Consider these three data points from AIIM’s Process Improvement and Automation - A Look at BPM.
This data points to a curious dichotomy among BPM end users. On the one hand, users see BPM as critical; on the other, there is a fair of dissatisfaction with existing solutions. My experience has been that if you say the words “Business Process Management,” or even worse, mention the acronym “BPM,” many business executives with long memories will often run for the hills, chased by ghosts of past costly, complex, over-budget and late process management projects.
The "recipe" for BPM in many organizations has been a complex and multi-ingredient one, usually entrusted only to very skilled BPM (IT) chefs. But what if it was possible to entrust THE BUSINESS with process improvement, and give them simple tools and recipes that required a minimum of IT intervention?
The good news is that low-code – and especially no-code – approaches open up process automation technology to potential users and processes that we never reached with “traditional” BPM. Forrester describes these new platforms as those “that enable rapid delivery of business applications with a minimum of hand-coding and minimal upfront investment in setup, training, and deployment.”
The advent of a new approach to BPM means that accountability and responsibility for process innovation can be decentralized and driven as close to the customer as possible. It means that the tools and platforms upon which process innovation occurs must be accessible to the business and easily usable by the business with a minimum of IT intervention. It means a new generation of “citizen developers” in the business is emerging.
There are five key requirements to look for in this new breed of low-code and no-code BPM solutions: