An Exploration into Future Business Process Management Capabilities in View of Digitalization

Abstract

Business process management (BPM) is a mature discipline that drives corporate success through effective and efficient business processes. BPM is commonly structured via capability frameworks, which describe and bundle capability areas relevant for implementing process orientation in organizations. Despite their comprehensive use, existing BPM capability frameworks are being challenged by socio-technical changes such as those brought about by digitalization. In line with the uptake of novel technologies, digitalization transforms existing and enables new processes due to its impact on individual behavior and needs, intra- and inter-company collaboration, and new forms of automation. This development led the authors to presume that digitalization calls for new capability areas and that existing frameworks need to be updated. Hence, this study explored which BPM capability areas will become relevant in view of digitalization through a Delphi study with international experts from industry and academia. The study resulted in an updated BPM capability framework, accompanied by insights into challenges and opportunities of BPM. The results show that, while there is a strong link between current and future capability areas, a number of entirely new and enhanced capabilities are required for BPM to drive corporate success in view of digitalization.