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Business Process Management

Management > Business Process Management
Table of Contents
Abstract
Overview
Applications
Viewpoints
Terms & Concepts
Bibliography
Suggested Reading

Abstract
Business process management (BPM) is a method by which
a business undergoes inspection of the entire operation of its
network to evaluate processes, termed workflow, and to make
specific recommendations for improved efficiency and productivity as a way to optimize operations. Using the information
storage capacity of software to understand how a business produces a good or service, BPM is a business template for grasping
the big picture of a network operation.

Overview
To appreciate the sweeping management vision of BPM, one
need only consider how such business reviews were routinely
conducted less than a generation ago. Traditional evaluations
of productivity would approach the business as if it were a collection of essentially disconnected processes. Under that rubric,
a team of internal management efficiency experts, most often
supervisors positioned because of seniority within the higherechelon management, would evaluate the different elements of
the operational processes. In short, the tasks performed by each
department would be evaluated independently in an effort to

locate areas of inefficiency, wasted resources, unacceptable risks

to worker safety, miscommunication, or redundant functions.
Each phase of the business operationfrom hiring workers to
promoting executives, from paying workers to terminating workers, from securing whatever raw materials might be necessary to
the actual manufacturing of the product on-site, from designing
the packaging of the product to maintaining its shipping lines,
from marketing the product in the media to promoting new product developmentwould be treated as individual, self-directing
phases of operation. The theory behind such internal evaluation,
termed segmented responsibility, was that if a business made
each step tighter, the entire process would improve.
The problems with segmented responsibility are obvious. The
process itself was conducted entirely in-house, relying on the
workforce responsible for operations to look critically at their
own performance. The process was time-consumingbusinesses seldom were able to evaluate individual departments
more than once a fiscal year. The emphasis was almost always
negative: slashing costs, eliminating redundant employees, getting more work out of staff, optimizing the use of equipment,
compelling the workforce to increase productivity without
appropriate support systems. Work harder. Work leaner. Work
quicker. No stage of the evaluation process considered the business from end-to-end. The business was simply considered the
sum of its parts. This lack of process integration is illustrated
by a metaphor that dominates BPM templates: A person unable
to make a fist goes to a doctor who considers the fingers without taking into account the hand, the arm, and the bodys entire
muscular system, which must work together to make a fist even
possible.
The concept of approaching a business as an organic whole dates
back more than two centuries (van der Aalst, 2013). Integrative
system management, however, became a cutting edge approach
to reevaluating how a business actually does its business with the
advent of automated business information systems in the early
1990s. In effect, the process of production itself became an asset,
something to be valued and constantly reviewed for enhancement of its efficiency and efficacy. The traditional segmented
hierarchical approach quickly became antiquated as businesses
began to re-assess their operations as an entity, each part inextricably bound to the other parts, each stage integrated to what

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Business Process Management

comes before and what comes after. For example, the efficacy of
hiring processes can be examined in light of how retailers selling
the businesss product respond to the product.

tivity more accurately and in a far more timely fashion. Each is

a targeted goal of BPM.

Business process management exists at the very boundary

between business and information systems (Snoeck & Lemahieu, 2005). The burgeoning field of information technology
and the sudden availability of a wide range of powerful software tools provided suitable platforms for gathering information
about business operations. Because automation has made possible the retrieval and storage of information on a large scale and
at a granular level, businesses no longer have to rely on annual
evaluations. Companies are able use this vast data to evaluate
their operations nearly continuously.

Applications

If the goal of traditional segmented responsibility was simply

to slash operations, streamline departments, and cut staffing,
the goal of contemporary BPM is far more synergistic and creativeand, in turn, evaluation of a business creates far less
anxiety in the staff. The goal of BPM is communication, a representation of the complete process to support communication
about that process. (Palmer, 2013) By providing company operations management with specific information about operation
design inefficiencies, BPM looks to bring the operation teams
together, to make the employee/supervisor relationship dynamic,
collaborative, and efficient. The feedback on operations management occurs in real time, with information secured and made
available instantaneously, keeping productivity on track and efficient. Company operations are able to react with greater agility,
enacting operations changes more easily and more often. Indeed,
given the reach and range of BPM software and the virtually
limitless storage capacity of BPM platforms, companies can stay
self-governing, self-regulating, and self-correcting simultaneously to the actual processes of the network itself.
Because the evaluation of the company processes actually begins
with the retailers, the clients, and/ or the customers, the process
offers a practical immediate value that traditional process management surveys lacked. Companies hear from their customers/
clients about the efficiency of their operations, the cost of their
product/service, the effectiveness of their product/service, and
the ability of the process to adapt to particular customer/client
needs. That critical information, provided often as specific network projects are still in process, helps a business adaptlike a
football coach watching game film during the actual game. The
concept of continuous improvement is at the heart of the business process management value proposition. (Rudden, 2007)
By combining those people actually engaged in the product (or
service) with those who receive those products/services, cutting
edge technology can optimize operations, thus keeping customers satisfied while at the same time creating new possibilities
for adjusting operations. The customers/retailers feel part of the
production process; the staff is happier, more efficient, more
motivated, less anxious; and company executives are more in
tune with day-to-day operations and able to track actual produc-

