How does a process-oriented approach change the structure of modern companies?

Companies that have seriously adopted BPM have realized that they need to transform their organization to focus on processes at all levels. Before the widespread adoption of BPM, most companies were organized around functional subsystems. Since BPM increased the focus on end-to-end processes, the subsystem-based organization became less relevant to existing activities within companies, and the need for new types of responsibilities decreased.

Gradually, it became clearer that the focus on accountability management and performance management should be on the end-to-end process. Therefore, the focus of management shifted. Instead of creating virtual servers from organizational subsystems, now servers are responsible for processes. Key supporting processes are increasingly integrated into end-to-end processes. Owners of supporting processes are responsible for ensuring the correct functioning of these processes. As a result, managers’ attention is fully directed toward process optimization.

A parallel change is also happening in IT. The infrastructure is increasingly focused on creating services and other elements that support processes. Organizational applications are still supported, but the emphasis is now on delivering the performance of applications through services. Subsequently, services are used as components by BPM. Different groups within the organization design their processes and expect IT to deliver the components and services needed to execute their processes.

As an organization matures in process modeling and business management, processes become more prominent in the lives of business users and increasingly foundational for senior managers. The need for specialists in process modeling and service repositories is felt as an extension of the need for technological skills to build components.

With a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles of BPM, we can discuss how value is created through BPM.

Business case for adopting business processes

A few individuals and large companies view BPM as a non-serious activity. In most cases, executive managers adopt BPM as a new way to manage their companies for the following reasons: the executive system is emotionally attached to this idea, a particular business unit or department has demonstrated remarkable results through focused use of BPM, or a crisis has revealed that the complexity of management tasks cannot be handled in any other way.

Adopting a BPM program means becoming a process-oriented company. This does not happen in a month or even a year. It means that BPM is a long-term effort as well as a short-term one. Short-term projects can emerge from departmental levels, have high impact, and quickly pay for themselves. However, as a practice at the organizational level, BPM is fundamentally a long-term cultural change that must be broadly understood as a new way of thinking, regardless of the methods and tools used.

As the process-oriented mindset is maintained within a company, the company's strategy from the highest level to the process design level and the criteria that reflect them is translated accurately. New ways of designing processes and creating solutions emerge. Organizations focus on processes that flow through the company and the business network. Everyone begins to understand their role not as a separate part of the machine but as part of a larger process that creates value for customers. When executing each role, individuals can easily see how their work is supported by what came before and what impact it will have on what comes after.