Modern BPM: 10 New-Generation Applications

When data center managers need to apply software updates or patches across a large number of servers, the order in which these are applied is critical to avoid costly downtime. Business process management can be used to choreograph this delicate dance in which the order of operations is important. Another perk of using BPM for this task is that it provides a detailed trail of information, which comes in handy in case the process needs to be audited for compliance reasons.

Business process management can help build HR-specific applications that can help an HR director with recruitment and procurement. For example, with a BPM-powered application, an HR director can automatically route someone’s resume to the appropriate hiring manager, which can itself kick off other processes required to get someone fully on board—such as requests for references, salary checks with a former employer and scheduling interviews.

BPM can be a powerful tool to help enterprises save time and money when figuring out the logistics of how to transport goods from one place to another. For example, BPM is currently helping a national railroad provision cars for a freight line that carries critical supplies to manufacturers. Hundreds of different parameters and configurations are possible; this makes the work a headache if done manually. With BPM, freight-line engineers can quickly get the best, most efficient makeup of cars to get goods delivered quickly.

BPM also excels in improving paper-based processes critical to a business’ success. Such is the case with banks that need an efficient process to manage the approval of loans, the bread-and-butter of the business. BPM has been shown to decrease the time it might take for a bank to approve a loan from weeks to a mere couple of hours. This is done through BPM’s capability of interfacing with outside data and human resources to bridge the gap between crucial steps in the overall process, thus making it faster.

The pay for university professors conducting research is actually based on a complicated formula that allots different amounts of money from different pools based on salary and hours billed for doing research. Done manually, this grant-invoicing process can become a nightmare. BPM shines in making tedious manual processes infinitely more efficient.

The most common response by financially strapped governments is to consolidate services. They think that by reducing the head count of their workforce, they can benefit from increased savings. This is counter-intuitive, however, since many of the service requests from the general populace never decrease, resulting in more work for fewer people. For example, the registration, review and approval of building permits can be made more efficient through BPM.

If you’ve received the latest catalog from L.L. Bean, you’ll appreciate the amount of work that companies undertake to bring this all together. There are many departments involved—not to mention different business functions, such as marketing and design. Keeping track of all the moving parts that help make a comprehensive catalog possible can be done efficiently with BPM. Managers can have an overall assessment of the exact state of a catalog at any moment in time, making the task of delegating and following up easier.

As if taking over another business wasn’t complicated enough, the actual merger of disparate IT systems can be a huge challenge to those who are unprepared. Workers rely increasingly on IT systems to successfully do their jobs. If email goes down, they can be heavily affected. BPM can help organize and automate the order of operations when merging two companies together to avoid costly downtime. It can also help keep a detailed log of the merger if the company needs to reference it in the future.

BPM has been successfully used in lean manufacturing. Airplane manufacturers, for example, tend to run efficient manufacturing processes since most airplanes are custom orders and they can’t afford to have expensive overhead lying around their assembly plants. BPM can help managers plan when necessary parts should arrive to make the building process highly efficient. This is often too complicated to be done manually. Imagine keeping track of the hundreds of thousands of parts needed to construct an airplane.

The validation and acceptance of new investment firms to trade on a stock exchange can be complex. There are technology connections and certifications that need to met, as well as regulatory requirements. Using BPM, one leading stock exchange is using BPM to make the start-up process more transparent and streamlined. In the end, it’s all about moving capital quickly.