How BPM transforms operational excellence & fosters sustainable growth

Business process management (BPM) is a process excellence approach that uses various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure and optimize business processes. This systematic methodology focuses on the modernization of business through process-driven transformation to achieve operational excellence (OPEX), efficiency and cost-saving goals.

BPM has become essential for organizations navigating economic uncertainty, as it helps cut waste and build resilience. With growing demand for operational efficiency, cost savings and agility, the BPM market is projected to reach $65 billion by 2032. North America currently leads in BPM revenue, but significant growth is expected in the Asia-Pacific, fuelled by digital transformation in nations like India and China.

BPM’s applications are diverse, adapting to different business types, sizes and sectors to synchronize people, systems and data. As companies embrace digital transformation, BPM offers a path to operational efficiency and sustainable growth. Ekaterina "Katie" Curry, a managing director at Millennial Specialty Insurance, highlights BPM’s value in creating transparency through KPIs and data, supporting better decision-making, incremental improvement, risk assessment and innovation.

“BPM is an unsung hero that can help with many business priorities.” Ekaterina "Katie" Curry, a managing director at Millennial Specialty Insurance.

Trends shaping BPM in 2024

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and the acceleration of process excellence strategies post-pandemic have significantly impacted workforces dynamics. Here are the key ways BPM will impact sustainable growth through encouraging operational excellence.

AI, machine learning and automation

The integration AI and machine learning (ML) into BPM is transforming process excellence by enhancing automation, enabling smarter decision-making and improving process optimization. Generative AI plays a key role here, because it uses data to uncover actionable insights and drives process evolution with capabilities like content creation and predictive analytics.

At PEX Network’s Future of BPM event, 54 percent of attendees identified AI and ML as the most impactful emerging technologies in BPM. Current studies show that 57 percent of organizations plan to adopt AI solutions soon, with 25 percent already incorporating AI into their workflows.

Low-code/no-code BPM

Low-code and no-code technology is another hot topic and is having a growing impact on BPM. With these coding solutions, users can now create workflows, applications and processes without needing deep technical knowledge. Not only does this democratize BPM, but also empowers more professionals across various domains to actively engage in process management. It reduces traditional barriers, accelerates implementation and promotes collaboration between technical and non-technical stakeholders within organizations.

Adaptive/intelligent BPM

The development of new technology has resulted in the rise of adaptive (or intelligent) BPM. This is enabling businesses to adjust processes on-the-fly and allows for better responses to demands.

While traditional BPM mainly offers data analytics, adaptive BPM provides live, actionable insights and can autonomously correct workflows to streamline decision-making. This flexibility supports continuous process improvement (CPI), optimizing event processing, integration and management.

Process mining/intelligence

As a companion to BPM, process mining plays a key role in uncovering real-time workflows. It analyzes current processes, making it easier for businesses to improve efficiency and adopt a strong process-oriented culture. Process mining automates the discovery of how processes actually operate, helping businesses refine workflows before automation. This enables organizations to scale BPM initiatives effectively, making process lifecycle management increasingly accurate. Process mining/intelligence will converge with BPM strategies more and more as companies discover its advantages.

Cloud-based BPM

The shift to cloud-based BPM solutions is another trend significantly impacting BPM. Cloud-based BPM offers the ability to access, manage and scale processes remotely, supporting teams across various locations. These solutions are increasingly user-centric, allowing non-technical users to easily engage with BPM applications.

“BPM provides agility and flexibility to an organization, allowing businesses to quickly modify processes and respond to changing market regulatory requirements.” Dr. Frank Thielman, head of functions of the future at Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

Diversifying industry applications

BPM applications are expanding across industries, adapting to diverse needs and enhancing sector-specific operations. In finance and banking, BPM is crucial for risk management, compliance and customer service. In healthcare, it supports efficient data management and patient services. Real estate, government and manufacturing also rely on BPM for managing complex processes and regulatory requirements, illustrating its wide-reaching impact.

Hybrid working

Since COVID-19, the shift to hybrid work has demanded new flexibility. Organizations are adopting distributed work models, where employees operate from home, offices, or various remote spaces. BPM helps streamline and automate workflows to support this flexibility, improving productivity by leveraging AI, automation and enterprise data integration to meet modern workplace demands.

