Documenting Business Processes

Ran across an article in Intelligent Enterprise that says the following:

BPM is both a management philosophy and a software tool. As a management philosophy, it calls for organizations to document, analyze and measure their business activities not in terms of discrete functions such as marketing, sales, manufacturing and customer service but in terms of end-to-end business processes that cross functional boundaries. In that sense, BPM runs counter to both traditional organizational structure and enterprise application software, both of which focus on integration within each functional unit.

I think one of the biggest problems when implementing a workflow solution comes when companies don't have their business processes documented. Generally business processes are stored in some one head's in the organization and when we want to know something about it, we need to go to this "guy" and ask him. Every little detail about the process, he or she is the one to know it.  If this person leaves, then chaos comes into place until the process is reinvented again and operation continues.

In small businesses I think the problem is bigger. The person who created the company or the one that is running it generally knows everything about the processes and how things are run. Most of the time nothing moves without the knowledge of this person. If this leader leaves the company, then mayor chaos comes because every process has to be mastered again.

A BPM solution will not only allow the process to be documented, but also, automated. If the "guy" leaves the company nothing will happen and operation will continue as if he were there but with another person. Also notice that documentation has to be done not only at the functional level, but also at the business as a whole, assuring that the business keeps on going as a sole entity, from how a customer requests moves from service, production and final delivery.

In the end, training costs go down, because this time is not people that are driving process execution. Is the software that is taking employees by their hands and showing them what to do.