Firms that have invested heavily in technology solutions are now looking at how they can better integrate and use their systems to improve efficiencies and business throughput. With this in mind, Caroline Poynton talks to Berwin Leighton Paisner’s (BLP) IT director Janet Day about her firm’s approach to business-process management.
Can you explain what business-process management (BPM) entails and why it is proving so relevant to firms just now?
BPM is something of an umbrella term. In its widest sense you could take it to mean ensuring that all processes in the business (whether internally or externally facing) operate within a series of constraining rules to maximise the speed and effectiveness of the process while increasing the efficiency and volume throughput. Now, BPM is mostly interpreted to mean automating processes (and probably re-engineering them on the way). In reality, though, benefits are often obtained by the analysis of the process – which often uncovers inbuilt or historic inefficiencies. BPM is the glue that knits people and...
