BPM is a systematic approach to improving a company's business processes. For example, a BPM application could monitor receiving systems for missing items, or walk an employee through steps to troubleshoot why an order did not arrive. It is the first technology that fosters ongoing collaboration between IT and business users to jointly build applications that effectively integrate people, process and information.

BPM gives an organization the ability to define, execute, manage and refine processes that:

• Involve human interaction, such as placing orders
• Work with multiple applications
• Handle dynamic process rules and changes, not just simple, static flows, (think tasks with multiple choices and contingencies)