As TechTarget explains, business process management (BPM) isn’t any one thing. Rather, it applies to whatever systems and processes you put into place that automate and make your business more efficient. Moreover, it puts you in greater control and can create a more profitable workplace. If that still sounds a little confusing, don’t worry. Today, the Hart County Chamber of Commerce shares some tips and information to help business owners better understand BPM and its importance.
The Human Element
There are dozens of ways that BPM is beneficial to businesses. But perhaps the biggest is that it reduces human errors. According to the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, “oops” moments can take a significant toll on your bottom line. In fact, in the US and UK, businesses spend an average of $37 billion every year fixing employee mistakes.
One way to reduce human errors is to streamline advanced tasks, such as enterprise content management. A document management system can utilize the cloud to transform hardcopy papers into shareable digital formats. Try this free online PDF editor alongside your management system to allow employees to provide feedback digitally on drafts, too. It simplifies content review while also centralizing storage. And the right management system will also be searchable, meaning that your employees don’t have to rely on their memory to retrieve important information.
Improves Efficiency and Security
The right business process management system will improve efficiency by creating a standardized method of doing various jobs. And, when you incorporate cybersecurity into your BPM, you can protect your customers’ data, which will not only improve their experience but also make you a more trusted provider of your specific services.
There are three different types of BPM. These are integration-oriented, human-oriented, and, as we mentioned previously, document-oriented. You must use a combination of all three to ensure that each step of your processes remain relevant to your business and supportive of your goals.
Getting Started with Business Process Management
Business process management is best thought of as a strategy. Unlike project management, which organizes individual pieces of your business, BPM integrates into every aspect of your operation. Automation is integral to BPM, but before you can decide which business process management features are right for you, talk to your employees about their pain points.
Where is the work bottleneck? Are there communication issues? You can then sit down with your IT team and department managers to design, model, and execute one or more pieces of your strategy. Each of these will be unique to your business, and the process you put into place can be monitored for effectiveness and adjusted as needed.
Although your BPM systems and strategies will automate many things, people must still understand how to best utilize them. Any time you make a change, let your staff know. You can schedule regular training sessions if necessary.
Automation Examples
If you’re still not sure what types of activities you can automate, consider the following:
Marketing automation. Marketing automation consists of different things you do to get your business and the public. One great example is emails. You can set up an automatic welcome email, birthday email, and even follow-up email to help stay in touch with your customers without human intervention.
Accounting automation. An example of an accounting automation process would be sending a receipt automatically for online payments. This type of payment processing system is just one of the must-have technologies that small businesses rely on for steady cash flow and profitability.
HR automation. Human resources can also benefit from technological advances. HR automation as part of your BPM can streamline employee onboarding and help you mitigate risk.
Apply Your Own BPM Strategies
There is no right way or wrong way to design and implement business process management strategies. Start by evaluating your organization, from your cybersecurity systems to your HR department, and then look for ways to make things more efficient. And if you digitize your document management, look into doing the same for your document review processes using a PDF editing tool. Most importantly, make sure that your entire staff is on board, and then sit back, relax, and let parts of your business run itself.
Original source can be found here.
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