How To Choose The Right BPM Partner?

Business Process Management solutions offer critical business benefits such as improved operational performance, enhanced organisational agility and compliance. Therefore, choosing the correct BPM partner could be amongst the most important decisions a business makes, and a vital platform for it to succeed.

It is difficult for a business owner to choose the right solution from the market. With the growing number of local software developers who offer bespoke development services and point solutions, the BPM market confuses the serious buyer. The following pointers aim to help you to choose a BPM solution partner in a very objective manner.

Measurement of benefits: There are many triggers that make businesses look towards a BPM solution. Some key requirements are process improvement with benefits of productivity, reduced cycle times, cost reduction, and compliance. Thus, a solution that offers measurable visibility in to your processes and brings transparency into the system through business activity monitoring tools is a clear winner. The right BPM solution can set benchmarks and measure the productivity, turnaround time and adhere to compliances. Real-time analytics also play a key role for visibility and control over the business process.

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Partnership and not an isolated IT purchase transaction: BPM will act like the backbone of your IT infrastructure for several years to come; therefore an important benefit of a good BPM solution provider includes the quality of ongoing solution support. A company that provides software, implementation services, customisation and ongoing support under one roof is a key to succeed in your BPM initiatives. Thus, one should not focus on striking a one-time business deal but should look for a long-term BPM partner who can work and grow together.

Revenue maximisation through different models: Features such as Multi-Tenancy, Application Service Provider models, SaaS models, Cloud-based offering, Pay-per-transaction, etc. should be available as the need of each business is different. Many BPOs use the Multi-Tenancy feature, while smaller companies need a transaction-based pricing model. Several high volume customers need a private cloud-based infrastructure. Choose a BPM partner that gives you a choice of models and flexibility to migrate between models as the business grows.

Scalable architecture: Most BPM solutions in your local market will simply not work for businesses as volumes increase. Businesses often find that the product was probably not coded to cater to large volumes and that the architecture is a fixed model. They may also learn that the application does not support open source and other standard operating systems, nor does it support standard popular databases and Web servers.

A scalable and robust BPM solution will allow the architecture to expand and support exponential and unprecedented growth of your business, without dumping the initial investments, in a planned manner.
Integration with other software systems: A BPM solution will remain incomplete unless it is able to integrate with core business systems.

Therefore, when shopping for a BPM solution, proven integration experience with world-class ERP and core business systems is essential. Multiple ways of integration using APIs, Web services, flat file sharing, automated batch uploads, standard connectors, etc is essential. Strong integration will reduce manual intervention and provide an end-to-end automated solution.

Direct project ownership and local support: Most world-class brands do not provide local support directly. Choosing a BPM partner with complete control and understanding of the product is essential. It may be a good idea to buy licenses and implementation directly from the ISV, the Independent Software Vendor.

Consulting and process best practices: Consulting and best practices form the basis of a good BPM implementation. While software does the execution of the plan, it is critical to have the right plan through consulting and sharing of process best practices.

Global standards: Your BPM partner should follow ISO standards, CMM processes to adhere to Capability Maturity Models in software development. It should also follow imaging and workflow related standards of the industry. A research focus and ownership of patents in relevant areas such as imaging and workflows are keys to upgrading the software, to meet market trends on an ongoing basis.

International recognition: Reports from independent analyst bodies such as Gartner, Forrester, etc. offer unbiased opinion on the world’s best products in the BPM space. Your business deserves the best and only the best names figure in reports such as Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and Forrester Wave Reports. Therefore short listing vendors featured in these reports will give your business a head-start in your search for the right BPM partner.

World-class industry references and sticking with industry benchmarks: It is always beneficial to choose a proven solution compared to a lesser known product. Therefore, to compete effectively it is necessary to evaluate a product that is used by market leaders in the same or similar space. Also, it is necessary to compare complexities of deployment, size of the organisation and volumes handled to ascertain the robustness and scalability of the BPM solution. Keep a sharp eye on information related to implementation time, sharing of best practices, support infrastructure, turnaround time for customisations, etc.

Delivery and management team: A BPM partner is not just a great software developer. A great delivery team and a support team are equally important. To top it all, a great management team forges the right partnership between the two organisations to deliver the best that is possible in the industry.

Support models: Support models include ticket based online support, telephonic support, on-site and remote support with a dedicated team. Support becomes the key driver for success especially in mission-critical processes.

It will be ideal for you to engage closely with your probable BPM partner at an early stage to create a scope of work clearly articulating your business problem, deliverables and what you seek to achieve in measurable terms. Choosing your BPM partner in an objective manner after a thorough evaluation will alone help you achieve your business objectives.

The author is Vice President – Marketing, Newgen Software Technologies.