Developing Organization-wide BPM Capabilities in an SME: The Approaches Used, Challenges and Outcomes

Abstract

Business Process Management (BPM) is well known for improving the competitiveness and sustainability of a business, and is widely applied. But, BPM practices in SMEs are alarmingly low, regardless of the potential positive impacts BPM brings. This is due to: limited resources, absence of a cross-functional mindset and lack of strategic clarity. Adopting BPM as a management paradigm across the enterprise [hereafter referred to as Enterprise-BPM (E-BPM)] reduces operational inefficiencies and supports innovative practices essential for success, which is the key to SMEs. However, SMEs lack the required know-how, and hence, BPM education/training plays a vital role in supporting this transformation. Teaching cases are recognized as a useful form of education to bring real life to the classroom, and more and more BPM teaching cases are emerging. However, there is a shortcoming in teaching cases addressing E-BPM, and teaching cases addressing E-BPM in SMEs are to date non-existent. This teaching case, especially developed to address this gap, is based on a Norwegian conference venue operating in the Norwegian market. This narrative describes the organization, the context for deploying BPM on enterprise-level and related challenges.