Cue the Music.
Dream of Espionage, but the reality of an office on a business park.
Only one member of staff is likely to get the staff number 007 but there will be many BPM operatives in the team.
AI is not making staff become spies but it is generating renewed interest in processes.
Business Processes are what staff perform every day. It is the activity that delivers the coordination across the business so that the customers get their expectations fulfilled and the business makes a profit.
BPMS is an acronym for ”Business Process Management System” and the activity is “Business Process Management”, the supervision of Business Process activities.
Why is BPMS important for Agents?
Many staff have Agent in their job title or their job description. It is not surprising as they represent the business to external customers, suppliers, etc.
For mid market businesses there is a need for a structure and organisation to operate efficiently.
Advancements in AI have created the “Agentic Automation” trend.
The concept is that “Agents” are assigned goals and they plan and execute activities to achieve the objective. The Agents make use of existing automations and engage “Humans in the loop” when it is necessary.
It is exactly what BPMS has been trying to achieve for years. The modelling, planning, executing, monitoring, managing and analysing business processes. With BPMS, the ultimate aim is of improved efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced business performance.
Agentic Automation certainly sounds more exciting than BPMS.
Theoretically it would be possible to have a BPMS without any automation, but the reality is that automation is at the core of BPMS.
It is the orchestration of the different business processes with the use of analytics that can drive the potential for increased automation.
Despite the tremendous advancements, the idea that the BPMS will analyse the processes and generate new automations to enhance the overall operation is still theoretical. Claude AI can generate RPA code, but there is a role for IT developers to progress such first cut automations into production ready deployments.
All automation benefits from stability. If a business is undergoing lots of change, a BPMS will be able to detect it in the analytics but it is likely to destroy the benefits that would normally be anticipated from a BPMS environment.
Before considering a BPMS, there are usually a number of business applications already being used (e.g. CRM, ERP, HR, Finance). Staff will be using this existing software to deliver the current business processes.
A BPMS is implemented around the existing software. It is about joining up activity and analytics across the organisation, as well as implementing automation for the human activity performed within and across the existing applications.
Sometimes the coordination across systems is called “Workflow Management”.
The benefits of BPMS
A BPMS is not about changing existing business applications, the core benefits are achieved from the activities engaging with the applications such as:
- Greater efficiency through coordination
- Improved visibility across operations
- Better compliance through standardisation
Who uses BPMS?
Historically BPMS has been adopted by companies with long and complex processes that have not map well on to mainstream applications. The BPMS delivering the framework for bespoke developments.
The growth in Automation within businesses through the use of RPA software bots and the expanded capabilities delivered with GenAI, has created the opportunity for any business with teams of staff working on computers to adopt Agentic Automation (or BPMS if you prefer that term).
With clear operation benefits from BPMS and the potential to scale operations through the flexibility of Automation, any growing business is likely to be attracted by the technology.
How to choose a BPMS?
As a BPMS is expected to span all of the business, the selection is likely to focus on solutions which have established interfaces / integrations to the existing business applications in order to make deployment easier.
Mid-market companies will have 100’s of processes which means that the mapping activity into a BPMS and the subsequent monitoring will require on-going resource.
Effective analytics and good reporting are corner stones for BPMS usage, so they are a priority compared with generation of automated code. There are plenty of tools to build automations which can then be incorporated into a BPMS deployment.
Good analytics in the BPMS will identify the opportunity for RPA and AI solutions to be used for automation of human tasks. An open architecture is likely to provide opportunities to purchase existing automation solutions as bolt-on features. Whereas a closed architecture may require specific RPA or AI is used.
Do the costs of a BPMS make deployment affordable?
BPMS with its Agentic Automation marketing has entry level costs. Some of the key benefits of a BPMS are from its “End to End” deployment. It means that a “Partial” deployment is not going to gain the full benefits.
Business can implement RPA and AI as point solutions, in specific areas of the business which will deliver benefits.
The implementation of some RPA, to gain experience with Automation can be a good stepping stone on a path to Agentic Automation (aka BPMS).
Skills and knowledge are required to operate a BPMS. It is not an implement and leave type of investment. The management of a business gain the most from the cost of the BPMS when they engage with monitoring analytics and use the information to drive decisions.
The cost of not investing a BPMS could be the competitive advantage that is being offered to the business competitors.
p.s. A good spy will take a look at what competitors are doing!
For more information on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as well as Agentic Automation and the journey to implement automation please see our website: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/.
Manager’s Guide to Automation: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/managers-guide-to-automation-using-software-robots/
#businessbeyondautomation
Article Author
David Martin
Managing Director, Ether Solutions
https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/
