2019 Process Management Trends & BPA’s Role In Enabling Them
Just like most things in this era of disruptive business and digital transformation, customer needs, wants and expectations are ever evolving. In order to reflect this change, companies are growing more agile and flexible to stay on top of challenging customer demands, and so are the technologies, capabilities and tools that support them in achieving this goal.
With the continuous emergence of new platforms and solutions, companies are coming to realize that these new technologies only gain true value once they are used to cultivate better processes and empower employees to get things done more efficiently and effectively. As such, Business Process Analysis (BPA) software is increasingly getting recognized as the very agent or mechanism for coordinating, optimizing and effectively delivering automated processes that keep businesses running smoothly in the first place. Essentially, BPA tools bring in transparency and a common view with a focus on delivering value to customers.
Having that in mind, this year could be a big one for Business Process Management, in terms of how businesses use it as a method to alter the way they meet customer demands. So, what are some of the key BPM trends you need to know this year?
Better Together: Collaboration
Business Process Management (BPM) is most certainly not a one-way street anymore. As organizations search for more integrated solutions for coordinating the dynamic of shared processes, collaborative BPM quickly becomes a must-have. Optimizing the collaborative work of employees can help an organization transcend the limits of traditional working to realize enterprise productivity on a whole other level. And as most successful BPA solutions embrace the highly collaborative environments to reach the desired business goals, collaboration is still riding the trend wave, and is not likely to go out of style any time soon.
Descriptive, Predictive & Prescriptive Analytics
With the enormous volume of data available regarding all the different aspects of their business, organizations are increasingly turning to analytics solutions that can extract some meaning from the flood of data and help them make better decisions faster and optimize their processes. Because your data shouldn’t only tell you where you’ve been, but more importantly where you are going, BPA software providers continue to develop solutions which use statistical models, optimization and simulation algorithms to process data and translate it into business value. Since this year more organizations will be insisting on using analytics to provide insights, the BPA market is adjusting to support them in this endeavor.
Digital Twins
Since we’re already talking about data, analytics and simulation, we cannot not mention one of the biggest digital trends the internet has been going crazy over in the past several years: digital twin(s). In a nutshell, a digital twin is an exact digital replica of a process, product, or a service. And as such, a digital twin acts as a bridge between the physical and digital worlds. This pairing of the two enables data analysis, modelling and monitoring, detecting and heading off problems before they even occur, preventing downtimes, developing new opportunities and innovating and planning for the future — all by using simulations.
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Simply put, the more closely a digital twin can duplicate the physical object, the more likely that efficiencies and other benefits can be found. Therefore, digital twins are slowly but surely becoming a business imperative — they were named one of Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019 — and we are yet to witness where the technology is really headed and what kind of an impact it’s going to have on BPA tools and the industry in general, as digital twins mature and expand in scope and application from one day to another.
The Rise of RPA
Automation is here to stay and will only become more prevalent in organizations and business processes over time. However, one type of process automation has been stealing the limelight in the world of BPM in the last couple of years, and 2019 is no different. RPA — or more precisely Robotic Process Automation, is the hype no one can stop talking about. It focuses on using bot (software robot) technology to replicate human activity and automate repetitive, rules-driven tasks — faster, more efficiently and error-free. In its simplest form, this innovation can be used to automate simple workflows, but modern RPA solutions can incorporate artificial intelligence and advanced analytics functionality to handle more complex workflows.
One thing to keep in mind, however, is that RPA in its essence still relies on simplified processes with light coding and repetitive terms to complete tasks by automating steps users take on screen. And while RPA promises significant increases in efficiency and accompanying cost reductions, it is not something that helps you look at the process, determine what will be most effective and efficient for it, and then execute that. In the rush of getting on top of this trend and taking on RPA, companies shouldn’t overlook the fact that making a bad process execute faster, only results in having more bad results faster. With that in mind, many BPA vendors still refrain from providing a dedicated RPA solution of their own. Rather, they help businesses identify automation opportunities, understand the big picture and the end-to-end impact automation has on the business processes, while keeping RPA easily accessible and available over integration with external RPA engines and solutions.
Little, Less — Zero-Code App Development
Everybody loves custom things (because why should you adapt to a tool, when you can tailor the tool to your needs?), but this process can often be lengthy, as it involves waiting for external support rather than doing it yourself. And this is where low, or zero-code development comes into play. The concept of little or even “zero code” is the wish-fulfillment dream of anyone in need of custom solutions. It is a newly emerged method of software development which aims at making the development process simpler, and software developers’ life easier by having little to no coding involved. The idea behind it is to enable people with little technical background or limited coding knowledge, to define their own apps without being heavily reliant on their IT departments.
However, the main challenge is not implementing a technical process using the no-code methods, but rather defining the target process in the first place. This is why companies should invest in BPA tools that enable users to quickly collaborate and arrive at the optimal process definition. This process definition can then be easily enriched with technical details that allow for the execution of the new process externally.
Nevertheless, it’s important to keep in mind that simple and easy it may sound, ‘no-coding’ your own process can still be a lengthy and demanding journey in and of itself. And this is where BPA tools thrive, in ensuring the right design, specification and governance is applied while keeping the journey agile.
Interested in a BPA tool that can support you in staying on top of digital transformation and industry trends? Have a look at this page.
- Astley, K. (2018, June 18). CIO. 3 BPM Trends You Need to Kno Now and Into the Future. Retrieved from: https://www.cio.com.au/brand-post/content/642631/3-bpm-trends-you-need-to-know-now-and-into-the-future/
- Gartner. (n.d.). IT Glossary. Digital Twin. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/digital-twin
- Gartner. (2018, October 15). Gartner Newsroom. Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-10-15-gartner-identifies-the-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2019
- Quirk, E. (2018, October 16). Solutions Review. The Top 4 BPM Trends for 2019. Retrieved from: https://solutionsreview.com/business-process-management/top-4-bpm-trends-2019/
- Shaw, K., Fruhlinger, . (2019, January 31). Network World. What is a digital twin? [And how it’s changing IoT, AI and more]. Retrieved from: https://www.networkworld.com/article/3280225/what-is-digital-twin-technology-and-why-it-matters.html
