Best BPM Software

What is BPM Software?

In a nutshell, business process management software (BPM) is an enterprise-level management tool that works to automate repetitive processes, manage fundamental processing, and control process logistics. Notably, everything is done in an appropriate and overarching manner.

There are many variations of BPM software, but one thing is common to all: they claim to accelerate the speed at which tasks are performed. In other words, they all help increase efficiency by bringing tasks together and having them managed on one platform.

What Does BPM Software Do?

Since BPM tools vary, they all work a little bit differently. Even so, they all aim to digitally integrate diverse and often far-flung areas of a company. The best BPM software does the following:

• Task automation — Often, workers get stressed and overworked because they are constantly performing repetitive tasks manually. A business process management system could successfully automate such processes. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that automation doesn’t always have to be a black and white binary type of issue. Often, the correct BPM solution can be semi-automation of some tasks, giving room for just the right amount of necessary human intervention.
• Automatic analytics — These days, the business world runs on good analytics. Your business is surely not an exception here. Companies that start using analytics will quickly realize how much they really needed them all along. They are incredibly powerful tools for allowing a company to iterate in the right direction, instead of just blindly guessing and hoping. That’s why BPM tools offer automatic analytics features.
• Seamless integration with existing software — If you are already using software to organize your business (CRM tools, for example), most BPM tools will allow you to integrate your existing solutions into its larger paradigm. This truly gives companies a “best of both worlds” scenario, where people can still use their old tools in a new and more integrated way.
• Improved workflow — BPM provides multiple methods of rich communication between people in a company. But there’s another benefit to having people in your organization use BPM tools for communication. BPM allows for the sharing of relevant information in the fastest and most error-proof way possible. This is because it brings all of your digital assets together and organizes them centrally. So, when things need to be referred to, they can always be at everybody’s fingertips, at any time.
• Automatic data synchronization — Different versions of different documents are the bane of any company’s existence. The danger of this occurring will only increase as your company scales up. However, a business process management system can perfectly counter that. By putting every document in your company under the purview of BPM tools, such as version control, you can be assured that everybody is working with the latest version of any document.
• Automatic enforcement of business rules — It may often be hard to effectively communicate a change of rules or policy in a business. After all, not everybody is listening. BPM solutions can go a long way towards making these types of communication breakdowns a thing of the past. And this will be a permanent change. There will be no more excuses on the part of employees that they “didn’t get the memo” because everyone will get the memo. Proof of receipt can even be programmed in.

How We Rank the Best BPM Software

We use a comprehensive rating methodology to assess and rank BPM software. Our experts consider various factors such as price, ease of use, features and support. For an objective evaluation, we use the Genius Score — a rating system that ranges from 0 to 100. The Genius Score is calculated based on a combination of external reviews and internal testing. If you want to learn more about our methodology, check out our full rating methodology page.

Main Features of BPM Software

Business process management software has multiple features to help manage your business’s processes. Since there are different types of BPMS solutions, their features may vary.

However, any reliable business process management system has the following components:

• Process Modeling — Ideal BPM tools should be able to simulate a process even before automation.
• Project Management Integration — When projects and processes are integrated, you can share data easily. This translates to quicker management of end-to-end situations like product development. A good business process management system should provide this feature.
• Social Collaboration Features — If you can share data and other resources, collaboration becomes easier. Your team can therefore accomplish more tasks quickly. With ideal BPM tools, you can enhance your business’s productivity through collaboration.
• Activity Monitoring and Reporting — A good business process management system will allow you to track a process from start to finish.
• Data Analysis — Top BPM solutions will provide tools that automatically analyze anything that occurs in your company’s digital domain.

Benefits of Using BPM Software

Some of the main benefits companies will encounter once they have integrated a good BPMS are listed below. The list is by no means exhaustive, but it should give a good indication of why this software is important for your company.

Increased Business Productivity

A business process management system provides analytics tools that can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business. As such, you can quickly fix all bottlenecks and increase your business’s overall productivity.

Improved Customer Service

BPMS options provide process automation, which means that a customer’s request can be quickly directed to the relevant person in the company. This improves the response time and overall customer satisfaction. That’s one way to retain clients.

Collaboration

Collaboration with team members can reduce the overall time spent on a task. When running multiple processes, engaging more people could get things done more quickly. This is precisely what business process management systems allow you to do. These platforms have modern communication channels through which teams can link up in real-time. The best BPM software even has file-sharing options which allow you to process details quickly.

Quick Employee Onboarding

Engaging new hires and making a positive first impression is key. With the best BPM software, you can automate onboarding tasks such as collecting personal information, filling out W9 forms, and assigning office equipment. This facilitates employee transition, helping them become productive quickly. Quick employee onboarding will help you accomplish more tasks in less time.

Who Should Use BMP Software?

Almost any existing company can benefit to some extent from using business process management software. Those that already use it can attest to this.

However, some industries are positively crying out for integration with these types of tools. Such companies will invariably find BPM tools more beneficial. They include:

Financial Services Industry

There is probably no other industry so dependent on data than the finance industry. Besides being so obviously data-driven, the finance industry also has a lot of extremely complex regulations to contend with. These regulations are often subject to sudden and unexpected changes. A BPM system can be a long-lasting solution for flexibility in implementing any change.

Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry shares many things with its finance counterpart. Once again, regulations are many and constantly changing. A company policy needs to be implemented uniformly in any healthcare company. Surprisingly enough, this can be an issue, even in the smallest neighborhood clinic. A good BPM system will allow the automatic implementation of a new rule to the organization. That way, all relevant people will “get the memo” immediately.

IT-related Industries

Anybody who has ever worked in any IT-related field knows that the idea that IT companies are efficient by nature is often far from true, unfortunately.

Ironically, IT professionals usually do tasks manually. Such work could quite easily be automated with a good BPS system. Also, many IT people spend inordinate amounts of time “staying on top of” situations that a BPM could be perfectly set to monitor in the background.

This can be done with custom settings for various types of alerts so that an IT professional only dedicates time to situations as is appropriate to that situation.

In general, IT workflow can be greatly improved by implementing proper BPMS tools.

How Much Does BPM Software Cost?

As a ballpark figure, you can expect to pay $20 to $100 per month per user for a good BPM system. However, you can also find some platforms offering solutions that cost as much as $950-$1350 per month, for example. These are enterprise solutions that allow for an unlimited amount of people in your organization to have access to the business process management system.

It’s also possible to find very budget-minded solutions of even as low as $5 per month per user. Of course, these types of BPM solutions are going to be a bit limited in their scope. The good news is there is almost always a good upgrade path.