Business process management is a systematic approach to making an organization’s workflow more effective, more efficient, and more capable of adapting to an ever-changing environment. To improve your workflow, you need to know the difference between a system vs process.

System vs Process

When’s the last time you took a bus?

In most cities, buses are part of a mass transit system. Almost all metropolitan areas have a mass transit system—typically comprising of buses, subways, and trains. In fact, last year, Americans took 10.4 billion trips on public transportation! Did you know that?

What’s a system?

A system is an group or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole.

Thus, mass transit is a good example of a system. It has a purpose—to efficiently move or transport you from one location in a city to another location.

And a system also creates value—such as providing a source of economical transportation and reducing pollution by reducing the number of vehicles on the road.

But if you don’t have all the parts, or some of the parts aren’t working correctly, a system can come to a standstill. Those moving parts are called processes.

What’s a process?

Processes are all the related activities (parts) inside the system that work together to make it function. For a mass transit system, there’s a process for ticket sales, equipment maintenance process, vehicle and track repair process, a safety process and so on.

Additionally, processes are a smaller part of the larger system. It’s important that processes are effective at what they do so that the system can run efficiently.

Processes are the sequence of activities intended to produce a particular result. Processes span organizational boundaries, linking together people, information flows, and other resources to create and deliver value to your customers.

Your company has systems and processes

A system is the methodical way that you provide specific goods or services to customers. Your system is the “what.” As in, what value do you provide the customer?

Likewise,  your processes are the “how.” How do all the activities inside your company work together to provide that value?

Your systems and processes are the essential building blocks of your company. Every facet of your business–on the shop floor, in the warehouse, or in the office–is part of a system that can be managed or improved by applying correct principles.

What is business process management?  

An organizational culture can make it easy for you to develop blind spots when it comes to improving processes. Culture is simply “the way we do things around here.”

Through the use of observation, measurement, and technology, PlanPlus Online can help align your business processes to your business strategy. This results in improving top-line performance, meeting customer’s expectations, consistent results, employee engagement, and reduced costs and increased profits.

When we collaborate with a company to build a culture of productivity and implement a CRM, we study, identify, change, and monitor business processes to ensure they run smoothly and can be improved over time.

We’d love to work with you to improve, automate, and streamline your processes. Call us today at 801-438-3496.

Do you know the difference between a process and a project? Read more.