My CTO keeps telling me, "Less is more." It is something to consider, especially related to the topic of Green. At Ingenuus, we are embracing green, and actually have been long before the idea of using less resources was popular and in vogue. In fact, our first tag line was, “Simply. Ingenious.” Our stated goal was to make complex, robust software simple and easy to use and maintain.

I am proud to say that we continue striving for that goal developing software that not only helps companies be more efficient by automating their business processes, but by making sure that our software does not drain corporate IT and process owner resources. We focus on 3 major areas: Efficiency, Functionality and Affordability.

Efficiency – often when I am reviewing a demo or a consulting project I will discover that we have consolidated 3 or more processes into a single, efficient process. In addition to reducing the number of processes required, I find that we have significantly reduced the amount of work required by process participants. Process efficiency is what we do, and we do it well.
Our software is also more efficient. It combines all the required functionality into a single design tool so that a trained process owner can map a process, configure web pages, build business rules, test process logic, and release the final process into production. No IT guru has to be called, no business process analyst has to be consulted.

Functionality – we have combined all the required elements you will find in BPM suites into a single product platform. This reduces the complexity and the cost of the software. In addition, we have integrated obvious companion software like enterprise application integration and document management. We have taken the idea of managing a document to the next level with our Active Packet technology where everything related to a process, all the documents, emails, URLs, pictures, markups, etc. are all kept in one “logical” place – the process folder.
Since we combine so much technology into a single solution, we reduce the need to purchase complimentary software. With other BPM solutions you will have to purchase a document management system, a dashboard builder, a report generator, integration software, and web page development tools. Not with Ingenuus. It is all there in the Process Orchestrator.

Affordability – to purchase all of the functionality provided by the Process Orchestrator, you would have to spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. Ingenuus makes BPM affordable keeping most initial implementations under $100,000.

When you are looking for Green BPM, don’t simply look for a product that can make your processes more efficient. Look for a solution that will make your organization more efficient by not only automating your processes, but by also reducing the time and money required to purchase and support that solution.

Where do I start?

This is often asked by people wanting to know what to do when they realize they need to be more efficient. The answer can be daunting, and to some degree, I think there are many stake-holders involved that would like to keep it that way.

Scott Cleveland, in a recent blog entry, made the observation that BPM is much more than technology. BPM is meaningless without management discipline, he asserts.

I have to agree.

But the question remains - where do I start? I have several areas that make good starting points depending on your own circumstances. I hope these are helpful.

1. Document your processes - this does not have to be some strange exercise that is complex and takes forever. Start by simply writing down the processes you observe each and every day.

2. Determine which processes really matter - it is hard to figure out where to start if you don't even know what the options are. Once you have a list of processes, prioritize them. Which are more important, or critical. The results may surprise you!

3. Determine where improvements can be made, or automation used - not everything can be solved with software. Organizations are made up of people, and simple changes can have tremendous impact. Where can improvements make a real difference? Where can we automate to reduce repetitive tasks?

4. Share ownership - is can be amazing what happens when the head honcho takes responsibility for improving processes, then empowers process owners to make those improvements. Give them adequate tools, then trust them to do the right thing.

5. Be creative in understanding how technology can help you - you need to move beyond spreadsheets and word processing to some serious automation. Look for something process owners can, and will , use.

Whats Up With That?

Recently I was talking to someone about our technology and they commented that we should get some analyst coverage. Well, that is interesting because the analysts don't want to cover us (unless we give them some money!). When we tell them that we have solved the problem of fully integrating mapping with business rules with screen modification and a process engine, they laugh and tell us that if the bigger BPM players have not done that yet, then it is impossible for us. They won't even take the time to view a web demo. What's up with that?

Well, I actually fully understand the dilemna. For years analysts have been trying to define the BPM market. They began to include all sorts of vendors that had products related to process - mapping, BI, integration, etc. This lead to a strange conglomeration of various tools defined not by the market itself, but rather, by the analysts. Because each of the major tools used in BPM were developed by different companies the ability to "play well with others" gave rise to several standards that would hopefully insure interoperability. These loosely integrated tools are called BPM Suites. If all goes well, and using standards, your process map could be exported into a process engine that could call a process business rule engine and then use certain application pages or web pages as the user interface. Analysts are now telling us that a fully integrated tool that merges mapping with business rules and the process engine is the wave of the future. Of course, that day has not yet arrived.

