Business In The Future Business Process Management

Business Process Management (BPM) is a set of activities performed by organizations to improve or streamline their business processes. Since software tools are usually used to aid these activities, these software tools are referred to as Business Process Management Systems.

- Business Process Management Systems

Business Process Management has been in place for some time now. Due to the introduction of software tools, however, there has been renewed interest in the body of knowledge pertaining to BPM. These software tools make design and implementation of Business Process Management easier, cheaper, and more efficient. There are three categories of Business Process Mmanagement activities - design, execution and monitoring.

1. Design

Designing BPM involves capturing the existing processes in a business environment. These processes must be modeled in a way that they can be simulated and tested. Modeling these processes usually involves graphical representation methods that document the processes and stores this data in repositories.

2. Execution

Traditionally, to implement automation in a business organization, developers would have to be contracted to develop applications that automate certain processes. Unfortunately, the scope of these projects was often too narrow. The result of which is that the automation is not well integrated into the business environment since the automation only deals with a particular department or function. BPMS champions a method that pushes for the development of applications that encompass the entire business process. It aims to fully automate the business environment only stopping to query the user when human intervention is absoultely necessary.

3. Process monitoring

Process monitoring involves observing and taking note of the performance of the individual processes so that evaluation and intervention become more straightforward for the business organization. From the information gleaned from here, the business organization's leaders can make further decisions on the direction the business process takes. The data from this activity can be used to generate different kinds of statistics that are necessary when having to make critical decisions. Business Process Management is an iterative process.

4. The Future

Although BPM strives to automate the mechanical processes of a business, there has been interest in developing BPMs that move into the territory of human judgment. Some of the processes involved in a business environment are not included in the automation because some sort of human decision is needed. With the growing complexity of information systems - especially studies into decision support systems and artificial intelligence - some human decision-making processes can actually be automated. This is the future goal of BPM, to further automate previously unautomatable processes.

- The Business Process Management Ideals

In 1920, Frederick Taylor outlined three waves of business ideals in managing processes. These waves represented the ways of thinking business process engineers had.

Wave 1. Processes Set In Stone

They are secured in business policy manuals. The manual is the basis of the process, and the organization has to abide by it.

Wave 2. Processes Changed Once In A While

Using a one-time activity, changes can be made. This means that the business would have to build their processes around a fixed system since change can only come once in a while, and at a great cost.

Wave 3. Processes On-The-Fly

The primary consideration in such systems is flexibility to change. Businesses that adhere to this goal create business environments that can adapt to its changing needs. This setup also allows the business to constantly fine tune its operations. This wave is not about business-process reengineering. It is about maintaining an environment that is constantly on its toes, ready to adapt to the circumstance, and maximize its strengths while downplaying its weaknesses.

Change is the only constant, they say. In this modern day and age, this could not be truer. The survival of a business could very well rely on its ability to constantly tweak its processes according to the whims of change. With the growing body of knowledge concerning Business Process Management, the path towards a sustainable market advantage based on a streamlined, flexible business organization can only get clearer.

What Is Business Process Integration

Business Process Integration brings about connectivity between different technology resources so that information transfer is enhanced. It is not uncommon for different technology system, working independently to need common information for processing. BPI seeks to connect such system so that information is available as and when required for processing and this subsequently helps to cut down maintenance costs and enhances business efficiency.

Statistics show that an organization that does not implement Business Process Integration will run up more costs than otherwise. Let's take a simple example on this. The marketing department gains a revenue of $5,000,000. However, accounts show only 3,000,000 as what has been received. This difference is because of expenses that were not reported to the marketing department.

