1 The Ultimate Guide to BPM / Whitepaper

W H I T E PA P E R

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE

TO BUSINESS PROCESS
MANAGEMENT (BPM)

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 2 The Ultimate Guide to BPM / Whitepaper

Contents
What is business process management (BPM)?................................................ 3
Examples of repeatable processes: ........................................................................................................... 4

Stages of Business Process Management........................................................... 5

Business Process Management Software........................................................... 9
How to evaluate business process management software...........................................................10

What are the differences between popular business process management software

options? ....................................................................................................................................................................11

Business Process Management Examples.........................................................15

How your sales team can benefit from business process management ..............................16

How business progress management bolsters regulatory compliance...................................17

Business process management for customer support teams......................................................17

Marketing departments can also use business progress management software...............18

Empower human resource executives with business process management software...19

About ProcessMaker............................................................................................. 20

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 3 The Ultimate Guide to BPM / Whitepaper

What is business process

management (BPM)?
Modern organizations are overflowing with procedures and methods for getting every job done. Departments
often operate independently, with their own tactics for completing duties. Individual staff members bring their
own perspective, performing tasks and to-dos with even more unique approaches. With little visibility into
exact processes, siloed departments, and everyone doing things “their own way,” organizational productivity
screeches to a grinding halt.

Each department from sales to human resources manages data, paperwork, and other inputs to fulfill their
job responsibilities. Business process management (BPM) systematizes and automates the repeatable tasks
clogging your productivity pipeline. Business process management is a crystal clear window into all these
disparate activities, bringing together all functions of your organization under a single, automated, process-
driven umbrella.

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Examples of repeatable processes:

• Sales and Marketing Teams: As organizations, we

know that it’s 5-25X more expensive to gain a new
customer than retain an existing one. But sluggish
contract generation and stalled content approvals
delay closing deals and launching new campaigns.
Using BPM to align sales and marketing processes
results in 36% higher customer retention. What
could you do with more customers?

• Accounting Department: Even in the digital age,

90% of globally processed invoices are still paper-
based. Processing paper invoices costs a company
an average of $30 to process each. How would
you spend this hundreds to thousands of dollars in
savings?

• Human Resource Professionals: Every organization

hopes to attract all-star talent. Sifting through
hundreds of applications and dozens of interviews,
your team finally finds that world-class hire. But,
manual processes waste almost 300 HR hours
per year—and 47% of jobs are ultimately refused
because HR processes were too slow. What if you
could sign and onboard top talent in record time?

Paperwork and repeated processes prevent your team from achieving your overall goals. What processes
involve too many steps and are slowing down a core function of your business? Which ones are marred by
too many paper-based procedures? Are there processes that you can remove entirely? Business process
management helps your team understand all of the activities taking place within your organization so you can
create more manageable, effective, and most importantly—profitable—workflows.

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Stages of Business
Process Management
One definition of “organization” is the following: a group of people conspicuously
cooperating. Here’s how you can get started in understanding your organization's
barriers to cooperation, identify productivity roadblocks, and start modeling
highly productive automated workflows.

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Stage 1: Planning your process

Start by meeting with your main stakeholders. No organizational transformation will be effective without a
buy-in from your main stakeholders. From training your staff to espousing the benefits of your new workflows,
you’ll need the assistance of key leaders to help manage the transition.

What processes are prime

targets for automation?

Start with primary processes, or those that Next, look to your secondary processes. These are
are central to production of your product or supporting processes that ensure your organization
service offering. For software, are there too many continues to function smoothly. Are there too many
bottlenecks in securing sign-offs to launch new choke-points slowing the flow of employee time-off
iterations of service patches? Are deals delayed requests? Does your marketing team have a trove
because your sales team has to manually transfer of approved social media materials that never went
customer data from your CRM to a final agreement? live?

Additionally, you’ll need to step outside the C-Suite to gain insight from the team members that juggle these
processes first hand. They understand the ins-and-outs of each step along the way, and can provide useful
elucidation on how things work on the frontlines.

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Step 2: Design and diagram

List and analyze the actions and individuals responsible for keeping the process moving forward. Visually
outline the sequence of events required to meet the desired goal. You can start with a narrative, or sketch out
your process with a diagram or other illustrative chart. Consider the following factors:

• Required approvals: Who needs to approve a step in your process before it can pass to the next rung?

• Approval scenarios: What happens if that person approves the step? What happens if they reject it? Bear
in mind the various outcomes and identify the potential consequences of each.

