Tag: BPM

BPM tool: what it is and the benefits for your business
What is a BPM tool?

A BPM tool is a very useful resource for companies that want to analyze, manage, and improve their processes. Due to its many benefits, BPM is a methodology used worldwide in businesses of different types and sizes.

The practical application of BPM requires tools that combine technology in its favor. For this reason, it is constantly updated and improved to meet diverse demands.

Thus, a BPM tool is capable of managing processes using automated workflows to unify the entire company.

In addition, they provide greater transparency regarding communication, and easy-to-analyze reports for assertive decision-making.

As you can see from this short introduction, BPM tools are very important. So, stay on top of it and transform your processes and your business.

Defining BPM

BPM (Business Process Management) is an adjustable methodology with the objective of organizing, facilitating, and managing the organizational processes that exist within companies.

In simple terms, a process is a set of activities aimed at achieving a certain goal. And, BPM standardizes the interaction among a process’ stages.

Thus, BPM manages processes because it enables analyzing, modeling, improving, publishing, and controlling the activity flow of all departments.

What is a BPM tool?

A BPM tool is an intuitive system capable of providing companies with the practical management, control, automation, and improvement of their processes.

In this sense, a BPM tool is used to measure, map, standardize, optimize, and automate a company’s processes.

Thus, BPM tools are used so that the process management is carried out with greater practicality, precision, accessibility, and security. It is also capable of improving your company’s performance and competitive differential.

For this reason, many enterprises opt to use technology-enabled BPM tools. That is, with software that allows a better application of the BPM methodology.

In fact, since there is a great diversity of BPM software available, it is necessary to understand your demands in order to choose the platform that will best meet them.

Process Management Categories

As you can see, BPM is very broad and may involve the use of several tools. Therefore, some theories categorize management:

System-focused: here BPM focuses on processes involving workflow that operate without much human intervention. Usually, processes are automated in systems.

Human-focused: here the BPM tool focuses on creating features to improve human interaction, such as a designed user interface, alerts, and notifications.

Document-focused: This covers everything about processes such as formatting, signing, and verifying contracts.

Obviously, the most advanced and up-to-date BPM tools are able to absorb and solve all of these demand categories in a unified way. In other words, with a single software, for example, the company has notification customization, electronic signature, and task automation.

What is the importance of managing a process?

Process management is important for the company’s success since its processes are designed with structured steps to produce consistent results.

Because of this, business process management makes it possible to predict results and mitigate risks. In addition, it makes enables you to see the weak links, bottlenecks, and failures that hinder the final results.

Consequently, when a process is poorly designed or managed, it leads to inefficiency, and impacts negatively the entire corporate ecosystem.

A BPM tool, among other advantages, allows the company to have its operations standardized, directing the focus to its true core business.

In addition, innovations may be added as the business advances, without compromising the current operation.

The benefits of a BPM tool

Undoubtedly, adopting a BPM tool brings many advantages. When processes are well-designed and detailed, their execution becomes more efficient, productive, and organized, contributing to overall better results and customer satisfaction.

BPM helps companies to offer more efficient products or services at a lower cost. In addition, when the approach is automation-oriented, they can adapt to changes faster.

Other benefits that BPM tools offers to organizations include:
- Issue detection and error reduction;
- The monitoring of processes with reports on productivity and procedures;
- Expenses and waste reduction;
- More data security, with extra protection for documents and information;
- Process automation;
- Increase in performance, productivity, and efficiency.
Features and capabilities of a BPM software tool

Platforms that use BPM tools serve to manage business processes. Therefore, among several features, they are capable of:
- Building forms to collect, display, and analyze relevant data and information;
- Automate workflow by assigning tasks, setting deadlines, rules, and permissions;
- Customize notifications and alerts, allowing you to track task status;
- Create and edit electronic forms to streamline processes and improve information accuracy;
- Offering low-code platforms with a simple design that allows you to drag and drop items according to user preferences or internal needs;
- Accessing control and mobility;
- Integrating with other software that the organization already adopts;
- Reporting and analysing metrics and process results;
- Monitoring activity and featuring dashboards.
With these and other features, a BPM tool is capable of positively influencing business productivity. Especially when considering usability, support, functionality, customization and integration capabilities.

