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What is stopping business from moving into a “number", and what does it have to do with reputation

To go in number or not?


Such a choice before the business for a long time not worth it. But the number of products for digitalization adds to the problems. After all, to figure out where the fairy tale is, and where the past, thanks to the frenzied activity of IT marketers, is becoming more difficult. 

Yes, and the introduction of “numbers” in the company is still a challenge. Even digitally competent executives cannot figure out what is best for their business model, especially since each unit pulls a blanket over itself. About how to switch to the digital side of good, so as not to be painfully painful, in this material.



In sound mind and bright memory


Not a single business in their right mind will refuse total cost reduction, streamlining the organizational structure, improving the sales process, and improving communications in the distance. However, many businesses still hinder the implementation of BPMS, which promises them all of these bonuses, as well as changing the business model at a fundamental level.

Why is it difficult to choose a solution even for large companies?
  • If you entrust the choice of a solution to the heads of individual departments, you must be prepared for what everyone will choose "for themselves."
  • In practice, the BIG boss, shareholders and TOPs, which see the whole business, have no time to study different solutions for many hours in practice.
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A key feature of BPM is digitalized processes that are routed and controlled using information technology.

It is important that the BPM approach was created primarily for organizing the work of a company or any team, that is, for non-automated systems, using BPM you can collect work areas using automated systems, or you can just focus on the processes in the team, how they happen and how need to change them. 

At the same time, BPMS can be used both as a platform for digital transformation (a bundle between all IT products) and as a tool for digitalizing individual end-to-end business processes (for example, sales, purchases, QMS, credit issuance, factoring, Private Banking, and much more) .

The origins of a new profession


Popular today BPM systems are positioned as universal. They say that they are equally good for the bank, and for construction, and for the restaurant, and for the shopping center, and for the hospital. 

There are many suppliers of BPMs. Moreover, developers of ERP and CRM systems are increasing the functionality of workflow in their solutions, while document management systems connect purchased or their own workflow modules. 

In all these systems, a lot of features in which the devil breaks his leg. There are differences in a more or less complicated implementation, modification options, options for employees to communicate, the ability to work in conjunction with other systems (for example, “1C: Enterprise”), the need to install on your own servers or work from the “cloud”. Naturally, each system has its drawbacks, for example, mediocre design, low speed of work with a large amount of data, the inability to work with the system in the absence of the Internet, etc. 

  • How can a non-specialist understand what suits a business? 
  • Is the basic equipment enough for him, or should I take the full stuffing? 
  • What questions to ask to get the right answers from the developers? What modifications and improvements to the system require? 
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We answer all these questions almost daily, working on BPM projects for shopping centers, chain restaurants, hotels and hostels, car centers, FMCG companies, and IT developers in the commodity sector. 

Today it is possible to officially announce the birth of a new profession, which will develop both in the state and beyond. This is the curator of digital transformation, who sees not only the entire "process pipeline", but also the person behind each microscopic business process, and the digital function behind this person. 

These experts own methodologies:

  • Quick and deep immersion in business processes
  • A logical description of business processes
  • Stabilization of business processes
  • Revision of the architecture of the company's information system (IP) and development of a strategy for its development
  • Selection of a unique IT solution

Crisis as a growth driver


Oddly enough, during the crisis, interest in digitalization increased. Partly from the fact that time has appeared, and partly because optimization has become the basis for survival in the new reality.

But not only the desire to take control of processes, remove unnecessary activities and strengthen the necessary ones, optimize costs while maintaining a high level of service, affect the growth of BPMS popularity. Here are the main drivers of interest in those companies with which we are currently dealing with implementation issues:

  • growing business demands for speed of change that older systems do not satisfy
  • an increase in the number of processes, their "doubleness", which requires staffing, or digitalization.
  • developed offer of BPMS solutions and their successful marketing
  • the appearance of accessible Russian developments and cloud-based BPM services
  • practice of applying BPM in large companies and an open digital policy of opinion leaders who share cases

Customers' figures "grow with the market


Today, not only industrial giants are beginning to show interest in the topic, but shopping centers, restaurants, educational institutions, SMEs and even government bodies.

Fortunately, a new layer of “numbers” customers appreciate a flexible approach to implementation, without trying to describe the entire enterprise and automate everything as it is. Our projects start with business modeling and affect the most painful, relevant processes.  

Clients have become more mature and experienced, business not only recognize its process nature, but also ceases to “bend to the world” of information systems, adjusting its business processes to IP. 

