Revisiting business process boundaries

Business Processes Management (BPM) is, according to Wikipedia, "aligning organizations with the wants and needs of clients". To achieve the required alignment, an organization iteratively design and model a process which addresses client needs, then process participants (i.e. IT systems and/or people) execute and monitor the defined process, and finally the organization optimize the process for better alignment.

Managing business processes with BPM systems is become more and more common. The BPM systems market has more than 30% annual growth, according to IDC. The benefits are clear: automation (at least partial), increased operational efficiency, reduced costs and higher transparency for different process stakeholders (process participants and managers).

Today, the common usage of BPM systems is managing processes within the boundaries of the organization, involving only inter-organizational process participants (i.e. organization IT or employees). A good example is a telephone company internal process which handles a technical problem of a customer; customer service opens a case, customer information is retrieved from database, technical staff handles the problem and close the case.

However, business process may involve external participants as customers or business partners. In the above example, the customer (the one the process is for...) is an important stakeholder of this process. The customer may need to supply additional information after initial research by the technical staff, or would like to monitor the case status.

When the process involves external participants, the required alignment is extended beyond the boundaries of the organization. This insight requires an holistic approach to business process management - where all process stakeholders - internal and external, take part. The process execution will be more efficient and take less time, thus reduce costs involved throughout the supply chain. Customer satisfaction will increase due to efficient and transparent service. One example for this approach is the increasing buzz around the integration of CRM and BPM capabilities.

If your organization operates in a competitive environment, with high sensitivity to customer satisfaction or to integration with business partners, it should start identify business processes with high impact on growth and manage them in a more holistic manner.