Why BPM is essential to achieving operational excellence

By providing organizations with a bird's-eye view of their operations, business process management (BPM) helps organizations identify process bottlenecks, redundancies and inefficiencies that might have gone unnoticed. This newfound clarity allows for targeted interventions and the optimization of processes to achieve maximum efficiency.

On Monday, September 19th, John Stretton, associate director, process automation at EDP Renewables, and Stephanie Licht, director of enterprise business process management and automation at Bremer Bank, will discuss Lessons learned from leveraging BMP to enhance operational efficiency at All Access BPM. 

To help our readers get better acquainted with our speakers, we asked them to give us a little bit of background on why and how their organization is utilizing BPM. 

Elizabeth Mixson, Editor, PEX Network: What motivated your organization to invest in BPM?

John Stretton: When EDP Renewables (EDPR) first invested in a dedicated BPM solution in 2011, the goal was to solve a specific problem. We needed an effective case management solution to streamline the documentation of mechanical and electrical issues with assets in our fleet of wind turbines and, secondly, to support collaboration around the resolution of those issues. We knew that we needed to be able to adjust the system to meet changing business needs and we wanted to have the capability to do that with in-house resources. In the years since, our BPM program has grown from just this one solution to more than 100 solutions that span almost all areas of the business.

Stephanie Licht: Simply put, we wanted to unlock value for our customers and team members as those are our greatest assets. Investing in business process management has helped us to align like work, create scale and, in turn, create efficiencies so our team members can focus on the customer.

EM: How has your organization benefited from leveraging BPM?

JS: EDPR's organization in North America has almost quadrupled in size over the past 10 years, and the renewable energy industry has continuously evolved over that time. Well-designed BPM systems play a key role in minimizing growing pains by helping employees to navigate complex processes, increasing visibility into work queues, preserving as well as organizing institutional knowledge and reducing reliance on email-based processes.

SL: We are still in the early stages of deployment but have already witnessed many benefits.  One, for example, is increased visibility into work across operations which has allowed us to align teams, leverage best practices across silos and deploy resources in a more effective manner.  

We have also focused heavily on educating team members about what business process management is. These efforts have helped us cultivate a much more curious and creative workforce that is not afraid to challenge the status quo and proactively drive continuous improvement.

EM: What are some of the biggest obstacles you faced when implementing BPM and how did you overcome them?

JS: As with any big initiative that aims to change the way that people work, the first challenge is building stakeholder engagement and consensus. By starting with a specific, limited use case and executing on that, we were able to build trust and credibility over time with stakeholders at the ground level and in management. 

It is so important to have a success story to point to as you are seeking to bring other people on board with your envisioned future state. For this reason, one should not try to transform the whole business all at once. Instead, start with a project that you think has a realistic chance to succeed and demonstrate value within 6 months or less.

SL: I would say the number one challenge we faced was educating the business. We worked closely with our stakeholders to help them understand the value of BPM and instill the discipline of running a process centric organization.  

Secondly, creating a data rich environment was quite a challenge for us. We had to embrace new ways of using data to drive decisions and measure success.

EM: What’s next for you on your BPM journey?

JS: EDPR has aggressive growth targets for the next several years and, as the renewable energy industry matures, our processes will continue to evolve. We are going to continue to work with our colleagues to understand their role in key company processes and to develop solutions that will help the company continue to grow. In addition, our parent organization (EDP, based in Portugal) has recently started to explore BPM solutions, and I think there will be many opportunities for us to learn from each other.

SL: We are only 5 months into our journey here at Bremer so we are focused on delivering quick wins and showing our team members the “art of the possible.”  We want our teams to start thinking about what can be done vs. why it can’t be done.  Looking ahead to 2024,  we plan to focus on continuous improvement, automation and data literacy.