BPM tool focused on the future

Business process management is moving towards an increasingly technological, dynamic, and practical approach. In this sense, BPM tools are being adapted so that more internal company users can identify, implement, and evaluate new ways to carry out their processes.

In addition, there is a rapid growth in intelligent automation, incorporating artificial intelligence, RPA, and machine learning to improve workflows.

Another point is the inclusion of BPM in business applications, adaptive process management, and interactive modeling. All these features make process automation more flexible and optimized.

In short, a BPM tool is a resource capable of generating competitive differentials for your business.

Is your company able to manage business processes well? Tell us, here in the comments, what it is like to use a BPM tool for you.

In case you still don’t have the benefits of a BPM tool, let us know too. Or, talk to one of our consultants.
08/11/2022
Main mistakes companies make when implementing a management system
In a business environment, companies recurrently face problems such as process and task failures, and difficulties in accessing information and documents due to the fact that they do not have an implemented management system. These issues often end up taking a toll on the strategy taken in search of greater results and performance. They are troublesome factors that can be solved with the implementation of a management system, which provides technologies and tools for document management and archiving, process modeling, task organization, and reporting, among others. However, for the implementation of a management system to bring positive results to a business, it is necessary to conduct studies with the purpose of knowing the real needs and expected characteristics, so that the final result is as anticipated.

We listed some important mistakes and steps that companies should not overlook when implementing a management system.
- Lack of operational planning
- Failure to list necessary system requirements
- Lack of adequate time for changes
- Making decisions without consulting users
- Incorrect IT management
- Focusing only on the tool’s functionalities
Lack of operational planning

After the decision to implement a management software, it is necessary to perform comprehensive planning with the steps that will ensure the implementation success. This planning must include steps specifying the choice of appropriate software, installation, maintenance, and adaptations. It is advisable to prepare a team for this effort, involving several responsible areas, mainly from the management, legal, and IT departments.

Failure to list necessary system requirements

Requirements will identify what needs and functionalities a company expects and requires from a piece of software with the goal of automating and optimizing operational processes. Flaws in the list of requirements can cause errors, resulting in several complications, such as a nonconformity between what is expected by the company and what is provided by the software, among others.

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Lack of adequate time for the changes

All steps of an implementation process are important because many times they deal with impacting changes, so it is necessary to be careful starting from the requirement listing, through the training of members up to the complete release of the software for internal use. However, for the steps taken to succeed, an adaptation and preparation period must be respected. The non-fulfillment of these periods often generates inefficiencies in the final result of the implementation, such as poorly listed requirements, inadequate infrastructure, ineffective support, and unprepared users.

Making decisions without consulting users

It is essential that the actual end users and not only the IT and higher position professionals are consulted when planning changes and decisions in a management software implementation. After all, they are the ones who participate in the company’s processes and know what is necessary for the ideal functioning and improvement of these processes. It will also be the end users who will operate the software in their majority, meaning that failing in this aspect means the expected needs for process completion may not be met.

Incorrect IT management

One of the pillars of a management software implementation in a company is the investment in infrastructure such as hardware, which will support the new system’s proper functioning. Even the ideal software will end up having poor application performance and causing inconveniences if the hardware does not meet the recommended settings. On the other hand, not only the hardware must be given attention, but also the IT teams as a whole, which must be composed of experienced members to meet necessities, after all the IT team is the one who will manage hardware and support end users.

Focusing only on the tool’s functionalities

When choosing a management software, the features it offers must be compatible with the company’s requirements, but in addition to its tools and main functionalities, it is also necessary to pay attention to the platform’s history, its frequency of corrections and improvements updates, integration capabilities with other systems, and the offered technical support, so as not to run the risk of the software fulfilling some of the company’s tasks, but leaving other aspects to be desired that are just as important.

In conclusion

In this article, we were able to identify some of the main mistakes made by companies when implementing a management system, in search of improvements in processes and tasks of daily business, as well as to obtain greater control and access to documents and information. The Fusion Platform tool offers complete features for these necessities, providing interaction between employees, document organization, process management, reporting, and integration with other systems. Everything your company needs in a management system. Want to know more? Contact us or try Fusion Platform for free
25/10/2022
How to implement enterprise mobility in your company?

