The savings from business process management (BPM) projects can come fast, no matter where the projects begin-IT or the business. Here's how some companies are diplomatically deploying BPM for more efficient operations.

A business process is defined as a set of related activities that produce either a service or a product. The idea behind BPM is to line up these processes with the goals of a department or company. The central tenet is to fully use the strengths of IT to continually improve processes.