Business process management is a methodology of continuously re-evaluating business processes (or workflows), finding flaws and weaknesses, and improving on them.
A business process, on the other hand, is a series of repeatable steps a company has to take in order to achieve a business goal. The goal can be pretty much anything, from onboarding new clients to assembling a product.
For most people, though, business process management is just an extremely confusing buzzword. The thing is, there isn’t an exact definition or a how-to for business process management. So, it’s often confused with similar concepts or methodologies, such as business process improvement (BPI), business process re-engineering (BPR), business process management software (BPMS), or even workflow management software. Which makes sense – there’s a lot in common between each. There are, however, some minor differences…
Business Process Improvement (BPI) – the act of improving a business process. The main difference here is that BPM is something a company does continuously, while a BPI can also be a stand-alone initiative.