Implementing Business Process Integration can save a business time and money. Its removes the problems that are caused by data duplication and this in turn increases work efficiency. Time is spent in carrying out important business activities rather than in inappropriate duplicate recording. Various departments share key data instantly and hence the problem of lack of communication is avoided. Work is also sped up. For example, in an integrated system, a customer's address can be quickly retrieved and put into an email for the purpose of sending a newsletter or an advertisement. The sender does not have to spend time to find the address as the search process can take place in a matter of seconds, while the ready made newsletters template can be used in a matter of minutes to insert necessary information. It can be sent to customers individually or a mail can be sent to all customers to alert them on latest product details and new offers.

There are two ways by which Business Process Integration can be implemented and these are Horizontal Business Process Integration and Vertical Business Procedure Integration. Horizontal Business Process Integration connects core and enabling processes so that there is a seamless flow of information between various activities that depend on each other. Vertical Business Procedure Integration connects various business activities with company strategies so that activities attain the targets that have been set for them, as part of the overall business plan.

Today, more and more companies are into Business Procedure Integration because of the high volume of operations that have to be carried out, which demands closer integration of information flow between partners, suppliers and customer related processes. Most large-scale organizations have implemented packages such as SCM, CRM, and ERP and so on to achieve Business Process Integration.

Sigma Training to Improve Both People and Business Processes

By improving both people and business processes, Six Sigma training can improve the way a company is run and the overall bottom line of the company. In order to improve the processes in your business, you will not only need to be able to identify and correct problems, but you will also need to understand that patterns that lead to wasteful behavior. The correcting of the patterns and processes is what makes Six Sigma training so powerful.

Changing the patterns of thought within the members of your team is often necessary to facilitate Six Sigma methodologies on all levels. The people who comprise your business team need to understand what personal patterns of their own might be leading to wastefulness in business processes around the company. Six Sigma training can be effective in helping people to understand their own personal patterns and is also effective in helping people learn their exact roles and duties within the company. When people have a precise understanding of their personal place on a business team and what their exact duties are in that place, you will find that your business processes will be run more efficiently. Business owners and managers as well as lower level employees will have a better understanding of their role in the company with Six Sigma training. Business owners and managers especially need to have an understanding of their exact roles, duties and positions within a company, as they have more influence on how the company is run.

If you think you have an issue with the people and business processes that occur within your company, now may be the time to invest in Six Sigma Training. It will not take long for you to see the improvements within the business processes of your company with Six Sigma training applied. After your team is Certified, you should see an improvement in the way your employees interact with one another and how they handle their own work on a daily basis. This will lead to great improvements in your business processes, and ultimately, your bottom line.

Effective Business Process Improvement Solutions

When looking at business process improvement solutions, I often notice these solutions talk about their "optimization capabilities." However very few talk about what is really required in order to optimize the work flow of a business.

Some of these functions are actually very simple. By implementing a change like using digital documents instead of paper, a business can improve a number of processes at the same time. For example, the benefits of digital documentation over paper is they do not take up office space, are easier to keep track of, keep secure, deliver, and look for when one is in a hurry.

Other solutions for businesses involve automation. By allowing machines to take care of menial tasks, humans are left to focus on issues that are more important. In the office the use of automation is in softwares. By encouraging employees to think about what processes could be automated with software, the workplace will naturally become more efficient. Other types of software that are used are programs that monitor and analyze processes.

By improving business processes, the collaborative efforts and happiness of the employees will also be improved. This is because multiple users can work on the same project or documents from their own computers. This will reduce the time spent on one particular project, improve productivity, and inspire creative flow.

One action businesses can take to improve their work process is by creating a web knowledge base. By doing this managers will save time explaining processes to employees. Employees can simply look up this information themselves at any time.

There are many simple and effective ways to make life at work simpler. These can be achieved with some software and a little creative thinking.

Business Process Re-Engineering Tips

You've been in business long enough to know how critical making quick, insightful decisions can create successes for your business. You've also been in business long enough to realize how vital accurate data analysis and reporting is and the impact it has on making those key decisions. However, if you're still using spreadsheets and standalone data sources to develop your business strategies, not only are you risking missing critical data and being overwhelmed with the amount of data you're having to manually deal with, but you're wasting time, money and resources that could lead you to failure, instead of success.

