Table of contents
- 1. Increased Efficiency
- 2. Drive Change
- 3. Assess Process Performance
- 4. Ensure Compliance & Security
- 5. Transfer Knowledge
- 6. Enhance Customer Satisfaction
In 1986, a series of human errors and overlooked risks led to the catastrophic Chernobyl nuclear accident. Some analysts estimate that if process management practices were in place, the disaster could have been prevented, saving tens of billions in damage and dozens of lives.1
While most business processes don‘t carry such extreme stakes, they can still create costly inefficiencies, compliance issues, and poor customer experiences if mismanaged.
That‘s why interest in business process management (BPM) continues gaining momentum across industries. Global spend on BPM software is projected to grow over 10% annually, surpassing $18 billion by 2027.2
What tangible benefits can companies expect from embracing process improvement? This guide covers six major payoffs:
1. Increased Efficiency
Like a machine with grit stuck in the gears, businesses lose time and money on processes with friction and rework. BPM software helps detect redundant activities, manual workarounds, and other bottlenecks.
Leaders can then streamline workflows, redistribute work, and automate repetitive tasks. According to Forrester Research, optimized processes raise productivity between 30-50%.3
For example, one major bank used process mining to discover over 50 back-office processes that depended on tedious spreadsheet manipulations. By programming robots to handle these administrative tasks instead, the bank boosted efficiency substantially.4
Efficiency also comes from spotlighting processes that divert from expected workflows. Analytics reveal breakdowns requiring additional training or system improvements to prevent.
2. Drive Change
Markets shift rapidly, forcing companies to respond with new initiatives. However, major changes, like adopting AI or rolling out a new digital channel, inevitably cause disruption.
Visibility into processes via BPM platforms helps leaders align operations, technology, and people to minimize friction. Dashboards track transformation progress and dissect the impact of adjustments. Models even predict outcomes of future process variations.
Armed with this intelligence, companies can iterate on change strategies quickly until discovering the smoothest transition path.
Take this travel booking site that wanted to add flight switch flexibility for customers post-purchase. Process mining revealed Dependencies requiring agents to rework bookings manually. By tweaking workflows based on these insights, the company reduced service delays by over 20%.5
3. Assess Process Performance
"What gets measured gets managed." BPM analytics empower leaders to diagnose overall process health, as well as drill into step-by-step metrics.
Dashboards track key indicators like cycle times, defect rates, and cost. Analysts can benchmark performance against targets and past trends. Data also quantifies the business impact of bottlenecks, indicating priority areas for improvement.
Consider this telecom provider struggling with inconsistent customer service processes across regions. Applying process mining led to a unified view of common journey patterns and pain points. The company standardized global workflows 25% faster with this granular lens into regional variance.6
4. Ensure Compliance & Security
Governance violations create substantial financial liability and reputational damage. Process inconsistencies also raise risks of internal fraud or data theft.
Mapping out end-to-end processes shines a spotlight on gaps in controls or oversight. Analytics gauge compliance coverage down to the transaction level, while mining software even scans documents as they flow between systems.
At one bank, process mining analysis detected a 79% shortfall in credit process audit trails compared to regulatory demands. By boosting visibility into key risk points, the bank boosted governance safeguards firm-wide.7
5. Transfer Knowledge
Tribal business knowledge often scatters across an organization without connecting teams. BPM provides a "single source of truth" around process flows, responsible owners, and handoff points.
Centralized workflow documentation smooths onboarding and cross-training. Digitized manuals also minimize scramble when experts leave the company. Process data even feeds chatbots fielding repetitive internal queries.
For instance, one Australian bank‘s process mining initiative resolved visibility gaps between front and middle-office mortgage personnel. Aligning workflow understanding sped loan processing over 10%.8
6. Enhance Customer Satisfaction
Customers judge brands by product quality and end-to-end experience. Seamless processes minimize delays and errors that erode loyalty.
BPM insights help trim unnecessary steps from customer journeys and redistribute workloads more evenly. Preventing employees from multitasking across too many service cases at once also enhances focus.
Take this industrial engineering firm that faced rising customer complaints over order errors and billing disputes. Their process analytics drive identified the root cause as overloaded warehouse staff. By smoothing inventory workflows, accuracy jumped double-digits.9
The collective impact of these process payoffs leads to saving substantial time, cost, and headaches. But competing priorities can still stall BPM adoption.
Getting Started With Process Improvement
Luckily, maturing process mining tools make instruments like Celonis and UiPath easier to pilot. Robust cloud platforms provide affordable trials with fast time-to-value.
However, tech alone can‘t shift mindsets or transform operations. Organizations should take a measured approach:
- Identify pain points obstructing priority company objectives
- Audit as-is processes through interviews and process mining to quantify performance
- Model the ideal future state addressing major gaps surfaced from analysis
- Prove value of BPM via a pilot project around a high visibility process
- Scale implementation across the organization with change management support
For deeper playbooks on building business process excellence, see our guides on process improvement frameworks and process mining. Or get matched to top-rated process automation vendors here.
The future of work depends on harnessing process intelligence. Is your organization ready to connect the dots?
- "Chernobyl disaster." Wikipedia. December 26, 2022. ↩
- "Business Process Management Market Size & Share Report, 2022-2030." Grand View Research. October 2022. ↩
- "Tackle The Most Common BPM Challenges." Forrester. February 2011. ↩
- "Process Mining: a database of applications." HSPI. 2021. ↩
- "Process Mining: a database of applications." HSPI. 2021. ↩
- "Process Mining: a database of applications." HSPI. 2021. ↩
- "Process Mining: a database of applications." HSPI. 2021. ↩
- "Process Mining: a database of applications." HSPI. 2021. ↩
- "Process Mining: a database of applications." HSPI. 2021. ↩