How Do You Build Solid ROI For a Company's First BPM Project?

Start small, think BIG. Whether it’s a single process or a handful at a departmental level, the best way to build the ROI case for BPM is by gaining traction with your stakeholders and users quickly. A good way to do this is by first documenting how the process is being managed today. Next, identify what costs are associated with each step in the process, including labor (how long is someone spending getting their tasks fulfilled) and any hard costs in order to perform tasks. Identify how process improvements can be made at each point in the process with the capabilities of BPM (i.e. time savings performing tasks, reduced development time associated with adding new processes into the mix, costs associated to taking phone calls to field requests, users unsure of where to submit a request and so on).

It depends on what the process is of course but documentation, associating costs to tasks and identifying cost savings with BPM (through either eliminating inefficient steps in a process, reducing time spent developing custom solutions or fees associated with hardware maintenance – there are BPM in a Cloud options) . Also, pick a few processes that are easily documented and well understood. People will see success with something they are familiar with and then you can move on to more complex processes that may involve significant organizational or operational changes. The ROI for these types of processes is much greater and your users will likely have more patience, interest and experience to help implement something that may have seemed overwhelming without the initial success.