The Future of Business Process Management in U.S. Financial Services

Many organizations want to increase their process orientation (Vom Brocke & Mendling, Citation 2018). A process-oriented organization prioritizes business processes over its functional and hierarchical structure (Kohlbacher & Gruenwald, Citation2011). Empirical studies show that process orientation improves product and process quality, customer satisfaction, financial outcomes, innovation, and overall organizational performance (Raschke & Ingraham, Citation2010; Kohlbacher, Citation2009; Škrinjar et al., Citation2008; Tang et al., Citation2013; Kohlbacher, Citation2010). As a result, many firms use business process management (BPM) projects to improve their process orientation (Vom Brocke & Mendling, Citation 2018). Information technology (IT) plays an important role in organizational development (Davenport & Short, 1990; Fischer et al., 2020; Grover et al., 2008). Process orientation, which emphasizes business processes as the unit of analysis and the substance of change, has a considerable impact on how IT solutions are developed and deployed (Al-Mashari, Citation 2001; Kettinger et al., Citation 1997). Such IT products include well-known software packages such as

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

The Business Process Management System (BPMS) is a developing technology that has piqued the interest of the process management community, both practical and academic. BPMS is defined as a cohesive collection of model-driven software and process technologies used for designing, executing, and monitoring business processes, as well as developing process-aware enterprise information systems (Dumas et al., 2018; Pourmirza et al., 2019; Shaw et al., 2007). According to Reijers (Citation2021) and Škrinjar & Trkman (Citation2013), BPMS is the most widely used process technology for BPM. Unlike ERP or CRM systems, which bundle configurable best-practice elements (e.g., functions, business rules, business data objects) to support specific processes, BPMS systems aim to support process change and automation in a process-agnostic manner (Pourmirza et al., Citation2019; Shaw et al., Citation2007). A BPMS is viewed as a flexible technology that improves the ability to adapt business processes (Shaw et al., Citation2007). The impact of BPMS implementations on organizational operational performance has been extensively studied in the literature, with performance improvements such as lead times, workload reduction, and productivity gains reported in various domains (Brahe & Schmidt, Citation2007; Halsted & Froehle, Citation2008; Kueng & Hagen, Citation2007;

Reijers et al., Citation2016).

However, despite the purported gains in operational performance and BPMS's long-standing status as a highly valued technology, empirical information of its impact on process orientation is extremely poor (Kettenbohrer et al., Citation2016). Addressing this gap is critical because it allows firms to justify and plan their BPMS investments and process improvement projects. Rigorous proof on the impact of BPMS on process orientation would justify and inform both the use and development of this technology. To close this gap, we will conduct a case study to assess the impact of BPMS installation on process orientation. We chose a multinational financial services provider's BPMS implementation project as our case study. To capture and structure the impact of the implementation on the various aspects of process orientation, we used business process maturity models (Röglinger et al., Citation2012; Tarhan et al., Citation2016; Van Looy et al., Citation2014) as proxies for process orientation and assessed changes in process orientation at both the process and organizational levels. More specifically, we used the Process and Enterprise Maturity Model (PEMM) (Hammer, Citation2007) and asked a group of key BPMS implementation stakeholders to rate the maturity of a significant process before and after the BPMS installation. To evaluate organizational influence, we conducted structured interviews at the case organization using the Business Process Management Capability Framework (BPM-CF) (Rosemann & de Bruin, Citation2005; Rosemann & Vom Brocke, Citation2015). Our findings demonstrated that BPMS adoption in the organization has a beneficial impact on process orientation by improving the organization's various process-level and organizational-level capabilities in this area.

The literature has examined the function of BPMS and its predecessor

workflow management systems in organizational change, with a primary focus on operational performance and process quality. For example, Kueng and Hagen (Citation2007) report on the outcomes of a case study in which system adoption resulted to reduced process lead times and increased output per person, primarily through automation. They also claim an increase in work product quality as a result of process reform and improvements in process clarity, visibility, and roles. In another study, Kueng (Citation2000) conducts a qualitative investigation of the consequences of system installation using interviews with practitioners from eight organizations. The study's findings show that system implementations have a favorable overall impact on the quality of work outputs and productivity, owing to enhanced visibility and common understanding of the process, as well as the system's standardization capabilities.Similarly, in a case study of a big finance business, Brahe and Schmidt (Citation2007) claim productivity benefits predominantly as a result of the elimination of manual activities via process automation and system-supported workarounds. Case studies in healthcare facilities show significant benefits, such as shorter lead times, which are ascribed to increasing automation and improvements in the process structure supported by the system (Halsted & Froehle, Citation2008). Pretorius et al. (Citation2017) used Orlikowski's (Citation2000) practice lens to assess the impact of BPMS use on corporate governance in a multi-case study of seven African enterprises. The findings imply that the BPMS can increase both corporate governance and economic value, primarily by improving process structure, roles, visibility, and compliance. In another study, Reijers et al. (Citation2016) report on a longitudinal analysis in a sample of ten firms, where the influence of system implementation on overall operational performance was found to be significant for organizations who successfully implemented the system.