A Guide To The Best Business Process Management Software

The Business Process Management (BPM) market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 12.0% between 2021-2028, from USD 11.84 billion in 2021 to USD 26.18 billion in 2028.

The growing trends are not surprising considering the potential of business process management tools in helping businesses achieve productivity growth and reduction in cost.

So, what is BPM software, and what are the reasons that make it quintessential for a company’s growth?

Read on to get in-depth information about everything you need to know about business management software.

What is BPM Software?

The Business Process Management Software enables companies to streamline and manage their business processes. The BPM software automates business processes through automation via a series of different workflow apps.

BPMS helps organizations formulate everyday processes to identify and remove potential bottlenecks and keep a check on costs to make daily operations as efficient as possible.

Though it was out of reach for smaller businesses at one point in time, BPMS now enables them to compete with larger organizations.

It should be noted that business process management tools can be necessary for heavily regulated industries, like finance or healthcare, to stay compliant.

Why Does Your Company Need Business Process Management Software?

Business processes are essential to a company’s uninterrupted operations. 

Market trends and customer demands continue to evolve over time. Businesses have to ensure that their activities are as efficient as possible as they adapt to changing market conditions. 

Traditional manual processes in this digital age are nothing more than serious time killers and energy drainers. 

Take a Business Process Management Software (BPMS) and it will automate processes, track business performance, and give the details of how well business processes operate in real-time. 

Here are some STRONG reasons why your business needs a BPMS in today’s highly-competitive market scenario. 

• To align your business processes with the company vision and goal
• To cut down repetitive, mundane tasks, which end up consuming unnecessary extra time and efforts of your workforce
• To identify and eliminate potential bottlenecks to ensure better productivity
• To make your business processes more agile to adapt to ever-changing business conditions
• To have greater control over your business operations – what tasks are running, who is working on them, and whether tasks are progressing in the right direction to meet deadlines or not 
• To improve your team collaboration through instant chat, real-time updates, discussions, and file-sharing tools. 

What is The Difference Between BPM Software and Workflow Software? 

Both workflow management software and business process management software are designed to help businesses make their operations more efficient, but these solutions do it differently. 

Let’s take a look at how BPM software and Workflow software are different. 

Must-Have Features of Business Process Management Software 

• Intuitive UI 

A powerful BPM software allows organizations to efficiently streamline and automate sophisticated and complex business processes. However, the tool should also be user-friendly and intuitive for users. 

They should not feel overwhelmed while navigating its features. Low-code BPM tools allow users to create and manage their business processes with little to no support from the IT dept. 

• Enterprise Collaboration

As remote work continues to be a preferred mode of work for organizations and employees, it’s important to choose a BPM software that facilitates seamless collaboration between teams, clients, stakeholders, and the senior management of the organization. 

From file sharing and online proofing to instant messaging and discussions, BPM software solutions should offer a central hub for remote teams where users can manage and collaborate on various aspects of their work. 

• Real-time reports and Analytics

Reporting and real-time analytics are crucial components of any business process management. BPM platforms automate both these processes so you can track the performance of both individuals and projects to plan ahead. 

You should be able to analyze real-time analytics and metrics that show how things stand currently in the project at moment. You should be able to know the pace at which tasks are completed to adjust plans accordingly. 

• Mobile Optimization

These days, professionals are managing business processes on the go, on various devices. The best BPM software solution should not restrict your team to desktops or laptops. It should be mobile-optimized to encourage improved accessibility and business improvement. 

The latest BPM solutions are well-equipped with advanced functionalities, like integration with third-party applications, so that users can manage projects anytime, even when they are working remotely. 

• Visual workflow modeling

Intuitive visual representation of the workflow model is an essential feature that you’d expect from any top-rated business process management software. Business users have to capture and design the process flow in a workflow engine. 

A graphical or visual workflow allows users to design the processes and set them in motion quickly. 

• Agile process management

A good business process management software should support Agile methodology to make the tool more adaptable and versatile. Your predefined business processes might need to be changed according to a varied working environment. 

The best BPM solution should allow you to – fix data on the move, allow you to change decisions, and allow to review, reopen or transfer the process. 

An agile BPM software will assist you to troubleshoot the issues and prevent repetitive tasks. 

• Customizable and Scalable

Business environments are constantly undergoing change. An end-to-end customizable and scalable BPM solution is important for businesses to stay ahead of the competition. 

Your chosen business process management software should allow you to customize the process flow including creating task dependencies, designing live reports, scheduling notification deliveries, etc. 

How to choose a BPM software option (3 points to consider)

Here are three vital points to consider when choosing the best business process management software for your business. 

• Usability. 

The user experience should be the foremost priority. Are your team members comfortable with the BPM software? Do they find it easy to use? For example, if users are tech-savvy then you can opt for a complex BMP tool. 

If not then it’s wise to choose an easy-to-use business process management solution with a simple learning curve. 

• Cost.

Cost is one of the most important factors for most businesses when they are considering a BPM tool. However, it is suggested that you should calculate the ROI instead of checking the cost.

The return on investment should justify your investment in the BPM tool. Vendors that offer flat-rate pricing plans without compromising on the functionality of the tool should be your automatic choice. 

• Customer Support.

The best business process management software should offer excellent customer support service. Users can likely come up with some technical snags while using the tool. A good customer support service can fix such issues quickly and guide users while navigating through. 

There are many BPM software available, but you should only go for the one that offers timely customer support service. 

Top 5 Business Process Management Tools For 2024

Now that you have a clear understanding of Business Process Management Software and its functionality, it’s time to go through some of the best BPMS tools available in 2024. 

