Jim Sinur

There must be something to BPM when hundreds of executives show up to hear how BPM enables organizations to survive, thrive and capitalize. These are challenging times and the first thing that goes out of the window is travel costs. One would expect that conferences would suffer, but not BPM.

The theme of Survive, thrive and capitalize with BPM resounded and drew benefit thirsty executives. It is no wonder that the message is clear from business leaders to cut costs and raise revenue. There are a two of ways of cutting costs. One is to swing an axe and the other is to surgically and intelligently remove costs through quick and precise actions without harming the long term talent pool needed for when we crawl out of this deep recession. This recession creates BPM nirvana where BPM is not considered a luxury, but a necessity.

BPM helps organizations survive by bringing unnecessary shadow processes to light for potential savings. .BPM can then standardize on the best processes through out an organization. Once these best processes are established they can be instrumented and made visible for further optimization. This visibility can then make processes available for better governance. BPM is a life line for those organizations looking to survive.

BPM can enable organizations to thrive by turning up the volume on process improvement. BPM turns from opportunistic to a planned program. Organizations leverage process improvement to increase capacity by carefully balancing scarce resources. Additional visibility can lead to reduced risk and increased profit. By practicing continuous process improvement BPM becomes a catalyst for driving optimal performance.

BPM allows selected organizations to capitalize by purposely facing strategic problems. I have seen organizations use processes as a weapon to out flank their competition through the strategic leverage of new business models, acquisitions and customer pleasing processes. Savvy organizations use the capital saved by early BPM efforts into working capital for larger efforts. Organizations can extend their leads or close gaps with better processes. Even threatening events and obstacles can be overcome with process efforts.