The chapter presents a Business Process Management (BPM) training program initiative based on the preliminary training needs identification and by characterizing its market acceptance and impact. The presented approach was built in an international partnership. The experience (wisdom, knowledge) gained by a Slovenian group of trainers in building, disseminating and practically implementing a BPM training program has been transferred (and adapted) to Romania, using the knowledge already existing in the field. The main ideas tackled in the paper are: (1) a brief description of the BPM concept and a short overview of the existing training and certification programs on the market; (2) presentation of the proposed CertiBPM training program structure based on the training needs identification (related to the Romanian market); (3) research results regarding the Romanian market acceptance of the CertiBPM training program based on the participants/trainees feed-back collection and process (marketing survey); (4) Conclusions and lessons learned.
Top1. Introduction
Nowadays one of most successful approaches is the process-oriented one, which is also advocated in ISO 9001 quality standards. Proofs of that are new, but already mature information technologies, as the Business Process Manager System directly support this approach. Lately, the Business Process Management (BPM) has advanced to one of the most sustainable management frameworks that cover organizational, cultural and information technology related methodologies and solutions leading to a wide variety of BPM adoptions (related to standards, methods and models). Today’s existing approaches, methods and tools are able to better model and simulate the reality of business processes (Smith & Finger, 2007; Object Management Group, 2011).
BPM is also a powerful tool that supports the competitive advantage of various companies and better satisfies their need for continuous improvement of their best practice management principles, strategies and technologies (Carpinetti et al., 2003). That is way BPM has been considered as a best practice management principle that helps organizations sustain competitive advantage by identifying the best alignment of business operations with strategic priorities. BPM`s primary aim is to improve business processes and ensure that the critical activities affecting customers satisfaction are executed in the most efficient and effective manner. BPM implementation may require small steps of improvement, an ongoing learning from best practices, resulting in a radical re-design of business processes in order to achieve superior performance (Hung, 2006).
It is evident that modern organizations adopt BPM solutions in relation to the continuous improvement processes strategies and approaches, in order to gain those capabilities needed to innovate and improve their performances and deliver the valuable product/services in accordance with the global market demands (satisfying their customers specific needs). In addition, BPM makes organization agile course corrections, embeds Six Sigma quality and reduces cumulative costs across the value chain (Figure 1). It pursues strategic initiatives with confidence, including mergers, consolidation, alliances, acquisitions, outsourcing and global expansion. There has been proof that BPM is the only way to achieve these objectives with a high accountability and management control (and confidence) (Rozman et al., 2011).
Figure 1. BPM Implications for the Modern Organizations
BPM is defined as a holistic organizational management approach, which is focused on the identification, definition, analysis, continuous improvement, execution, measurement, monitoring and analysis of intra- and inter-organizational business processes. BPM requires top management understanding and involvement, process-aware information systems, well-defined accountability and a culture receptive to business processes. It is based on a process architecture, which captures the interrelationships between the key business processes and the enabling support processes and their alignment with the strategies, goals and policies of an organization (Smith & Finger, 2007).
Look (2009) from the Aberdeen Group argues the top reasons businesses drive BPM activity are the need to reduce operating costs and improve cash flow. The main barrier for the BPM adoptions and implementation was the lack of knowledge about the concept. In addition, according to Gartner Inc. specialists, among the competencies required for successful BPM initiatives there are included process skills, tools and process assets, as well as transformation skills.