The contemporary protocol of business process management

begins not with internal evaluation but rather with a team of
outside professionals who agree to work long term with a company, to review and monitor a businesss total process model
over time, to become, in effect, a part of the operations but
still maintaining a critical distance. Under BPM, an outside
review process becomes a fixture in the network. BPM experts
not only set up appropriate software to monitor processes but
also become part of the ongoing operations of the network in
an effort to rehabilitate operations management from workers
perception of it as something hostile into an important part of the
team effort. Since the mid-2000s, the creation of firms across the
country that specialize in BPM reviews have rapidly multiplied,
their services advertised in hundreds of websites that appeal to
younger entrepreneurs and business owners savvy with cutting
edge technology.
BPM involves the total evaluation of a companys infrastructure.
It is often mistaken for introducing automation and computer
software into an existing network as a way to speed up productivity or to create more efficient record keeping. Such software
exists, of course, and introducing the most up-to-date computer
software can of course be part of any business operation review.
BPM operatives, however, introduce software applications into
networks that can, for example, simulate the business operations and check for problem areas without actually moving into
real-time operations. Other software apps can measure supervisor control and communication avenues by testing messaging or
provide massive libraries of customer/client feedback, worker/
supervisor evaluations, and even former employees responses
to company operations. Such a cluster of specially designed software programs are termed a businesss application suite.
BPM is not limited to the improvement of a single element or
stage of a businesss operations, even if that improvement does
in the end positively impact productivity, for example, a supervisor providing coffee to the night shift. Such specificity is termed
business process improvement. Neither does BPM focus on a
single department improving its operations, for example, the
introduction of an office software app on the recommendation
of a bookkeeper. One of the reasons why BPM involves outside evaluators is exactly this tendency within businesses with a
vast infrastructure of operations: Individual departments tend to
manage only their own processes.
BPM assumes that any business is essentially a team effort, that
the business operations flow in stages that are linked one to the
next, that the breadth of the operation process is holistic and
inclusive and that any improvements must help integrate these

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Business Process Management

stages into a single organic movement. BPM, then, is not something a company decides to do or a computer software package it
decides to purchase or a periodic review of its operations. Rather
it redefines a business not as a series of functions but as a single
function that must be treated as ever-evolving single operation.
Business process management involves managing end-to-end
work that organizations perform to create value for their customers (Rock, 2014).
BPM introduced the radical premise of measuring the effectiveness of business operations by the outcome of its operation.
Begin at the end. Consult with those outside the network most
involved with actually using the product or service. If a business operation is, in fact, a single organic process, BPM seeks to
establish reliable and related linksafter all, whatever the goods
or services produced by a network, that production is essentially
and fundamentally about moving, storing, and sharing needed
information most effectively and efficiently. Each link, in turn,
maintains a clear and transparent responsibility and, more
important, a clear and necessary tie to what has come before
and what will come after in the process. In turn, the process can
be standardized with the data storage capability of process software. Further, a business can, in real time and in response to
changing conditions, improve operations, close risks, minimize
inefficiency, and maintain currency with relevant government
regulations or industry standards. The business can not merely
change but adapt, evolve, and grow.

encompassing template for a business, termed service oriented

architecture (because it perceives the reception and distribution of a businesss goods or services as the starting point for
constructing a total comprehensive network model), has moved
businesses from reacting to inevitable fluctuations in economic
conditions or reacting to hard data of a businesss poor production to a far more proactive position. BPM promises businesses
a shift from permanent crisis management to daily monitoring
and analysis of operations, engaging feedback from outside consultants, and combining the muscle of technology with the talent
and skills of their workforce to create a smooth, entirely transparent institutional workflow.
Long-term implications of the business template have suggested
that BPM can actually help drive growth (Huoy, Fettke & Loos,
2010)not merely improving operations but by testing new
markets, creating new endeavors or services, and expanding
opportunities beyond measuring current operations. By creating
software finely tuned to larger economic currents, businesses can
actually use BPM to make critical operational decisions about
expansion and appropriate risk analysis.(Suriadi et al., 2014) By
bringing together a companys local concerns (concerns over its
operations) and its global concerns (concerns over its market
reception), by bringing together the human factor of a business
with its technological environment, BPM has introduced a radical perception of a business that is at once practical and usable.

