Business Process Management Simplified

Simplifying the complexities of enterprise collaboration with ECM and BPM

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 12:19:00 +0000

Handling content in a digital age & the impact of a robust enterprise content management has never been side-lined and with an agile business process management coupled in, the impact is for everyone to witness. Invensys Skelta as a part of the partner co-marketing initiative recently teamed with an OEM partner – Solgenia SPA to promote Solgenia Freedoc to a larger audience in the form of a web event.

Solgenia Freedoc is the answer to a collaborative environment where people can store, share and exchange structured and unstructured business information securely - in a single repository. Users are empowered to manage information, streamline workflows and maximize productivity extending social collaboration using file sync and sharing capabilities for a true real-time social collaboration also for the mobile workforce.

The partner driven webinar which will run for 40 minutes on the 10^th of December at 2 PM GMT will introduce Freedoc, components of Freedoc which includes special focus on using Social Space with or without Social Network, Integration with Microsoft Office, Freedoc Mobile and Freedoc in Cloud. You may register for the webinar here.

One of the core components of the Freedoc is the business workflow to design and implement business processes and internal workflows, enabling a systemic approach to improve business processes through the integration of IT and management methodologies.

A must attend session for enterprises before the start of the holiday season. For those, whose schedules are already blocked, do leave in a comment for this post and I shall ensure that the link to access the recording is made available to you.

Register today.

BPM in manufacturing … what’s the enterprise level opportunity?

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:05:00 +0000

The generic and flexible nature of a BPM solution makes it a good fit for almost any sector. The current business climate and global pressure to improve safety, compliance, quality, productivity and cost are forcing companies to evaluate and improve their operations.

In this regard the Manufacturing sector is no different.

BPM and workflow software help support business critical outcomes providing a range of enablers for customers in the manufacturing space. Pre-configured scenarios and solutions, built on a strong BPM platform allow workflow enabling of manufacturing solutions. Embedded workflows are a natural extension of application & technical integration allowing participation in and with enterprise and other collaborative workflow processes.

But is there a BPM opportunity specific to Manufacturing?

With rising energy costs, ageing infrastructure, obligation to shareholders and a highly competitive environment within the Manufacturing sector, enterprise integration and operational efficiency have taken on fresh relevance as the key factors to organizational success. BPM can address, with measurable results, operational and business challenges at the Enterprise level in Manufacturing.

While at the plant level workflow software integrates with a range of plant systems and streamlines execution, automating manufacturing specific processes such as change management, SLA management, Design review processes & compliance management lend several business efficiencies at the enterprise level.

For BPM to work end to end, it needs to be embedded into manufacturing systems, filling the gaps and completing the chain from enterprise to plant floor. BPM’s process modeling, managing, analyzing and optimization capabilities ensure continuous improvement for:

Corrective and preventive action (CAPA)
Driving lean manufacturing
Turning best practices into standard operating procedures
Increased plant productivity
Accelerated project delivery
Real time interoperability between enterprise applications

In our next post, a detailed analysis of BPM as an enterprise application in manufacturing.

Have a great week!

Process Uninterrupted

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 10:45:00 +0000

While Mobile Computing has been a feather in the cap for the IT industry for some time now, Mobile BPM as an application has only come into its own as recently as a year ago. This is a surprising fact for an industry dedicated to process improvement and operational efficiency in general. Key personnel on the field need to be connected to the business eco-system, centralized data and business processes for a truly agile business model and the lack of mobile BPM has been a glaring inconsistency.

In this excellent article from ebizq, the author examines why Mobile BPM has lagged behind other Enterprise applications. Differing Mobile standards, still maturing Mobile application platforms, technology barriers, legal barriers and a plethora of such reasons were instrumental in the arrested development of Mobile apps for business process management software.

The Mobile BPM scene today however has developed in leaps and bounds, with every BPM software worth its salt, ensuring a native mobile application as part of its service offering to bridge the business-field operator-end customer divide.

A robust Mobile BPM software application empowers users who are on the move to stay connected with their mission critical business processes while ensuring the security of their interactions. An easy-to-use mobile application that allows users to initiate processes on the move and also lets them perform process housekeeping tasks fulfills the first requirement of enterprise mobility - Anytime, Anywhere access to your business processes.

The changing face of the workforce means that a larger percentage of employees need to be integrated into the business – Mobile BPM means faster responses to workflow based processes and streamlined day-to-day operational activities.

So how much does the end user benefit from a mobile application for BPM software?

Improved enterprise wide collaboration
Anytime, anywhere access to business processes
Uninterrupted processes
Accessibility from wide range of iOS, Blackberry and Android platforms
Secure process interactions with electronic signatures?

Mobile apps for BPM software are finally moving way ahead of the ‘Approve, Decline’ mode with features such as:

Process initiation on the move
Act on workflow tasks on the go
Option to View and act on work items from mobile devices
Comprehensive Search features for specific work items
View of work items based on categories
Flagging of work items based on importance

This definitely speaks heightened connectivity to any organization's central nervous system for uninterrupted efficiency.

Tap into SharePoint potential with BPM software

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:00:00 +0000

With more than 3 million users worldwide, SharePoint is Microsoft’s fastest growing technology of all time. With very little learning curve, flexibility in organizing information, easy search and retrieval of valuable information and several other benefits, more and more enterprises now prefer to invest in suites that combine portals, content management and collaboration solutions. Many CIOs will tell you that SharePoint is a critical component of their technology portfolio.

But SharePoint’s somewhat unplanned growth in the last 2 years has led to problems such as insufficient workflow processes, disorganized content and lack of cohesive site creation strategy. Although the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 stack includes sites, communities, content, search, insights and composites, one of its established uses is undoubtedly for improving process management functionality.

Almost every good BPM Software Suite in the market today integrates with Microsoft SharePoint. If you are already utilizing Microsoft SharePoint for document management and enterprise content management, then BPM is something you will eventually want to consider to add advanced workflow capabilities.

