Beyond BPM: Why integration is the key

Whenever I’m asked whether Business Process Management (BPM) is the secret ingredient for achieving a truly successful business, it always makes me chuckle. Not because BPM can’t be a useful and highly effective tool in and of itself, but because, in my view, it’s only one of a number of weapons available to organizations in their operational efficiency arsenal.

It’s worth bearing in mind that in today’s world, most business have three objectives; increase efficiency to reduce costs, improve the quality of business operations and increase revenue. However, what few seem to understand is that although BPM has proven to be an effective tool for driving efficiency and quality, it does not drive revenue. Increasingly, ‘traditional’ BPM is not enough for businesses, as they realize the importance of sensing critical situations and responding before they can take a toll on the organization.

So, the question remains, how can business build a more powerful, interoperable solution that effectively integrates BPM in order to achieve all three objectives? And, more importantly, what tools are available to do this?

It’s worth remembering that what constitutes the ‘right solution’ varies from business to business, but for some, an advanced rules management solution, allied to BPM, can make for more effective decision-making. Equally, the use of predictive analytics in conjunction with BPM can prevent potential problems, which affect the business’s ability to respond to change.

Broadly speaking, what will really drive revenues for businesses is a combination of BPM with Complex Event Processing (CEP) technology. This will allow the organization to evolve from a mindset of improving business processes only, to one where they are able to respond to greater opportunities.

A good example of this is a willingness to embrace Context Aware Solutions, which can offer customers promotions, discounts and special offers depending on their location, or even on what they are browsing, creating new opportunities to generate revenue as a result. By integrating BPM with CEP technology, organisations will learn the importance of becoming a truly responsive business, which will, in turn, generate a greater return on investment, and increase revenues as a result.

When it comes to business success, it’s important to recognize that there’s no silver bullet; what works well for one company can prove difficult to implement elsewhere. Nonetheless, by ensuring that both they and their processes are truly responsive, they stand a much better chance of increasing revenues, and finding the path to operational efficiency and success.

Of course, the easiest way for most businesses to achieve this is through embracing Responsive Process Management (RPM) suite. I like to think of RPM as BPM plus plus, as it not only allows organizations to achieve overall efficiency and drive revenues, but it also helps them to get there in real time.

By sensing and responding to business events as they happen, and by allowing organisations to increase their visibility and control into their operations, it allows them to stay ahead of the game by improving their business top and bottom lines.