For the past few years, the business world has been inundated with talk (and evidence) of a digital transformation—whereby businesses leverage digital technologies to reimagine and enhance outdated models and processes. According to IDC, “digital transformation enables enterprises to seamlessly blend digital and physical business and customer experiences while improving operational efficiencies and organizational performance.”
In 2018, digital transformation is at the center of business process management (BPM). More businesses are looking to embrace digital innovation, which means saying goodbye to the manual, paper-driven, siloed processes of the past and opening the door to the dynamic, integrated, agile processes of the present and future.
While 59% of companies are still in the early or middle stages of digital transformation maturity, a big shift is expected to take place this year. If you’re among the businesses working to assess existing workflow processes and build a digital strategy, here are the BPM trends to consider:
#1: Interoperability and Collaboration
We’re living in a hyperconnected time period that has birthed an always-on generation, so it should be no surprise that building connections among technologies and people is a key priority on the path to digital business maturity. More than ever before, businesses are looking for tools and applications that integrate with one another and allow for stakeholder collaboration.
In other words, they’re adopting workflow automation technology that promotes simple and standardized data collection, automatic data routing, seamless document sharing, and real-time communication.
#2: Accessibility and Mobility
Another side effect of our always-on society is the expectation of convenience—just consider the ever-increasing popularity of companies like Amazon and Netflix. As businesses look to improve workflow management, they’re catering to this convenience expectation by creating and using mobile apps and/or mobile-friendly systems. These systems allow people to access and act on important information whenever and wherever they want, as well as track work progress while on the go.
#3: Customization and Flexibility
Every organization has its own set of business needs, and some require more complex workflows than others. This means the ability to create a custom, flexible workflow can make or break a BPM strategy.
Businesses that succeed with workflow management will deploy a solution that can be scaled to add new employees, more departments, or enhanced functionality. A successful solution will also support process updates that allow the business to keep up with shifting priorities and emerging needs.
#4: Simplicity and User-friendliness
Workflow automation is no longer an IT issue. With recent and ongoing advances in business process management technology, business leaders and managers have begun taking ownership of their processes. As this continues, businesses will increasingly seek out intuitive tools that let non-technical users build and update processes with ease. And they will steer clear of any software that requires advanced coding knowledge and, thus, reliance on developers and IT departments.
Final Thoughts
As you work to enhance your business process management this year and beyond, keep these trends in mind. Success depends on finding an approachable, accessible system that lets you build dynamic, integrated, scalable workflows.
Want to learn how to simplify your business processes? Check out down below 3 questions you can ask to help you simplify your process!