• External connections: Does your process need to link with outside databases like credit scores or
citizenship checks? If your team is manually accessing external records to verify information, list it as a
potential candidate for integration.

• Storage requirements: What digital paperwork or forms do you need the system to store for later
access? For example, customer paperwork like a driver’s license, W2, or completed loan application.

• Regulatory timeframes: Does a regulatory body require you to submit a form within a certain timeframe?
Who should receive notification if a process has fallen behind schedule?

Try to be as precise as possible to avoid confusion. The more detailed your diagram, the more efficient your
ultimate workflow.

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Step 3: Process execution

Here’s where you implement your newly designed

process. With a user-friendly platform like
ProcessMaker, you can transfer your narrative
or diagram from step 2 into a fully functioning
automated process. ProcessMaker’s no-code, drag-
and-drop tools make it easy for anyone—even those
without significant IT experience—to design and
execute the forms and apps needed to launch your
new process workflow.

Step 4: Measure and monitor

Automated workflows are never set-it-and-

forget-it. Once your process is live, you’ll need to
continuously monitor its progress. Are there any
bottlenecks? Did you miss any steps? Do some
steps still require too much manual intervention?
The right platform comes with a full dashboard of
analytics, so you can easily monitor your process
flow.

Step 5: Refine, refine, refine!

Every process requires a level of finetuning. Once

you’ve reviewed its performance in step 4, start
implementing the necessary changes. Keep in mind
that process management is constantly evolving.
Regulatory requirements change, technology
advances, and customer needs rapidly shift.
Refining your processes is almost as important as
implementing them in the first place.

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Business Process
Management Software
For many companies, the idea of transitioning to a new technology feels like an overwhelming and daunting
prospect. Luckily, when shifting your tedious manual procedures over to highly productive automated
processes, there are many types of business process management software to support your initiatives.

An intuitive, low-code platform expedites the process development process by empowering all business
users to build rich, user-friendly process workflows. Without advanced technical experience, teams can use
building blocks and other presets to create their own forms. Instead of adding to IT’s ever-growing to-do lists,
the right business process management software deputizes anyone on your team as a citizen developer so
they can help build digital solutions with ease.

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How to evaluate business process management software

There are many factors to consider when choosing the right business process management software for your
organization:

• Ease of use: Weigh the technical talent of • Cloud accessibility: You want the ability to
your team. Do you have limited access to view, manage, and edit your processes from
developers? A low-code platform featuring a anywhere. Especially as remote work becomes
drag-and-drop form designer is user-friendly for more popular, team members need full access
everyone on your team—regardless of their IT to their systems from both desktop and
expertise. mobile even when based across the world
from HQ. Some platforms work exclusively on-
• Mobile-friendliness: Customers interact with
premise, while others are rushing to implement
your business during crowded train commutes
cloud services. Your best bet is a cloud-first
and while kicking back on the couch with their
platform—one that was built for cloud access
favorite binge-worthy TV series. They’re not
from the get-go.
willing to wait until they're back at their desk
to access your suite of self service tools. Your • Price: Many platforms offer an appealing
chosen business process management software upfront cost, but inevitably lock their most
must offer iOS and Android native apps—or you useful features behind additional paywalls
risk losing customers. or pricing tiers. Make sure you have a solid
understanding of a platform’s pricing structure
• Powerful reporting tools: As you now know,
before joining.
you’ll need to continually finetune and refine
your automated business processes. Therefore, • Customer service: Software tools offer a variety
you want a platform that provides stats and of customer service types, ranging from online
metrics into how your process is performing chat to open-sourced forums where expert
so you know what changes need to be made. users answer tough questions. If you have
Ask in advance for a demo of the reporting limited IT experience within your organization,
dashboard, as many platforms lock necessary you’ll likely appreciate a platform that offers
analytical tools behind additional paywalls. 24/7 online chat that can help troubleshoot
processes anytime of day.

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 11 The Ultimate Guide to BPM / Whitepaper

What are the differences between popular

business process management software options?

Here are a few popular choices for business process management software. We’ll
highlight how they stack up against one another.

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Designed to boost productivity, Kissflow helps

teams automate mundane, repetitive business
processes so they can stay focused on more
profitable projects.

