM deals with managing specific documents, such as invoices, contracts or forms. These documents can include many tasks in their lifecycle, like creating, signing, verifying and storing. Document-centric BPM uses specialist tools to streamline these tasks and reduce manual workload.
Business process management lifecycle
The business process management lifecycle is made up of the following five steps:
Process design
Process design involves outlining the milestones and tasks in your business processes. You should use your existing process to identify the tasks involved and areas for improvement.
Process modelling
Process modelling involves using flow charts and diagrams to visually represent your redesigned process. This helps team members understand, implement, monitor and optimise the new process. Your visual process model should also demonstrate how the redesigned process will operate in different situations.
Execute testing and roll-out process
Test and roll out the new business process in stages. Start with a small group of testers to get feedback and fine-tune the process before rolling it out to the wider business.
Monitor process
Measure and monitor the performance of the implemented process after rollout. Ensure you clearly define and track your key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how well the new process works.
Optimise and improve process efficiency
Identify areas for improvement and make those changes. Optimise and improve process efficiency by making any adjustments to better meet your KPIs. Process optimisation should be ongoing to prevent bottlenecks and improve output.
Benefits of business process management
The benefits of business process management include:
Improved efficiency
Improved efficiency is a major benefit of BPM, since it focuses on streamlining processes and workflows.
Automated processes
BPM automates processes where possible to save time, reduce human error and increase data accuracy.
Tip: Use MYOB Acumatica to support workflow automation for:
Repetitive accounting tasks like reporting, invoicing, payments and tax management
Following up on warm leads and scheduling discovery calls
Employee management tasks like leave approvals, rostering and timesheets.
Project management notifications and alerts
Inventory management, demand forecasting and reordering
Better customer experiences
BPM leads to better customer experiences by automating repetitive tasks in the customer lifecycle. These can include sending welcome and follow-up emails or updating CRM records, for example. This lets your team focus on what matters most to your clients and improves customer experience management. You may be able to quickly address pain points, improve satisfaction and boost client retention.
Cost savings
Cost savings are a significant benefit of using BPM in your business. Through business process automation, you reduce the time spent on manual tasks. This gives you more time for revenue-generating activities like sales and marketing. BPM can also help you see where you may be able to cut operating costs, leading to increased profit margins.
Business process management best practices
Organisations should apply the following best practices to help their BPM initiatives succeed:
Monitor and measure process performance
Monitor and measure process performance by defining clear KPIs. This helps you track progress, ensure changes are effective and confirm your processes stay efficient and aligned with your business goals.
Define goals, objectives and project scope
Define your goals, objectives and project scope clearly and communicate these to stakeholders to ensure everyone’s on the same page. This prevents confusion and helps keep your BPM approach on track and aligned with your business objectives.
Involve stakeholders
Involve stakeholders early to ensure you’re designing and modifying your business processes in line with their needs. It’s good practice to consider a range of perspectives – from managers and directors to entry-level employees who may have day-to-day experience with the process and valuable feedback to provide.
Adopt software and technology
Adopt software and technology to automate repetitive tasks and gain real-time insights that help you make smarter, data-driven business decisions.
Tip: MYOB Acumatica offers customisable role-based dashboards and reports. Team members can access the data they need to identify any hold-ups and opportunities for process improvement.
Use cases and examples of business process management
There are many use cases for BMP. For example, you can use BMP to:
Streamline HR processes
Streamline HR processes to simplify managing employee onboarding, payroll, annual leave and more.
Tip: MYOB Acumatica has a comprehensive People capability with features including payroll, employee and workforce management, timesheet, expense management and employee onboarding.
Automate customer service
Automate customer service using tools like chatbots to quickly and efficiently handle high volumes of customer queries and service requests.
Tip: Use the CRM feature in MYOB Acumatica to track interactions across multiple channels. With your team in sync across the sales cycle, they can collaborate on prospecting, lead nurturing and closing deals.
Automate order fulfilment
Automate order fulfilment to reduce the time, effort and risk of manually managing orders, inventory and shipping.
Tip: Use the inventory distribution feature in MYOB Acumatica to take control of your inventory, stock and warehouse management.
By automating your inventory and distribution processes, you’ll eliminate paperwork and save time and money. Automation also helps ensure your processes are reliable, accurate and will deliver for your customers.
Invoice processing
Streamline invoice processing by automating tasks like approving invoices, processing payments and filing supplier invoices in your system.
Tip: Use the financial management feature in MYOB Acumatica to automate critical finance processes, such as invoicing and billing, reporting, consolidation and tax management.
By standardising and automating these processes, you avoid common data entry and record-keeping mistakes that can lead to cash flow problems or compliance headaches.
IT service management
IT service management (ITSM) is a structured approach to enhancing IT processes. ITSM analyses, models and continuously improves the efficiency and value of the IT process.
Business process management FAQs
What does a business process manager do?
A business process manager evaluates and improves processes to align with strategic business goals. This may involve enhancing order processing, optimising supply chain management and improving procurement processes. A business process manager collaborates with all business departments to refine processes and boost performance and profitability.
What technologies are involved in business process management?
The technologies involved in business process management can be grouped into three categories:
Process mining technologies analyse your business data to find opportunities to improve your current business processes.
Process design technologies focus on creating and modifying your business processes.
Process performance tools track and optimise the efficiency of your business processes against your KPIs.
What is business process management software?
Business process management software (BPMS) helps you automate and enhance your business processes. You can use it to design, model, test, monitor and improve your processes.
Business process management software often offers features like interactive dashboards, workflow templates and A/B testing.
Work smarter, not harder
As a business grows and changes over time, its processes can become increasingly convoluted and inefficient. Business process management can help you redesign them to achieve your goals faster.
Having the right software will also help you streamline your processes and continuously measure their performance. With MYOB Acumatica, you can automate many of your back-office processes. You can also track KPIs via your customisable dashboard to measure performance and the impact of any changes.
Learn more about how MYOB Acumatica’s fully integrated cloud ERP could help your team spend less time on manual processes and more time growing your business. Talk to the experts and find out how MYOB Acumatica can work for you.
Disclaimer: Information provided in this article is of a general nature and does not consider your personal situation. It does not constitute legal, financial, or other professional advice and should not be relied upon as a statement of law, policy or advice. You should consider whether this information is appropriate to your needs and, if necessary, seek independent advice. This information is only accurate at the time of publication. Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained on this webpage, MYOB disclaims, to the extent permitted by law, all liability for the information contained on this webpage or any loss or damage suffered by any person directly or indirectly through relying on this information.