Business process management (BPM) advocates can be forgiven for getting excited sometimes. BPM takes all of the lessons learned in business and technology improvement trends from the last 20 years and distils them into something that helps companies be more efficient, more customer-focused and more agile.

There’s plenty to like. Few managers really know what’s happening at the heart of their businesses in a quantifiable way and BPM promises that that can change. So why hasn’t it taken over the world? There are a number of reasons but the first is that only companies at a certain level of maturity can benefit.