What are Business Process Solutions?

- Business Process Management (BPM)
- Business Process Solutions
- Business Process Solutions in Action
- Benefits of Business Process Solutions
- Workflowsoft
Business is a complicated world, and to be successful in it requires a wide range of skills and expertise. Given the fast-moving business landscape we now find ourselves in, this statement has never been more accurate. Companies now also require greater agility to survive in the constantly evolving environments they operate in.
Utilising business process solutions offers dynamic strategies that cut through the chaos of running a company and overcome any challenge that presents itself.
Managing every part of a business at the same time would overwhelm even the most advanced companies out there. So instead, it is beneficial to break down business operations and practices into manageable chunks or steps that achieve specific goals. These steps are what we call business processes.
Systematically breaking down goals into business processes helps streamline activities and the resources available. Each business process requires clearly defined inputs and outcomes. Each task within a business process gets assigned to specific employees, providing them with a clear understanding of their role. This helps to improve productivity, communication, and accountability.
Business Process Management (BPM)
BPM is a method of looking at, controlling, and overseeing each of these processes present within an organisation. Think of it as creating the roadmap for a business that goes right from the initial idea to the delivery of the final product. Of course, each process along the way helps you get there but using BPM; you see the whole map to make sure you don’t get lost.
With BPM, you take a step back, and self analyse how your company operates. It covers:
- Identifying
- Studying
- Changing
- Monitoring
Ensuring an organisations business processes are effective and efficient while also finding areas for improvement.
Unlike project management, which focuses on one-off work, BPM is concerned with the ongoing, repeat processes present within a business.
For most companies, this is a considerable task. Each department within a company can contain a significant number of core business processes that require management. But when implemented correctly, the benefits are substantial.
For example, a study by Gartner surveyed 150 companies that underwent BPM implementation. They found a staggering 70% increase in success rate (95% up from 25%) compared to typical IT and ERP projects. In addition, 80% of the correspondents felt BPM gave them a competitive advantage.
Business Process Solutions
A business process solution is a specific strategy implemented by a company to improve organisational efficiency and streamline operations. Business process solutions are the key to success using BPM.
Every business is different. They have different operating models, corporate cultures, and organisational priorities. If there were business process solutions that worked for every company, they would all operate in the exact same way.
But, what works for one business does not automatically translate to another. This is important to keep in mind when looking at platforms that offer help with business process solutions. Companies must ensure they are getting a bespoke solution tailored to their operating model and goals.
Business Process Solutions in Action
We’ve discussed business process solutions and management, but what does it actually look like in practice?
Unsurprisingly in the modern world, solving problems or improving processes within a business often means the integration of technology to simplify, automate, manage and track procedures. The seamless integration of technology with business processes has the potential for tremendous advantages in team management, productivity, and much more.
Almost every organisation currently has tasks performed manually that could potentially be improved via technology. Determining tasks and processes that are good fits for automation goes a long way to helping improve a companies efficiency and eliminate human error.
Here are some specific examples of business process solutions in action.
Human Resources (HR)
HR is a vital department dealing with everything employee related including:
- Recruitment
- Employment Policies
- Training
They also often act as a link between employees and management and help develop long term strategies to ensure growth and employee development.
Each of these areas can be broken up into numerous core business processes for HR staff to perform. With business process solutions, software can streamline and automate a significant number of these processes, including:
- Notifications and Reminders – automation ensures no task gets overlooked. HR departments have to juggle lots of responsibilities and duties. Using software to automate the dispersal of information can improve the everyday communication of a company.
- Recruitment – technology can integrate into almost every stage of recruitment. From keeping track of where your job is advertised to storing applicants information and documentation. With business process solutions the recruitment process is broken down into a series of streamline tasks that help you to find the perfect candidate.
These are just a couple of examples of business process solutions within HR, but there are much more. What HR process in your company needs a rethink?
Marketing
Getting new customers/clients keeps you in business, and this largely depends on your marketing efforts. Marketing is a huge sector focused on increasing sales and analysing the market to find new business opportunities.
Areas of marketing that can integrate business process solutions include:
- Identifying and Researching Your Target Audience – this requires considerable work to break down your market segments, find and understand the people you want to reach and the best strategy for achieving it. There are many ways companies can go about this, but with technology you can better manage this workload and get the whole department working smoothly.
- Documenting Marketing Processes – it is essential to document all the processes that lead to a successful marketing strategy. With a solid documentation process, you can learn to be more adaptable and improve your marketing projects’ collaboration and consistency.
Administration
Business involves bringing together what can often seem like a disparate group of people to work towards a common goal. This requires considerable administration to ensure all stakeholders are informed and remain on the same page.
Many issues that arise in business are due to poor administration and miscommunication. Business process solutions for administration can completely revamp how your company operates to ensure nothing gets overlooked.
Whether it is implementing
- a digital platform for task management and workflow management
- creating a shared calendar to inform everyone of workloads and deadlines,
- transforming how you evaluate and report individual or company-wide performance
- or a new strategy for spending approval.
There are many new business process solutions available that can improve your company’s administration.
Benefits of Business Process Solutions
• Task Distribution
Business process solutions offer a clear delegation of every task required to meet the goal of a process. Cloud storage allows simple access to task histories for each employee, crucial related documentation, search using filters, and notifications for new tasks and upcoming deadlines.
Technology simplifies task distribution, controlling a teams workload, identifying where bottlenecks occur, and finding areas for workflow improvement. In addition, with businesses often spread across different time zones, business process solutions can help keep everyone still working together even when separated.
• Flexibility
Unfortunately, in business, even the best and most thorough plans meet unexpected issues. With advanced business process solutions, your company can quickly identify, assess, and pivot to new strategies. Determining the core processes affected by the problem allows businesses to find new solutions while maintaining their goal. Being flexible is crucial given the fast pace of the modern business landscape.
• Communication
Breaking down operating models into specific processes lays out the critical communication channels required to ensure everything runs smoothly. Which processes feed into each other? And what is the best communication structure between the associated departments?
Business process solutions help answer these critical questions.
• Documentation Control/Access
Each process produces documentation that has to be carefully stored for future use. Business process solutions simplify this process, giving companies greater control over their documentation and who gets access.
• Productivity
All these benefits of business process solutions add up to a more productive and efficient workforce and, therefore, company. Breaking down business operating models into a series of clear and streamlined processes helps eliminate waste in every part of an organisation, getting more done with less and saving money.
Workflowsoft
Workflowsoft is a system dedicated to delivering the best business process management available. We offer simple but powerful automation ready to be integrated into your company.
Create processes specific to your business in our intuitive visual editor, break them down into individual tasks, then assign them to your workforce with deadlines. Make every process transparent and clear to all stakeholders to simplify communication and expectations.
Get in touch today and try it for free for 14 days here. Start with just one business process, see the benefits and ramp up to integrate more and more of your business into a single platform.