Overhauling business operations is time-consuming and can

alienate clients and customers alike, and introduce the risk of
losing valuable data during the process of conversion. Rather
than overhaul operations, BPM seeks to improve it as it exists.
This is a far less traumatic move within a network and can be
far less intimidating and alienating to workers and supervisors.
Business operations then are reconceived as cyclic, not linear
that is, an operation constantly fed up-to-the-minute data on
efficiency, productivity, responsiveness, and communication.

Terms & Concepts

Viewpoints

Holistic: Characterized by a cooperative evaluation; that is, any

Too often, business process management became about drawing

lines with fancy visual tools thatfocused only on automation.
(Woods, 2008) Such limited improvement does not rise to the
scope or reach of BPM. Introducing automation and even cutting
edge computer technology into a business process that is itself
clogged with redundant steps, bogged down in fuzzy lines of
communication, marred by an unclear chain of command, prone
to waste, or given to human error would be akin to paving a
cowpath, another favorite metaphor of BPM think tanks. In other
words, it simply makes quicker an inefficient and costly process.
The technology of BPM is rapidly evolving, and the long-term
impact of this kind of total re-conception of a network operation
model has yet to be studied. Nevertheless, the idea behind BPM
created genuine buzz within the corporate world. Its bold all-

Application suite: A bundle of computer software applications

and programs tailored for a particular business, enterprise, or

project.
Business process improvement: The network system of evalua-

tion that focuses on a single project or a one-time only process

as a way to suggest specific areas for improved efficiency and
productivity.
single element, part, or manifestation of a larger whole cannot be
evaluated, reviewed, or understood without using the rest of the
model to explicate its function, efficiency, and/or productivity.
Integrated system management: The process through which a

network seeks to align a variety of stages, phases, or processes

into a conceptual single management model.

Segmented responsibility: The network evaluation template in

which a network reviews individual parts, stages, or processes

within its operation for efficiency, competency, and productivity.
Service orientation architecture: A complex of computer soft-

ware applications in which a business reorients its digital

template to engage all phases, systems, steps, and departments
into a single grand unified field.

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Business Process Management

Synergy: The interaction, cooperation, and connections between

and among differing elements, stages, or processes within a

single network or field.

Workflow: Within a network, the series of multiple stages,

phases, or processes often performed by different segments

or departments in that network that accomplish sequentially a
single goal, product, or service.

Bibliography
Houy, C., Fettke, P., & Loos, P. (2010). Empirical research in
business process managementAnalysis of an emerging
field of research. Business Process Management Journal
16(4): 619661. Retrieved December 25, 2014 from
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bth&AN=70877095&site=ehost-live
Palmer, N. (2013). What is business process management?
Retrieved December 25, 2014 from http://bpm.com/
what-is-bpm
Rock, G. (2014). What is BPM anyway? Retrieved December
25 2014 from http://www.bpminstitute.org/resources/
articles/what-bpm-anyway-business-process-managementexplained
Rudden, J. (2007). Making the case for business process management: A benefits checklist. Retrieved December 25,
2014 from http://www.bptrends.com/publicationfiles/0107-ART-MakingtheCaseforBPM-BenefitsChecklistRudden.pdf
Snoeck, M., & Lemahieu, W. (2005). Business process
management: A birds-eye view and research agenda.
Retrieved December 25, 2014 from https://ideas.repec.
org/a/ete/revbec/20050412.html
Suriadi, S., Wei, B., Winkelmann, A., ter Hofstede, A. M.,
Adams, M., Conforti, R., &(2014). Current research

in risk-aware business process management: Overview,

comparison, and gap analysis. Communications of
the Association for Information Systems 34, 933984.
Retrieved December 25, 2014 from EBSCO Online
Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=94902914
&site=ehost-live
Van der Aalst, W. (2013). Business process management:
A comprehensive survey. ISRN Software Engineering.
Retrieved December 25, 2014 from http://www.hindawi.
com/journals/isrn/2013/507984/
Woods, D. (2008). The ABCs of BPM. Forbes. (2008,
September 30). Retrieved December 25, 2014 from http://
www.forbes.com/2008/09/29/cio-bpm-soa-tech-cio-cx_
dw_0930bpm.html

Suggested Reading
Astanin, S., & Zhukovskaya, N. (2014). Business processes
control via modeling by fuzzy situational networks.
Automation & Remote Control, 75(3), 570579. Retrieved
March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Business
Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=a9h&AN=94800307&site=ehost-live
Bala, H., & Venkatesh, V. (2013). Changes in employees
job characteristics during an enterprise system implementation: A latent growth modeling perspective. MIS
Quarterly, 37(4), 1113A7. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from
EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=
bth&AN=91905981&site=ehost-live
Fumas, M., LaRosa, M., & Medling, J. (2013). Fundamentals
of business process management. New York, NY:
Springer.
Jeston, John, & Nelis, J. (2013). Business process management. New York, NY: Routledge.

Essay by Joseph Dewey

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