How Do You Know If Your Business Needs Bpm Software?

By Author: Miranda Von Stockhausen
Total Articles: 4762
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Understanding the benefits of business process management software (BPMS) is tricky enough for anyone, but it's especially tough for owners and executives of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). We're already into "alphabet soup" here-"BPMS for SMBs"-in the first paragraph, and this article is supposed to clear things up, so we will dispense with any more acronyms. So, just how do you know if your business needs BPM software?

The first part of the answer is that you won't get a clear picture from the software vendors. The SMB market is not well served by the traditional BPMS vendors, because their business models are geared to Fortune 500 firms and, as big firms themselves, they have industry analysts to mollify and performance numbers to consider. This may be changing, slowly, as many observers see an SMB market for business process improvement ranging all the way up to 100-million-dollar companies. The definition of SMB may not even go that high.

Big cost, big job

BPMS has typically been either very expensive, or the less-costly packages have required way too much custom development effort to be a ...
... sensible choice for SMBs. It's the nature of the beast, since BPMS has had to be "everything to everybody" instead of like the little bear's porridge-just right for you. There is just no way to build a generic program that doesn't require a monumental investment of time and energy (read, "cost") to customize for the way you need it to work.

Here's a little secret that should help clear things up. If it were truly simple to implement BPMS, why don't all BPMS vendors run their own software in-house? Many don't, you know. If it's too problematic for the folks that make it, what does that say about your chances? This argument does not close the door on the possibility of your installing and benefiting from BPMS, but it should raise the bar on the decision. You want to get the best package you can get, one that has a track record of actually being used by companies like yours.

Communication breakdowns

Good managers know when things are not going smoothly. Orders getting lost, customers not getting return calls, shipments being misdirected, purchase orders being keyed in with the wrong numbers-there are literally hundreds of ways that your company can veer off course, a little or a lot. It usually comes down to one thing, a communication breakdown, although this can happen in myriad ways. Good BPMS solutions don't replace clear communications, but they reflect it in the steps and processes that are implemented. Clarity is key.

These good managers we're talking about instinctively know when procedures and operations are inefficient, and probably have a clear picture of how things should be operating. If they've heard of BMPS at all, they probably think it will take a lot of effort to make things happen "their way"-and they're right, for the most part. These high-tech business acronyms like "ERP" and "CRM" bring up very unappealing memories of buggy, expensive, months-long implementations that never do work quite right.

What negatives to look for

There are several things that can wake you up to the need for new workflow implementations. If you are not able to create the documents and processes that you really need, easily and quickly, then you don't have a flexible, powerful process at all. Even if you have an older BPMS solution, it may require you to fit into its "way of doing things" instead of allowing you to decide how "things" will be. If you can't create, format and/or edit custom forms, and have to use templates, that's no solution at all.

If your workflow management, however you're doing it, requires specialized technical skills to set up or run, you need a solid, simple BPMS application. Programs that are easy and intuitive to use get you up and running quickly and save you money on user training. If you have a web-based tool, it may not even have the optimum architecture for your environment, and could be just an old client/server application with a web front end tacked on. If you are running into dead ends and wasting time fussing with the install, you need to get a real BPMS solution.

What solution to look for

Newer BPMS solutions are easy to set up and they keep running, too. Businesses of any size can now design, install and automate workflows and business processes that actually help their employees improve the way they really work. They will be able to find, organize, deliver and "escalate" work without having to contend with complex software development or an endless install-and-troubleshoot cycle.

BPMS makers should have common aims for their customers, but like any other business there are good products and not-so-good ones. Flexibility, ease of use and reasonable cost are important traits for any SMB to consider-any Fortune 500 firm, too. When you look at your corporate operations and words other than "flexible," "intuitive," "efficient" and "effective" come to mind, clearly you are on the verge of answering the question we started with, How do you know if your business needs BPM software? Start looking around, read up on the latest and greatest then make the move that gets your firm organized and efficient. You won't survive any other way.
About Author:
As the business process improvement (BPM) trailblazer, Savvion.com moves enterprises beyond ordinary BPM with groundbreaking business-critical software, solutions, and services that make them more competitive, agile and cost-efficient in today's tough economic times. Visit online today.