Coralie Blanc & Patrick Emin 1

An introduction to the Business Process Management      Modelling, automation and improvement of processes... the key concept of a           BPM approach  Managing your processes implies different concepts and methods. The objective of this post is to give you the key definitions regarding the BPM field and to understand what kind of benefits you can obtain from it.  By Coralie Blanc & Patrick Emin     What is a business process? It is a set of activities that helps in realizing a business goal. The activities are correlated and transformed inputs elements (for example a request for an estimate) into outputs elements (the estimation made). It used resources and can be conditioned by specifications.      What does “Business Process Management” means? Managing your processes means to have a global vision of the work performed in your organization, to analyze it, to control it and to continuously improve it. The main steps of this approach are the following:  Step 1 “Modelling” = the process is designed. During this phase you define and formalize the “who does what”. It enables to have a common understanding of the process.  Step 2 “Configuration” = the process is transformed into a running system.  Step 3 “Execution and improvement” = the process is executed and adjusted      The step 2 and 3 are required only if you want to automate your processes, i.e. if you want to use a system which enables the execution of processes automatically and collects data in real time.      What are the benefits of managing your processes? Using a process-oriented vision in your organization led to a global approach (not only focus on the production part for example) which can be a source of improvement for a better performance.      Thanks to the modelling:      - You will engage a collaborative work with a reflection between all the stakeholders of the process.      - You will discover some anomalies or incoherencies only by describing the process and be able to improve it.      - You will have a common understanding of how things are done in your organization.      Thanks to the automation:      - You will eliminate task without added-value.      - You will optimize and secure the process.      - You will increase your reactivity with a management in real time. To comment and continue the debate go to this post on LinkedIn, contribute to the discussion!