3 Tips for Improving Workflow with Business Process Management Software

Business process management software offers an excellent solution to the ever-growing problem of data. Your company collects, stores and uses new data every day, in each department. With BPM, you have a ready-to-use solution to help streamline efficiency in using this data.

In other words—your BPM software should help you improve business protocol. All of your business processes break down to a series of workflows.

In this way, all the necessary obligations of your business are completed on schedule. In most companies, each department will have its own processes. For instance, your accounts receivable department will follow a set protocol in place to collect payments for each account.

Often your workflows are intertwined. Different tasks rely on each other. In the life-cycle of an account, one project may need to go through several departments and multiple workflows.

Depending on your business model, an account might start in marketing and sales. Once the prospective client becomes a customer, their documentation should be available for the account manager servicing their needs. Once services are rendered, the information should pass through to billing.

Your account life-cycle isn’t linear, though. Often updated information will be needed by multiple departments throughout the business relationship with that client.

This is where your business process management software, if used correctly, improves your workflow execution.

Follow These Tips to Improve Protocol and Manage Workflow

Your business process management software should offer out-of-the-box solutions. It should also offer solutions that can be tailored to your business needs. There are numerous specific functions that can be streamlined. But success hinges on utilizing all of the advantages of your business process management software effectively.

Here are a few tips to help you streamline workflows using the technology available.

Take Advantage of the Analytics.

Your BPM should offer analytics so that you can easily track how employees are using the system. This allows you to pinpoint where clients are in the workflow, where they may be held up, and how well the process works overall. Using the reports and analytics features, problems with the workflow can be easily pinpointed. This allows you the ability to change what’s not working or offer more training for employees who might not be using the BPM software to its full capacity.

Use Search Functionality.

When paired with an enterprise content management solution, your business process management software offers search features that make finding all information pertinent to client accounts simple. Prior to this technology, employees would often spend a good deal of time trying to locate information through paper files. Even then, it was common for information to be incomplete. An advanced search feature allows all personnel the ability to better serve customers and complete tasks with better efficiency.

Take Advantage of Document Sharing.

Document sharing and real time information are perhaps the best benefits for your efficiency. Because each department will use the same BPM system, you’ll eliminate issues of poor communication. Documentation is updated universally. This means that you’ll never end up with incomplete information. When relying on paper files or even digital files that weren’t shared, there was always the danger that you might not have access to all of the information available. If one employee didn’t make the latest changes in a document available, costly mistakes could be made through a simple lapse in communication.

Automate Your Workflow for Optimal Efficiency

Your business process management software allows your company to automate workflows. In this way, employees are forced to stick within a set protocol. Workflows are set to be completed in a certain order. This makes it impossible to skip steps without realizing it.

Automating processes also means that you’ll cut down on the user-generated errors that were so common in manual data entry. Information has already been stored. New entries will compare the old information so that there are safety nets in place to detect any errors as they occur.

Your BPM software can be web or cloud-based so that employees can access information in real time from any location. This frees up your staff so that they can still conduct business without being chained to a desktop computer. Not only does it allow for more freedom from staff, but this means that each member of the company can access the same, updated information. New changes will automatically be saved for all pertinent parties.

With planning and forethought, you can streamline business workflows and improve productivity across various departments. This can make your employees’ jobs easier to manage while eliminating costly errors and simplifying business processes.