Business Process Modelling
Gartner, Inc. is a US IT research and advisory firm providing technology related insight. They have become a reference in the industry. Gartner defines Business process management (BPM) as "the discipline of managing processes (rather than tasks) as the means for improving business performance outcomes and operational agility. Processes span organizational boundaries, linking together people, information flows, systems and other assets to create and deliver value to customers and constituents." (Wikipedia). We all can check the same sources online, but what is it really BPM? And what is it really useful for?
BPM is usually known as Business Process Management, but within that, you do the Modelling part, sometimes called re-engineering business processes. Traditionally, this is something coming from the world of Business Analysis since the 1990s, but lately not only analysts are using these techniques.
It becomes indispensable, if you work in the same organization through the years, to know how to do a bit of BPM in your department or area of work. Furthermore, it has become an essential part of IT consulting, why? Because software applications affect business process, and the other way around. And nowadays, all companies of all industries use software to automatize most of their business processes. The most advanced ones have their own BPM software (being Oracle and IBM the best ones of the market right now) which allow to leverage BPM automatically and regularly, whether being human-centric or document-centric BPM software.
In Northern Europe, USA and Canada, most companies, even the small ones, have acquired software tools and optimized their business process in relation to the software in use. However, and except the huge multinationals, in the rest of the world, organizations still don't work this way. Most have their traditional business process in place, and when they install and integrate a new software application, is to cover a specific process, and they do not remodel their business process along with it.
Using BPM when doing IT consultancy is absolutely necessary. This way, your consultant will first be able to deliver a good and accurate analysis of your business process and software applications and hardware infrastructure. This is the only way a consultant will have all the information to suggest what is improvable and from which point of view. In the coming weeks, we will give further insight to BPM, including its life-cycle and the latest and most innovative approaches. In the meantime, do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to receive more information about BPM strategies to be applicable in your company/industry. Or are you using BPM already? Let us know your comments and experiences about it!
