We will be taking some much needed time off for the holidays. We'd like to thank you for your readership and we encourage you to check back with us next year for more innovative thought, perspective and news surrounding the world of business process management.
We wish you a joyous holiday season!
This seminar will review the basic foundation for a BPM program It will provide an overview and discussion of the wide variety of perspectives on BPM, as well the basic principles and techniques of a BPM program.. We will focus on a discussion of many of the process-centric tools, techniques and methodologies available today, including Lean, Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement, Value Added Analysis, Business Activity Monitoring, process automation technologies and Innovation, and will describe how they all fit together under the BPM umbrella in a collaborative way.
Watch the web seminar here:
According to this article,
1. How often will the business processes addressed by this application change?
2. How easy is it to change the application? (Speak with a technical contact from the vendor to understand what mechanisms are in place to extend or change existing functionality.)
3. What types of skills will be necessary to change the system as needed to ensure competitive advantage?
4. Does the vendor provide a well-documented API for integration with third-party systems?
5. How easy is it to train business and IT users on the system, thus reducing reliance on the vendor for ongoing support?
6. Is the package overkill for your business problem? Will the superfluous functionality negatively impact the user experience, impeding adoption, and making support and upgrades difficult?
7. Are adaptors required to interface the application with third-party systems? If so, what is the cost of the adaptors you will require?
When you're considering building, you should work with your IT deparment to put an applicaiton together that fits all your pre-determined needs which will streamline an application designed for your specific functional need. It does take a lot of time to design, build and test this new application.
Has your company undertaken the task to build your BPM solution? What was your turn-around time, and what were the results for you?
What do you see as the true differences between these two things?
Here’s another free webinar in the series of BPM webinars that we will produce in the upcoming weeks. Mary Gorman from EBG Consulting, Inc. will be presenting “Business Rules and Data Requirements: Pulling in Tandem for Success” on October 2nd, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM EDT. Mention priority code G1M2020W2BL when you register. The description and a couple of the key takeaways are posted below:
Requirements expert and mentor Mary Gorman explores ways to effectively elicit and analyze business rules and data to help you deliver a balanced set of requirements.
Practitioners will learn the value of going beyond process requirements (often detailed in use cases or stories) to explore functional requirements specified in business rules and data requirements. Gain an appreciation of how analyzing data and rules, in tandem, will help provide a more complete and correct understanding of customer needs.
What you will learn by attending:
• How process requirements trace to data and business rules
• Appropriate timing for modeling data and business rules
• What skills are needed to model data and business rules
• The risks of single-dimension requirements
Make sure to forward this link on to any colleagues and friends who will benefit from this information. Register for the free webinar by clicking on this register link:
MarketWatch reports in this article that Autonomy Corporation’s business process management solutions will provide support for corporate users of the Apple iPhone. The iPhone will be able to collect and automate information related to business processes through HTML, PDF, and paper-based forms and documents.
There is seamless integration with the iPhone and the Autonomy Business Process Solution. It provides many capabilities like approval workflow, information collection, business activity monitoring, and collaboration to the enterprise. IT professionals can also be ensured of seamless and rapid integration with their existing infrastructure.
Mark Seamans, CEO of Autonomy Cardiff mentions:
"Autonomy's support of the Apple iPhone brings the ability to initiate, route, approve, track and even digitally sign key business processes using an intuitive iPhone-based interface. This enables field and mobile-based employees and users to effectively participate in business processes as though they were in their office environment."
At EBiz, they inform us about a German electricity company that has just adopted BPM in order to become a completely electronic company. In an effort to redefine their businesses from process perspective, they’ve adopted Software AG to redefine their IT structure.
They look for the software to provide them these benefits:
-More immediate changes to processes in order to implement new regulations
-Support new customer requirements
-Introduce new products on-demand.
Watt
As reported in ebizQ, Xtiva chose Microstraegy Business Intelligence Platform for there Saas BPM portal. Regarding this choice MicroStrategy’s COO Snaju Bansal released this statement:
"We are pleased that Xtiva selected the MicroStrategy platform to incorporate into its new portal. MicroStrategy's analytical richness and intuitive Web interface provide detailed analysis of granular-level data to help users make more proactive, analytically-based business decisions."
Some of the benefits that Xtiva expects clients to receive include:
- Improve the quality and focus of reporting across the enterprise
- Reduce total cost of ownership of advanced enterprise reporting solutions
- Manage revenue and expenses more effectively
- Bridge the huge gaps between regulatory and financial reporting today
Yesterday I wrote about this partnership between these two companies on this post on our Evolve EA blog, and I figured I share the news along here as well. eBizQ reports in this article that Appian, a provider of BPM techonology, and Mega, a provider of EA technology, have entered in agreement to join the BPA and EA capabilities of the MEGA Modeling Suite with the Appian Enterprise BPM Suite and the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-delivered Appian Anywhere platforms.
This new partnership is aimed to improving enterprise success in process innovation and building on existing deployments of software with joint customers such as Enterprise Rent-A-Car, AXA Investment Managers, General Dynamics, and the Department of Homeland Security. Users will be able to perform archectiture and process design on the Mega Suite and then export processes directly to the Appian BPM platform to map out direct management of operations.
