Information Architects Associates

BPM refers to activities performed by businesses to improve their processes as described above. BPM deals not just with one-off changes to the organization, but has long-term consequences to the enterprise. For years now organizations have been leveraging BPM and the previous methodology of business process re-engineering (BPR) for several purposes including:

• Developing standard operating procedures, policies, and consistent processes across the organization
• Realigning roles and responsibilities to improve efficiency
• Redistributing workload throughout the organization
• Enhancing company-wide communication and collaboration
• Reducing transaction/workflow processing time and costs
• Automating process steps where possible and practical

Business Process Management Systems(BPMS): Automation tools like business process management systems (BPMS) assist in the execution of these redefined business processes so that managers and business analysts (not necessarily in IT) can create workflows, analyze and change business processes in real time. The right BPMS solution will increase business agility through enabling continuous improvement to process models while maintaining process compliance with no IT involvement or operational down time.

Traditional management consulting firms typically approach BPM without the systems background needed to create a true enterprise solution. Done purely as a “people only” exercise the company may not be able to fully capitalize on their IT assets or leverage new open standards to build a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Traditional software development companies and tool providers focus on systems implementation without the business process understanding.

The integration of BPR, BPM, and workflow automation is IA’s signature service. Our consultants use a collaborative approach that incorporates stakeholders from business units, IT, administrative and operations disciplines, and senior management to focus the BPM process on reaching a unified, realistic, and achievable business process specification that defines how the company will do business, and then establishes a technology plan on how to implement the BPMS solution for greatest overall impact.

Either as part of a technology assessment, software development or workflow redesign effort, IA consultants can help lead your BPM/BPMS effort to maximize efficiency and assist in developing the optimal business process workflow for your organization.

Download the Thinking Strategically with Business Process Management (BPM) white paper to learn more about how IA and its partner Ascentn can help you build a better and more agile enterprise.