As we know, blockchain technology is gaining popularity across different fields. It enables different industries to promote and innovate within traditional business models. This technology has the potential to impact all major areas of a business. Many businesses are looking to integrate it into their processes. But why is it so important to the future of business? In this blog, we have given an overview of the business process management that blockchain can impact.
Let’s see how blockchain will change business process management!
What is Business Process Management?
Before diving into how blockchain technology is changing business process management, we need to understand how business process management works.
Business process management, often abbreviated as BPM, is a practice concerned with the modeling, implementation, control, monitoring, and refinement of business activity flows. The goals of BPM include optimizing existing business processes and supporting business goals.
As digital transformation processes are becoming more common, BPM is adapting by introducing disruptive technological advancements. From robotic process automation to low-code platforms, there are virtually endless opportunities for BPM to thrive.
Overview of blockchain technology
Blockchain is a decentralized peer-to-peer network. This is where each peer keeps a copy of the ledger. It is a decentralized network that does not rely on a central authority. This simple idea brings innovation to the table. Its key features include immutability, transparency, and security.
Blockchain can change the way both internal and organizational business management processes work. The trustworthiness of blockchain technology makes it an ideal network candidate for running a BPM solution, where it solves trust issues among peers. All transactions made by the BPM solution are verified using the consensus method implemented by the blockchain network. Consensus works because it also ensures that the nodes work towards making the network work.
Because of the way blockchain is built—the concept of a chain with continuity providing efficiency in handling and processing data—we will certainly see it transform the way governance solutions work. Modern Business Process Management (BPM).
How Blockchain is going to change Business Process Management?
We find this blockchain technology quite useful in everyday transactions. The fact that all information is transparent to the owners of the data while still being protected from outsiders is disturbing. So the next day I will show how blockchain technology is changing our business process management.
Remove the centralized entity
One of the biggest changes is the removal of a centralized entity. This removes the limitations of third-party BPM solution providers. This means that data cannot be locked by a third-party vendor, and you are the sole owner of all data generated by your organization and its stakeholders. Resilience issues are also addressed with the use of blockchain in BPM, as there is no point in failure.
Peer-to-peer BPM solution
With blockchain, BPM can certainly work efficiently and also help organizations reduce costs. Blockchain for businesses is an ideal solution to improve transparency, authenticity, and information flow. Eventually, the BPM system evolved into a peer-to-peer BPM solution that could work across organizations. It provides a better value proposition and also ensures that shareholders can work together effectively.
BPM’s current pain points include reliability and efficiency. Blockchain solves these two problems by acting as a communication layer for BPM software. Not only that, but it can also help different parties work through regulatory guidelines and implement BPM in organizations.
No restructuring
Another aspect that organizations will find is that they will not require drastic restructuring or changes to their workflow in order to use Blockchain as a BPM solution. This means that no new platform requires training and new infrastructure. Blockchain provides enough value in the BPM solutions considered. Not only does it provide value to BPM across organizations, but it also makes it possible to have an efficient and cost-effective internal BPM solution. Therefore, Blockchain-based BPM does not require any restructuring
Smart contract
Smart contracts also play an important role in changing business process management. Building a decentralized network that is automated with the aid of smart contracts promotes enterprise collaboration.
In addition, by using smart contracts, companies can define the conditions under which information or assets can be exchanged or transferred. This helps to ensure that parties are following established rules across the network. It also ensures that workflow integrity is maintained at all times.
Another benefit of using smart contracts is the real-time testing of processes and workflows. Real-time testing helps keep the system running efficiently and can also fix any problems if detected.
Finally, smart contracts help ensure transparency, trust, and security among network users.
BPM Lifecycle and Blockchain
In this section, we’ll learn about blockchain’s impacts on business process management, let’s take a look at the BPM lifecycle framework and see how blockchain impacts each stage including defining, discovering, analyzing, redesigning, deploying, executing, and monitoring, and adapting. Using the traditional BPM lifecycle as a framework of reference allows us to discuss the many incremental changes that blockchains can offer.
Identity
One of the first steps in BPM is defining the process. Right now, companies use an introspective perspective to figure out the process. Blockchain can improve the identification of the entire process by assessing the key terms associated with the process, including its strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. The best approach is to do the right research and find the processes that have the right relationship with the blockchain and can benefit from it.
To take advantage of blockchain technology, we need to extend their reach from inside to outside the organization, by analyzing its ecological system.
Discovery
This is followed by process discovery, where the goal is to find more information about the process, including how it is handled and how its representation is similar to the current process model.
Blockchain technology identifies new challenges for process discovery techniques: information can be fragmented and encrypted; accounts and keys are subject to frequent changes, and payload data can be stored partly in-chain and partly off-chain. For example, how can a company discover a master process from blockchain transactions when these processes may not be logically related to some process identifier?
Analysis
In the analysis phase, problems in the operation of the business process are accessed. To do that, existing data within the organization, both internal and external, is used. You should run the process on the blockchain and then extract the data from there. This gives a good estimate of how the process will work with blockchain-backed BPM. The information gathered can also help uncover more issues with the process and help uncover other processes.
Redesign
During the redesign phase, processes are systematically improved. To do so, organizations use the redesign heuristic build. With blockchain, however, new ways to improve processes can be achieved. For instance, if a process is automated with smart contracts, adding an outside participant can enhance it. There are many permutations and combinations that need to be accessed and thought about when the blockchain works.
Implementation
The implementation stage is where blockchain in BPM will have the largest influence. This procedure involves turning the model into computer code. Blockchain can aid in the transition because it can provide better context on how the code will behave when deployed. Of course, there are challenges when it comes to implementing BPM on the blockchain. One of those challenges includes defining and defining abstraction.
Executive
Blockchain can also help with performance by improving efficiency, transparency, and security. For example, the blockchain can immediately notify administrators if attention is needed. Smart contracts also help in automating the entire system.
Monitoring
Finally, monitoring is undoubtedly impacted by blockchain, since it offers real-time analysis of a BPM solution placed in an internal or interorganizational scenario.
Conclusion
In summary, it seems that blockchain technology has the potential to dramatically change a wide range of business processes. As this technology is gaining traction and making its presence known in business processes. Perhaps this will be the role of process specialists to ensure that value is created from discovering the opportunities this technology can enable in business processes rather than just replacing existing ones. Existing technology equals new technology. We have shown through many examples that the potential uses of blockchain technology for business process improvement are numerous and span all seven processes of the BPM framework.
As you can see the impact of blockchain technology, you now know how blockchain can change business process management. We also envisioned its impact on the future of society. If you are just a beginner with blockchain technology but want to learn more about it, you need our blockchain technology inquiries.
Want to know everything about blockchain in detail? Contact us now – Satom Venture Studio at hello@satom.vc.
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