Methods of Process Automation

These are solutions used to optimise, automate and manage specific processes that are either manual or inefficient in the core business systems such as the ERP.

BPM solutions are less complicated to update and optimise processes through a broad range of modular capabilities across the information lifecycle from Digital workflows and process automation, data capture and extraction to content and information search, archiving, collaboration & business intelligence. They typically offer the broadest range of potential benefits beyond just those associated with automation but it depends on the implementation.

BPM solutions and their workflow engines often have a strength in managing the switch between automation and human workflows as well as integration directly with Business IT systems such as ERP.

There are 2 broad categories of BPM solutions:

Application Specific – These BPM solutions are typically optimised for automating and managing one or a collection of very specific processes within a department such as Expenses, Account Payable, Onboarding etc. Their strength can also be their weakness in some cases as it encourage silos.

Customisable BPM Platforms – These BPM platforms are today highly and easily customisable to any process and often include templates for certain processes as well as integrate with other systems and applications. They typically incorporate the full suite of BPM capabilities for managing and automating the processing of information irrespective of process.

Instead of many application specific solutions, customisable BPM platforms remove silos in information, systems and cost. Key Applications include contract management, finance workflows, sales proposal management, Internal or external approvals, HR document workflows, sales order processing, case management, project management and customer specific workflows.

These are dedicated pieces of software written by software developers to perform business specific automation tasks. These result in highly specialised software which perform a specific tasks for the business. These techniques were traditionally used to deliver a single monolithic application as a solution to Process Automation projects. Since these were typically developed form scratch they required very significant amounts of development resources. Software development is a highly skilled role which is often in short supply which makes it one of the most expensive IT resources.  A single bespoke development also makes for a very inflexible solution, which requires expensive development resources to make any changes.

There are however times when a business requirement is so bespoke there is no better way to implement it than bespoke development. Modern automation projects typically only use bespoke development is used when there are no other options. However it typically only forms a small part of the overall solution. Usually a BPM Workflow engine acts as the conductor, coordinating the process and the bespoke development is a single specialist instrument in the orchestra called upon only when needed. These maintain some of the BPM flexibility and allows the bespoke development to vastly simplified.