Of the myriad business benefits of extending BPM to SharePoint, these are key:

Business user empowerment: enhanced collaboration, allowing business managers to build enterprise wide workflows for processing documents, custom lists and content types in SharePoint.
Stronger processes: Centralized process management and analysis. Highly visible processes and promotes consistent practice of standards thus making processes reliable, repeatable and manageable.
Improved productivity: Manage enterprise wide content and automate and streamline business processes for agile decision making
Rapid ROI: Efficient processes with reduced processing costs and reduced IT investments

A product like Invensys Skelta’s SharePoint Accelerator extends advanced BPM & workflow software advantage to Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for maximum utilization and broader adoption of native SharePoint capabilities. It makes sense for Enterprises to leverage existing SharePoint investments with the added BPM and workflow functionality – code free workflow design, extensibility of all BPM functionality such as queues, KPIs, dashboards, custom reports, built in SharePoint activities and wizards within workflows et al … to bring in the entire goodie bag – Process optimization, Quicker time to market, Operational efficiency across the board and of course better bottom lines.

Perhaps the best value addition BPM software brings to SharePoint is generating workflows from within SharePoint using built in SharePoint wizards and activities. Adds meaning to ‘Collaboration’ - both with dispersed knowledge workers and existing systems that integrate with SharePoint.

As an integrated platform, BPM software with SharePoint also lends itself to business application development for key areas of business.

By extending security and access rights management to documents in SharePoint, transparent, traceable processes and enhanced accountability can be enabled across the Enterprise.

In our next post, we discuss how Collaboration can be leveraged across the Enterprise value chain using BPM and workflow software with SharePoint.

Wrapping up at Microsoft World Partner Conference (WPC), Toronto.

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:55:00 +0000

We’re just back from attending the World Partner Conference at Toronto (8^th-12^th of July). With 16,000 attendees and more than 100 exhibitors the event was a high voltage platform for showcasing Microsoft technology based products and new business models.

Key announcements included confirmation of Windows 8 RTM/GA dates confirmation (early August for manufacturers and Enterprise customers). There was of course all the excitement generated by the Windows Phone 8 integrated with Windows 8. Loaded with new business apps such as Words with Friends, Draw Something, Audible, Chase and PayPal, Windows Phone 8 could well emerge as the number one competitor for Android.

In the BPM software space, Skelta BPM software stood head and shoulders above in the BPM and Advanced Workflow area with a clear forward thinking roadmap including our SaaS based BPM offering delivered on Microsoft Azure. We made the most of the WPC platform to showcase Invensys Skelta’s BPM offering for diverse user groups – Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Value Added Resellers (VARs), System Integrators, CIOs and Enterprise customers.

Wrapping up, we were thrilled to be a part of WPC this year. Invensys Skelta is committed to help partner organizations align their product / service offerings in line with the Microsoft technologies roadmap. We aim to align our own embeddable BPM software offering with future Microsoft technologies so that our users may leverage their existing Microsoft investments for maximum ROI.

See you all in Houston next year.

Upcoming Webinars on BPM with SharePoint / New BPM application scenarios

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 03:27:00 +0000

We have two Free Webinars taking place in July presented by Ramesh Srinivasan, VP Worldwide Sales, Invensys Skelta – a BPM and SharePoint subject matter expert and BPM evangelist.

July 10^th Webinar: Shifting the Paradigm on BPM software

Technology Remains the same. So how do you leverage your BPM investments for sustained value?

How can Business Process Management optimize business outcomes and performance?

How can organizations bridge the gap between Discovery and Business Transformation?

Is there a defined framework to help create a BPM roadmap?

Join us to understand how to make your BPM software work for you.

July 12^th Webinar: Tap the Power of BPM with SharePoint

Are you getting the most out of your SharePoint Investment? Extend BPM capabilities to SharePoint 2010. Learn how in our 60 minute BPM and SharePoint Boot Camp Webinar

Automate, optimize mission critical business processes
Realize rapid returns on your existing investments in Microsoft technologies such as SharePoint, InfoPath and BizTalk
Efficient enterprise wide collaboration with BPM enabled SharePoint
Content management capabilities within SharePoint made efficient with advanced BPM and workflow software capabilities
Share information with other, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to help everyone make better and timely decisions. Learn how to leverage BPM for SharePoint to drive market success

Join us for a webinar on the 12th of July, 2012 to understand the intrinsic capabilities of Skelta BPM and do more with Microsoft SharePoint investments.

What we don’t ask about BPM on Cloud - Pitfalls

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Mon, 28 May 2012 04:31:00 +0000

Earlier this month we discussed the Implications of putting business processes on the Cloud - with this post we continue the thread with a discussion on potential pitfalls of BPMaaS.

With cloud adoption for BPM Software rising at a significant pace, it is clear that not just mid-market companies but Enterprises are looking to consume cloud based processes despite potential problems with delivering Business ProcessManagement as a Service (BPMaaS).

Here is a quick rundown of top 4 concerns of running business processes on cloud:

The primary concern today is that the core strengths of Cloud based delivery models – elasticity and scalability may not meet expectations. However, as Gartner’s Michele Cantara points out, “That can be ok because most buyers don’t need all the attributes of Cloud. So it’s less expensive to buy a business process as a contract for 100 users than it might be to buy on-premise software, and while it’s not purely pay-for-use, it’s still a saving”.

Security: Another obvious issue is of course related to data security and IP rights. In a multi-tenant Cloud environment, it is important to be vigilant about information security. It is a simple fact that no security system is infallible (think Google and Sales Force.com). Data security laws also vary with geographies and jurisdiction becomes an important issue in this case. One needs to be aware of where exactly the BPM application or process related data will be hosted. Also, when it comes to process governance on the Cloud, the vendor needs to have a robust exception monitoring system in place.

SLAs: Any vendor offering solutions delivered on Cloud is evaluated through hard bound SLAs and vendors delivering BPM applications on the Cloud are no different. However, apart from the usual parameters such as Uptime and Security which are the cornerstone of a successful delivery, SLAs need to be stringently evaluated for actual process performance. Does the process achieve the business aim it was meant to? Accessibility and Mobility are not concerns limited to on premise solutions and need to be evaluated for processes that rest on Cloud.

