As I mentioned in a previous post, the abbreviation BPM stands for Business Process Management. So I guess my title is a little confusing, if you expand it, it says Business Process Management Business Management Process. Confused now? This topic is something that I am interested in, I do not know everyone about it, but I have been gathering lots of information and resources on the topic, as well as involved from the IT point of view from the business that I am in. Lets start with a little history on the subject.
History of Business Process Management ( BPM )
Business Process Management is basically a management style or approach that promotes business effectiveness and efficiency. But it was not always like this. In the early 1900's as management styles, theories and ideas started to flow and be developed among different industries, they were basic management ideas. By the mid 1900's, people started to find that leadership and management were directly related and motivation of workers helped a company thrive. That further developed into organizational development, were not only were the people, but the entire organization was viewed. Different management styles evolved over time, from performance based, and other management styles, none really took on the role of integrating all aspects of the company or enterprise. My about 2000, the Business Process Management evolved from early work flow solutions several years earlier. People discovered that not only can you map and show the flow of work, but also every other business process. The BPM focus became enveloping of all aspects, such as human interaction, system interaction, process flow , input, output and then tying them all together. This was a revolutionary concept and very few people understood it. Now, many years later we are seeing a huge increase , almost explosive increase in business and companies looking for and using these theories and tools to help improve their business.
Early modeling was based mostly on the business, or enterprise alone, known as enterprise modeling... Guess what, it did not go far, it was only a piece of the puzzle. These models were nice on paper, but did not work in practice. One of the big reasons is that it was a static model that took far too long to develop and by the time they were "ready to implement" , the entire business or enterprise had changed. The enterprise models were built and architected to integrate system and improve cross-function processes across the business, however, all the data was static and did not evolve as the business did. In the end, it never does work, something has to give and process tend to be re-written to follow the business as it grows and changes. This is where the business process management tools come into play and where you will need to develop or find your business process solution.
Today, we have business process management, not enterprise modeling. Not to be confused with business process modeling. Although that term is still applicable in today's market, it is not what I am discussing here. Business process modeling is basically a process that is used to review, improve and implement more efficient process of an existing business. This is used as part of the process management suite. The term business process management is more a system and all-covering system. This system is the management of the processes, people, tools, services and more. The management system needs to be able to adapt to the on-going changes to a business or market. The processes themselves will change or be replaced as part of this evolution, but it is still the management system that keeps it all together. This management of change is really what you doing. So , from an early view of management as being just the people, we now are into a reality where everyone and everything is managed together as part of a system. A change in one part of the system can affect the rest and that is there the need for a business management system comes in.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Business Process Management Tools
Business Process Management Tools
If you don't already know, Business Process Management is also referred to at BPM. I would like to cover what is part of the business process management tools you can use to help your business or enterprise processes. The role of the tools and resources you select should be geared towards the problem you are trying to solve. A business process by definition can be many different things, and often means something different to people from various business types and fields. There is usually a requirement to have a base model to use for your process and if you don't already have something like this, you will need an analysis and modeling tool to help you map out your existing processes in order to optimize them.
Who Offers Business Process Management Tools
Some of the major vendors of process management tools include Wipro, Microsoft Sharepoint, IDS Scheer, Appian, Oracle, Lombardi Software, Metastorm, Pegasystems, Savvion, Ascentn, Bluespring, Tibco Software, Ultimus and Cordys. They offer suites and packages for modeling, asset tracking and management, process management, process deployment tools, business rules and more. There are also plenty of business process management tool vendors that offer out of the box, industry specific, solutions. These out of the box management solutions allow any business or company to immediately get up and rolling with very little problem.
Purpose of the process management tools
The reason more and more businesses and enterprise companies are implement full process management suites is to improve operations, thereby boosting business performance and efficiency. This is translated to someone like you and me to be cost saving and profit increase. Something that all shareholders like to hear, hence the huge increase in the vendor market for full process management suites. A business process management tools brings work flow to the business with checks and balances that help the process improve itself and react to customer and client needs. It promotes efficiency while still being flexible. Most BPM suites integrate fully with technology as it's base of operations. The management tools bring all the related processes together into a structured service provided to the end user or client.
Other Business process management tool considerations
When you are a stage where you need to select the tool for the job you should involve your companies IT department as early on as possible. This is necessary in the early stages to balance both the business and technology factors. All the tools are technology based and require only single server or machines, to multiple servers, backups and configurations to implement. Small scale deployments can involve as little as a single server for the full suite ( Business Process Management engine, Application server and Database repository ). For large scale, enterprise class deployments you will likely need to have multiple servers and systems dedicated to each part of the process management tool suite that includes clustering, redundancy, load-balancing, fail-over, disaster recovery plans, secure backups and all the support staff around that. The size of the implementation is usually directly proportionate to the company size and number of staff, the more processes and users on the system, the bigger it will need to be.
If you don't already know, Business Process Management is also referred to at BPM. I would like to cover what is part of the business process management tools you can use to help your business or enterprise processes. The role of the tools and resources you select should be geared towards the problem you are trying to solve. A business process by definition can be many different things, and often means something different to people from various business types and fields. There is usually a requirement to have a base model to use for your process and if you don't already have something like this, you will need an analysis and modeling tool to help you map out your existing processes in order to optimize them.
Who Offers Business Process Management Tools
Some of the major vendors of process management tools include Wipro, Microsoft Sharepoint, IDS Scheer, Appian, Oracle, Lombardi Software, Metastorm, Pegasystems, Savvion, Ascentn, Bluespring, Tibco Software, Ultimus and Cordys. They offer suites and packages for modeling, asset tracking and management, process management, process deployment tools, business rules and more. There are also plenty of business process management tool vendors that offer out of the box, industry specific, solutions. These out of the box management solutions allow any business or company to immediately get up and rolling with very little problem.
Purpose of the process management tools
The reason more and more businesses and enterprise companies are implement full process management suites is to improve operations, thereby boosting business performance and efficiency. This is translated to someone like you and me to be cost saving and profit increase. Something that all shareholders like to hear, hence the huge increase in the vendor market for full process management suites. A business process management tools brings work flow to the business with checks and balances that help the process improve itself and react to customer and client needs. It promotes efficiency while still being flexible. Most BPM suites integrate fully with technology as it's base of operations. The management tools bring all the related processes together into a structured service provided to the end user or client.
Other Business process management tool considerations
When you are a stage where you need to select the tool for the job you should involve your companies IT department as early on as possible. This is necessary in the early stages to balance both the business and technology factors. All the tools are technology based and require only single server or machines, to multiple servers, backups and configurations to implement. Small scale deployments can involve as little as a single server for the full suite ( Business Process Management engine, Application server and Database repository ). For large scale, enterprise class deployments you will likely need to have multiple servers and systems dedicated to each part of the process management tool suite that includes clustering, redundancy, load-balancing, fail-over, disaster recovery plans, secure backups and all the support staff around that. The size of the implementation is usually directly proportionate to the company size and number of staff, the more processes and users on the system, the bigger it will need to be.
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