Top 10 Process Management Software to Drive Business Growth

Business Process Management (BPM) can be instrumental in business transformation. By coordinating all business processes including systems, information and staff, you can create much better outcomes.

Unfortunately for many growing businesses, BPM can often feel like a burden. They might find themselves tempted to ignore it or put it off. However, having optimized processes and procedures in place is the foundation for scalable success. The key to creating that solid foundation comes in the form of digital documentation; by documenting your critical processes, you can manage them more effectively – and take steps to improve them.

Using business process automation offers a cost-effective way to win back productive time and increase efficiency.

In this article we’ll discuss;

To put it simply, business process management (BPM) utilises methods that aim to improve business processes. This includes analysing, measuring and optimizing business strategy.

Not to be confused with task management (which focuses on individual tasks), BPM observes the whole end-to-end process of business operations. Using BPM allows companies to streamline their overall business process and workflow, which leads to increased efficiency, productivity and cost reduction.

Business process management (BPM) is defined as:

“The practice of executing, analyzing, and optimizing end-to-end business processes to help streamline your business strategy and meet your goals.”

What is business process management software?

Process management software helps your business run more efficiently by giving you a defined process for doing things. Advancements in BPM technology has meant that organizations of all sizes can use automated business processes via a series of different workflow apps.

It’s also worth noting that it can be necessary in heavily regulated industries, such as finance or healthcare, in order to remain compliant.

The best business process management software includes workflow and task management options, meaning that you can keep an eye on the activity as it compares to the intended process.

All types of business processes can be grouped, analyzed, and improved, including:

• Employee onboarding
• Customer onboarding
• Expense reporting
• Vacation requests
• Account management
• Time tracking
• Compliance
• Loan origination
• Invoicing
• Project management
• Customer relationship management (CRM)

Types of business process management software

A business process system helps to eliminate manual errors and gaps in processes. There are several kinds of BPM suites that can be categorized by their purpose in an organization.

These are:

• Document-centric BPM is automated documents that are generated from the input of multiple people. After approval, a document is created. A common use case for document-centric BPM is creating a legal document or a contract.
• Human-centric business process management suites support processes that are carried out by people. This software involves processes that need access control for approvals and tasks carried out by employees. An example of this type of software could include customer service, complaint management, onboarding new employees, etc.
• Integration-centric BPM integrates business software with other department-specific tools. This enables data to flow between multiple software systems that are used. This reduces the number of errors as well as increases workflow efficiency and speed. For example, integration-centric BPM is used within marketing teams to transfer lead generation and engagement data from marketing tools to sales-based CRM platforms.

Image source

What are the benefits of a business process management system?

As a business grows it becomes impossible to personally oversee everything. You can’t be constantly putting out fires, so you need to be sure your team can handle the business processes in the same way you would. This means you need to implement standardized processes across business workflows. 

1. Risk reduction 

A BPM tool provides visibility into business processes, making it easier to spot errors. This gives organizations a way to work more efficiently and save money. It also enables processes to work at a consistently high level so they’re executed right the first time, every time. 

2. Better control of operations

No matter how good your business processes, you need to have a 360 degree view of who’s running what and where. With process management software you can access all this information in real time via an API dashboard – along with charts to help monitor progress and performance. 

3. Improved collaboration

When you’re running a lot of tasks at the same time, good collaboration is essential. Collaboration tools including messages, file sharing systems, and notifications can make communication easier and ensure everyone is on the same page in real time. This helps to reduce data redundancy and fix business issues quickly. 

4. Agility via automation

A key feature of business process management software is the ability to create smooth design processes so that changes can be made rapidly and easily to suit the needs of an organization. 

5. Increased productivity

A process management solution can measure process performance when integrated with your business processes data storage systems. Then you can quickly see and identify endpoints that need improvement and maximize revenues. By getting rid of bottlenecks you can eliminate redundant processes and make improvements that will increase performance. Studies have shown that BPM can increase productivity by 30-50%. 

Image Source

Must-have features of process management software

When you’re searching for process management software, make sure it has the following capabilities:

• Provide forms support. At the heart of good process management is standardizing process inputs to help ensure 
• Be user-friendly with an intuitive user interface that allows you to utilize its functionalities code free. Then you can create processes and forms, as well as capture insightful information on how each process flows, so team members are on the same page.
• Seamless integration with a variety of different tools to ensure good project management and that employees can share data and resources easily and efficiently.
• Real-time analytics, to understand which processes are being used, and how successful they are. A BPM platform should be able to track both the success and failure of processes via metrics, and allow you to create visualizations, such as gantt charts, along with the ability to take steps to facilitate improvements and ensure compliance.
• Be capable of process mapping with visual workflows and allow you to create an audit trail of any changes to process and workflows to support compliance.
• Embrace mobile optimization so that team members can create their own working environment and access the software remotely from a smartphone. 
• Offer relevant process templates, but also give you the ability for customization so that processes are built around your company and its requirements.

