Workflow Management or Business Process Management: Which Is the Right Choice for Your Business?

Both systems are fundamentally quite similar; however, there are some key differences that ultimately affect how suitable they are in different business environments.
In this article, I will explore some of the similarities and differences between the two and give some examples of what each system is commonly used for.

What is a workflow management system (WFMS)?

A workflow management system is a tool that lets you create and track a defined sequence of tasks, usually in the form of a flowchart. These diagrams are usually not detailed, but they contain enough information for someone to follow the instructions and carry out the task efficiently. There are many workflow software tools on the market, and all of them are reasonably affordable for small and medium-sized businesses.

Workflow management is sometimes described as Business Process Management Lite, and it is an excellent way to start monitoring your company's operations.

With more complex applications, workflows gain the ability to be automated. This capability can be very useful in a hiring process, for example, or in any process that follows a set timeline, where documents assigned to different people within a department are passed between parties or tasks.

Workflow management tools focus more on the people working on tasks than on processes. Business process management tools, on the other hand, focus on processes.
Because workflow management is a form of business process management (and vice versa), it is quite easy to confuse the two; however, before deciding on either, you need to clearly define what you want to achieve and then evaluate how each system can help you reach your business goals.

To better help you decide whether a workflow management system is right for your business, let's look at some examples of what a WFMS is most commonly used for.

What are workflow management tools used for?

Workflow management systems are mostly used to define the key steps in a specific task. There is usually more than one person involved in the work, so the workflow outlines each individual's role and where they should start the task. Some workflows are automated, which is effective when the same workflow runs several times in parallel.
Workflows are generally used:

In manufacturing: Where steps on a production line can be automated to improve efficiency, or where manual labor is not essential.
In sales: So that managers can contact customers who are at different stages of the process from the same sales cycle.
In customer service: To assign issues to different representatives depending on the customer's requests.
In finance: Where debts are collected based on the date invoices were first issued and how long the debt has been outstanding.

What is Business Process Management (BPM)?

Business Process Management is an approach focused on monitoring and improvement to make an organization more efficient. It does this by describing an organization's current end-to-end processes and then documenting the actions or steps in process maps.

A sample process map can be seen below.

What are the differences between workflow management and business process management systems?

The main difference between workflow management and business process management is that workflow management tools are much more about organizing people and documents and making sure the right steps are followed at the right time and in the right order.

BPM, on the other hand, focuses much more on a business's processes and how they can be managed or improved. Of course, there is some overlap between the two, but BPM systems lean more toward ongoing analysis and improvement of processes than toward making sure the right person performs a task or sends a document in response to a specific action. That said, it is entirely possible to build workflows to manage the steps in a business process.

Some other important differences between WFMS and BPM are:

Workflow management systems coordinate interactions between people and software systems. BPM systems coordinate interactions between all resources in an organization.
BPM systems are much more complex and show interactions between all departments and external resources.

WFMS vs. BPM: Which is best for your business?

Deciding which system to implement ultimately depends on the type of business you have and/or what you want to use the system for.
If you are looking for a way to help your staff do their jobs better, a workflow management system may be useful, especially if it will be used in only a few departments. Used correctly, workflow management tools are truly excellent in customer service or sales environments.
However, if you are looking for more of a company-wide application and only have the budget to support one, a business process management system will be much more suitable. Since these systems are scalable in most cases, you can easily start with one department and then expand the project to cover the organization as a whole. BPM systems are a great investment, and the benefits of using them will always outweigh the large initial input of resources needed to get started.

Yasin Kürşad Bahadır
Isobel Witts Blog

Sources

https://camunda.com/blog/2024/04/what-is-business-process-management/
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/workflow
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/workflow-automation
https://blog.triaster.co.uk/blog/workflow-management-vs-business-process-management