How many times have you implemented a software project only to be told by your users that it doesn't match the way their process really works? Have email and spreadsheets become your company's primary workflow tool for processes such as employee on boarding, pricing agreements, and travel or purchase requests? If your company were a patient, your doctor would probably prescribe a business process management (BPM) approach.
Why? Because everyone is looking for a better way to translate business needs into software. BPM is special in that it focuses on ensuring alignment between business and IT. In fact, BPM software brings in the techniques and tools that allow the business to recognize the scope of its business processes. Also, it helps to optimize them before IT development begins, so that you can be much further down the path towards a successful project.
Does this mean that you have to replace traditional application tools and packages with BPM? Absolutely not! Most processes are best practices and are best managed by proven applications such as SAP Business Suite applications. BPM is positioned to enable organizations to focus on extending or creating differentiating processes by providing the process logic layer that orchestrates the business logic within existing applications and packages.
So how and where are companies actually using a BPM approach that includes their SAP environments? We've been researching this heavily ever since the release of SAP NetWeaver BPM earlier this year. The results of this research are fascinating, both in the breadth of use cases people are finding for BPM, and in the common starting points many companies choose to first experiment with the business value provided by BPM.
We would like to share the results we've compiled so far in the BPM use case wiki. Here you will find more than 20 industry and cross-industry use cases for BPM, including models, demos, and any other documentation that early adopters shared with us.
Have you also got a BPM use case to share with us? Add your insight by becoming a contributor to the BPM use case wiki or join the conversation at the Business Process Management use cases within an SAP Environment.
Greg Chase, SAP NetWeaver BPM Solution Marketing