Lucio de Risi, president and CEO of MEGA mentions:
"The combination of MEGA's powerful BPA, simulation, and optimization functionality with Appian's robust and scalable BPM platform will unite business users and analysts with enterprise, technical, and information architects in the common goal of creating adaptive, process-driven organizations."
In a recent article at IT Web, we find out that Nomad Information Systems has chosen a new CRM framework provider, Radical. Radical’s new software will provide a way to better manage call logging and work flow planning. This new software will integrate the bank, retailer and customer by capturing information at the point of the sale, providing a safe way for transactions to go between the retailer and the bank.
Mark Fouche, technical director at Nomad Information Systems, had this to say about their new software:
"Through Radical we will better manage the logging of our clients' calls, be able to track and monitor call status, and improve our work flow processes, such as the planning of pilots and subsequent roll-outs of the Nomad product to clients,"
MarketWatch reported today that Appian and MEGA have decided to combine the BPA and EA capabilities of the MEGA Modeling Suite and Appian Enterprise BPM Suite as well as the SaaS platform by Appian Anywhere. As summarized by MarketWatch
The partners say the aim of the agreement is to accelerate enterprise success in process innovation and build on existing deployments with current joint customers such as
The Vancouver Canucks are implementing a unified communication system to boost business process management within it’s Vancouver Arena, GM Place. This three year project will implement Nortel Networks Corp’s VC product suite. This software will allow voice, data and wireless communications to function together to improve the business process throughout the arena. IT World Canada covers the story here. The management is expecting this software to improve internal communications and even beyond that. Concession stands are hoping that the new software will help them to, by monitoring the amount of food in stock at individual stands. Security is also expected to be affected, as they can direct security guards in real time to where they’re needed most.
As reported here, Intalio released version 5.2 of Intalio BPMS. The biggest benefit is the real-time process monitoring that has been added to the capabilities. Titled Business Activity Monitoring, this allows companies to define Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and sets alerts for business process activity. The dashboard shows both charts and graphs, and reports created can be exported into PDF format. CEO and founder Ismael Ghalimi also mentioned that:
Interoperability is another cornerstone of the release. Intalio BPMS is now certified to work with a broader combination of application servers, databases, hardware and operating system
MarketWatch reports that Anacomp’s business process solution CaseLogistix has been named Trend-Setting Product of 2008 by KMWorld.
CaseLogistix allows legal teams to organize, review, and analyze digital evidence. CaseLogistix was noted for its value, functionality, and ability to streamline different business processes. Wayne Ford, Anacomp's Senior Vice President of Marketing mentions:
"We are honored to have CaseLogistix recognized as an innovative and trend-setting product. Our inclusion on this list exemplifies our position in the litigation support and content management realms as both a pioneer and a leader."
What are some applications that your company is using to ease business processes? Is the application your company using buzz worthy, or is it time to look for another vendor?
In a recent article at TV Technology, they talk about approaching business process one step at a time. Business process management is all about aligning your business goals with technology. When the technology changes, its important to see that your processes shift, too. With this software integration of your business to technology, it’s important to see that you’re continually improving and developing your business processes. It’s also important to realize that your technology falls in line with the way your business and people work.
Some of the greatest results that come out of aligning technology with current processes are the agility that comes into your organization and how communication is increased as a result of the formalized processes.
The article also gives a great starting point to adapt process management, document your current processes (colons are used for lists, so you just need a comma instead. Once you’ve done this, you can see which process would benefit the most from turning it into a business process.
As announced in this article from CXOtoday, Ma Ketabchi, CEO of Savvion mentioned that Savvion is “planning a hot of customized BPM solutions”. The specific sectors they are targeting include healthcare, retail, and BFSI. In addition, the company will launch the Savvion Business Solutions Alliance Program. As Ketabchi stated:
‘The core objective of the program is to aid in developing more and more business applications for enterprises. Companies such as Oracle and SAP develop business applications that only have broad applicability, but companies need much more than that.”
This afternoon I came across this post ‘Manage Your Business in 4 Easy Steps’ from Jeremiah Whitehead on GK Business. He details four steps business should take in order to ensure that their business will not fail. Here’s a brief recap of what he proposes.
What steps has your business taken to create a more efficient and effective workplace?
According to The Call Center Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare company, has adopted Pegasystem Customer Process Manager for Health Care. They’ve adopted this system in order to: optimize customer experience, drive higher first call resolution rates, and lower call handling times. The CPM HC is built specifically for health care organizations and will help Kaiser Permanente by giving them software that includes: multi-channel, intent-driven customer service to increase productivity, loyalty and growth.
Alan Trefler, the CEO of Pegasystems had this to say:
"We are delighted that Kaiser Permanente has selected Pegasystems to support their contact centers. Kaiser Permanente is well respected for its high customer service rankings and the deployment of BPM technology will allow them to reach even higher standards of excellence for customer care and quality of service."