You can go through each tool and its features to assess which one suits your organizational processes the most. 

1. ProofHub

Ideal for: Teams and businesses of all sizes across various industries

Free trial: Yes 

Pricing: Fixed, flat-rate pricing starting at $45 per month when billed annually, unlimited number of users. Click here for more information on pricing plans. 

ProofHub is a SaaS-based work management and team collaboration software that can help businesses and teams achieve more efficiency and productivity in less time and effort. 

Offering a suite of powerful workflow and collaboration tools in one place, ProofHub allows your widely distributed teams to be on a single platform with clients and other stakeholders for improved planning, organization, and collaboration on tasks and projects. 

Some useful features of ProofHub for Business Process Management are: 

• Task management ensures even workload and clear distribution of job responsibilities among employees.
• Communication features, like Chat, Discussions, Announcements, and Real-time notifications allow the quick exchange of information, ideas, and feedback.
• Collaboration features, like Online proofing and File sharing help team members, coordinate effectively on tasks.
• Time tracking tool enables people to assess how much time they are spending on different tasks.
• Two default workflows are available – Basic workflow (to-do, done) and Kanban workflow (backlog, in-progress, complete). You can create custom workflows to improve work process efficiency.
• A scheduling calendar brings all your events, tasks, and milestones to one place to make sure you don’t miss out on anything important.

2. Monday

Ideal for: Medium and large enterprises

Free trial: Yes

Pricing: Pricing starts at $24 per month when billed annually

monday.com is a popular project management tool that offers several useful business process management features that help organizations to plan, execute, and implement business processes in a visual collaborative space. 

monday.com can help your business by managing and automating its daily activities. You can use the tool for efficient project planning, monitoring team tasks, and project timelines. monday.com offers unlimited file storage and activity log. 

Some useful features of monday.com for business process management include: 

• You can create custom dashboards, and track progress, timelines, and budgets at a glance 
• Customizable boards keep everyone on the same page and allow seamless team collaboration across departments 
• Improve workflow with a clear breakdown of your team’s resource capacity 
• Automation help your team to be free of redundant manual tasks
• Timeline, Calendar, Charts, and other views display tasks’ progress 
• Workdocs allow live collaboration among team members   

3. Process Street 

Ideal for: Small enterprises

Free trial: Yes 

Pricing: Pricing starts from $25 per full member, per month

Process Street is counted among the best business process management tools available for smaller enterprises. It offers a simple and powerful way to manage your team’s recurring checklists and procedures, and its simple interface helps you create structured documents and collaborative tasks within seconds. 

You can create recurring tasks, checklists, and automated workflows on an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. However, the software has a steep learning curve and it can be difficult to visualize advanced workflows. 

Some useful features of Process Street for business process management include: 

• Zapier integration allows users to connect with over 1000+ apps to automatically schedule and assign workflows  
• Strong form-building capabilities can have dependencies on workflow 
• Track activities across projects from dashboards and get notified when tasks are done
• Intuitive keyboard shortcuts and drag-and-drop make it easy for anyone to use 
• Conditional logic allows users to create truly dynamic workflows with if/then logic that adapts to your team’s changing needs 
• Schedule daily, weekly, and monthly workflows, and save time by automating your tasks 
• Forms allow you to capture structured data in your workflows, input data manually, and send it to and from apps you already use 

4. Wrike

Ideal for: Small Enterprises 

Free trial: Yes 

Pricing: Paid pricing plans start from $9.80 per user, per month

Wrike offers various features that you’d expect from any efficient business process management tool. Integration capabilities request forms, and reporting tools enable businesses to track, analyze, and automate processes to achieve more efficiency and optimal utilization of resources. 

Wrike allows businesses to harness the power of Artificial Intelligence to drive efficient processes and improved results. Pre-built workflows speed up projects like event management, product delivery, and onboarding.  

Some useful features of Wrike for business process management include: 

• Custom request forms collect details, auto-create, and auto-assign tasks to the right teams
• Advanced communication tools – voice commands, smart replies, and document processing help teams across different departments exchange vital information quickly 
• Interactive Gantt charts offer a timeline view of your projects and their progress
• Advanced analytics provide real-time updates on all your projects to gain better performance insights and make informed business decisions
• An online work to-do list enables you to manage all your team tasks from one place. 
• Seamless resource management ensures a balanced workload and ensures quality work as the right people are assigned to the right tasks 

5. Appian 

Ideal for: Large enterprises

Free trial: Yes 

Pricing: Pricing available on quote 

Appian is a Low-Code platform that is designed to help businesses maximize their resources and significantly improve operational efficiency. Appian unifies all your resources (people, technologies, data) in a single workflow. 

This efficient business process management solution accelerates customers’ businesses by discovering, designing, and automating their most important operational processes. Businesses can expect to build their apps 10x faster, reduce maintenance costs by 50%, and gain superior functionality as compared to traditional development. 

Some useful features of Appian for business process management include: 

• Process mining enables users to identify bottlenecks and take timely actions 
• Monitor key metrics and KPIs to ensure conformance to process standards
• Custom metric thresholds and automated alerts help process owners be aware of new areas for improvement 
• Design optimized workflows and automate them from within a single platform 

Why Choose ProofHub as Your Business Process Management Software? 

As a top-rated business process management tool, ProofHub offers a comprehensive suite of powerful features under one virtual roof for businesses and teams of all sizes, across various industries. 

Use ProofHub to plan, organize, and execute your business processes efficiently and achieve exceptional results. Request forms, ease of usage, and reporting tools make ProofHub the ideal choice as your go-to BPM tool.