4 Pricing: Although there are several hybrid pricing models available, typically, Cantara says, Cloud service providers price their services based on a range of users; the customer pays for services whether or not they’re being used. That is subscription-based, per-user pricing. The Process Café blog summarizes this well Costing models for BPM in the cloud will need to be carefully scrutinised to ensure that they will not inhibit the future development of the processes themselves. As such the owners will need to understand how the costing is done and what will be the impact of making a change. This will then need to be made transparent and matched against the cost of implementing such a system as an in-house cloud system rather than a purchased SaaS operation.

A BPM Pilot that is tested on a critical process and modeled for the long term is definitely an evaluation best practice. Our next post will discuss which processes could be on Cloud vs On-premise.

Business Processes on the Cloud – Implications

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:59:00 +0000

As per A Strategy Guide for Business and Technology Leaders — and the Rest of Us by Andy Mulholland, Jon Pyke and Peter Fingar, Business Process Management as a Service (BPMaaS) creates unique business processes designed for specific purposes to link together multi-company value delivery systems that in the past weren’t feasible or economical to join together. BPMaaS is all about the complete management of business processes, and puts business people in charge of their processes. In many ways, BPMaaS is what sets enterprise cloud computing apart from consumer cloud computing. Unique business processes are how companies differentiate themselves, and are thus paramount to the enterprise use of cloud computing for competitive advantage. BPMaaS covers the full lifecycle of business processes, from their conception, design implementation and optimization. Bringing BPM capabilities to the Cloud enables multiple companies to share a common BPM system and fully participate in an overall end-to-end business process.

So what does it mean to put your processes on the Cloud? On the one hand, there are the obvious benefits of collaboration across dispersed geographic locations and a more cohesive value chain enabled by collaboration beyond the firewall. Business Process Management as a Service (BPMaaS) is also an excellent way to test project pilots and then have them delivered on demand putting the controls directly in the hands of business owners for decisions on size of investments, scalability etc.

On revenues, BPMaaS radically reduces risk and startup expenses for innovation initiatives letting companies take more small bets and test out more new ideas. With no upfront capital expense, new projects can be scaled up instantly if they take off, or shut down quickly if they fail. This sort of elasticity promotes agility and provides a launch pad for truly innovative ideas.

Beyond the firewall, putting processes on the Cloud also allows organizations to collaborate in new ways with its trading partners, and collaboration is the key to gaining competitive advantage across the value chain. By establishing shared workspaces in “Community Clouds” employees from multiple companies can work together as a “virtual enterprise network” and function as though they were a single company. They all participate in the same value delivery system, sharing computing, communication and information resources. This is especially important as no one company “owns” the overall value chain.

For someone who consumes Cloud based services and business process management software, it is key to remember that Cloud delivery is still in its infancy and accounts for less than 10% of all software product and services delivery models. As per a Gartner report, recognize that BPM PaaS vendors' view of elasticity generally means that they will enable more services and more capacity for you, but in many cases, this enablement is not automatic and not really elastic.

Plan your budget with the understanding that, even when "elasticity" is automated, it is usually only automated to increase, rather than decrease. As a result, your payments may stay the same, even though your consumption decreases.

Examine the multi-tenancy claims of a BPM PaaS or cloud-enabled BPM platform vendor against Gartner's CEAP multi-tenancy reference model. The aforementioned limitations in elasticity suggest that vendor claims of more-advanced "shared everything" multi-tenancy maybe exaggerated.

In our next post we will further examine potential pitfalls of BPMaaS and Processes that could be on the cloud vs. on premise processes.

Old Technology, New Bottle.

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:54:00 +0000

Technology doesn’t Change … as was pointed out to me the other day by a senior colleague, only the interpretations evolve into new application scenarios. Sometimes they even come full circle in shiny new packaging.

A case in point is the Outside In approach or philosophy which evangelizes a Customer focused model for all business processes. Sound familiar? Customer Centricity Anyone?

There are currently in existence more than 6000 known BPM methodologies focused around the customer, so this begs the question “Why do we need another one”? As per Steve Towers of the BP Group and founding father of Outside In however, this approach is really a philosophy and work ethic rather than a business methodology wherein getting a grip on all aspects of the customer experience is the key to consistently delivering successful customer outcomes (SCOs).

The message here is simple – “Stop doing irrelevant processes to free up costs by examining each process for customer centricity”. Translating this to measurable results, for those companies following the Outside In approach, order of magnitude has significantly improved by 20% in a period of 3 months and these results are being claimed as the bottom tier of actual figures. Speaks volumes for a renewed approach to customer focused business practices doesn’t it?

What is supposedly different about Outside In is that in the usual customer approach, most CEOs view customer centricity through the functional silo way of working while as per Outside In, every process should really exist only to achieve a SCO. The key enablers to this approach are Process Diagnostics that provide insights into worthwhile process engineering.

There is an underlying belief that even companies who have done some process improvements can derive benefits from the Outside In approach. Function based KPIs related to customer accounting, customer service, customer retention etc. don’t guarantee SCOs but designing processes around SCO is bound to work.

In e-governance for example, SCOs can be achieved through a single window, ‘Anytime Anywhere’ delivery of citizen services rather than the one portal for each service approach.

So even if technology doesn’t change at the speed of light, our ever changing business eco system calls for distilled philosophies based on proven track records and experience.

Clouded Judgement?

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:48:00 +0000

So it seems like the jury is still out on how well BPM will migrate to the cloud but that doesn’t seem to have interrupted the momentum in the least bit! Many will agree that the exciting thing about cloud, apart from being an option to On Premise is the opportunity for new business and software delivery models to develop. At some level, this sort of innovation has to mean improved functionality and cost efficiencies.

But hosting a BPM tool on the cloud also means that first level of engagement now rests with the end user rather than the “IT department” – this is a huge challenge which begs for new ways to deliver BPM on the cloud.

