Digital process management (DPM) is more than just the latest industry buzzword; it's the new frontier and the evolution of business process management (BPM), born out of a need for organisations to be increasingly agile and able to rapidly automate business processes as part of their digital transformation.
Where business process management has focused on the internal processes within the organisation and is driven by rules, data, and human decision-making, digital process automation takes this a step further. It goes beyond just internal processes by empowering organisations to become even more customer-centric in their approach, while remaining agile and innovative in their product development and responsive to market trends and demands.
While there are still many complex and interrelated process contributing to any desired outcome, the ability of an organisation to digitalise the process means testing can be done and adaptations and adjustments quickly implemented as and when required.
This extends to the ability to launch new products in the market, scale as required and support a culture of innovation and experimentation that is critical in a hyper-competitive climate. Thus the improvement in business agility and overall productivity by digitising internal processes means DPA has become the driving force towards greater business excellence by creating and nurturing the overall customer experience, while still maximising the reduction in costs that BPM brings to the table as systems become digitised and ever more intelligent.
Digital process automation, however, doesn't negate the need for the human element within the process; it merely allows the mechanical steps to be managed by an automated and intelligent process flow.
In an ever changing and often uncertain business climate, the ability to be agile and adapt to market demands is what gives an organisation its competitive edge. This means a close allegiance and collaboration between IT and operations experts is required in order to maximise on existing systems, understand the requirements, demands and parameters within which each department, and find ways in which to harness existing technology in such a way as to drive innovation.
For a truly successful digital transformation, organisations must embrace the platforms that allow both operations and IT users to collaborate in order to co-create digital process applications, while still ensuring that the overall control rests in the hands of the IT experts.
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