Having the office in your pocket. It is with these words that we can briefly describe the concept of Corporate Mobility. Essentially, it is about enabling daily business processes to be carried out without being tied to a specific place and time, and best of all, with information in the palm of your hands and with a few taps.

Currently, around 3.9 billion people access the Internet through their cell phones. In Brazil, according to a survey by TIC Domiciles 2018, released in 2019, 71 million Brazilians access the internet only by cell phones, which corresponds to 56% of the users (until 2016 there were 46 million, and they already represented 43% of the market, which shows a great growth).

In addition, a survey conducted by the National Confederation of Industry revealed that 70% of Brazilians wish to have more flexible hours and 73% would like to work at home or in alternative locations, mostly because of time optimization.

It is from these signs that we can conclude that every day the world is more computerized, fast, and flexible, which also demonstrates the enormous need for the application of corporate mobility strategies, after all, modern problems need modern solutions.

What is corporate mobility?

Corporate mobility is a concept that brings innovation, flexibility, time optimization, and savings for companies, by aiming to insert all the technologies and benefits that mobile devices and cloud computing together can offer within corporate daily life.

The transformation that corporate mobility aims to implement ranges from access to an internal email by someone who is not in the office, to be able to perform all daily activities while traveling, visiting, or at home, without having to use a specific device or network. This transformation is positive both for companies and for their professionals because it brings them cost reduction and increased productivity, as well as better quality of life for the employees.

In order for this to be possible, it is necessary to computerize work, in a way that employees can access their work areas through websites and applications whether they are in their companies or not, providing them with greater flexibility and freedom. In this manner, they can have all the necessary information to perform their tasks with a few clicks or taps on their laptops and smartphones.

It is also important to think about security, since company data can be crucial to the business’s full functioning. Often, data on hard disks, the famous HDs, end up being deleted due to malfunction or loss, and it can also be stolen more easily than data present in the cloud, which is also one of the solutions presented by corporate mobility.

Cloud computing allows data to be stored in secure locations accessible to authorized persons, making the experience of information management within the corporate environment much safer and easier both in terms of data storage and sharing.

But how to implement all this, anyway?

When we talk about the deployment of enterprise mobility strategies in a company, a few terms come up. Among them are BYOD, home office, virtualization, and security.

BYOD and Home Office

BYOD is a corporate policy that stands for “Bring Your Own Device”. As such, it consists of allowing employees to use their own smartphones, computers, and tablets to perform their activities. BYOD brings benefits to both sides of the coin.

The company will have infinitely lower infrastructure costs, keeping in mind that each employee is responsible for his or her own device. For the employee, it’s better because since the devices are his he has no restrictions on upgrades or modifications, or even device changes. Also because of this, it is easier to adopt measures such as Home Office or Remote Working, allowing the employee to perform his function in a more flexible way, without necessarily being present at the company.

In fact, remote work can be a solution for companies that have activities that do not depend on specialized machinery and that seek to have low infrastructure costs, hire employees who work remotely, or be exempt from risks in case of social isolation as experienced in 2020.

Virtualization and Security

For employees to be able to enjoy the benefits mentioned above, it is essential to have virtualized company processes and documents, keeping in mind that employee outsourcing will depend on internet access and will be done by computers and smartphones.

There are applications for this such as the Fusion Platform which features solutions for Process Management (BPM), Documents (ECM), and Indicators (Analytics), they help turn processes that depend on physical documents into forms within processes modeled by the customer according to his business rules and needs. They can also serve as storage and perform the cloud computing function when it comes to document management and indicators with ECM and Analytics.

Another factor that is fundamental for everything to work smoothly is security. Without protection against malware and hackers, the damage generated by an incident can be significant. For this reason, it is necessary to rely on software and server multifactor authentication, layered permission levels according to time and place, data encryption, and protection against possible viruses.

These safety measures have to be done in two ways: with the use of tools such as protection software, and with qualified information security professionals to be able to monitor the company’s infrastructure security. Awareness and employee education are also needed in order to prevent mistakes from becoming everyday occurrences that could compromise the organization’s security and infrastructure.