An application orchestrated by ActiveVOS enables users to more readily access
In response to the news, Eric Egertson, VP of Sales for Active Endpoints stated:
“We are pleased that
BPM means different thing to everyone in the corporate world. This post on The Register discusses that whether you view BPM as Business Performance Monitoring, Business Process Modeling or Business Process Management Microsoft seems to be leading vendors in supplying users with workflow solutions, middleware, analytics, and much more.
It will be interesting to see how some of Microsoft’s competitors like IBM, Oracle, and Lombardi will position its BPM Suites to combat Microsoft’s majority share of this area. What are your thoughts on Microsoft and BPM?
According to Moneycontrol, Haldiram, a manufacturer of famous Indian snacks, has turned to Infogain to help align their retail manufacturing needs. Infogain will help develop and implement a dispatch management solution to streamline its business processes across it’s global network of manufacturing units. Infogain is known for its expertise in retail business process management.
Pramod Kapoor, Infogain’s retail delivery services head, had this to say about the deal:
“Infogain has extensive experience in planning and executing implementations that optimize our client’s business processes. We aim to provide a reliable and futuristic automation solution to Haldiram that will redefine its dispatch management practices to bring in more productivity and business efficiency. Infogain’s technology framework, tools and best practices will ensure minimum risk and high operational competence for Haldiram’s business. Infogain will follow a planned approach and methodology to execute and deliver the solution in the most timely and cost-effective manner.”
This post from big think, eloquently explains the many benefits of business process management. As the post states, Gartner has forecasted the BPM will continue to rise, and investment in these practices will have a correlating trajectory. Below is a summary of the “advantages of BPM”:
This list highlights some of the positives of BPM but what are other benefits that your organization has seen after utilizing these type of processes?
MarketWatch reports that The State of Nebraska’s Worker’s
The court has invested much time in trying to become a ‘paperless’ court, but in its efforts has had a tough time tracking and reporting data on events as workers compensation filings pass for approvals. BPM tools can automate this process and make a paperless environment work. The objectives of NWCC is to streamline workers compensation processes while separating process management rules and controls from structured data interaction.
Business process management can increase the speed and efficiency of data running through a company. IT Business of Canada has the report here. Pitney’s Delicious Foods, of
With this new software, they hope to automate this process which will lead to better control of their inventory, and in turn leave them with better warehouse stock numbers and provide them with more accurate restocking schedules.
The next step in their process to implementing BPM is to install the software, a seven week process. This new software will show the benefits of an automated process from the front lines of the factory to upper level management, as they will now have better control over their inventory numbers.
“(Employees) spend most of their time handling exceptions to business processes. That’s what they are doing in their inbox for four hours a day. E-mail has become the great exception handler.”
Padilla further expands by discussing reasons as to why e-mail has become time consuming in organizations:
These points raise questions regarding organizations use of BPM. If e-mail is taking up much of an employees time as a way to deal with exception in BPM, does this mean that the company does not have effective business processes in place? Do you agree with the author’s points? Is there anything you would add or detract from the list above?
According to this article on Market Watch, Iontas has added a function in their Focus software suite which will capture every step that people take to conduct business tasks, without interrupting their work or requiring integration. The application will graphically map out how processes are being followed, which will be a huge help for managers in order to determine where and how to focus resources for process improvement.
This software will end guessing games about how people use information technology. With focus, managers can look forward to improving efficiency and reducing operational costs. Iontas CEO Joe Stockton mentions:
"Every manager at every company needs to understand their processes before they can optimize them.”
In a recent article by Fox Business, they reported that Edmonds Community College, in
The new system they’ve adopted, Liquid Office, will help create, deploy, route, approve and manage many digital documents a year. The current system for management of documents is primarily done with paper.
Here is what Victor Portolese, manager, Application Development Services at
"Previously, all of our administrative information was managed using paper-based processes that were labor intensive and prone to error. We required a solution that would reduce the time and costs associated with the management of forms while also integrating easily with our existing system framework. The LiquidOffice solution provides us with out-of-the-box robust capabilities that can be rapidly tailored and deployed by our staff with little to no programming. With Autonomy
This latest post on SOA Evolution details the evolution of business process management from the 1980’s all the way to today’s day and age. In the 1980s BPM consisted of jotting down processes on pen and paper, getting a team of programmers to build it, and then implementing it usually on one huge computer. In the 1990s BPM changed to a more organizational approach. Systems included process diagrams, IT and business change. It is easier to make sense of business process management than SOA, and this is why businesses are hesitant to embrace SOA. IT departments are aware that SOA is needed in order to make SOA work, and this is how BPM will eventually “save” SOA.
Adopting a business process approach to management can sometimes be difficult to navigate. This article from BPMenterprise.com offers a useful guide on the appropriate steps needed. First as they say, the two questions that are asked about this process are
“Who are your customers/stakeholders, and what are the benefits that your organization offers them?”
After determining the answer to that question, the following outline can be applied in order to implement a business process approach to management.
Is there anything that you would change in this outline, or is this a process that you would follow?
Below is a very straightforward slide show from slideshare that iterates “10 tips for a great Business Process Management Project. There are many great points, and while some may seem obvious, they help serve as a reminder and is a nice reiteration. Below is a summary of the 10 tips.
Here is a copy of the slideshare presentation.
