Digital transformation projects are vital to improve business processes, but with so many options available in the market, it can be difficult to know what tool is right for your needs.
Let’s take business productivity for example. You might have a hard time choosing between business process management (BPM) and Enterprise Resource Management software (ERP).
In this article, we’re going to break down the differences between these two solutions to help you make the right decision.
What is Business Process Management (BPM)?
Business Process Management is a software solution that improves the management of your company’s business processes. This type of tool aims to improve company performance by facilitating better coordination between user flows, machines, and systems.
It then proceeds to analyze exchanges, tasks, execution, and validation times. The use of BPM offers many advantages to companies. Thanks to this solution, it’s possible to improve communication during the various processes and reduce human errors during the execution of tasks. BPM is also implemented to automate repetitive tasks and increase their speed of execution. And finally, BPM improves process compliance.
What is Enterprise resource planning (ERP)?
ERP software is used to manage the daily activities of a business, including HR, CRM, accounting, finance, procurement, supply chain and project management. A complete ERP system also includes Enterprise Resource Management software that helps to plan, predict and report on an organization’s financial results. An ERP provides a global view of company activity, enabling process optimization and data centralization. When it collects information from multiple tools, the ERP is also able to eliminate duplicate information to improve data reliability. What’s more is that the processes are unified, because it is possible to set up workflows. Finally, with an ERP solution, it is possible to cross-reference tables or graphs to highlight key indicators.
BPM vs ERP: what are the differences?
Although the BPM and ERP solutions appear to share the same purpose, they have many differences. First about the information system, then to the scale of influence, and finally, their functionalities.
BPM vs. ERP features
| BPM features | ERP features |
|---|---|
| Automation | Integrations |
| Manufacturing | Inventory management |
| Accounting | Human resources |
| Scalability | Business intelligence |
Concerning the information system, you should know that an ERP tool centralizes a company’s data in order to form a single database. It makes company data easier to access. For its part, BPM is concerned with the data flows produced by each business line of the company. So, the role of BPM is not to standardize data like an ERP, but rather to facilitate its transmission within a business.
Regarding its scale of influence, note that an ERP takes into account all of a company’s business processes. An ERP makes sure to integrate relevant data where it’s needed so that all departments of the company can access it. The goal of an ERP is to streamline the flow of information between all the tools it houses. As for BPM, it focuses more on the cohesion between users and their tools by overseeing how each process unfolds step by step.
Finally, the functionalities offered by an ERP and a BPM are different. An ERP accompanies the activities of a company, while BPM aims to harmonize business processes by simplifying them and by automating repetitive tasks.
Quickly adopt your software
Did you know? In the majority of companies, nearly 28% of software goes unused.
To help make your digital transformation project a success, opt for a digital adoption platform like Lemon Learning. Whether you implement a Business Process Management or Enterprise Resource Planning tool, Lemon Learning, can integrate with all of your web-based applications. Provide your users with interactive guides and workflows directly inside their tools to facilitate adoption step-by-step.
