In 2018, process excellence continued to gain importance for businesses worldwide. Designing, automating, and improving processes have become non-negotiable for companies who wish to stay relevant and make an impact.
This enduring emphasis on process improvement isn’t a fad that’s going away soon, either. According to Orbis Research, the global BPM market is expected to be worth $13-14 billion by 2021.
To benefit from fast-evolving BPM practices, it’s important to stay updated with technological advancements. Some recent developments include the following.
Process Mining
Process mining uses data mining methods to improve specific parts of processes that don’t work. The focus is on eliminating waste and retaining parts of the processes that are valuable.
In process mining, event logs can be extracted and mined to reveal the actual performance details of processes that may not be retrievable from interviews. It can reveal information such as the discovery of lags and bottlenecks, conformance to original process design, as well as ways to enhance efficiency.
To illustrate how process mining can be useful, let’s look at a call center scenario. A Customer calls to register a complaint regarding the company’s service. He isn’t satisfied with the resolution and calls about the same complaint three more times. The complaint is routed through different executives and the case history is recorded but the customer’s problem ultimately remains unresolved.
In such situations, process mining can read the logs and create a visual representation of how the process played out in reality. Analyzing this can help decision makers pinpoint where the changes need to be made and how the process needs to be fine-tuned for better outcomes.
The information derived from process mining is objective since it’s based exclusively on data. It can go a long way in boosting efficiency levels as well as standardizing, refining, and streamlining processes.
Robotic Process Automation
Robotic process automation (RPA) refers to the use of software featuring AI and machine learning to perform high-volume, repeatable tasks that are traditionally carried out manually.
Typical examples include making calculations, entering records, transactions, and so on. RPA can be used across a variety of functions within an organization such as human resources, financial services, customer service, healthcare, and more.
RPA significantly benefits organizations by
- boosting productivity rates with faster turnaround time,
- ensuring process compliance with regulations,
- saving costs involved in manual tasks, and
- improving customer service
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is among the most rapidly evolving areas of technology. Industry leaders are combining AI with BPM methodology to enhance automation and analyze large amounts of data for process improvements. According to Forrester Analyst Rob Koplowitz, the primary driver for application of AI in BPM is the need to improve customer experiences.
In the future, AI will be sought out not only for traditional BPM benefits like cost minimization but also for a wider variety of end goals such as compliance, customer satisfaction, digital transformation, and more.
Some specific areas where AI could enhance BPM practices are
- voice-activated functions using natural language processing,
- automatic real-time process improvement,
- optimizing time taken in tasks that require manual intervention, and
- aligning similar process across branches in different countries
No-Code Technology
No-code applications do away with the need for coding knowledge entirely. As long as the end user has a clear idea of the application in mind, any requirement can be catered to.
No-code BPM platforms allow you to create business process applications with ease. All you need to do is build forms, design workflows, add connections, and let the application run.
No-code applications are the future of BPM for more reasons than one. Organizations are growing and changing at breakneck speed and their demands from BPM are just as quick. According to Gartner, through 2021, market demand for app development will grow at least five times faster than IT capacity to deliver it.
It’s almost impossible for developers to keep up with every department’s demand if they have to build everything from scratch. With no-code applications, speed is never an issue.
No-coding applications also effectively offload responsibility to teams who don’t have development skills. The IT team doesn’t need to be overwhelmed by requests. The end user is just as capable of setting up a customized BPM tool.
In a study conducted in 2017, Gartner concluded that customer experience would be the basis on which 81% leaders expect to compete in the coming years. Process excellence is critical to shaping memorable customer experiences. Utilize upcoming advancements in BPM to stay ahead of the curve.
Staying Ahead of the Trends
BPM, as a discipline, will continue to become more and more important as organizations find ways to reduce cost, pursue digital transformation, and improve the customer experience. BPM is in a great place to leverage a lot of the new technology out there and you can expect to see large leaps in the near future in how it is applied.