BPM, or Business Process Management, is developed using an adaptive management approach in order to facilitate and systematize the processes of the organization committed to the customer.
BPM is a set of best practices that allows organizations to design, model, analyze, improve, automate, and control their business processes. These processes are focused on customer satisfaction, whether internal or external. Internal customers include internal departments and employees. External customers include suppliers, clients, and partners, achieving results aligned with the organization's strategy.
BPM consists of five stages, each of which allows us to identify activities that generate value or do not generate value for the business, the customer, or the process. Each stage has key aspects that must be fulfilled in order to complete it successfully.
BPM stages
1 Discovery of the process
At this stage, the BPM methodology seeks to identify the process, understand its execution, the tools used, times, activities, and actors. We begin to discover the AS IS of the process, to understand its functioning and objective.
2 Process analysis
This is one of my favorite stages. in my opinion, this stage is our litmus test. It is here that we face one of the greatest challenges for those of us who love process transformation. It is here that we begin to identify the value of the process and its activities. We identify the activities that are generating value for the business, the customer, and the process, and we identify those that are not generating value so that we can remove them from this process, without losing sight of change management, of course. We cannot eliminate activities or formats from processes without first raising awareness among the team, without first communicating the benefits of creating digital processes, scalable processes, processes that have the least interaction with human resources. We must remove the taboo among those who execute the process that they will become unemployed. On the contrary, the time they used to spend on an activity that does not generate value can now be spent analyzing the behavior of the process and getting involved in data mining. Identify weaknesses and opportunities for process improvement.
3 Process redesign
At this stage, the methodology seeks to begin involving technological resources and tools to create scalable processes, processes that can be transformed from their simplest activity, processes that can be executed automatically and that allow us to monitor the logs of each of their activities, in order to make decisions based on their behavior. Redesigning processes involves the support of all areas involved, of all actors, reviewing whether it is necessary to consider developments that do not exceed the allocated budget, whether the necessary resources are available to execute the development, simulating the process, and identifying in advance whether the redesign proposal will generate value and improve customer satisfaction, whether internal or external. Let's not forget that BPM has this approach. Customer satisfaction, delivering quality products or services in a timely manner.
4. Implementation of the process
It is important to mention that all process management must be understood by senior management, as they are the ones who set the direction for what they expect as a business and who set the budget. Without senior management accompanied by a good strategy, it has not been possible to implement process management in organizations.
Once we have redesigned the process, it is time to take action, as we know from the famous PDCA cycle, and this is where monitoring and tracking the stabilization of the process comes in. Although this could be the responsibility of the main actor, it is our responsibility to ensure that we deliver stabilized processes, executable processes, processes that meet 97% of the acceptance criteria. Let's remember that before implementing a process, we must know what is expected of this new process in order to analyze its results.
At this stage, we begin to identify improvements, work on findings from process execution, findings that may arise from audits, non-compliance with indicators, customer dissatisfaction, among others. This stage allows us to have scalable processes. Process monitoring is carried out according to the stored data.
Over the last four years, the processing, storage, and reading of data stored in technological tools have been the main drivers of increased sales, increased consumption of new technological tools, the empowerment of some organizations, and the bankruptcy of others. We are in a competitive environment where we have digital, connected, and informed customers, new technologies, RPAS, BPMS, among others, new business models, digital, customer-centric, and taking advantage of the value of data.
Digital transformation is a strategic plan that involves cultural change, requires rethinking business models, transforming processes with the use of new technologies, focusing on the customer, delivering quality products on time, making data-driven decisions, with the aim of improving the customer experience and achieving exponential growth.
The digital transformation of processes requires not only technology, but also a change in culture and direction, a strategy geared toward achieving organizational growth and focused on meeting the quality and timeliness standards of our customers, our digital customers.