Go through the case study and answer the questions that follow. Business process management (BPM) has dramatic business and technology effects. It provides organizations with the ability to save money, save time, and deliver value through real return on investment (ROI). BPM as a concept boosts an enterprises ability to stay competitive and remain agile in a constantly changing global marketplace. Demand for Improved Business Processes After several years of heavy investment in technology, many organizations question the capability of IT functions, and the technology vendors and consultants that support them, to deliver the benefits they promise. They are wary of investing more in IT, yet place greater demands on IT, and expect IT to respond faster. The demand for new or improved business processes drives these requirements. Improving customer service, bringing new products to market, and reducing cost inefficiencies all push business processes and their effective management to the top of the priority list. One aspect of the response to these pressures on IT has been a change in the way that organizations are looking to approach process automation. Increasingly, CIOs are looking for a different way of improving business processes, avoiding investment in large, expensive, and risky new application projects that have so often led to disappointment. Instead, they want to leverage the existing assets and investment and concentrate their efforts on the automation of processes across those assets. This new approach has been labeled business process management (BPM), and is being addressed with a collection of technologies that make up the BPM suite. What Is BPM? BPM, both the software and the management practice, provides the ability to model, manage, and optimize processes. BPM is about the continuous comprehension and management of business processes that interact with people and systems, both within and across organizations. It is based on the following assumptions: Business processes are ever-changing and developing. Processes are interrelated and interdependent. Processes must flow between multiple organizations and interested parties. Processes interact with systems and people. Those people can be employees, partners, customers, or suppliers. Al Tareeqah Management Studies - 2020 6 Successful deployment of a BPM suite can benefit both lines of business and the IT department. For the organization as a whole, BPM can ensure business process transparency and visibility, which can lead to higher productivity, reduced errors, and tighter compliance with legal requirements. This directly impacts an organizations ability to adapt to changes in the marketplace (e.g. introduce new products), reduce operational costs, and improve customer service. Intercai Mondiale, an independent agency, conducted a survey on a random sampling of a leading BPM vendors customer base and found that 100% reported increased productivity 95% improved quality of service 82% reduced operating costs 82% saw faster process cycle times For the IT department, BPM can connect disparate systems, thereby squeezing more value out of current investments. BPM allows IT to future-proof infrastructure so that additions or changes to the system do not require reinvention or significant changes to the business processes. The service-oriented nature of such an infrastructure allows quick development and deployment of new applications and processes. This allows IT to be more responsive to the changing demands of the organization. Questions:

1. What in your understanding is BPM?

2. What are the assumptions behind BPM?

3. What are the reasons for BPM gaining importance?