The BPM (R)evolution
We heard Howard Dresner and John Kopcke this morning talk about the BPM Revolution. Certainly there is a technology revolution, which I talked about a little bit in my previous posting "BI Paradox". There is also a revolution in the management processes. The way companies turn traditional financial budgets into rolling forecasts makes a night and day difference. And there is a cultural revolution, where (slooooooooowly) data is not treated as a means of power, but as a true corporate asset.
But this revolution for the business in many cases is a logical evolution for the CFO. In the last 20 years of the previous century (goodness, does that sound long ago) most organizations moved from purely financial accounting and control (FA&C) to management accounting and control MA&C). The original purely operational tasks (balance sheet is correct and all invoices are sent out) were greatly expand and the CFO in most cases is the financial conscience of the organization, responsible for many M&A activities, investment analysis, etc.
BPM is nothing more than the next logical step, with the CFO becoming the quantitative conscience of the organization. In the end non-financial KPIs require the same skills, processes and systems as financial KPIs. Not much of a difference. Also the role of the finance department evolves. In the FA&C days is was operational and finance internally focused. In the MA&C the finance department ran the management process, also outside the finance office. In the BPM (r)evolution, finance coordinates the BPM processes, but let's the business department run them.
BPM: a leap in business management, but simply the logical next step for finance...
frank
But this revolution for the business in many cases is a logical evolution for the CFO. In the last 20 years of the previous century (goodness, does that sound long ago) most organizations moved from purely financial accounting and control (FA&C) to management accounting and control MA&C). The original purely operational tasks (balance sheet is correct and all invoices are sent out) were greatly expand and the CFO in most cases is the financial conscience of the organization, responsible for many M&A activities, investment analysis, etc.
BPM is nothing more than the next logical step, with the CFO becoming the quantitative conscience of the organization. In the end non-financial KPIs require the same skills, processes and systems as financial KPIs. Not much of a difference. Also the role of the finance department evolves. In the FA&C days is was operational and finance internally focused. In the MA&C the finance department ran the management process, also outside the finance office. In the BPM (r)evolution, finance coordinates the BPM processes, but let's the business department run them.
BPM: a leap in business management, but simply the logical next step for finance...
frank