Here are 5 ways you can go through a business process re-engineering, develop a software project plan and make your business not only more successful but have the decision making process a lot easier and faster at the same time.

Step 1: Simplify your data world. All too often, businesses windup using several different software packages to do essentially the same thing. The sales department will be using one software package, the shipping/receiving department using others, the support department using yet another and accounts payable/receivable yet another. All of these data sources are working from essentially the same customer and vendor lists so finding packages that can be used by multiple departments will help reduce data bloat.

Step 2: Integrate, integrate, integrate. Get as much of your software working from the same databases as possible. Also, finding reporting packages that will pull data from the separate databases will smooth the dataflow process. The key to making great decisions is in properly mining the available data.

Eliminating redundancies by integration will enable you to start simplifying not only your IT business processes but your decision making process as well.

Step 3: Upgrade. Upgrade servers, upgrade software packages, upgrade user PC's. Get as current as possible so the data flow speed will be at its maximum and you will enjoy all the benefits of new features and the latest security. Using responsible IT process management, make sure your systems and your software are as current as possible.

Step 4: Maximize report integration: Your main concern is the bottom line. It doesn't matter if that is the bottom line in the sales department, research and development, shipping and receiving or overhead, your business decisions are based off of those bottom line numbers. If you still have staff members distilling that information from spreadsheets, you're wasting time, staff resources and money. With today's software technologies and reporting packages, all of that information can be distilled, virtually at the click of a mouse, giving you instant snapshots of those bottom line numbers.

Step 5: Look ahead. If all you focus on today is today, then you're already behind. Success in today's competitive environments means looking for what's next. You can use data analysis of your past and current numbers as one factor of your decision making process but the key to the future is correct anticipation of what's trending, what's new and what will happen. That brings even more data into your decision making picture and having a tight, cohesive system to give you what is going on now and to show you possible futures will be what leads to your success.

Your business is all about data, whether it be people data, product data, sales data or trending data, you have to have ways to distil that data cloud into numbers you can make decisions with. Re-engineering your business processes by reducing redundancies, integrating data, speeding up your systems, using a reporting system that pulls from all your data sources and looking toward the future, your decision making will be much faster and more accurate. This means your business is more successful.

A Stock Market Education From the Guys Who Predicted the Crash

If you want a stock market education, follow the people who predicted the credit crunch. Believe it or not, there were a lot of people who saw the problems build and tried to bring attention to it. The problem was that no one in authority would listen. They waved all comers away with standard "It's fine" rhetoric. How can we have in the UK a tripartite financial regulator and not see an issue as huge as this before it surfaces? No doubt, there will be many people who will pay for the oversight once everything settles down and the blame game and the lawsuits start in earnest.

Let's start at the very top. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (he could use a stock market education) for the period leading up to the credit crisis - please take a bow Mr Gordon Brown. He labelled his own time as the chancellor as "the age of irresponsibility". How those words must be haunting him now. Not only did he not oversee the banking system effectively, as the huge credit binge got underway, but neither did the FSA, his flagship regulator, or the Bank of England, who he stripped of many powers as soon as he got into Number 11.

They literally sat there are the housing bubble grew to sizes that were both unprecedented and unsustainable. They oversaw explosive growth which led to record levels of personal debt. They stood by as the banking system went on a derivatives binge that would is bringing it to its knees...and yet they said nothing. Why?

There is no answer to this, but you could argue that there was coordinated ignorance or wilful participation. Only months before the crisis began, the powers that be told us that the economy was in great shape and GDP growth was expected to continue clipping along at a decent pace. How could the people who led us in our economic destiny get something so fundamental so wrong?

The answer is simple. Either they are all incompetent to the extent that they should all be fired and personally immediately for negligence, or they are all lying to us. Either way...they have to go or get a stock market education.