Digital transformation is about shifting an organization to new ways of doing business using modern and emerging digital technologies to improve internal operations or the interaction with the customers or partners. However, it is the internal processes that produce the organization's output, either tangible or intangible. When people try to improve a part of the business cycle, they have already taken the first step towards Business Process Management.

1. Business Process Management as an enabling factor for Digital Transformation
Panagiotis Papaioannou
University of Piraeus
Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies (HSSS)
p.papaioannou@gmail.com
16th HSSS National & International Conference 24-26 September 2020
Digital transformation is about shifting an organization to new ways of doing business using modern and
emerging digital technologies [1] to improve internal operations or the interaction with the customers or
partners. However, it is the internal processes that produce the organization's output, either tangible or
intangible. When people try to improve a part of the business cycle, they have already taken the first step
towards Business Process Management.
Business Process Management (BPM) is about supervising how works are performed within an
organization to ensure the consistency of outputs and to explore improvement opportunities. In the
context of BPM, a business process is a defined set of activities that use specific inputs to produce a
particular output. This way, a process can be defined as a transformation of resources to results.
BPM consists of activities for [2]:
 Identifying the processes within an organization
 Discover and understanding the way they produce their output
 Analyzing processes in both a qualitative and quantitative manner
 Redesigning processes to achieve better performance in terms of cost, speed, and quality
 Implementing the new process models and managing the change
 Monitoring and controlling processes
Digital transformation can be seen as the integration of digital technologies with the business. The primary
purpose of this shifting is to enhance the customer's experience. Digital technologies have vastly improved
the way a customer searches, selects, orders, and pays or evaluates a product or service. This way, digital
transformation strongly relates to information and communication technologies.
However, it is not the technology that produces value. Instead, technology triggers changes in processes
which in turn bring business value [3]. The internal business processes constitute the mechanism that
produces the organization's output, either tangible or intangible. The proper design and successful
operation of these processes ensure that organization's output will meet customer's expectations.
Digital transformation can create new or change the business model of an organization. Since the strategy
of the organization lies on its core competencies, and the core competencies lie on organizational
processes [4], the ability of the organization to manage its processes is an essential factor in strategy
development and consequently in successful movements towards digital operations and services.
Digital operations and services without proper management can increase the complexity in organization
operations. BPM will help an organization to:
 improve the quality of products or services
 to be flexible and adaptable in the business environment changes
 to efficient use the internal resources
 to comply with internal or external requirements
 to clarify its interaction with customers or partners
 to clarify the way of employees collaboration and their relations with the management
BPM is people-centric. Not only concerns all people in all departments and at any level but also requires
their involvement for a successful BPM project. Besides, a business process change intervention, if not
appropriately designed, can have side effects on unspecified operations of the organization. Systemic
methodologies and tools provide the means to encounter that complexity and to successfully implement
changes in business process towards digital transformation.
References
[1] Using BPM to accelerate digital transformation, Jorge García (2018)
[2] Fundamentals of business process management, Dumas, La Rosa, Mendling & Reijers (2013)
[3] Index Group (1982)
[4] Markus Brenner, Andre Coners, and Benjamin Matthies (2015)