The growing popularity of Business Process Management (BPM) tools is not surprising, given its proven success and the value it provides to so many organizations. Even so, fostering support and acceptance for its implementation can be more challenging than expected. To address this, creating a high-quality BPM Business Case can make all the difference. But what exactly is a Business Case?

Business Case

The purpose of a Business Case is to convey the intentions behind the creation of a new project or task. It can be presented as a well-structured document or in a presentation. It outlines the necessary perspectives involving the project, such as economic factors, financial feasibility, market analysis, and employee effort. Key points in creating a Business Case involve:

• Historical results (when available)
• Risk analysis and ways to mitigate them
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Implementation plan

The following steps describe a methodology for the context of a BPM project that can assist you in this challenging task:

1) Identify the processes to be addressed

Defining processes to be included in a project is crucial because choosing immature or overly complex processes can lead to unnecessary difficulties. Therefore, pick the most clear processes with the success highest potential. Commonly chosen candidates that repeat across different organizations include:

• HR
• Customer Registration
• Contract Management
• Transfer Control

Fusion’s tools offers accelerators that specialize in these areas and can serve as potential examples.

2) Define the starting point (AS-IS)

In this phase, the processes’ current state is established, and it’s important to understand the “why,” “when,” and “by whom” of current work. So, the first step is to outline who is responsible for each aspect of the process and how subsequent steps are affected.

After these general settings, the next step is to assess the degree to which responsibilities overlap or relate. If one participant requires the action of another one to proceed, this should be clear and well documented. The same principle should be applied to files and data, especially if their availability affects performance or blocks execution.

For more information, check: Process Mapping: Where to Start?

3) Define what will be considered success

Metrics and criteria are important to establish what will make the project successful since you can’t improve what can’t be measured. Ensure that you use not only metrics quantitative, such as time and costs, but also qualitative ones:

• Improved customer service excellence
• Ease of learning the process
• Reduced error recurrence
• Increased employee productivity

4) Optimization (TO-BE)

Based on the processes’ bottlenecks and deficiencies identified during the second stage, each process can be redesigned with possible improvements. In addition, there are other benefits that come when implementing a complete BPM Suite, like:

• Task automation
• Data access and visibility across departments
• Rapid process adaptation and iteration
• Systematic metric collection
• Automated report generation
• Evidence and audit control

Determining if it’s possible to incorporate these benefits into the processes involved can be the differentiating factor for a positive project analysis. For process automation, you can use the Automation Project Calculator created by Neomind to help with the evaluation.

5) Define the Return on Investment (ROI)

One of the first questions about a project is how much it will cost and when the value will be returned. To answer this question, ROI is used to quantify the benefits and costs obtained from stages 1-4. It will also correlate the data acquired with potential cost savings and necessary expenses.

Costs in a BPM project usually involve:

• Software licensing
• System implementation
• Hardware and infrastructure
• Maintenance
• Training

It’s important to differentiate recurring costs from one-time expenses.

Conclusion

Business Process Management focuses on processes and integration with software tools and has proven results. Implementing the tool in a company can be challenging, but proving its benefits can be an even greater challenge. However, by following the steps outlined, it’s possible to create a successful Business Case to justify it. If successful, this methodology will establish a foundation that can be reused for implementing BPM in other areas.