Traditional BPM providers have dominated the BPM software solution market, notably with providers being the large companies, such as IBM and Oracle. The cost and resources required to deploy a traditional Business Process Management solution have ensured that only enterprise corporations have the deep pockets to afford them. Lean Business Process Management software solution providers have emerged to challenge this paradigm, with a low cost to entry, exceptionally simple to deploy with no major IT involvement, and exceptionally fast to deliver benefits and ROI.
Enter the Lean Business Process Management software solution – also known as Low Code BPM.
Pioneers in the field of Lean BPM/Low Code include Swift Software (JobTraQ), Appian, Wrike, K2 Blackpearl and others. Typically, they provide automated and open code, or at the very minimum a set of robust APIs which allows their solution to integrate with anything.
Common Features include:
Low Cost
typically a Lean BPM solution will cost around 20-30% to deploy compared to a traditional BPM solution.
Fast Deployment
if you select a SaaS version, you can be up and running within hours, and days if you select an On Premises version. IT department involvement is typically zero, though they will need to stand up a server for the On Premises variant, while many buyers will involve IT specialists as a sanity check on what the operational department is actually buying.
Freedom from IT & Easy to Support
freedom from the IT department is a long, hoped for dream of many operational departments, not least the IT department itself. Low IT input means faster deployment times, lower cost (both actual and opportunity cost) and delivers control of the solution and how it is used into the hands of operational management, rather than getting what IT says can be delivered. Support costs generally are a fraction of any other software solution commonly in use, e.g. SharePoint, Remedy support ticket systems and the like.
Task Management System
an effective, centralized repository for all task tracking is provided. Now you can manage projects and tasks with true collaboration between team members and across the organization, with the ability to create customized fields and forms, automated late alerts and reporting, plus the ability to import external data using common formats, e.g. CSV files.
Automated Workflows
many Low code BPM solutions will provide some workflow functionality, but the better Lean Business Process Management solutions will go further. Not only will they provide a visual designer, using drag-and-drop functionality, they also have a very neat trick up their sleeves too. This is the ability to automatically push the visual design into the task management system, automatically enforcing compliance and procedural rules, so you not only have designed a workflow, it is now a live, operational workflow. This requires no specialist coding or dev involvement and is an extremely powerful feature.
Granular & Customized Reporting
finally, customized reporting is essential so you are able to automatically collate results and data into meaningful reports you create. This saves hours of management time because the system will automatically generate the reports, and forward them automatically to whom is selected as a recipient, as well as in accordance with your preset schedule.
You should expect a Lean Business Process Management software solution to have as a minimum these features, but there are more and you should fully explore your Low Code BPM alternatives before you choose a traditional option.
Jane Wrythe is a business writer with a keen interest in technology, and she is currently reviewing Lean BPM solutions, such as JobTraQ.