Enterprise Fusion and Mobility Platform

One of the current tools that bring the concept and offer this type of service is Fusion Platform, the best option in information management. Comprised of modules that perform Process Management (BPM), Documents (ECM), Indicators (Analytics), Portals & Social, and Capture in an integrated manner, Fusion Platform helps companies to make the management and operation of your business more agile, assertive, and innovative.

Through its web and mobile platforms, Fusion pushes the much-desired digital transformation further and enables corporate mobility to its customers. By accessing your company’s portal, employees can perform their activities, follow the process’s progress, and access documents, among other possibilities. All through the web platform or on the Android or iOS apps, without having to be in fixed locations and with all the security and infrastructure precautions.

Check the video below to see the testimonial from one of our customers about how Fusion Platform brought significant improvements to their operation: Still not familiar with Fusion Platform? Try it free for 15 days.

18/10/2022
How BPM powers your management systems (ERPs)
For decades ERPs have dominated corporate environments and specialized modules such as financial, accounting, production, manufacturing, HR, among others, which are characterized by a multitude of screens, reports, and parameters, always with a transactional view.

Read more: The differences between ERP and BPM

The user experience with most ERPs on the market is quite tiresome, and to generate any kind of information, whether tactical or strategic, users usually have to make a great deal of effort and the IT areas depend directly on their respective suppliers.

With the increasing use of technology, especially smartphones and tablets, users have started to demand faster, simpler solutions that offer increasingly refined experiences. As a consequence, questions began to arise:
- Why don’t the company systems meet the needs of my area?
- Why are the systems so complicated, limited, and different from my reality?
- Why does my ERP support only a part of my practical work process?
- Why is it so difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to add new features?
- How do you train users on all the screens so they can fill them out correctly?
- How do you ask them only for what really matters for the business?
- Having an ERP by itself does not make the company truly integrated, so why is there such a dependence on the package supplier?
- Why is it so difficult to generate relevant information from the data available in my ERP?
Understanding the reasons for conflicts with ERPs

The questions above represent exactly the reality of most companies in the market today, and below we point out some reasons why:
- Traditional management systems have rigid business rules that are difficult to parameterize;
- ERPs have complex screens, and most of them bring and request information that is not necessary for the business;
- Individual users fill screens and fail to see the whole workflow;
- Transactional processes are usually spread out in a segmented view by function and not over the work unit;
- Information has to be pulled up, with the need to access a screen or report;
- The people and the company must adapt to the system, not the other way around;
- A lot of difficulty in knowing the next person in charge and what the next steps are;
- Lack of management of pendencies and unfinished tasks;
- It comprises only a part of the business process, not allowing the management of the entire value chain.
The answer to most of these practical difficulties lies in the adoption of the BPM discipline and systems, which have been gaining recognition, since they speed up tasks, reduce costs, encompass the process as a whole, allow effective management over the value chain, aid decision making, and are focused on facilitating and orchestrating the company processes, its documents, and on generating tactical and strategic information.

Main characteristics of a BPM

BPM performs tasks with friendly and configured actions, always focusing on the data of the activity being executed and showing what the users need to know, without exaggeration or unnecessary information, with the possibility of searching for previously existing information in legacy systems and effectively delivering only the necessary input that the users needs to do their job. In addition, processes become faster due the simplified interaction and tasks communicated by email, dashboards, and/or smartphone.

In addition, through the technology currently available in the market, it must allow users to have mobility in their daily lives through the use of smartphones to perform tasks, collaborate on corporate assets, fill out forms, make approvals, publish and consult documents, among several other facilities that can be applied in the business context in order to give fluidity, agility and productivity to daily work. This way, those involved have several means of following all the stages and are aware of the deadlines and times spent.