Pros Cons
Digitizes cross-departmental features: Kissflow Many integrations require additional tools: To
eases the collaborative process between teams deploy many of its hyped integrations, Kissflow
separated by a few floors or a few continents. leverages additional tools like Zapier. Users bemoan
Without leaving their desks, users can submit bouncing back and forth between two different
platforms to set up new workflow steps.
requests to m, track approvals, and keep all
parties in the loop on project statuses.
Lacking in language support: While Kissflow
claims to support several languages, users report
Clean, easy-to-use interface for simple
several functionalities exclusively rely on English.
workflows: Kissflow’s user-friendly interface is
For a global team working in many languages, or
clean and simple, easily accommodating different users not proficient in English, Kissflow can be
experience levels. However, as tasks become challenging to navigate.
more complex, the system becomes slower and
clunkier to use. Pricey for larger organizations: Since Kissflow’s
subscription structure is based on the number
Extensive customer service: Users of Kissflow of users, it can be a very pricey option for larger
appreciate the platform’s commitment to organizations.
customer service. A live 24/7 chat instantaneously
connects users to product specialists, and a
massive library of quick-look videos help solve
nearly every problem.

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Bizagi is a no-code process automation platform,

pioneering the idea of merging “business” with
“agility”—hence the name, Bizagi.

Pros Cons
Multi-tier Product: Bizagi breaks down its Only Downloadable on Windows: Unfortunately,
platform into three parts for its users: Modeler, Bizagi modeler is not available in Mac OS or
Studio, and Automation. The first two are available Linux. It is also only available as a desktop app on
for download for free although only available on Microsoft Windows. They seem to be a little behind
in converting to a full Web based, API first style
Microsoft Windows and they are limited to 20
product.
users making them more for testing/trials.

Publicly Available Templates and Integration

Not Truly No-Code: On G2 Crowd, No-Code App
Tools: Bizagi Xchange is available for anyone
Development is the unique category for Bizagi,
on the Internet who is looking to download yet several reviews state this is misleading in that
connectors, templates, and more to use on the complex process modeling certainly requires IT
free Bizagi versions. However, these connectors and coding knowledge. Low Code would be a more
and templates are not free. appropriate descriptor.

Unified design environment: Reviews across Scarce English-Speaking Bizagi Experts: Live
the board show praise for Bizagi’s easy-to-use (human) support is harder to access on free
process and form design interface. The modeler in versions and require upgrade if one wants to use
Professional Services. Also, many reviews say
the free versions is drag-and-drop, helping citizen
English speaking Bizagi experts are in high demand
developers to deploy workflows with ease.
and very low supply - something to consider for
English speaking organizations.

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ProcessMaker is a low-code intelligent business process management software (iBPMs) platform that helps
break down operational silos and drastically improve efficiency. Its intuitive workflow automation platform has
been empowering cross-departmental collaboration for programmers, citizen developers, and business users
alike since 2008. Users celebrate ProcessMaker for its high level of training and support, making it one of the
most accessible business process management software options available.

Pros Cons
True API-1st Microservices based product: More Coding Knowledge Equals Better
ProcessMaker has really rebuilt on top of a series of Feature Usage: An IT professional does
modern web technologies like Vue.js, bootstrap, and have to write the original script tasks that
laravel. You can feel how responsive the application is. serve as the building blocks for many
processes, which can then be reused
Great modern feel to it.
indefinitely by business users.
Available as a Mobile Application: Not at a desktop?
Single Cloud Support: ProcessMaker
ProcessMaker is a fully responsive web app which works
seems to lean toward AWS at present
on mobile as well. The latest version of ProcessMaker
and its new solution is not marketed
does not currently offer native apps but does allow for On Premise. However, ProcessMaker
other apps to connect to its well documented API (see is offering a unique hybrid solution with
their swagger documentation). the ability to store sensitive data on
premise with a connection to your cloud
True Low-Code Environment but with additional deployment.
Developer tools: Markets true to its messaging. Design
and deploy without coding knowledge needed. However, Technical Installation on Premise.
for developers that want to create custom scripts and ProcessMaker is built for the cloud: For
users that want to run the open source
packages to run in their environment, ProcessMaker has
on premise they will find installation
a full featured web IDE for designing scripts in almost
difficult and all the cool enterprise
any programming language. All components are easy to features are missing in the open source.
reuse across processes and environments whether they The open source core, however, is well
were built by citizen developers or IT. documented and ideal for inclusion in
other enterprise products.