Remember when Cloud solutions were served up through some clearly defined delivery models ?

- Software as a service (SaaS) which may be termed very simply as on demand software (and associated data) that is hosted centrally and delivered on browser

- Platform as a service ( PaaS) or the middle layer that provides a computing platform or solution stack as a service

- Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) that offers physical or virtual machines from data centers billed typically on a utility computing basis

Then with the kind of huge investments biggies such as Amazon, Rackspace and Microsoft put behind Cloud, everyone was hard pressed to jump on the Cloud bandwagon - sometimes with little or no readiness. Newer delivery models with no gestation became words being bandied about. So now along with Enterprise as a service (EaaS) and Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) the new kid on the overcrowded block is - iPaaS (Integration Platform as a service). But more on that in another post.

For now, how do organizations differentiate the real deal from a drummed up version? As Hollis Tibbets succinctly puts it “if it's not multi-tenant, if it's not elastic, if it's not scalable, if it doesn't have modern tools for development and management (i.e. it looks more like Windows 3.1 than Browser) then it's not the real deal …”

What I think though is that if we look beyond the multiple messages all clamoring for space, one of the clearly visible benefits that emerge is that BPM on the cloud transforms the value chain for Enterprise – a neutral space outside a firewall means capturing participation from customer and partner facing processes for true collaboration.

But what with many organizations viewing BPM on cloud as the answer to their unresolved process issues, the waters are only going to get muddier before we begin to understand the true and tangible value of BPM on cloud – any way it is served.

Invensys Skelta Partner Contest Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:15:00 +0000

Invensys Skelta (BPM software provider) VAR - The IT Bunch win "Name the Whitepaper Contest" with their inspiring title text.

"The aggregation of Business: ROEI and Skelta BPM"!

Download the Whitepaper here http://www.skelta.com/newsletter/Skelta-Communique/february-2012/Whitepaper-Invensys-Skelta-Contest.pdf

BPO Business Transformation through BPM?

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:52:00 +0000

The BPO business hub in India has been growing at the rate of 70% every year and is now worth $1.6 billion. In an industry that employs 1, 00,000 people, there is bound to be cost competitiveness due to the sheer numbers –in other words, high volume intellectual capital. For business success in what is already a crowded space, only 100% customer delight can make the cut and spell the difference between high profitability and a mad clamor to stay afloat.

So what is in the BPO success mix?

Cost savings obviously – the bedrock of the BPO industry

Increased efficiencies through optimized SLA management

Increased bottom-lines

Response to change

In order to consolidate and find new differentiators, BPM promises operational efficiency in a sector heavily dependent on quality and rapid turnaround. So Business Process Management and BPO are all about cutting costs but if you cut to the chase what is it about a BPM product that delivers value here? It has to be about getting your workforce to do more within tight SLA frameworks and to do it right.

Lauren Bielski in CIO points out quite accurately that BPM in BPO makes digital what used to be flow charts scribbled on white boards or sketched out on notepads. This method allows subordinate processes to be more easily taken over by contracted outsiders in jobs such as loan processing, application support, or claims processing.

Business Process Management in this scenario can rapidly define, modify and deploy processes cost effectively while at the same time providing for continuous monitoring of performance and projection of resource requirements.

If we’re talking specifics, a robust Queue Management system designed to accelerate productivity with its dynamic queue allocation is integral to BPM for BPO. Common task dispatch patters such as FIFO, LIFO and round robin are well supported as are custom dispatch patterns, automatic, semi-automatic and manual modes of task dispatch. BPM can differentiate in this one process that makes or break a BPO operation – project delivery.

Long term fixed priced BPO contracts in the backdrop of escalating operational costs have long been the bane of the BPO industry. However, the sector has shown potential to be profitable. Now with more and more BPOs focusing on business transformation with BPM software, maybe it can?

BPM framework for BPO

INVENSYS SKELTA PARTNER CONTEST!

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:04:00 +0000

DEAR PARTNER,

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO PARTICIPATE IN 'NAME THE WHITEPAPER' CONTEST.

CONTEST DETAILS

1. DOWNLOAD THIS NO NAME WHITEPAPER LINK:
http://www.skelta.com/newsletter/Skelta-Communique/february-2012/Whitepaper-Invensys-Skelta-Contest.pdf

2. SEND US THE TITLE TEXT THAT YOU THINK BEST REPRESENTS THE CONTENT TO invensysskelta.marketing@invensys.com

The marketing folks at Invensys Skelta (who know a thing or two about Whitepapers!) will announce a winner in a week.

SO WHAT DOES THE WINNING ENTRY BAG?

1. A White Paper named by you! - This White Paper will be featured prominently on the Invensys Skelta corporate website, Partner Portal and all Social Media Sites
2. Your company's name in the title credit
3. Links to your company's unique profile page on our corporate website

For any clarifications, please email us on invensysskelta.marketing@invensys.com

The Proof is in the Pudding?

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:38:00 +0000

Following up on my post last week on what goes into the making of a BPM project, let’s talk a little more about Proof of Concepts (POCs). To truly gain traction from Discovery to Automation and to zero in on the right BPM software, a POC showing your vendor’s competency on a number of issues is essential. It’s simple really – Don’t Invest till you Test!

When it comes to evaluating a POC, there are the usual suspects

- - Time to delivery from start to finish

- - Sustainability (does the vendor have the bandwidth and skill to support optimization over a long time period)

- - Human reaction to change

- - Ability of the product to react to change

But apart from these the most critical test of concept is the scope of the POC. A scope bound POC which is a sub set of the actual BPM project offers enormous clarity to the process owner. More importantly, as a BPM customer you should be cognizant of your exact BPM requirement before evaluating vendors ... the idea is to map the software to your needs rather than spend time and money on a POC to reinforce its inherent strengths.

A BPM customer should drive the outcome of a POC and test for compatibility with existing IT environments among other things. Introduce scenarios that test vendor agility and response to process change – indication of a strong services team means that you gain from the vendor’s BPM project experience when it comes to building a new application around the product. For a BPM vendor of course, a well defined POC directly translates to cost efficiencies and in depth understanding of the client’s requirement.

