Business Process

ManagementAre
You Ready for the
Future?
CIA - 3

Dilip K Singh
1421212
LOS - IJK

Dilip K singh

AUTHOR - Clemente Minonne and Geoff Turner

, Knowledge and Process Management Volume 19

Number 3 pp 111120 (2012) Published online 8

May 2012 in Wiley Online Library
(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI:
10.1002/kpm.1388

This is an empirical study which is conducted by the authors conducted in the Germanspeaking region of Europe, gathered useful data on issues relating to current and future
investment in business process management, including initiatives in the field of business
process outsourcing. By analysing this data the authors want to look at current view point of
business discipline as well as some insights into the applications in use, level of maturity,
realised benefits and outsourcing opportunities.
The authors have begun the article with a brief description of BPM, how it evolved over time
and how it has gained importance over the years. During the 1990s BPR was in practice it is
a fundamental rethink and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic
improvements in important metrics such as cost, quality, service and cycle time. Then the
authors speak about the next generation of BPR that is typically referred to as BPM, which is
represented as a divided cube framework. It is represented by 4 dimensions i.e. business,
technology on one side and strategic and operational on the other. There was a hype with
regards to BPM in the regions of Europe (in particular Switzerland, Germany and Austria),
because of various organisations trying to implement projects this study was structured to
address a number of different aspects relating to BPMapplications in use, level of maturity,
realised benefits and possible outsourcing opportunities. Furthermore, with respect to each of
these aspects, the authors were keen to understand what promoted and what impeded the
adoption of BPM.

Research methodology
The data was collected through quantitative means by using survey technique. The
questionnaire that was developed comprised 41 basic and detailed questions covering BPM in
each of the eight different configurations of the framework with emphasis on the use of BPM
tools and business process outsourcing. The survey was conducted online for a group of
individuals who had expertise and were currently working in BPM. Participants were selected
randomly through relevant research groups, specialised technical forums, newsletters and
invitations posted on appropriate websites. In addition, direct invitations were made using a
snowball selection process to ensure that different sectors were represented in that data
collection.
There were a total of 219 completed responses that were received during the survey. The
main objective of the study was to identify the main objectives of BPM the results were as
follows targets of quality improvement (76%), process optimisation by means of

standardisation of processes (73%) and an increase in organisational productivity (61%).

About one-fifth (19%) of respondents indicated that BPM is used to increase the level of
innovation. Other objectives such as finding procedural bottlenecks (12%) and support for
outsourcing decisions (9%) seem to play a minor role in formulating BPM activities.
Then in order to find out about the general awareness of organisations on BPM they were
assessed to business process maturity model. There are 4 levels of maturity
1. Level 1 are considered to understand the need for continuous improvement and have a
general awareness of BPM.
2. Level 2, organisations have moved on from level 1 by identifying and addressing a
few individual topics within BPM.
3. Level 3, organisations must have applied substantial elements of BPM as part of their
continuous improvement programme.
4. Level 4, they have established policies and procedures for continuous improvement
through the application of BPM
The findings of Business process maturity model are 38% were at level 1, 23% are at level 2,
32% are at level 3 and only 7% at level 4.

Conclusion
This article shows that many of the organisations are still not fully exploiting the potential of
BPM. The increase in globalisation means that the organisations are subject to intense and
continuous change due to competition. The author says automation will lead to only a short
term solution, but in order to meet long term strategic needs there should be process reengineering which can be achieved with the help of BPM.
Pros
Use of simplistic language
Brilliant research techniques used to conduct the research
Streamlined flow of research
Cons
No use of examples, inclusion would have helped understand better.
Research conducted only in one particular geography which cannot be applied
globally.