Other features include:
- It designs the flow and integrates with business forms;
- Automation of business processes that are generated from document triggers;
- Business rules are configurable;
- Dynamic forms are used to customize information at each step of the process;
- Elimination of data redundancy;
- Single focal point, integrating data from different systems in a transparent way to the end user, without the need for multiple logins and passwords;
- It communicates the tasks to the people, who have deadlines for carrying them out.
The BPM discipline and systems have come to fill an important gap left by ERP, with an integration, management and process-oriented vision, aiming to allow end-to-end control of all data flow, documents and company information in an integrated manner. Therefore, they must be considered in any digital transformation strategy, paperless initiatives, or simply with the goal of leveling up in terms of the effective control of any business, keeping in mind their most essential component: processes are everywhere.

Therefore, to enhance your management system, consider Neomind’s Fusion Platform solution, a tool that integrates Document Management (ECM), BPM (Workflow), Capture, Portal and Analytics, allowing interaction with employees, clients, suppliers and anyone else in a simplified and integrated way.

Try it for 15 days free right now! Or, if you prefer, request a demonstration from our consultants. Count on us to answer all your doubts and help your company!
15/04/2021
How BPM potentialize your ERP
For decades the ERPs are present in corporative environments in the financial, accounting, production line, manufacturing, human resources, and more. They are characterized by their infinity interfaces, reports and parameters, always with a transactional vision.
The experience of using an ERP can be tiring, and to get any type of information, strategic or tactic, usually the users need a lot of effort and the IT departments are dependents of the software providers.

With the globalization being a reality day-by-day, especially with the use of smartphones and tables, the users started to require faster and simple solutions that provide accurate experiences. As a consequence, some questions appeared:
- Why the ERPs do not supply the needs of my department?
- Why ERPs are so complicated, limited and inverse of my reality?
- Why does the ERPs fill just a part of my work process?
- Why is it so hard, expensive and time consuming to include new functionalities?
- How to train the user in all interfaces so them can fill it correctly? How to get exactly what really matters to my business?
- Why is it so hard to generate relevant information from the data available?
Know the reasons of the conflicts on ERPs

The questions above represents the reality of most business nowadays, and here you see some of the reasons:
- The traditional ERPs involve complex business rules and are hard to parametrize;
- ERPs in general has complexes interface and, mostly, aren’t necessary to the business;
- The users fill the information but are not having a macro view;
- Information has to be pulled, with the need to access a different system or report;
- Employees and the company need to adjust to the ERP, and not the inverse;
- Hard to know the complete work-flow;
- Lack of management of the outstanding work;
- Englobes just part of the business process, not allowing the management of the entire value chain.
The answer for a big part of those difficulties are the implementation of a BPM system. BPMs are conquering space due the agility, cost saving, process englobed and effective management of the value chain, simplifying decisions and focusing on facility all business’s processes, providing tactic and strategic information.

Main characteristics of a BPM

The BPM execute tasks with user-friendly interface, always focusing on data logging being executed and providing what the user needs to know, not exaggerating or bringing unnecessary information, with the possibility to find previous material already existent and delivering effectively the necessary to do the job. Besides, the processes become faster through the easy interaction and the tasks are informed on e-mail, dashboard and/or smartphones.

In addition, it has to enable through technology preexistent, mobility on daily basis using smartphone to execute tasks, fill out forms, realize approvals, publish and consult documents among other facilities that can be apply to the business’s context, giving agility and productivity to the day-to-day work. This way, the users are able to view the workflow, check deadlines and time taken.

More characteristics include
- Create and draw flows and integrate with business’s forms;
- Automation of business processes derived from documents;
- Adaptable business rules;
- Dynamic forms used to obtain, in personalized way, information on each step of the process;
- Eliminate data redundancy;
- Data integration from different systems, with transparency to the final user, without several login and logout;
- Users get the tasks and are informed of deadlines.
BPM systems came to fulfil the gaps left by ERP, with an overview of the process, integrating and managing full control of all workflows, data, documents and general business’s information. Consequently, it should be considered in any strategy of Digital Transformation, paperless initiative or, simply, the goal to achieve a new level of control in any business, having in mind the most important component: Processes are everywhere!

The Fusion Platform by Neomind optimize and enhance your management system, a solution to documents (ECM), BPM (workflow), Capture, Portal and Analytics, integrating the organization, employees, clients and vendors, in a simple and smart way.

Check out how BPM works:

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28/07/2020

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