Invest more technical resources in rolling out a POC and you have yourself a sustainable BPM customer who views you more as a BPM partner and less as a software vendor.

10 Point Program for BPM Excellence

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:31:00 +0000

What really makes for BPM project success? Visualizing a lean and efficient business structure, or how to “Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast!”

First, identify a few processes that are costing the company’s bottom-line, increasing turnaround times or represent a compliance risk.
Put together a think tank of subject matter experts, process owners and forward thinking individuals from your organization to draw up a new goal based process.
Look at your internal technical skill set and various platforms in your IT landscape and evaluate BPMS tools from vendors that fit well with your existing IT investment.
Choose a BPM software vendor to develop an initial proof of concept (POC).
Run and test the process. Revise, revise, revise till you get it right.
Measure the new process for KPIs which are key to your business – common measurement indicators are cycle times, cost implication and customer satisfaction.
Deploy the process and continuously monitor the Business Activity for improved achievement on overall governance aims and better customer offerings.
Synchronize and Collaborate with teams on potential ideas for competing in the market and use these as BPM opportunities to scale up your BPM initiative.
Consider integrating your BPM software with your existing ERP system and extend the bandwidth of your process optimization tool.
Leverage organizational knowledge and market intelligence to constantly update your process with a trial and deploy methodology.

Redirecting resources to find and close business opportunities, rather than spend time looking for information spells Operational efficiency and results in better bottom lines.

Future Forward! - BPM Futuristic Trends

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:11:00 +0000

Future Forward - BPM Futuristic Trends :

How can Business Process Management optimize business outcomes and performance? Last year’s leading BPM events and the views aired therein by the industry’s thought leaders all bring out a dominant and somewhat worrying scenario – after a decade, Process Agility is still a pipe dream for organizations struggling to connect BPM technologies with their real world business processes.

Companies continue to focus on process automation as the quick fix to achieving Business Process Management goals without clearly defining end performance parameters and process improvement metrics. There is a need then to step back from the blinding array of available BPMS and concentrate on building operational resilience achieved through continuously introducing new process incidents for goal fulfilment and performance measurement. The need is also to identify a set of techniques that allow people, processes and information systems to adapt to changing patterns repeatedly.

The success words for the future of BPM include Activity Monitoring and Business Intelligence – a greater shift towards “predictive” instead of the “reactive” models being followed; Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) and Business Event Support as an important aspect of any full service BPM platform whilst evaluating best fit BPMS by organizations. BPM platforms with a strong focus on BAM, will come out on top by providing the critical visibility today’s embattled organizations need to establish relevant business goals and accountability.

The road this year will organically lead to social BPM - an ideal scenario where knowledge workers and partners model collaborative processes and BPMS designs address needs of unstructured process such as those that rest with knowledge workers. . As organizations begin to see the light about creating structures that are operationally resilient, BPMS as a technology takes a back seat. Key features of BPMS that support real world company goals for operational intelligence such as BAM and Process Designers for continuous process improvement take to the forefront of BPM as a solution to achieve operational success.

Business transformation has emerged as the key to sustaining organizational success and there is negligible concern on technology issues. Processes as a platform must necessarily come to pass as more and more users are vested in the belief that processes will eventually run in the cloud (both public and private).

The economic downturn has everyone looking inward and setting the house in order. Going forward, structured process automation will slowly give way to process management for unstructured processes – harnessing knowledge repositories within enterprises.

The emerging face of BPM extends accountability to process management as the means to optimize business outcome. This means that BPMS needs to keep pace as organizations start adapting process at the pace of business changes and not at the pace of their BPM package!

Business Process Management Simplified: And How Does BPM Feature in the Retail World?

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 05:35:00 +0000

Business Process Management Simplified: And How Does BPM Feature in the Retail World?

And How Does BPM Feature in the Retail World?

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 05:17:00 +0000

The retail landscape has seen significant changes since the inception of the internet. While retailing in the past essentially meant simply distributing the product in question, that is no longer the case. In order to succeed in today’s fast paced retail world, a business needs to focus on retaining customers just as much as attracting new ones. Aspects that need to be addressed in such scenarios include enabling better communication between the business and its customer base, improving the supply chain, as well as seeing how IT solutions can help simplify the overall workflow.

Various retailers have already delved into the BPM sphere. Amongst the various things that one can expect a good Business Process Management solution to provide include, lowered operational costs and reduced cyclic times. Besides, one can also expect a significant ROI in an investment such as this simply because the operations and the solution would work in tandem, and both would be equally responsible for the outcome of the implementation.

How Can BPM Help?

Retailers now accept that their field is becoming more and more complex, and this is mainly because of the surge in service channels coupled with problems in tracking sales. Moreover, brand loyalty isn’t what it used to be, anymore; and in order for customers to come back, one has to ensure not just the high quality of the product, but high service levels as well. With an effective BPM solution in place, you can provide your customers with various platforms to interact with you (these would include in-store communication, over the phone, emails, chat, etc). Of course, you don’t necessarily need a BPM solution in place to offer your customers these options but a BPM solution would ensure that the interactions that take place through the varied mediums are fused seamlessly, thereby giving the business in question better flexibility, better productivity, better processes, and thereby, better customer satisfaction.

BPM solutions for the retail industry also take into account that having a smooth and reliable supply chain can affect the way the business functions to a large extent. A good BPM solution, when it comes to addressing the supply chain, would be able to send out automatic notifications across the business’ various stores, departments, etc; and the same can also be done when it comes to routing work across different sections/levels. The automation would help minimize errors and would also hasten the entire process.

Also, since the workforce is quite an important aspect in this sector, businesses can also use BPM solutions to track the performances of their employees and the processes through an assortment of tools designed specifically for this purpose. This would allow a business to review, strategize, improve and execute their future plans in accordance.