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Business Process
Management Examples
Business process management can help you easily make the sweeping organizational
changes that truly impact how your business operates. If paper-based, manual processes
are hindering business growth, here’s ways every department can best benefit from
process automation:

• Reduce the time it takes to run everyday operations

• Make informed decisions at a far faster pace
• Eliminate bottlenecks that slow down productivity
• Mitigate regulatory risks
• Bolster your digital transformation by moving away from paper-based processes

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How your sales team can benefit from business

process management

Problem BPM Solution

Modern sales teams juggle a variety of powerful Business process management can help you
platforms assisting their customer outreach. design an automated process for onboarding new
Typically, they bounce between a CRM system to accounts. Digital workflows can autonomously
collate customer data and guide their initiatives, create and format contacts and automatically send
and a contract agreement system to sign on new them up the rung for supervisor approval. Deeply
accounts. These systems rarely interact with integrated e-signature tools eliminate the need to
one another, leaving sales staff with a variety of chase down wet signatures. A streamlined workflow
copy+paste administrative tasks that takes away can then collate all of the necessary forms into an
from their availability to pitch even more new online repository for safe keeping.
clients.

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How business progress Business process

management bolsters management for customer
regulatory compliance support teams

Problem Problem

Many industries deal with government and Customer support used to involve a single
regulatory bodies on a daily basis. One of the phone-in line where a team member could
most volatile are the finance and insurance quickly assign follow-up tasks from one
industries, who need to remain constantly centralized location. Now, customers submit
abreast of changing finance acts and security service inquiries through dozens of mediums,
laws. Banregio wanted to implement a new like online chatbots and social media platforms
app for customers to view and service their like Facebook and Twitter. Without a powerful
investments, but needed an agile solution that plan in place, organizations can quickly lose
could easily change with fluctuating regulations. control of service requests, resulting in extremely
dissatisfied customers.

BPM Solution BPM Solution

With ProcessMaker, Banregio created an online The right processes can aggregate customer
app to service customer investments. Without service inquiries from multiple avenues, and
IT intervention, administrative personnel were make sure they’re properly handled. You can set
able to create low-code forms that automatically up automated triggers to route questions to the
moved data through regulatory checks. right personnel, assign tasks, and easily track the
Additionally, managers had a full view into the progress of support tickets.
process and could quickly monitor average
customer response times.

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Marketing departments can also use business

progress management software

Problem BPM Solution

In the digital era, marketing teams are responsible Automated approval workflows are an ideal BPM
for creating and managing campaigns across a near- solution for marketing teams. Many campaigns
endless list of platforms. From video to social media require a hierarchy of reviews, and manually
and PPC advertisements, marketers are responsible monitoring a campaign’s process through the
for a balancing act of content development and system slows launch. Gone are the days of
content approvals, each with its own unique path wading through email questions or chasing down
for approval. department heads for wet signatures. Business
process management software can automatically
send a campaign for review, and instantly send it
to the next executive once complete. Everyone has
full visibility into the process so you’ll never lose
valuable campaigns between the approval cracks.

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Empower human resource executives with business

process management software

Problem BPM Solution

Between applicants, interviewees, and those With the right automated tools in place, HR
ultimately hired, human resource professionals professionals can more effectively manage the
manage a vast trove of paperwork. The shift to an onboarding process. They can receive alerts
at-home workforce charges HR with the significant on when to schedule Zoom or GoToMeeting
responsibility of handling these documents appointments with new hires, and automated
remotely, multiplying their administrative headaches. workflows can digitally pass along resources and
internal permissions. If roles suddenly shift—no
problem—HR can transfer or adjust role-based
access at the click of a button.

The average company loses more than a day every week swamped by work redundancies and long, protracted
procedures. When an organization is blind to its own processes, there’s no way to manage or monitor output.
Using business process management and automated processes, your company can finally dig out from
underneath time-consuming, revenue-draining process bottlenecks and reach a new level of productivity.

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About ProcessMaker
ProcessMaker is low-code BPM and workflow partner network spread across 35 countries on five
software. ProcessMaker makes it easy for business continents. Hundreds of commercial customers,
analysts to collaborate with IT to automate complex including many Fortune 100 companies, rely on
business processes connecting people and existing ProcessMaker to digitally transform their core
company systems. Headquartered in Durham, North business processes enabling faster decision making,
Carolina in the United States, ProcessMaker has a improved compliance, and better performance.

Ready to learn more about how intelligent Request a Free Demo

process automation can serve your organization? +1.919.289.1377
Learn more at processmaker.com

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