BPM: I’m following with interest the emerging technology space called Business Process Management (BPM). Those familiar with Lean or Six Sigma will recognize BPM as a digital value stream map. The participating vendors are numerous and approach BPM from different historical viewpoints. Many were previously workflow solutions that evolved, some were software integration toolboxes that were bolted together to form a BPM suite. As expected there is a host of new acronyms such as SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), BAM (Business Activity Monitoring), etc… all designed to impress. The vendors will tell you that BPM is new. Those with past operations experience and the scars from past improvement strategies will no doubt chuckle.
The funny thing is that operations and business analysts may not be directly involved in the selection process or get to use it at all since the majority of vendors are marketing their BPM solution to the IT department. Vendors are tripping over themselves to get the blessing and certification of the IT research companies focusing on the technical aspects of the solution. They’re all jockeying for position in the all powerful “Magic Quadrant” to denote the maturity and completeness of solutions in the marketplace. Unbelievable hype, big yawn. Most of all it misses the point and potential value of the solution.
What does it all mean? First of all if you’re not a Fortune 1000 company it doesn’t mean much today. Until the vendor turf wars in the Fortune 1000 are fought and won it’ll be some time yet before the surviving vendors begin mining the mid tier market to grow revenue. At which time the vendors will start getting serious about delivering a solution that non-IT folks can use and adopt to fuel their continuous improvement efforts with minimal IT involvement. One of the hiccups companies face in adopting continuous improvement is the level of effort needed to maintain a value stream map with accurate information. BPM today will activate and energize these efforts by collecting data, monitoring processes, alarm events and collect historical data for trend analysis. It’s not there yet for the small or mid-size company but it’s not completely there for the larger company yet either. BPM is just starting to get moving on a version that adapts to human interaction and still does not have a seamless solution for processes that function on equipment other than UNIX servers. Remember upgrading your ERP or accounting systems to the latest releases after you heavily customized it? The batteries can be expensive.
BATTERIES Every solution comes with batteries that increase the cost of planning, training, staffing, implementation and ongoing care and feeding. Everything works in PowerPoint. The BPM solution is no different. There is potential for it to become the doorstop of the month and die a slow death if not given the proper support. Once again the real benefitsare not in the initial project but using BPM as a critical tool eighteen months on and the staff is making improvements on past improvements.
Requirements: (same as for Lean, Six Sigma, CRM, ERP, etc…)
Unwavering senior management commitment to continuous improvement as a strategy to meet the company’s goals.
Effectively communicating those goals and allowing the organization to define their own action steps to meet the goals. Measure it going forward.
Link continuous improvement projects (BPM included) directly to the company goals and priorities.
Create a culture where the dialogue is two way between management and staff.
Understand the value and parameters of the process you’re trying improve. Automation without understanding and you’ll just see more problems faster.
Tools like BPM support the strategy, they’re not the strategy.
The future of BPM requires that these tools are used increasingly by non IT folks.
Here are some vendors that you may want to visit if you’re interested in pursuing more information on the topic:
· BPM Institute www.bpminstitute.org
· Lombardi Software www.lombardisoftware.com
· Web Methods www.webmethods.com
· Appian Software www.appian.com
There are more but these will give you a good representation of what is available. If you’re not up to the automation of BPM due to staff or other constraints take advantage of some of the fine mapping tools available that make them easier to create, maintain and share. The current and future map being the central focal points of continuously improving anything that makes it easier is worth the effort.
