The Main Advantages of Business Process Modeling

Over the last few decades, business complexity has grown exponentially. Organizations are taking on new brands, launching into distant regions, and hiring staff at blazing-fast rates. Smart business leaders gain control of the increasing intricacy of internal processes by turning to the grandmaster of productivity: business process management (BPM). To create the framework behind the most organized and streamlined workflows, business process modeling leads the charge.

Let’s explore the advantages of using this powerful toolset.

First, what is business process modeling?

Business process modeling helps organizations visualize the processes that weave through their enterprise. By using a visual diagram, or roadmap, team members can simplify complicated tasks into flowcharts, icons, and notations. The practice of business process modeling also serves as a translator. Using a common visual language, it bridges the communication gap between the programmers that implement the technology, and non-IT professionals that help orchestrate how a workflow will operate. 

What are the advantages to using business process modeling in your organization? 

Business process modeling puts every process within your organization under the microscope. You can have an easy visual into how your team currently does things, and what the advantages or implications are of making a change. 

Here are six advantages of adding business process modeling into your process management strategy: 

Streamline and standardize how employees get their jobs done

Without a chronicle of how processes move throughout your organization, it’s impossible to identify duplicate or unnecessary steps. Business process modeling gives you a clear visual into each discrete task so you can eliminate efficiency-draining dead weight. Plus, process modeling standardizes how team members complete tasks, eliminating the likelihood of staff infusing steps with their own preferred way of doing things. Your organization can stay better accountable to both internal standards and external regulatory requirements. 

Predict system bottlenecks

Business process modeling can shine a spotlight on system shortcomings before they create a serious problem. Using process modeling visuals, you’ll be able to identify what steps might slow you down. Plus, you can find out what additional resources of technologies you might need to overcome a productivity pitfall. 

Better align with core strategies

With business process modeling, you’ll never lose the opportunity to capitalize on a big business idea. While radical opportunities often die on a bulleted list of meeting notes, process modeling helps your organization identify the precise steps required to see a plan to fruition. Executives can easily see how the process moves between all departments and hand off the approved strategy to IT to handle the programming side of things. 

Increase accountability

According to one study, over half of workers feel disengaged, performing only the bare minimum to get their job done. Productivity leaders use business process mapping to help increase accountability. When everyone can see exactly who is responsible for each step in the workflow, staff members are more likely to engage. 

Gain back valuable company time

Believe it or not, the average worker wastes 20% of company time per week searching for internal data or tracking down a colleague responsible for a specific task. That means, for every five employees, you lose one employee’s time per week on an information wild-goose chase. Using business process modeling, you can gain back this valuable company time. When each team member knows precisely who is responsible for every step of the process, they know immediately where to go when questions or issues arise. 

Future-proof your systems

When an employee leaves a company, they often take the knowledge of how they performed different aspects of their job responsibilities along with them. With a concrete record of how team members perform each and every process, your organization will never suffer the knowledge loss left behind by departing staff. 

Business process modeling is a key component to a well-oiled business process management strategy. With this visual process roadmap in place, you can realize a variety of collaborative, productivity, and bottom-line-boosting benefits.