On the whole, with an effective BPM solution in place retailers can expect to respond to change more quickly, give their customers a better experience, get real time control over the business’ processes, effectively manage the supply chain, as well as look forward to enhanced retail distribution, product portfolio, and campaign management.

E Governance in Today’s BPM World

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:46:00 +0000

Any government, it is said, is only as transparent as its citizenry wants it to be and as the government functionaries choose it to be. However, with an increasing number of countries now paying due attention to their citizens’ rights to information, this transparency does seem to be on the rise. With e-governance, a government gives all its citizens a common platform to voice their opinions, seek answers, and most importantly, to get work done.

E-governance is not something that is limited to the west any more, and a number of Indian states have also embraced this technology is some form or the other. States that are already part of the e-governance revolution in this country include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, with more looking to follow suit.

This shift in paradigm is not without reason. Not only does this allow the government mechanism to be available to the common people round the clock, but it also cuts across the geographical barriers owing to the continually rising internet connectivity penetration even in previously unreachable hinterlands. So, not only would this result in saving time and money, but would also provide people with the much needed ease of access. For instance, registration of property could be incorporated into e-Governance, and so could an assortment of application processes.

Governments need to recognize that looking at BPM e-Governance solutions is the way to go because documentation accounts for a considerable chunk of its work, and this would include collecting documents and forms from the electorate, or supplying the electorate with any record or document that it requires.

With a good document management system in place governments would succeed in making their processes more transparent. Moreover, since government processes, like any other business process, require to be cost efficient, incorporating an effective document management solution would work in reducing the costs considerably. Process and documental Security is also a crucial aspect, and with the right document management solution in place the classification of documents and access to the same can also be handled effectively.

Other benefits that a good BPM e-governance solution would provide include ensuring that documents are not lost or misplaced and that they can be tracked easily; that inter-governmental communication is streamlined; that audits can be more reliable; that collaboration between various departments is augmented; and a smoother overall workflow. A good BPM e-governance solution should ideally be able to seamlessly integrate with the process’ existing framework; and should also allow room for reengineering at a later stage if the need arises. Also, owing to the diverse electorate, such a solution should be multilingual. These, in effect, would lead to the smoother overall functioning of all the government bodies involved, which resultantly would lead to a more satisfied electorate.

And since this is the primary aim of every government body (or should be), then not using e-governance to empower the people would only leave them discontented, unsatisfied, and looking for change.

SaaS BPM – A Suitable Present Day Confluence?

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:07:00 +0000

The talk about SaaS BPM has been doing rounds for over a couple of years now. An increasing number of industry related experts now speak in favor of this integration and one of the main reasons is the level of collaboration that this integration offers. Process managers and others involved with the project, who until recently, had to be physically present together for implementation of the project, can now partake in the input/decision making process from remote locations.

What is SaaS?

Software as a Service (SaaS) is an offering wherein the provider’s role extends far beyond delivering a functional product, and includes providing the customer with availability, scalability, reliability, etc. A good SaaS model would also give its users the ability to personalize and customize their own settings, while also offering common functions to all users. What essentially sets a SaaS model apart from the onsite solutions though is the licensing aspect. As opposed to using a perpetual license, a SaaS solution would come with a subscription model, wherein the ownership of the solution would remain with the provider.

There are various advantages of offering a BPM solutions as SaaS, and apart from increased collaboration, these are the added advantages.

Business Size Not a Constraint:

When it comes to implementing a BPM strategy for a big business, one can expect to bear considerable expenses coupled with risk and complexities. If the business involves more than one location, then infrastructure would have to be provided for each location, and each location could also end up requiring its own support staff. Opting for a SaaS based BPM solution in such a scenario would help not just because you do not have to worry about the technological support, but also because it is, more often than not, a more cost effective option.

Customer Centric Models:

As opposed to using traditional ‘push’ marketing, a SaaS model would be way more customer centric. This is simply because those who create SaaS BPM solutions depend on the renewal of their services to make money, and this ensures that providers interact with their clients on an ongoing basis as opposed to trying to make that single sale.

Decreased Risk:

Opting for a SaaS BPM solution would require a considerably lower investment than opting for an onsite one. Also, the process manager who uses the solution in question would be free to decide on the solution’s suitability, giving the business in question the option to stop using the service if it feels that it is not deriving adequate results from the new implementation.

The Cost Factor:

While there are people who are of the opinion that SaaS BPM solutions end up costing more in the long run, one should also take into account the ongoing expenses for on-site BPM solutions in the form of software upgrades, maintenance, and the dedicated manpower that is required. A SaaS BPM solution also makes it possible for businesses to serve any number of customers by taking away the need for dedicated server space. These solutions which provide automated periodical upgrades and help in lowering the ‘cost of ownership’ , I feel, can be particularly beneficial when it comes to small and medium businesses with little or no internal IT framework, especially considering the economic conditions, a SaaS BPM solutions would be cost effective for an immediate BPM roll-out strategy.

Lastly, while security is cited as a concern in SaaS BPM solutions, this too is being addressed by most providers. Besides, the demand for such solutions is certainly on the rise as businesses look for newer ways to increase productivity. Using SaaS based solutions gives businesses the option to experiment, and after seeing successful results, to delve further into this sphere. So just as more and more businesses look towards SaaS BPM, an increasing number of providers now aim to provide them with relevant products.

The Relevance of Simulation in Today’s BPM World

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:31:00 +0000

The way most BPM solutions approach improving any process is by first understanding the process, then analyzing it; and this is generally followed by process simulation which allows the business to visualize possible effects of the change/s. This is followed by the process improvement stage and finally, the automation of the process in question. The question being, can BPM solutions do without the simulation stage?

Well, we do know that the BPM sphere has seen rapid growth since its inception, and changing trends are now becoming increasingly commonplace. Processes are definitely more automated now as compared to a couple of years ago, and the focus of such solutions is becoming more and more client based. However, with the focus shifting on the needs of individual clients, providing relevant solutions does raise the expense factor to a certain extent.