But actually, it has.

Lets say that a new BPM vendor was emerging on the scene today. In order to create this fully integrated tool, if the new vendor used the current standards such as BPMN or BPEL, they would seriously limit the capability of their product. In fact, it stands to reason that an emerging vendor could NOT build a product based on the current standards because none of the standards take into account that the tools (i.e., functions) are integrated. Thus, a process map would not contain business rule or screen information. Thus, an emerging product would have to abandon the current standards to build this new product. Why? Because the existing standards would drive product development to the least common denominator. This is why vendors keep saying that a fully integrated product is still several years away.

But I have good news! Ingenuus has integrated mapping with business rules with screen design and integrated it with a process engine. Yes, it does not export the process map into BPMN. Nor does it export into BPEL. The resulting files would contain less information rendering the resulting process useless. In fact, Ingenuus has integrated the major components into a single seamless system:

• Process Mapping
• Business Rule Engine
• Integration Server
• Business Activity Monitoring
• User Screen Modification
• Document/File Repository

Why did we do this? Well, because we are designing process optimization solutions that we expect to be used by process owners, not an army of IT professionals. We wanted it simple, yet robust. Is our product perfect? Far from it, but it appears to be the first to fully integrate all of the features needed in a real BPM product designed for the masses.

So, why aren't the analysts looking at us? Go figure...

Reflections on Dr. Martin Luther King's Holiday

I am too young to know the reality of the denial of civil rights to women and blacks. I was not born when women's suffrage happened. And I was just a young child when the Civil Rights movement was at its most formative. In essence, I grew up believing there are no differences between us. But that is not reality.

Equality still requires us to seek it. To believe in it. Above all to practice it. It started with a dream, a vision of what could, no, what should be. That how we measure our fellow humans is not their gender or color of skin, but by their character. Although we, and I include myself here, need to continue to strive for equality not just on paper or in laws, but in the hearts of every citizen, we can ponder the legacy left us by Dr. King and others. That legacy is non-violent protest.

I think that in today's violent, terror driven politics, we can better appreciate the legacy left to us called non-violent protest. It did not begin with Dr. King, but he certainly burned it into our country's corporate conscience. He did not choose the way of terrorists. He did not choose the path of power, realizing that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. He instead chose the meek path, one that requires a greater strength of spirit than mere guns and military might. He showed us that one person can make a difference. He showed us that there is great strength in percieved weakness. He knew that the true realization of his dream would not be an imposition of equality by law or military power, but by changed hearts and minds. He sought to change our hearts and minds with dialogue, debate, and friendship.

This is in stark contrast to the world in which we live where those who feel down trodden or dis-enfranchised turn to violence and terror. They do not seek a change of heart, but rather, a shift in the balance of power. In America, we have been left with a legacy given to us by Dr. King where we believe that we can make change happen one heart at a time, rather than mass conformity at the barrel of a gun. We truly believe it is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Thanks to Dr. King, for the most part, we, as a nation, deplore violence as a means to an end, particuarly in the area of race relations and civil rights. Our marches on our nation's capital do not involve violence, and guns, and suicide bombers. We must remember to be profoundly grateful for that. Much of the credit goes to our brothers and sisters who, although denied thier civil rights, chose to take the path shown by Dr. King, and leave us in relative peace, even though they still suffer prejudice and in-equality. I do not fear a race related suicide bombing when I go to the mall or my chosen place of worship. Not that this has not happened. In fact, it is our black brothers and sisters who have had to endure an American form of terrorism. Fear of being bombed in church, or lynched because there were in the wrong place at the wong time. I am continually surprised by the patience of the Black community in waiting for their beloved country to wake up.

I believe that because of Dr. King's commitment to non-violent protest, we in America have been relatively free from the terror other countries experience. Even when Dr. King was brutally murdered, we did not see all out war. That alone is a resounding testament to the character of this man and an affirmation of the character of the black community as a whole. Our greatest testament to him is to celebrate his day, not with bombs, and riots, and terror, but instead with renewal of our personal commitment to the dream - that all men and women should be judged, not by their gender, or color of skin, or religious perference, or sexual orientation, but rather by their character.

