synopsis

Hammer and Champy's seminal "Re-engineering the Corporation" may now be an old and dusty volume, but business processes are once again a fashionable thing to talk about. Business Process Management (BPM) is hot, hot, hot - every IT vendor seems to have some kind of initiative or offering that is related to it. But thinking about BPM purely in terms of technology is a sure way to confusion - and, ultimately, failure. It's better to think about BPM as an approach to thinking about a business, and relating the resources that support the business to that "thinking tool". Yes, technology does play a role: both in helping to automate BPM activity, and in providing some of the resources which support business processes. But the role of technology in BPM is complicated and you must understand it before embarking on a BPM initiative. This report aims to help.