Sustainability and green BPM

Sustainability is now essential for modern businesses, driven by growing pressure to reduce environmental impact and improve transparency. Green BPM helps organizations analyze resource use, minimize waste and optimize processes for environmental goals, providing a structured approach to integrating sustainability into core business operations.

What are they key BPM success factors?

There are a number of factors key to BPM success. Here are the key elements.

Clear vision and commitment

Successful BPM initiatives start with a clear vision tied to specific business priorities and ROI goals. A defined “why” and a sense of purpose provide a roadmap, helping organizations understand the business need and intended beneficiaries. Without these foundational elements, moving forward with BPM projects may lack focus, ultimately diminishing potential benefits.

People-process alignment

Aligning people with core process outcomes is critical. This involves defining roles, clarifying responsibilities and designing processes to achieve goals as efficiently as possible. Mehra highlights a three-phase approach used by Maersk, where the business product team defines customer and business needs, functional owners design processes and platform owners convert business requirements into actionable technology solutions. This structured alignment between people, processes and technology fosters a culture of collaboration, making BPM more predictable and scalable.

Leadership and sponsorship

Strong executive leadership and sponsorship are essential for BPM success. Leaders who champion BPM initiatives set clear goals, allocate resources and actively drive the change. Thielmann underscores that executive support fosters a process-improvement culture aligned with strategic objectives, enhancing stakeholder buy-in. Engaging a range of stakeholders across departments brings diverse perspectives and addresses their needs, fostering a sense of ownership. This collaborative approach promotes a commitment to BPM initiatives and ensures long-term alignment with the company’s goals.

Data-driven insights

Effective BPM relies on collecting and analyzing relevant data to reveal inefficiencies, bottlenecks and improvement areas. Data-driven insights support informed decisions, prioritize process enhancements and assess the impact of BPM initiatives. Real-time feedback loops, KPIs and performance metrics are essential in guiding BPM efforts, especially with digitalization and automation. Thielmann emphasizes that continuous monitoring and analysis ensure that improvements align with the organization’s evolving needs, fostering a culture of innovation and ongoing refinement.

Risk management

BPM projects carry inherent risks like cost overruns, scope creep, or technical setbacks. Arun U from Quadrant Knowledge Solutions advises a structured risk assessment process—reviewing scope, evaluating impact and using tools like risk matrices to rank risks based on severity. Identifying and prioritizing risks helps organizations focus resources on the most critical threats, proactively addressing potential disruptions. This process increases project resilience, minimizes budget impacts and ensures that BPM initiatives are executed within timeline constraints, enhancing overall BPM success.

Business-centric impact

For BPM to be impactful, it must be aligned with business strategies and objectives, which can be challenging due to resistance to change and a lack of alignment. Thielmann highlights the importance of strong ties between BPM and overarching business goals, ensuring that processes are directed toward the areas of greatest impact. Effective change management strategies help overcome resistance from employees who may prefer the status quo. Additionally, modern technology infrastructures—integrated seamlessly with legacy systems—are crucial for supporting BPM, particularly as organizations seek more efficient process automation.

Customer involvement

Involving customers in BPM initiatives aligns processes with customer needs and enhances satisfaction and loyalty. By incorporating customer feedback during process design and evaluation, organizations can develop offerings that better meet customer expectations, improving product or service quality. Methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups and feedback sessions are useful in gathering customer insights. This alignment not only enhances BPM’s effectiveness but also drives innovation, ultimately building trust and differentiating the organization in the market.

The future of BPM

BPM’s future will increasingly involve advanced technologies like AI, cloud, IoT and predictive analytics, making BPM systems more adaptive and responsive. These technologies offer data-driven insights that allow businesses to anticipate changes, respond to events in real-time and support more complex, automated workflows.

As businesses shift to a more agile process management approach, BPM is evolving beyond a mere methodology to a vital strategy for staying competitive in a fast-paced market. This innovation-driven evolution underscores the need for ongoing BPM advancements as businesses respond to an increasingly complex global environment.

Offering guidance to organizations, Thielman says that “BPM is an ongoing journey, and organizations must foster a culture of continuous improvement to ensure long-term success. This requires regular monitoring, measurement and refinement of processes, as well as fostering a mindset of innovation and adaptability.”