So I will take today and remember with gratefulness that Dr. King took the path of non-violence and left us with a legacy we should be displaying to the world. It should cause all of us to stop and think for a minute - do I practice equality or am I bigoted and prejudiced?

Personally, I am renewing my commitment to equality and proclaim with a genuinely grateful heart, "Thank you Dr. King for sharing with us your dream, and showing us the non-violent path to achieve it. And thank you dear brothers and sisters of color, that you have lived his legacy with dignity and perseverance. Today, I stand with you and dream a common dream."

Widening the Efficiency Discussion

Recently we have felt the need to widen our discussions on efficiency with our partners and others in the community. We have several exciting things planned that we will implement over the next few months.

The first is that we have invited our partners and friends to join us in blogging and in our newsletter. Starting in January with our first Ingenuus newsletter, we will have Jim Stewart from Executive Smarts LLC sharing his thoughts on process.

Secondly, we plan to post short video blogs where I interview guests and try to uncover war stories and helpful insights into driving efficiency.

Other things are in the works and we will announce them as they become available.

I am personally very excited about this recent development. A discussion about efficiency should not be limited to a few, but should be opened to ideas and opinions from many points of view. As a result, we all learn and improve our own efforts to drive efficiency.

Let's see how efficient we can become in 2008.

I love this time of year. I grew up in dry, hot Arizona so I grew up as a young child without a "white Christmas". During my late teen years my family moved to Utah. There, Christmas was very white. I was fascinated by the snow and loved how it made the day or night so quiet. Hot and dry or white an hushed, Christmas is one of the best times of year. I love it all!

We have several Holiday traditions at our house. On Christmas Eve we gather loved ones and friends around a big buffet dinner. After dinner, we decorate Christmas cookies, as crazy as we can. Then, we sit down around the Advent wreath, light the candles, read the Christmas Story, and exchange cookies. We select someone to give a cookie to and tell them what we appreciate about them.

We started this tradition when our kids were just babies. For a few years they thought it was corny, but now that they are teenagers, then are beginning to come back to our family "traditions" and look forward to Christmas Eve expecting everyone to decorate and share. We even worried about including our parents thinging they may also think it was kind of sentimental. It is now our favorite family tradition, and everyone who visits expects the cookie swap.

Whatever your traditions are this Holiday Season, we wish you a time of love, joy, and a sense of family with your village. May the coming year be prosperous, and may we all be grateful for our blessings!

Happiest of Holidays to you and yours!!

BPM Sucks

Recently I read a blog where the writer was complaining about BPM software. He accurately surmised, after looking at several BPM offerings, the BPM workflow has not changed significantly in 10-15 years. He also observed that BPM software remains difficult to work with. Finally, he asserts that BPM solutions need to focus on putting the power of process automation into the hands of business line managers.

Strangely enough I agree with him. BPM does suck.

That is exactly why Ingenuus is trying to make BPM better. In fact, we have, for some time now, agreed that process automation needs to be in the hands of business line managers. We have called them the "process owners". We also think that you can't do that unless the software is much easier to use. That doesn't mean it isn't complicated and robust, it just means that once learned, it does not require a process analyst and a process coder just to get something to work or to make a change.

I know it sounds very arrogant of me to assert that, as a BPM vendor, I am bucking the crowd and siding with the customer. But it is true. I was a user once, as well as a designer of workflow solutions, and for the most part they do suck. They are too hard to use, they have too many different tools (like a modeler, business rule generator, etc.) that are not integrated, and the vendors rarely understand what the main thing is - making life easier for process owners and participants.

We like to talk about "process context" which is just a fancy way of saying that your process automation system sould be a push not a pull solution. It should provide you with an environment where everything you need is right there so that you can do your task or activity and move on. If you have to look for anything, it makes that easy. If you have to run a report, it makes that easy. If you have to attach anything that is easy. Basically, it should be much easier than it is today. Yet, it should grow ever more powerful and capable.

If you have decided that BPM sucks, you owe yourself a look at the Ingenuus Process Orchestrator. It's not perfect. But it just may surprise you.