Business Process Management (BPM) Components

	The Order to Cash cycle in any enterprise is made up of various processes that work together - sometimes sequentially, at other times in parallel and sometimes collaboratively. These processes may directly relate to the order to cash activities, or they may be processes supporting these activities.
	BPM products execute the configured definition of each process and drive transactions from end to end. They use the process definitions and business rules to route transactions, transform data, feed sub-processes, controls, get approvals, integrate with other applications, set of bells and whistles as required. As these transactions wind their way through various processes they pick up data and meta-data, performance metrics - such as how long did each task take, how often was a particular decision taken, what transactions were initiated during each process, who did what and which transactions are in what state of completion at any given time.
	Components of a BPM system
	All this functionality provided by BPM products is brought together by various BPM components. These are:
	Process Modeling and configuration The process modeling and configuration component allows users to model and configure processes; specify process and process performance attributes; place processes and tasks in the context of the enterprise deployment platform. Each activity, interface – human or system, notification, control and decision point can be configured using this component.
	Process Simulation and improvement The process simulation and improvement component leverages the process definitions and attributes and facilitates simulation of processes under varying transaction load scenarios.

	This helps proactive identification of potential hotspots, make adjustments and streamline processes.
	Interfacing – Human and System The interface component helps in the configuration inbound and outbound human and system interfaces for capturing and disseminating data.
	Business Policies and Rules processing The policy and rules processing framework uses the process definitions configured to orchestrate the process from end to end. This framework consists of the process execution engine; rules interpretation; interfacing middleware and other capabilities required for process orchestration.
	Content Management and integration Process related content can be leveraged using content management and integration components of BPM products. This content can also be made available to the extended organization using these components.
	Business Activity Monitoring This allows observing every transaction in a process as it passes through various stages of completion. This could be pulling out specific tabular or graphical reports, executing specific searches and queries and also report on efficiencies at various levels.
	Extended Process Lifecycle support BPM products also support extended process lifecycle support by providing the capability to make modifications to process definitions, rules, interfaces and other aspects of the process in question.