Value of BPM: Features
Leading BPM suites deliver a variety of process, knowledge, and analytics capabilities in a unified package. Process management technology allows an organization to streamline its operations by automating, executing, and monitoring business processes from beginning to end. Knowledge management and collaborative tools enable it to leverage information by managing its documents and content and facilitating employee interaction in
collaborative, knowledge-based communities. Integrated analytics help increase visibility by delivering extensive
reports on key business operations and process execution to managers.

	Process Designer	Allows a trained user to analyze and model a business process, step by step, as well as assign logic to it
	Engine	Executes the actual process flow, assigning manual activities to people and automated activities to applications as the process unfolds
	Rules Engine	Manages the flow of information and activities within a process according to the formulas and rules assigned to it
	Knowledge Management	Allows users to share tasks, content, documents, and notifications through knowledge communities
	Document Management	Provides a system for storing and securing electronic documents, images, and other files
	Collaborative Tools	Remove intra- and inter-departmental communication barriers through discussion forums, dynamic workspaces, and message boards
	Portal	Gives users a productive workspace for managing tasks, content, forms, documents, notifications, and reminders
	Process Analytics	Provide continual feedback on the process itself so that improvements can be made in the future
	Business Analytics	Enable managers to identify business issues, trends, and opportunities with reports and dashboards and react accordingly

Using this comprehensive set of features, an organization can quickly and efficiently build composite process applications in order to solve its business problems. Thus, the marketing department can use BPM technology to track strategic campaigns (including event planning, public relations, and campaign management), R&D can use it to manage the entire product design process (from idea inception to prototyping to product delivery), and corporate can use it to adapt to changing regulatory standards (achieving compliance while solidifying corporate governance). Because they are built using BPM suites, these applications are:

• User-friendly — minimizing user training while maximizing user acceptance;
• Personalized — delivering secure, unique content to each user;
• Scalable — expanding to meet the needs of the department, the enterprise, or the value chain; and
• Web-based — making them accessible to users anytime, anyplace.