To make your own journey smoother when comparing the different available platforms, and to find what is right for your business, we’ve summarized the top seven platforms mentioned above according to features & costs;

• All comparisons based on the ‘Pro’ edition or equivalent
• Comparing most commonly requested features of process management software
• Information understood to be correct at time of publication
• Costs based on an example of 30 users

If you’ve decided you need a business process management solution, but don’t know where to start, here are some pointers on finding the best BPM for you.

1. Involve the team in BPM adoption

If your employees aren’t ‘sold’ on a piece of software, they won’t use it. So why bother implementing it in the first place? It’s essential to communicate to everyone in the company all information about the proposed BPM tool that’s been selected. 

Tell the team what makes it the best business process management tool out there. How does it solve problems for your business? And how will it be used effectively in your specific work environment? It could be an idea to create some internal documents to teach team members how to use the new system. 

2. Pay attention to details

When you’re searching for the best process management system, make sure you check it has the features and capabilities you require. Dig down to the specifics, and examine the design and layout. 

Check that the BPM system has an intuitive interface, so that it will be easy to train new users. Look out for features that make the system stand out. 

3. Decide on ‘must have’ features

Discuss with teams what you really want your business process management system to do. Do you want a system that manages employee onboarding? Or one that can integrate with your workflow management software? Create a wishlist and stick to it. Factor in pricing here too – for instance, document management might be a nice perk, but is it worth extra expense?

Image source

4. Make a list of pros and cons

This can help to identify the best business process management system for those who need a visual aid or think out loud. List-making is an effective way to reach a good decision. If you have a top five or ten BPM solutions, make two columns, and list how the system fits your business needs and what is missing. 

5. Get advice on finding the best process management system

When you’re trying to find a new software system, you’ll no doubt have questions or concerns. So if you have an issue with a particular feature, get in touch with the BPM provider and make a suggestion. They’ll want their software to work well for you and may be able to accommodate your request.

It’s a good first step to be aware you need to streamline your business processes, but actually putting it into practice can be tricky. It’s not enough to simply have processes in place, they must be properly implemented.

Creating a process shouldn’t be static, or about presenting others with rigid documentation that doesn’t have their input. This won’t deliver the consistency and efficiency benefits that process management should be delivering.

To achieve optimum efficiency in processes, you need to integrate them with workflows and make process creation a team effort. Teams should be able to contribute and potentially own process. Here are a few ways to help you get things right – from the start.

1. Take an objective approach

If you want to implement robust processes, you need to step back and look at the big picture. It’s often difficult to see the things that made your business a success if you’re too involved. You need to hand over daily tasks to junior staff, and this won’t work if you store everything in your head. Ask yourself how you can remove yourself from every aspect of running your business. 

If you deal with clients, how can that service be replicated? While you may be used to managing clients in a specific way, what’s obvious to you may not be obvious to other team members. You need to work out how to break things down into repeatable optimized processes. 

2. Be flexible

Don’t set business rules in stone or try to get others to do everything the way you do yourself. If your processes are too rigid you could create an inflexibility in the company that means you can’t respond to changes. Allow some leeway, and remember that people should be given the responsibility to make sensible decisions and modify changes if necessary. 

As they carry out tasks, employees will begin to develop insights into the processes from close up, and they are therefore capable of identifying if and how processes could be improved.

3. Empower don’t control

Process should be seen as a way to empower rather than control your team. It’s important that everyone is onboard with the processes from the start, and understand how they will interact with them. Processes shouldn’t be looked at as a series of boxes to be ticked, but tools your employees need and appreciate, and that are in place so they can do their jobs better. 

You need to determine which tasks can be automated via which systems – and what your team needs information-wise to be able to implement them.

A BPM system can help you eliminate inefficiencies, with the ability to automate repetitive processes such as client information gathering. A good business process management software will ensure that all employees and stakeholders can stay up to date with the latest business changes, and make sure that all processes meet the relevant standards, both internally and externally.

With six integrated features across business process management, workflow management and task management at beSlick, we can help you systermise your processes. Book a free call with one of our experts and we will show you the simple way your challenges can be solved.

Once you’ve incorporated the best BPM system into your business, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.