What is a BPM Business Process Management workflow?

7 minutes
Business Process Management workflow

Many SMEs want to go paperless, or take advantage of new process automation technologies. However, in the past, these optimizations were strictly reserved for large companies and organizations with IT departments. Today, SMEs can take advantage of Business Process Management workflow functionalities to streamline their business without having to write a single line of code, and at lower cost.

In fact, there are softwares that enable SMEs to transform their paper-based processes and workflows into a precise, simple sequence of dynamic forms. These workflow or BPM softwares enable the right tasks to be distributed to the right people at the right time, without unnecessary clicks.

This new opportunity for SMBs is made possible by the use of no-code functionalities, i.e. usable without having to write a single line of code, and by adapted pricing models.

What is a BPM Business Process Management workflow?

Business Process Management (BPM) is a method for streamlining and improving processes. It is based on breaking down processes into a simple sequence of steps. These form a set of individual or multi-actor tasks, linear or subject to conditions, manual or digitalized, or partially automated.

Know-how and instructions relating to a company’s operations are therefore centralized. They enable teams to concentrate on the most important tasks.

A BPM can be documented on paper, pdf, spreadsheets or digitalized on software. This software then enables SMEs to transform their processes into guided experiences for their teams. These solutions are called workflow software or BPM software.

A business process management workflow, or BPM workflow, is the use of software to guide teams in the efficient completion of process tasks, including automation features.

Types of workflow

And with BPM or workflow software, you can create processes that include both manual and automated tasks.

Business process management workflow - manual and automated tasks

Examples of Business Process Management workflows for SMEs ?

All business activities are processes. In fact, managing quote requests, vacation requests, supply management, invoicing… are all simple sequences of tasks. For example, managing a request for quotation involves the following steps.

Examples of business process management workflow for processing requests for quotations

  • Collect the prospect’s request using an interview framework
  • Create a contact, a company and an opportunity in CRM
  • Qualify the opportunity
  • If relevant, produce and calculate quotation. If not, inform prospect of refusal.
  • Etc.
How a business process management workflow works

The diagram above shows how a Business Process Management workflow works. There are two levels of representation:

  • The process diagram showing the sequence of tasks. It is built on the workflow builder of the Lapala software.
Example Business process management workflow - Workflow mapping
  • Blocks representing the “employee” guided experience on their Lapala workspace:
Example Business process management workflow experience
  • On step 0, in their workspace, employees access a workflow launcher. They then select the workflow they wish to launch
  • In step 1, they access a dynamic form. They complete the guided information on the Lapala form.
  • Then an automation is launched in step 2, with the data entered in task 1 automatically sent to the CRM. They are then automatically redistributed to task 3.
  • In step 3, so that the employee doesn’t have to re-enter any information, the data has been re-imported automatically. The employee then fills in only the personalized, guided fields on the form
  • Step 4 begins with an automated check of conditions that lead to different steps. These conditions depend on the information entered previously and guide the rest of the experiment.
  • Etc.

Other common examples from our customers

We’re going to take you through the most common processes used by our customers, but as you’ll have understood, everything is 100% customizable to suit your needs.

Example 1 – Purchasing approval workflow

Example Business process management workflow -  Purchase request
Designed with Lapala BPM software

Example 2 – Incident management BPM

Example Business process management workflow - Request for intervention
Designed with Lapala Business Process Management workflow software

Example 3 – Supplier invoice management

Example Business process management workflow - Supplier invoice approval
Designed with Lapala process automation software

Example 4 – Expense report entry workflow

Example Business process management workflow - Expense report submission
Designed with Lapala workflow software

Benefits of using Business Process Management workflow?

Business Process Management workflow software is an excellent first step towards optimizing your company’s processes. What’s more, these simple, intuitive tools can quickly convince your teams of their added value, without the need for extensive training and change management.

No more tedious manual data entry for teams

Thanks to data collection throughout the workflow, and the ability to connect to your existing software, teams no longer have to waste time on multiple entries of existing data.

End complex information searches

It’s not uncommon to look everywhere for information, with colleagues, in different software programs… and find nothing. Workflow software facilitates this by creating a homogeneous ecosystem.

Automatic updates for other software

BPM software connects to your other software and triggers automations when required. This frees teams from the tedious task of updating data in different software packages.

Better visibility and follow-up

Business process management workflow tools offer data monitoring and reporting functions, enabling managers to visualize progress and act accordingly.

No more multiple Excel spreadsheets

It’s not uncommon for each employee in a process to have created his or her own spreadsheet to keep track of completed tasks. This scatters the data and degrades collaboration. With software like Lapala, everything is centralized.

No-code design for SMEs

If you need to create a new guided experience using Lapala forms, or if you need to make an update, you can create or modify your workflows in just a few clicks and without coding.

Efficiency and productivity

Workflow software makes it possible to distribute the right task to the right person, at the right time, without unnecessary clicks. Validation circuits become efficient. You gain in performance.

Comfort at work

Teams’ work is improved thanks to ergonomics and automation that free them from tedious tasks. They no longer have to worry about instructions, thanks to guided BPM experiences.

Improving lead times
and customer satisfaction

All these gains lead to shorter lead times and improved quality. Your customers are better served. This improves customer satisfaction with your activities.

How do you set up a business process management workflow?

For this section, we’ll be using the Lapala Business Process Management workflow. It’s easy to use and ideal for SMEs.

The power of workflow software is that process mapping is automatically transformed into a guided experience for your teams. There’s no transformation or manipulation required.

Step 1: Design and model the business process management workflow

  1. On your own or with your teams, build the workflow structure using your chosen BPM software. Block by block, design all the process steps following these instructions:
    • A block represents a single task. For example, entering a request.
    • A block can be an automation. For example, updating a CRM
    • The block name is reused in the experiment. Make sure you write one that your teams can understand.
    • If conditions exist that segment the process into several branches, finish the first path first before starting the subsequent ones.
  2. For each block, define an actor.
    • Start by creating the various actors and roles in the actor management area.
    • For each block, modify the actor. Note that in Lapala, automations are considered actors.
Business process management workflow of Request for intervention
Created with Lapala software

For those who prefer a video format, I invite you to watch this video

Build your first workflow

Step 2 – Create the guided experience and dynamic forms in each block of the workflow

Create guided experience
Creating a stage with Lapala

Each workflow block is either a guided experience or an automation. The guided experience is simply a dynamic form for your teams. With form designers, you can create custom fields according to your expertise, and you can automatically display data that has been entered in previous steps or that comes from other existing software in your company.

Step 3 – Test, execute and optimize the workflow effortlessly

Once you’ve built your business process management workflow, you can connect data to it and test it. Even if it’s not perfect, you can test it with your teams. Even if it’s not perfect, it will already deliver the first operational gains.

As you receive feedback from your teams, you can modify the business process management workflow in just a few clicks.


You know all about business process management workflow. Now it’s your turn!


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *