A
recent study has been carried out by IBM on
attitudes to business process management (BPM). The survey, conducted by YouGov,
spoke to 650 senior business decision makers from small, medium and large UK
firms. One of the most significant findings was the difference in attitudes to
BPM between small and large firms. The survey found, perhaps unsurprisingly,
that the larger the business, the more likely they were to have plans in place
to update their business processes in the next two to three years –
demonstrated by 70% of those businesses with 250+ employees having BPM plans in
place, compared with only 31% of those with less than 50 employees.
BPM is
centred on making processes efficient and flexible in response to the company’s
expansion. The implementation of faster and more effective business processes
aligns all aspects of the company and, as such, usually results in improved
client services. 85% of the senior business decision makers identified ‘line of
sight’, ‘visibility into work occurring across your organisation’ and ‘clear
understanding into how your business is performing’ as key to a business’s
success. However, despite the majority believing this, very few SMEs practise
what they preach as they are under the impression that they cannot afford to implement
systems that aid in BPM.
Document management systems however are one means by which to create a transparent, streamlined
business – a major pre-requisite for effective BPM. By consolidating all
documents electronically into one central system, employees are able to access
client information that would otherwise be difficult to lay hands on, and therefore
deal with any queries directly. Time spent on manual processes is dramatically
reduced with companies often seeing a return on their investment after the
first year – challenging the wide belief that BPM solutions are only affordable
to the enterprise and demonstrating real value for companies of all sizes.
