With this initial blog I want to start a discussion about the building blocks we identified for SAP’s roadmap towards a process oriented company. This blog is based on the experiences the Process Governance Team made when developing an approach to transform SAP into a process driven company. To get more information about the vision and tasks of our team please watch this interview with Mark Scavillo on ARIS TV.
As long as we only discuss about BPM in general it remains more or less a virtual concept for me. Many definitions of Business Process Management include something like “…is a (integrated) set of…” But depending on the author or main focus of an article this “set” you need for BPM includes different things. The wide spectrum encompasses everything from activities to methods to tools to leadership to controlling and many other ingredients. For me and many other people this is really confusing.
But regardless these differences in the definition of this “set”, one finding remains: BPM seems to be something that is based on or that is built out of smaller parts. If this is correct, then we have to create, implement, transform and use these single elements in a coordinated manner to materialize BPM in our company.
Regarding this I would define Building Blocks of BPM Transformation as
- essential and interconnected elements
- that have to evolve in a coordinated and gradual way
- to enable increasing maturity levels and benefits of BPM
- across functional units on an enterprise level.
But which are these building blocks of BPM and how can they be structured in a transparent way? What has to happen with them during the transformation towards a process driven company? And how can this happen in a “coordinated manner”? These are all questions you might ask yourself if you think about the establishment or evolution of BPM within your company. And answering them makes BPM more concrete.
I can’t cover or even try to give answers to all these questions in this first blog. But I want to invite you to discuss these questions and our approach with me step by step during the next few weeks.
