Top Business Process Management Trends

Trend #2: BPM will focus on users experience and operational excellence simultaneously.

People have extremely high expectations for how websites and mobile apps they use cater to their preferences and whims. And they have a low tolerance for delays and repeated questions about basic customer information. In the recent past, BPM practitioners have tried to awaken interest, but the BPM world has not focused on customer experience. Today that is changing because companies focused on BPM for operational processes can ill afford to ignore the user’s experiences. Customer experience and operational excellence must reign together to make digital transformation really a transformation. Without a cross-enterprise focus, organizations won’t be able to deliver appropriate end-to-end-processes. Without this their business won’t transform, no matter how good they make internal operations work.

Trend #3: Enterprises will streamline inefficient, duplicated processes and move them to shared services.

Many companies suffer from duplicated and redundant processes that operate in pockets throughout the enterprise. Duplicated costs and deviations from best practice can become a strategic issue with senior executives while trying to cover process standardization and enterprise-wide shared services deployment. The challenge with duplicated processes is a government and private-sector issue. Companies often suffer from this problem, particularly if the firm has a worldwide reach or grew through acquisition. The companies first rebuilt their systems for greater efficiency, transparency, and scalability. Then they standardized these processes recognizing the potential to streamline and consolidate. Combining similar business processes and shifting the new, streamlined process to a centralized shared service will mandate greater cost savings and better compliance for the organizations.

Trend #4: BPM implementations will progressively run by Data.

Historically, BPM has focused on processing paper and unstructured digital files that are scattered throughout the organization. The reason? A high volume of incoming documents and internal dependence on e-mail and manually routing office documents still encumbers many businesses. BPM practitioners have learned that BPM can also tackle redundant data, issues with poor data integrity, and limited data integration. Two years ago, a BPM Excellence Awards winners named data integration as a key benefit from business process management. Companies are now picking up on that same trend. Step forward, BPM implementations will focus on data to unstructured content by integrating with master data management systems, data integration tools, predictive analytics, and product information management systems. Data integration will also be an essential driver in activities that replace redundancy through process and technology standardization for shared services.

Trend #5: Organizational change management as a strategic best practice for getting employee buy-in.   

Enterprises that are dealing with end-to-end business processes quickly discover the need to support both customers and employees with the BPM system. Tackling the digital transformation of end-to-end processes means that the overall initiative must concentrate on operational excellence in addition to customer experience and reverse. Otherwise, the BPM effort will not deliver expected results. Organizational change management has proven to be the best approach for building teamwork across diverse teams. All BPM experts identified organizational change management as a strategic best practice for getting employee buy-in.