23 September 2008 3 Comments

BPM — All Mashed-Up?

There has been much talk over the years about the ability of the various business process management (BPM) offerings to create an orchestration layer that provides the communications layer necessary to bring order and controlled flexibility to horizontal processes.

I think that most proponents of BPM would agree that it is clear that you cannot succeed in BPM without communication. BPM can be thought of as a reaction to the changing communication patterns of modern businesses because problems with processes often reflect more horizontal than vertical integration issues. This change is a result of new ways that businesses and the people inside those businesses communicate with one another to increase agility and lower costs.

Are we starting to reach the time where horizontal collaboration tools like BPM are mashed-up with vertical specific, “run-the-company” processes to create flexible application frameworks that allow companies the capability to embrace all major forms of IT-enabled collaboration, with enterprise security policies and business processes, without major disruption to how the Business gets on with the job?

For example (and I apologise for the shameless self promotion) my company, Axispoint, is currently working on a project to provide a GRC solution for a client. The solution will be a mash-up of the various risk engine and sanctions list provider services, etc. and will be built on a BPM framework to provide control and visibility into the in-flight processes. I haven’t found others that are using mash-ups and BPM technology in quite the same way. I would be interested to hear from anyone that is working on these solutions.

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Payroll Providers Albany

Pretty perspective post. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I have spent a good deal of my time looking for someone to clarify this topic clearly and you’re the only one that ever did that. I really appreciate it! I can’t wait to stop back and read more!

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Peter Borner

Adrian,
Thanks for the comment. At Axispoint we have built a BPM centre of excellence with probably the largest BPM deployment team in the UK and have successfully delivered projects to clients such as EMI Publishing, Home Loan Management, Wolters Kluwer and University of London Hospital. Our product competencies are Tibco, Lombardi, Microsoft, Global 360 and K2.net amongst others. We find that a major challenge is getting organisations to think about process in the business and then to focus their initial project on a single process that can demonstrate the capability of BPM to the Business while also delivering a strong, early ROI. When the initial project becomes too complex, the practise and process applied to the scope / development / deployment tends to lack rigour. Do you find, like we do, that a strong project manager that drives process discovery and is then ruthless with scope tends to be more successful?

Peter

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Adrian Giles

Peter
I'm continually being asked about BPM and how a BPM solution allows a business to map its core processes, and then automate/control them. All in a seamless manner! My experience todate has been that I would look at the components that go through the process, and work from there... ie Use a strong process mapping tool to establish what the business process architecture looks like - What the businesss does! and then look at a document management system that has a strong workflow engine.

The key principle to follow is that the document management systems core task is to manage the data, workflow enables tasks & activities to be 'pulled' through the business, rather than pushed. And lastly, well documented business process flows enable you to determine value & non-value added steps and acts as a road map for change management initiatives.

Trying to get a BPM solution to work with the same effect can be very trying, yes very!
Adrian Giles

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