Should You Outsource BPM?

According to Michele Cantara, research VP for Gartner, “BPM is intended to empower business stakeholders to work collaboratively with IT to change the solutions supporting business processes. Most ESPs do not possess the governance, modeling and change management skills to effectively foster this collaboration.”The point being made, as this article remarks, is that many organizations lack the skill set needed to create an effective BPM. The article further lists 11 steps that companies can use to determine whether or not to outsource BPM skills.

Step 1: Establish a Holistic View of the Five Dimensions of Multisourcing
Step 2: Understand the Pros and Cons of Different Sourcing Options
Step 3:Establish a Big-Picture View of the Three Competencies Needed for BPM
Step 4: Identify the Roles Needed for a Typical BPM Project
Step 5: Target Candidate Business Processes and Agree on Nomenclature
Step 6: Identify Who Implements Process Change and Frequency of Process Change
Step 7: Determine the Magnitude of Process Change
Step 8: Decide Whether You Can Manage Change at Three Levels
Step 9: Identify Your BPM Buying Scenario
Step 10: Conduct a Skill Gap Analysis
Step 11: Determine Which Sourcing Options Are Appropriate for BPM Skills

For further information on each step check out the article. Do you think that your organization falls into the category of those who should outsource BPM skills?

Business Processes and Management

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.

1. Determine the value chains that deliver these benefits
2. Decompose the process and determine the process boundries
3. Select appropriate metrics based on critical success factors for the identified processes and overall strategy
4. Appoint process owners for each core process
5. Begin a never ending cycle of business process improvement

Is there anything that you would change in this outline, or is this a process that you would follow?