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Whereas standard business process management concentrates on automating and improving pre-existing work activities, goal-oriented BPM takes awider, 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 ITprofessional.
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-orientedprocess 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 inaccordance 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 timetaken 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 savestime 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 managementplatform 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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