Struggling with BPM

BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT IS A VERY HOT AREA THESE DAYS, but many CIOs and businesses are struggling with BPM initiatives, according to analysts and research.

A survey of more than 160 IT and business executives and managers, undertaken by the Aberdeen Group, found that the key challenges for companies deploying a BPM system have less to do with technology and more to do with people and processes.

“Part of the [BPM] solution is technical, but another part is organizational, and this is where many companies stumble,” states the Aberdeen report. “It takes highly capable BPM products, a willingness to take a hard look at business processes... and organizational maturity.”

As such, the top two challenges from the Aberdeen survey were organizational: justifying a BPM investment and getting buy-in from business stakeholders.

The report makes several recommendations on how companies can improve their BPM performance. These include documenting your processes, engaging a consulting firm early in the process, and exploring ways to bring standalone BPM applications together into an integrated system.

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