BPM Convergence

I read a recent Aberdeen Group whitepaper on BPM Convergence – workflow and integration, meet in the middle. In it, they talk about islands of functionality – some delivering business system integration, some reporting and others workflow management.

They go on to say that the end goal is to minimize the number of manual interactions in each process, increasing the throughput of business transactions. At the same time, businesses want better visibility into process data and more flexibility in modeling and optimizing workflow.

Our Thoughts...

Let’s start with a clear definition of a process - a collection of related, structured activities [a chain of events] that produce a service or product.

On your journey to minimize the number of manual interactions [activities] in each process [to be more efficient], your first step will be to remove activities that are not needed and then minimize the number of manual interactions.

There are really only 3 ways to perform an activity:

A human can do it;
Some kind of programmed logic within the process management software [local] can do it;
or Some kind of programmed logic without boundaries [global] can do it.

A human can do it – self explanitory.

Programmed logic within the process management software – Within each step in the process, you can create some kind of if, then, else logic that can determine what happens next. That program can perform the mundane tasks that do not really require a human to do.

Programmed logic without boundaries – This solution presumes that integration amongst other enterprise software exists. Now, the if, then, else logic can kick off a routine that could have one software write to another – like take the data from a sales order and automatically generate an invoice and Email it off.

What does all this mean? You need to understand your process to determine what steps can be eliminated and what steps can be automated to see what is best to implement at your company. Remember, just because you could automate a step with integration and global logic doesn’t mean you should – sometimes the cost is greater than the benefit.

Your Thoughts...

Process to Improve Processes

The September issue of BI Review in an article by Jeff Walter brings up process. He says that building a ‘sense and respond’ capability in a process context is critical to realizing continued improvement in business performance.

Further, he says that a complete performance management process should rely on more than efficient, timely and comprehensive reporting of performance data. It must operate in the context of a process that helps stakeholders develop a comprehensive performance improvement plan. The key process variables that affect performance must be identified and embedded in both the process and the application.

What he is talking about is a process to improve processes.

Our Thoughts...

When thinking of business intelligence, there are two kinds of performance numbers.
There are numbers that can be taken at face value like quarterly sales numbers, units sold, costs of goods sold [basically accounting numbers]. Management can easily look at the sales price, subtract the cost of goods sold and see the profit.

And, there are numbers that should be looked at in the context of the process they came from. An example might be the number of cars manufactured per week. There are many processes that contribute to that number. You can’t just look at the number of cars manufactured and learn anything about the processes that contribute to that number.

Given that, if you wish to increase the number of cars manufactured per week, you will need to improve one or more of the processes that make up that number. You must monitor these processes [gather metrics] and look for ways to shorten, eliminate or automate process activities.

If you are serious about performance, a key tool to improve performance will be a process to improve processes.

Your Thoughts...