The Green Side Of Business Process Management

The savings in transport and travel are huge from an environmental perspective; lower transportation emissions, less fuel usage, and less wear and tear on the physical infrastructure that supports these activities, and it is also huge in terms of the cost savings to your organisation.

More strategically, the use of enterprise modelling software allows you to lay out the big picture of your organisation and analyse it for ways to reduce physical transportation of goods, whether they are goods that you produce or goods that you consume as an organisation.

For example, a complete view of your supply chain will help you plan more efficient distribution of product, and sourcing of raw materials. Additionally an understanding of what goods your organisation consumes, and at what locations, will help you identify local sourcing opportunities, and perhaps identify more eco-friendly supply options. Enterprise models also provide the framework to better identify areas for cost savings and reuse, so again the benefit goes beyond just the environmental gains.

Consolidate Systems

A fundamental premise of a Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) is that it can serve as a single platform for reducing the complexity of backend systems and databases, and provide a consistent process layer, for end-to-end visibility, across processes that span multiple departments, employees, customers, and suppliers. As a result, organisations deploying BPM technology are often able to reduce the number of backend databases (and associated hardware), reduce or eliminate the reliance on legacy systems (thus retiring outdated systems and hardware), and gain greater visibility into additional areas for improvement and efficiency. The result: lower costs, reduced overhead, and a greener IT footprint.

In addition, enterprise modelling software allows you to gain a complete picture of all of the assets in your organisation; systems, people, data, products, capabilities, etc.

This comprehensive understanding will allow you to identify overlap in shared resources, isolate and redirect work from under-utilised systems, and plan more effectively for the future state of the organisation – with a common enterprise modelling platform, you gain visibility into all available enterprise assets for optimal use and reuse.

Enterprise architecture software is an extremely useful tool for M&A analysis as well as ongoing growth and maintenance of operations. The capabilities that a common enterprise modeling platform provides, enable you to realise both environmental gains and cash savings through the elimination of duplicate and unused systems, the more efficient use of existing resources, and the ability to model green IT objectives into your overall enterprise architecture and organisational strategy.

Cash Savings + Environmental Impact

There is no question that the need for environmentally sustainable business practices exists, and most governments worldwide are likely to force the issue through new regulations and requirements in the near future. You can either wait for the mandates, a risky option both financially and ethically, or you can take the initiative to proactively improve your business operations in a variety of ways that will not only have a positive impact on the environment, but are also likely to deliver measurable cost savings and a long-term platform for ongoing sustainability and strategic advantage.

Laura Mooney is vice president of corporate communications at Metastorm.