The Traditional View of Simulation in BPM:

A number of people still see simulation as an integral part of BPM solutions. The rationale is that since you have a BPM model in place, you have access to data that indicates exactly what happens within the given process, and this gives you the data for your simulation model. But for a complete understanding of this aspect, taking a step backward offers more insight.

The Process Analysis Stage:

Since this is the stage that precedes the simulation stage, let’s see how it fits into the scheme of things starting from here. Analyzing and optimizing a process is usually overlooked by the process leader and it is this role that looks to identify any problems as well as make any suggestions. This is done after having gone through the entire process, its performance, as well as all associated data; and the aim is to better the overall process performance.

Also, since a majority of the businesses looking at BPM solutions aren’t in a position to get more manpower, BPM solutions tend to offer tools that allow businesses to test various alternatives.

Process Simulation:

Since there is a need to test various alternatives, many BPM solutions do incorporate simulation tools which allow businesses to compare an assortment of scenarios. These tools essentially run using statistical analysis of factors like resource utilization, queue lengths, average task completion, durations, etc. and can be an effective method to test probable situations. However, a simulation tool is generally very complex in nature, with every statistical link requiring checking. This can lead to a lot of complexity within the process instead, which is against the most widely accepted philosophy of BPM – making processes simple and transparent.

The Process Improvement Stage:

Some BPM solutions come with optimization tools which allow a business to establish the best path towards the improvement of the process. This works in addressing the simulation stage’s natural glitches; wherein, as opposed to an analyst determining the areas that can be improved upon, the tool would actually give you feasible options.

Besides, comparing simulated scenarios isn’t always beneficial to business growth. This is simply because different business managers would look to measure different metrics/components in reaching to effective conclusions.

So while I’m not writing off the role of simulation completely, I am certainly of the opinion that more cost effectual and efficient BPM solutions can be offered without the use of simulation tools.

Process excellence in Manufacturing with BPM Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:23:00 +0000

Manufacturing houses the world over have to deal with production and supply chain related issues, and this often calls for quick responses and timely intervention clubbed with innovative approaches. Not only does a manufacturing house have to deal with customers, but also with an array of distributors, suppliers, vendors, and its own workforce. While there have been various attempts in the past to streamline production processes through the use of various enterprise solutions, the results have been quite mixed. This is mainly because the focus doesn’t always remain on the business’ individual process requirements. Business units are broken down into smaller assembly units and each use stripped down process modeling with limited interaction. Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) typically only support production routing, production processes, and instructions for the work to be done. Hence, MES systems are focused only on production and are unable to execute processes, integrate multivendor applications or play a role in the planning, designing and building phase of manufacturing.

BPM to the Rescue

Business Process Management tools cure this exact pain. It gives businesses the ability to fine tune processes while eliminating any shortcomings, while also automating production processes in order to minimize errors and maximize reliability. Through effective BPM implementation a production house can also utilize its assets to the fullest, thereby getting the most out of its existing manpower and equipment. Besides, in going the BPM way a production house would have the ability to extend its channels of revenue, and this would also give the business an opportunity to gather pertinent customer data from various points of sale.

Managing the Supply Chain:

Since this fast paced technological world that we now live in calls for quick fire and accurate decision making while also maintaining visibility, it is important that businesses and their respective supply chain collaborators work in tandem by quickly adapting to changing market needs and scenarios. Using a BPM solution to streamline a business’ entire supply chain network would help the business adapt to the latest trends, minimize wastage, and run on decreased operating costs.

Operations:

When it comes to the operational aspect of any manufacturing business, one of the most common complaints involves the lack of synchronized data. If the operations part of a manufacturing house is not adequately integrated, it could very well lead to inaccurate reporting of data, loss of man hours, unnecessary inventories, inappropriate planning and decision making, etc. With the help of an integrated BPM solution, one can expect to have access to all information in real time.

Apart from the positives mentioned above, here are some more reasons why a production house would benefit by employing a BPM strategy.

Collaboration: In keeping common goals and running a unified platform a production house gives its ‘people’ network a place where they can interact and collaborate.
Workflow: Integrating a business’ technological aspects with the processes and the people behind the processes keeps a due check on prioritization, thereby ensuring a smooth workflow.
Transparency: Using a BPM solution would tell a business exactly where and how its resources are being used, and to what effect.

Other benefits of using BPM solutions in production industries include the ability to run processes in accordance to specific business needs; reducing the possibility of delays in the supply of materials; using automatic notifications to correspond within various internal departments and with external sources like customers, vendors, and suppliers; as well as the ability to integrate one’s existing range of applications like SCM and ERP.

So do I see more manufacturing houses embrace this technology in the time to come? Of course!

The Value of BPM for BPO Operations

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:31:00 +0000

BPM tools have helped businesses in various fields, and while a number of key players in the BPO industry have already jumped on the BPM bandwagon, a large number of BPO’s continue to remain under tremendous timelines related pressures. With the need for innovative products that can help increase productivity while cutting costs being the foremost criteria of almost every BPO, BPM providers continue to make continual upgrades and use state of the art technology to better their existing offerings.

If you are wondering why a BPO would need BPM solutions, do consider the following data released by IBM last year. Most businesses end up wasting more than 5 hours per employee; more than two thirds of all employees end up making decisions despite having incorrect information around once every week; two thirds feel that while there are people who can help them perform better, they just don’t know how to find them; and lastly, in excess of 90% of all the business heads who were interviewed opined that their business’ operating style needed a makeover.

Within a BPO, processes like sales, marketing, operations, insurance, banking, online services, human resources, and even administration can benefit through BPM tools. This is simply because any process which has room to be partially or completely automated, improved, and monitored, can benefit from BPM technology. Some BPOs have also used BPM tools as the key differentiator in customer acquisition situations. Through BPM, a BPO can also display its understanding of processes at the core level to any of its existing or probable client/s.

