The continuous evolution of Business Process Management platforms has been triggered by the necessity to keep up with changing business needs, customer demands, and enterprise technology innovations. The business processes that are in place are core to the success or failure of an organization in the marketplace and can be used to make a company stand out from the competition. Process management tools deploying cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and robotic process automation (RPA) make it easier for industry leaders to make dynamic business decisions to support continued growth and expansion. This is backed by analyst reports revealing the BPM market was worth nearly $8 billion last year and is forecast to grow at a double-digit rate to 2025.
So, what trends are currently shaping the BPM industry now? We want to share our thoughts on that. Some of these trends are new; however, others have evolved so rapidly that they are now approaching maturity.
The Importance of Unified BPM Platforms – Collaboration
Mobile has proven to be an extremely impactful trend across a myriad of industries. Traditionally, remote workers have not been able to take advantage of real-time interfaces and mobile-ready workflows. Technology has responded by providing a much-needed foundation for productivity and communication. Companies can now select from a pool of the best and brightest in their fields, no matter where they are located.
Unified BPM platforms take this a step further by including complete collaboration functionalities that simplify workflows to make it easy for employees to stay engaged with each other, which results in increased productivity and optimized workflows. Document sharing, information access, and internal communication process capabilities can be made available in the form of process-driven tools that are easily designed, deployed, and managed.
Increased Demand for Low-code/No-code BPM
Keeping pace with the ever-changing competitive landscape requires business leaders and users within their organization to stay agile. Even if the platform selected checks most of the boxes for functionality, businesses find that they still need to build their own applications.
Low-code/no-code BPM applications allow users with little or no coding experience to build their own digital applications quickly. These development platform utilize features such as drag-and-drop form builders, out-of-the-box integrations with access to template libraries, workflows, and rules that can be used over and over again – directly addressing the learning curve and complexity issues that are usually associated with using a full-scale BPMS. These low-code platforms also enable business consultants to easily create workflows and business applications that will plug into the core of the software.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Shifts from ‘Nice-to-have’ to ‘Essential’
The main reason companies have invested in BPM platforms has been, historically, to reduce costs across multiple areas within their business by improving efficiency. Now, there is a movement to require a BPM platform that does more – analytics & business intelligence, optimizing customer experience, digital transformation of business processes, and regulatory compliance all weigh in when it comes down to cost reduction.
Combining Artificial Intelligence (AI) with machine learning results in smarter BPM platforms. Platforms that automate repetitive processes and improve them by continually evaluating the data and adapting to changing circumstances with little human involvement. These platforms can also support predictive analytics – analyzing enormous volumes of data to help organizations anticipate and envision outcomes using both historical and current operation data.
While driving down costs will always be important, selecting BPM platforms that use AI makes computing and evaluating data more manageable and makes implementing data-driven improvements to operational performance simpler.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) & BPM – Integration over Separation
RPA gives organizations the tools it needs to automate high-volume, manual tasks involving structured data. These software robots are trained to perform human tasks by imitating human behavior using defined scripts or flowcharts that are triggered by an event or a schedule. The defined processes are rules-based and can be highly customizable.
Like BPM, the goal of RPA is to increase productivity and efficiency. RPA does not replace BPM, nor should it be treated as a competing approach. RPA can be a valuable tool to help boost the gains realized with a BPM platform. RPA automates repetitive tasks while BPM automates the underlying workflow. This has led to the incorporation of RPA capabilities into BPM platforms.
Implementing BPM and RPA together can result in a higher level of process automation and value that a single-technology approach alone may not be positioned to achieve.
We would like to know about the BPM trends and plans that you have in mind for your business. Get in touch with Syrock at 412-480-4859 or contact us so we can share information on how BPM can help advance your business.