Blog: Craig Schiff

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Questions I Get Asked A lot - #2 BPM vs. BPM

Continuing to address frequent user questions that come up at conferences let's look at BPM vs. BPM, Business Performance Management vs. Business Process Management. These two initiatives do in fact have more than their acronyms in common. When executed properly each one can improve the bottom line. How they accomplish it though is very different. Process Management is focused on optimizing individual business processes at a fairly detailed level. Improving the flow of loan paperwork and the review and approval process in a bank would be an example of this. A more efficient process should reduce costs and also potentially allow for more revenue opportunities. Performance Management focuses on higher level strategic goals. Increasing the profit margin or revenue growth rate or market share might be part of an initiative of this type. In fact, improving the efficiency of various business processes (Process Management) might be necessary to accomplish some of the strategic profitability goals of the company (Performance Management). It would seem then that the two BPMs are in fact complementary initiatives. However, don't jump to the conclusion that you should work on them together as part of one overarching 'BPM' project. It's too much for anyone to bite off. Each project has it's own set of detailed and unique requirements. The vendors that provide these solutions are different for each BPM so you have two different vendor evaluation processes to go through. Sample Performance vendors: Hyperion, Cognos, OutlookSoft. Sample Process vendors: Metastorm, Appian, Savvion. Lastly, the skill sets and domain expertise required of the team members and/or consultants also differs based on which BPM you are focused on. Our suggestion is to do the two BPMs sequentially, focusing first on where you have the greatest pain.

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