When you’re researching ways to improve productivity within your organization, you’re likely to come across two key phrases: business process management (BPM) and workflow automation. If you’re having trouble distinguishing the difference between the two—you’re not alone! It’s a very popular question in the world of process management. Here’s how these two common terms differ and work together.
Key differences between BPM and Workflow Automation
To summarize on higher-level, the main points and differences between the two are:
- Workflow automation is best for organizing documents and people.
- BPM software is best for organizing strategic company wide initiatives; integrating systems, processes, and people.
- BPM suites (including iBPMS), integrate and interact with many different systems (iPaaS, business rules, etc)
- Workflow automation systems are less complex, less scalable and are faster to implement. As such, they are cheaper.
- BPM software is enterprise-ready, scalable, and offers insight into every function of business. As such, is more expensive.
How do workflow automation and BPM work together?
Well-designed workflows are a component of BPM, but a workflow automation refers to one sequence of tasks. Consider a short employee onboarding workflow that includes preparing a parking pass, compiling documents for e-sign, and scheduling a team lunch to welcome a new employee. It’s a series of tasks to get this project done from start to finish. Through a business process management lens, you can seamlessly incorporate more departments and systems into the process. Submit an employee’s information to the security team for a badge, set up an expense account with the accounting team, and work with IT to grant access to apps and databases. Your BPM platform also has a detailed understanding of the other workflows moving between each team and can provide powerful insight into how to prioritize effectively. Each of these onboarding tasks involves a host of people and departments, plus a myriad of smaller subtasks, all of which can filter through a BPM system to find the most optimal route to efficiency. BPM is about high-level coordination to help your entire organization run smoothly. It’s a much-needed remedy to disparate processes—after all, due to inefficiencies.