Who is buying BPMS?


Historically, the trend at BPMS has been set by banks, energy, quality management systems, government and healthcare. Today, BPMS more often choose industries where the business has a process organization of activity and logic of business processes, as well as a high frequency of changes in existing processes. 

Such solutions are relevant for a wide variety of companies with a staff of 50 people or more. Often, BPMS is the only chance for automation “faster and cheaper”, since the so-called “monolithic” IT solutions or even their own developments are expensive and do not meet the business requirements due to constantly changing changes.

Willingness # 1?


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The level of business readiness for end-to-end automation of business processes in Russia is low. For the most part, everyone is focused on optimizing individual business functions, personnel automation, accounting, IT, service functions, on the primary regulation of processes and streamlining the process architecture.

Nevertheless, more and more businesses are interested in artificial intelligence and robotics, the implementation of which is impossible without a transition to process management. And on the agenda of the most advanced organizations is the integration of processes with RPA robots, the Internet of things, innovative interfaces (chat bots, voice assistants, wearable devices).

What does the reputation have to do with it?


Digitalization is hard to fit into a standard business organizational structure. In fact, to implement BPMS you need to create a large project team and involve several departments. Ideally, if the Big Boss (or vice president) of all these units will be the owner of this process. 

However, in practice, the IT unit is the conductor of the implementation of BPMS. And the IT Manager rarely has the status of vice president or director of digital transformation (this is usually found only in banks or in giant companies). 

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Junk to throw!


Why is a business trying to apply solutions based on non-process technologies for process tasks? The fact is that enterprises are completely unaware of the capabilities of BPMS-class systems and that they were created specifically for the implementation of processes. And if you compare these solutions with old information systems by the number of functions, that the advantage will be on the side of old systems. 

A typical stereotype is to allow the possibility of digital transformations based on "old" technologies. Meanwhile, managing a process through a standard set of statuses is not a solution. Many failed process automation business processes based on ERP or EDMS have already become the property of the community.

The second stereotype: EDMS is BPMS. In reality, electronic document management systems do not belong to the BPMS class. And BPMS is one of the most relevant technologies that drives the "number".

BPMS is a universal platform for developing applications that make it easy to integrate other technologies, and the need to automate processes and solutions dictated by business needs ranging from cost reduction to risk management. Artificial intelligence and BPM intersect in the areas of business rules and decision-making automation, predictive analytics, machine learning, and typical task robotics. This bundle also works for processing events from the Internet of things, and in the process of interacting with external devices, etc.

Why does the system sometimes fail?


Everyone hears a lot about the possible positive results of digitalization, but as the play progresses, it begins to seem that there are no and no results. The issue of evaluating effectiveness largely depends on expectations from the project "at the entrance."

Any expert will say that automation alone does not bring results. Nevertheless, in Russia it is still customary to describe and digitize business processes as they are, and not to change them beforehand. Accordingly, for some reason, changes are expected from the system, and not from the actions of the team.

The second layer of expectations is, naturally, financial. Finding an inexpensive BPM system is not a problem, but digitalization is still expensive. In addition to funds for IT infrastructure, staff training costs, you also need to pay for changing business models and principles of interaction within the team, with partners and customers. If there are no people with the necessary competencies within the company, it is necessary to attract experts in the field of business logic to describe, adjust and stabilize business processes.

For example, we work very closely with internal teams. Literally infiltrate them and organize work. After a few weeks, everyone believes that it was. This system of work is fundamentally different from other companies that catch up with a whole staff of consultants. Firstly, we have 100% continuity of expertise, secondly, resistance is many times less, sabotage is excluded, and the budget is not overblown.

Many are unpleasantly surprised by the fact that “optimization” is not always about reduction. Sometimes a project requires increased investment at strategically important points. The effect is also expressed in the transparency and predictability of the business, in the growth of efficiency and labor productivity.

If the system is implemented correctly, then it becomes the "skeleton" on which the "meat and muscles" of everyday business functions and processes grow. The system should be directly integrated with existing company IT systems. And, of course, it should be absolutely intuitive to ordinary people who will become its users. People are the most powerful and persistent stupor of informatization, and if the system is not approved by them, then implementation will be slow and sad.   

That is why in our digitalization projects, the focus is on people.

PS Asya Razumikhina and Svetlana Erezheeva, experts of the RepTech project, talked about the fate of business in digital terms.

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