Essential Guide

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Editor's note

As technology becomes increasingly important to business operations, IT can't stand on the outskirts of the business looking in. For ECM deployments to be successful, IT must find ways to work side by side with the business -- or even as part of the business -- and use technology to adapt to rapid changes in business needs.

Adopting a business process management strategy and using BPM tools can help streamline processes, reduce human error, and develop greater integration between systems like SharePoint and the workflows of the people who use them. While SharePoint isn't designed to be an enterprise-scale BPM system, this common platform can offer some BPM benefits, especially from a workflow management standpoint.

This guide explores some of the latest trends in BPM strategy and software and takes a look at how SharePoint can fit into the bigger BPM picture.

1How much do you know about SharePoint and BPM?

How much do you know about SharePoint's BPM benefits? Take our quiz to find out.

2More on BPM and ECM systems

Companies must treat ECM systems as more than content repositories. They can start by using their systems' automation and management features to streamline processes and make information governance a natural, efficient part of employees' daily tasks.

3The changing role of BPM

BPM was born of enterprises' need to save costs through streamlining, but companies also are finding ways to modernize their processes and achieve better results using BPM tools. Developments in social BPM, data-driven business intelligence and open source BPM allow enterprises to shake up and customize the way they do business.