A product and a practice – taking BPM to the next level, Part 2

How would things be different if those processes we automate, put in executable models, use document management behind, support with knowledge management, apply security to, and so on had an obvious and easy to understand direct connection to delivering on our customer value proposition? It’s enough to gain the undivided attention of even the most advanced organizations.

Interestingly enough, this is not process reengineering. It is process alignment and process optimization to dramatically improve efficiency and quality. It is the use of those things that already serve our real purpose, the elimination of those that do not, and the refinement of those that are just plain off the mark to some degree.

And with the clarity of purpose, actionable metrics, and documented process experience in our hands from these new activities; the use of supporting technology suddenly jumps up in value – often way up. It’s interesting for me to note that given this basic information created by these additional BPM functions the resulting use of technology becomes a streamlined activity with far faster implementation and greater results from the technology people already in place supporting the business. It leverages their skills in a way we have not seen before.

How far does this go in truly bridging the gap between the business and IT? Consider for example a top tier retail consulting group exposed to the practice side of this new level in BPM. When presenting key elements of this BPM activity to the COO, not only was the value obvious but in the first meeting the COO identified the value to using this new BPM on every internal process in the business as well!

When was the last time you saw a COO directly involved in a BPM initiative?

Another example is a UK-based mid-market HR consulting and software firm. What happened when they starting using this BPM approach in the practice with their clients? Would you be shocked to now that in 6 months business spiked dramatically, specifically in relationship to the level of value creation and how simple the proposed action plan was for the client (from the business side) to immediately now that they needed to take the recommendations - because the value was so obvious there was simply no need to debate or justify? When was the last time you saw that happen?

The techniques are perfected and the roadmap validated with clients like the consulting company mentioned above, one of the largest media conglomerates in the nation, and one of the top insurance companies globally. It makes sense, it creates value, it is a critical level of differentiation, and it makes clients very, very happy.

I will be working with at least one company on the software, services or both sides of the coin in this new level of BPM to help them become the world leader in high value creation BPM.

Is this something we should talk about?

A Product and a Practice - taking BPM to the next level

Part 1

The alignment of an organization and its technology to customer value and customer satisfaction is the new frontier in Business Process Management. This paper outlines the basic approach to creating this alignment, and in the consequent bridging of the gap between the technology and business sides of an organization.

Consider this. The key processes of the organization – the ones that are typically not documented, managed, optimized or controlled are the processes that represent the experience of the customer. These processes have no internal perspective. They are what the customer experiences when they interact with us.

Those processes come in two flavors. The value propositions themselves; which can include production, purchasing, and fulfillment (or delivery) – but which we are now acting on strictly from the customer experience point of view - are the value creation processes of the organization.

All of the other processes related to these value creation processes (support, updates, feedback, etc.) are the second flavor of process (again, we are acting strictly on the customer experience here); and along with the value creation processes they determine customer satisfaction.

For these processes there are alignment, optimize and innovation activities that are not directly related to technology. They can be supported by software and they can be influenced by the capabilities of specific technology but they are primarily business activities that set the metrics and shape of process – their actionable business requirements.

When these steps are taken (and both the approach to crafting these process and the business management activities of optimization, alignment and innovation are applied) we create the foundation for business success. These are structured but subjective activities that can only be performed by people (although the nature of the activities means that anyone in the organization can participant in and use these activities without learning a complicated discipline).

By creating the best high level shape of the process with actionable metrics that directly support business strategy we create a process landscape that can be used to leverage related technologies at an entirely new value creation level. With this approach, supporting technology becomes tied into our business metrics in a way that makes their impact and contribution visible and quantifiable to the business side of the organization.

Think about that.