BPM can also help in the event where a business is looking to outsource work to a BPO. BPM would help the business in question have better control on the outsourced process while also being able to impart its SLAs in a more effective manner and provide complete transparency. Moreover, end customers do tend to face the challenge of basing a great amount of dependency on the BPO of critical processes. Besides, they might not necessarily feel comfortable to outsource critical tasks such as exiting or moving a process function to another BPO, and converting it into an internal process could also seem like a risky proposition. BPM can circumvent this risk by standardizing such processes and this could very well simplify a potential handover.

In looking at BPM solutions, these are aspects that a BPO should look into:

a) The offered solution should be quickly developed.

b) The solution should be low cost at the onset, and sustainable in the long run.

c) The solution should be able to integrate with the BPO’s existing technology.

Since the BPO spectrum is quite varied, the pertinent BPM solutions also follow suit. For example, the solution that a financial sector BPO requires would vary from the one that is needed by a service oriented BPO. The good thing is that BPM can deliver solutions, irrespective of the core area of expertise.

For instance, when it comes to codifying or guiding workflow, BPM would simply automate your otherwise manual tasks of taking notes. BPM could also help in creating subordinate processes which can then be handed over to third-parties in scenarios such as application support, loan processing, data verification, etc.

So yes, a BPO can surely benefit through the use of BPM solutions, as not only does this present an opportunity of garnering increased control, but also of increased and higher standards of output. And with the doldrums still not quite out of the picture, cost effective BPM solutions for BPOs do seem to be the order of the day.

Composite Applications in Today’s BPM World

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:11:00 +0000

The demand for enterprise applications is definitely on the rise, and a business, in this day and age, can easily find a software package to address almost any aspect of the business. Solutions for facets like CRM, ERP, SCM, MRP, etc. are quite easy to come by, with a plethora of vendors trying to fill the existent marketplace. However, just as businesses strive to create their place under the sun, the same also applies to vendors of business solutions, and this has given rise to the integration of these solutions under a single umbrella.

The idea behind running composite applications is to move the focus from individual application development, to integrating them into a single unit instead. These applications also work in addressing the gaps between existing applications and creating solutions specific to specific tasks, allowing the business process to follow the steps laid by the solution as opposed to having users work as mediators in between different processes.

The Changing Facade

Solutions created using Business Process Management platforms differ from the solutions developed not so long ago, as BPM solutions deliver ‘process’ models and metadata mapping instead of delivering database instantiations and database models, as in the case of conventional solutions. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) components now run completely independently, and human interaction/decision making is now a part of the entire automation process as well. This gives the end user the ability to configure/assemble components as required while also streamlining them with one’s existing web based services. Besides, by uniting the human workflow aspect with automation process, the overall workflow can be managed in a more effective manner.

One very important aspect of composite applications is that they generally do not aim at 100% functionality. This is simply because they come with a range of executable components which can then be sequenced as per the end user’s preferences. Instead of complete functionality, such solutions aim at dynamic assembly, flexibility, integration, and extensibility.

What to Expect

With more and more businesses making the required infrastructural changes, one can expect the ability of a BPM solution to enable composite applications to be one of the key components in a BPM implementation. You should also know that composite applications go beyond the realm of SOA, and various large businesses have already gone ahead and deployed various service enabled applications aimed at leveraging SOA in different forms. This also makes it important for such solutions to look at incorporating the various services/components that are being clubbed together.

The benefits are manifold; BPM enabled solutions can help streamline the business process, it can help bridge the business/IT gap, the integration capabilities help leverage on existing IT investments, it can help reduce operational costs, it can diminish business risks, it would be easy to implement; it would be a hastened process, and it would also allow both vertical and horizontal scalability. As a customer, before any BPM implementation, I would definitely ask the question… Does this BPM platform help me create applications rapidly and integrate easily with existing systems?

What Can You Expect from Embeddable BPM Solutions?

noreply@blogger.com (Kalpa Shah) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:43:00 +0000

The very core of embeddable BPM solutions relies on the basis that this brings to the fore various advanced capabilities when it comes to addressing existent process management applications and systems. A good embeddable BPM solution would be built from scratch, taking into account the specific integration of a business’ existing applications and workflow solutions.

Amongst the basic things that you should expect from a good embeddable BPM solution include scalable and reliable architecture, and the ability of quick integration (this could be across different platforms such as MOSS 2007, Microsoft SharePoint, BizTalk Server, etc). Also, your embeddable BPM solution should incorporate as many BPM functions as required, while also leaving room for high levels of flexibility though the use of a standard based approach.

Human Resource Workflow Solutions:

No BPM strategy would be fully effective if the business does not take into account the ‘human’ factor, especially if the business in question allocates work in a team based manner. Therefore, the embeddable BPM solution that you chose should be able to use integrated queues for the same, and should ideally support the ‘push pull’ pattern. This solution should be able to assign rights to users as required, and task allocation should be possible through random, systematic, or round robin systems, as chosen by the business. Also, even though the solution aims to automate the process, manual allocation should still remain a possibility.

Integration with Applications:

As mentioned before, the ability of quick integration is very important when it comes to embeddable BPM solutions. For example, if your business already uses SAP, then the solution should run on architecture that can seamlessly integrate with the same. It should allow connectivity with multiple databases such as MS SQL, My Directory, and Oracle; and should also allow the end user to make modifications to the embedded workflow patterns as well as the user interface.

The User Interface:

There is no denying the fact that the user interface plays an important role in the successful implementation of most embeddable BPM solutions. The use of extremely intuitive user interfaces can be found quite easily, and so can the use of an assortment of built-in templates. This aspect of the BPM solution should also be easy to modify, and should also take into account factors like the geographical location of the end user.

Further, the use of an XML variable interface can help simplify the input of XML data into the workflow, and the same also holds true for creating new XML schemas or simply importing ones that already exist.

A good embeddable BPM solution should allow interface access through various channels, and should be able to define various media types when it comes to the delivery of tasks (these would include web, email, voice, SMS, IM, etc).

Overall, your embeddable solution should aim at increasing your visibility through the use of a simple to use set of features which are run on the latest technology, while also being able to seamlessly integrate with your business’ existing infrastructure; and at all times, paying due attention to 3^rd party software usage restrictions.