Business process management and workflow management are sometimes confused with each other, as are processes and workflows. To explain:
Workflows represent the coordination of individual processes within a company.
Processes, in turn, are developed through business process management, with a focus on the entire company.
Business process management (BPM) serves the strategic orientation, development and analysis of business processes. Within this framework, the individual processes in the company are integrated in such a way that they fit with the strategy and corporate culture as a whole and improve the processes in the company. The individual processes are also documented.
Simply put, BPM focuses on the entire company and takes a holistic view of how best to design all processes. Support can also be provided by IT solutions, but this is not mandatory.
By contrast, workflow management divides processes according to the order in which they are processed. The focus is not on the entire company at once, but often on individual departments that must process tasks in a certain order, often supported by solutions such as document management systems. Workflow management is part of a complete business process management.