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What is goal-oriented business process management?

Whereas standard business process management concentrates on automating
and improving pre-existing work activities, goal-oriented BPM takes a
wider, more holistic perspective. It’s a philosophy that puts business
goals at the centre, with processes being seen as a means to an end,
rather than the main focus.

A goal-oriented approach seeks to present a comprehensive, overall view
of activity, as opposed to the more fragmentary perspective of
traditional BPM. The benefit for business users is a framework that
seems more intuitive and easy-to-use, while at the same time being
capable of handling greater complexity.

A sense of purpose

The major advantage of a goal-oriented method is that it puts process
design more firmly in the hands of business people rather than
programmers. The vocabulary of business is one of assets, margins,
results and inventories. Giving users the ability to see BPM in these
terms, rather than those of information technology, provides a sense of
purpose and clarity. An accountant or marketer does not have to feel as
if they are juggling their usual job with that of a part-time IT
professional.

One example of a standard BPM process might be the assigning of customer
enquiries to the relevant staff members to follow up on. A goal-oriented
process would expand on that to specify a set number of query responses
within a timeframe, then integrate that action into a wider framework,
taking on board factors such as customer service, lead times and
profitability.

Obligations and deadlines

Service level agreements, whether between a business and a client or
agreed internally, are a form of goal which can be processed and
monitored using BPM. If a task is not on course to be completed in
accordance with an SLA, then it can be flagged, and the responsible
employees alerted. Obligations and deadlines can be specified by
management, and if not consistently met, then processes can be adjusted
to amend this.

How goals relate

Before implementing a BPM solution, business owners and managers need to
consider not only which performance indicators are relevant to their
goals, but how they relate to each other. For example, the average time
taken for an order to be processed could be linked to customer defection
rates. BPM provides the benefit of being able to monitor and compare
these indicators in one centralised system.

The collection of data, preferably in real time, is vital to knowing
which goals are being met, and how effectively. A BPM system that logs
and generates statistics of business events automatically not only saves
time and effort but provides a far higher level of accuracy. Being able
to combine figures from multiple cases to calculate monthly statistics
is one example of this functionality in action.

SwiftCase is a powerful, cloud-based business process management
platform featuring real-time data collection, analytic tools, SLA alerts and more. Get in touch today, for a free, no-obligation demonstration.

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