At some point in time, every business has to choose: business process automation (BPA) or business process management (BPM) software. But, what if business owners could make a clever move and intertwine these two systems to enhance their processes and enable stratospheric success? This post compares BPA software with its counterpart, a BPM platform, unveiling their distinctions, purposes, and advantages. It also explains how companies can capitalize on the synergy of BPA and BPM solutions to stand out in the business landscape, bringing operations to the next level of efficiency and beating the competition.
BPA and BPM solutions: the core
The essence of these two types of software is quite straightforward. A BPA solution is designed to automate manual tasks that are typically completed by humans while a BPM platform focuses on handling various aspects of business processes, including their analysis, design, modeling, execution, monitoring, and optimization. The purpose of BPA software is to enhance business efficiency and productivity by minimizing human errors and increasing the accuracy of business operations. BPM platforms, in turn, are used to evaluate existing business processes and pinpoint areas for optimization, ensuring alignment with short- and long-term goals and seamless integration with external systems.
Benefits of BPA and BPM
When addressing the question of why to use each of these tools, it’s best to scrutinize the related benefits first. This is exactly what we’re doing in the table below.
| BPA | BPM |
| – Improves process quality, accuracy, and consistency by identifying process bottlenecks, removing errors made by employees, and ensuring the uniformity of automated tasks. | – Revamps business processes, ensuring they’re properly documented, controlled, and optimized and, thus, propelling productivity organization-wide. |
| – Curtails operational costs, allowing employees to fulfill more complex, revenue-generating activities. | – Contributes to significant cost savings by eliminating redundancies and inefficiencies, removing unnecessary steps, and streamlining operations. |
| – Accelerates the speed of task completion, saving time and increasing overall efficiency. | – Enables well-informed decisions by analyzing data pertinent to various aspects of a business. |
| – Enhances transparency by ensuring visibility into business operations and enabling the required adjustments even in real time. | – Improves collaboration between various departments by fostering communication and shaping a shared understanding of how business processes should be organized. |
| – Reinforces regulatory compliance with established industry standards and laws. | – Ensures business agility, flexibility, and compliance, allowing organizations to swiftly adapt to changing market, business, and regulatory requirements. |
How do BPA and BPM complement each other?
If we analyze the core and advantages of BPA software and a BPM solution, we can observe they’re closely overlapped and, in fact, serve the unified purpose of improved processes and enhanced business productivity. However, there’s a critical distinction: it’s BPM that lays the groundwork for efficient BPA, synergizing the potential of both tools for business growth. By first embracing BPM, companies can determine which tasks require automation and which ones necessitate human decision-making, ensuring strategic planning and prioritizing the right opportunities.
How can BPA and BPM solutions be effectively deployed?
Whether you want to effectively incorporate BPA software or a BPM platform or benefit from the synergy of both, you need to adhere to the following steps:
Step 1. Plan and evaluate existing processes
- Set the right objectives for implementing BPA and BPM platforms.
- Map our current business processes, identifying bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and issues.
- Perform a gap analysis to pinpoint areas for improvement.
Step 2. Select suitable BPA and BPM tools
- Consider factors, such as your business needs, goals, technical requirements, budget, licensing, and more.
- Assess the tools’ essential features to provide a seamless user experience (UX) and support.
- Try pilot projects to use the solutions in real-world scenarios.
Step 3. Customize and align the chosen software with your specific needs
- Develop a suitable implementation strategy and integrate the selected BPA and BPM tools accordingly.
- Tailor the functionality of the tools to your unique processes and workflows.
Step 4. Monitor and improve continuously
- Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the incorporated solutions for efficiency.
- Refine processes as needed based on the insights gained from the established KPIs.
Conclusion
Are you ready to unlock the power of success for your business? The synergy of BPA and BPM solutions can achieve exactly this. Follow the steps outlined in this article and squeeze maximum value out of your integrated solutions!
