Blog Entries tagged 'iterative approach'

United at last in BPM?

peter@peterborner.com — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Are vendors that describe themselves as System-Centric, Human-Centric or Document-Centric being very short-sighted and missing the point of BPMS value?
Gartner's latest report "People, Processes and Information: United at Last in BPM" says that vendors that describe themselves in one of those buckets as being very short-sighted and missing the point of BPMS value.
At Axispoint we have found that an organisation new to BPM is unlikely to have the right set of skills and experience on hand, a sub-optimal methodology will deliver sub-optimal results and poor communication causes frustration and distrust bringing about resistance to change. The best way to deal with this complex challenge is to adopt a holistic approach. Unlike traditional application development, implementing BPM necessarily involves changes to business process, and invariably to culture, not just to the technology.
People, Processes and Information must be truly united for BPM to be successful.

BPM Delivering ROI within the first 90 days?

peter@peterborner.com — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

As a regular reader of Dennis Byron's excellent BPM in Action Blog, my interest was peaked by his latest entry (http://www.bpminaction.com/blog/2008/10/bpm_viewpoint_what_new_aiim_st.php) where he discusses the new AIIM study on BPM (http://www.ebizq.net/news/10483.html).

As a centre of excellence for BPM our aim is to deliver value as early as possible in any engagement. Typically we look for processes to attack in the initial iteration that can start to deliver an ROI within 90 to 120 days. This is clearly in line with Dennis' advice in his blog post. My view is that, learning to walk before you run is a key success factor in all BPM projects. After all, a lean, agile, reliable approach that has early success will never be a job loss or balance sheet writedown issue!

If have published a number of solution briefs for those of you looking to introduce BPM into your business. You can find them here: http://www.axispoint.co.uk/dl-white-papers

Do firms with strong IT capabilities achieve stronger company growth?

peter@peterborner.com — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

My premise is that firms achieve growth through the use of information technology to scale their business processes more effectively than their competitors. So how do we measure the strength of a firms IT capability?

I use an "IT Scorecard," based on an original framework developed at Microsoft, to measure and track IT capability in five key business functional areas: sales and marketing, finance, operations, empowered professionals, and IT infrastructure.

Typically a firm that does well on the IT Scorecard has a high capacity for business process scalability. That is, their processes tend to be able to scale to meet the needs of a rapidly changing business environment. For example, through good process knowledge and standardisation they can more easily manage the complexities involved in growth; they are able to streamline their operations and achieve grow without significant additions to headcount; they are flexible and able to respond quickly and take advantage of new opportunities and they have good visibility into their critical business processes.

Interestingly, firms that have a high capacity for business process scalability often do not realise that they have this capability. However, results can be off the scale for firms that understand their capabilities and embrace the business process scalability they have developed because they are able to identify the specific process changes needed to drive each business lever and then quickly and efficiently implement those changes in their BPM system.

Is BPM winning at the expense of the 600lb Gorilla?

peter@peterborner.com — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

I read yesterday's article in Silicon's online magazine entitled "SAP sales drop as credit crunch looms large" with interest. It is clear from the article that the current economic climate is hitting the 600lb Gorillas hard. SAP shares are down 16% (the biggest drop for 12 years) and Oracle are down 7.6%. Shares in Microsoft, Cisco and EMC are also reportedly down.

The article reports that Henning Kagermann, SAP co-chief executive, said of the third quarter: "The market developments of the past several weeks have been dramatic and worrying to many businesses. These concerns triggered a very sudden and unexpected drop in business activity at the end of the quarter."

My experience is that there is a tendency to increase spending on IT during times of economic downturn. This is because smart business leaders see it as an opportunity to streamline and position for the future. The Businesses that "get it right" are those businesses that ride the recession and come through it stronger and better placed to handle the up-turn.

So, if the major Hi-Tech firms are seeing a downturn, where is this investment going?

I would hope that firms are looking towards pure play Business Process Management technologies like Lombardi, PegaSystems, K2.net, Global360, Appian and Savvion because coupled with a strong iterative approach they can provide quick wins and give business visibility and ownership to make a difference in the current fiscal year. If a major SAP deployment goes wrong it can very easily become a job loss/annual report write down issue. Through fast, agile BPM projects, the lessons learnt in the initial deployments can lay the foundations for larger "Building the Future" projects that deliver significant longer term benefits.

Can IT deliver tangible results and value?

peter@peterborner.com — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

As a CIO you are always looking to add value to the business. You want to deliver that competitive edge which will help your company overtake the competition.

In the current "credit crunch" climate, however, it is difficult to make significant new purchases. You are under great pressure to "stretch out your current resources and make do." Add to this the probability that anywhere from 50% to 80% of your budget is pre-allocated to maintenance and support and you find yourself between the proverbial rock and hard place.

My natural inclination is to suggest you consider introducing BPM technology as a way of adding value. That, of course, is difficult to justify when you consider the inventory of other projects your team is focused on delivering. Even if you do try to introduce a more process oriented approach as a way of adding value it is likely that you are either operating in a culture where process is not part of the DNA of the Enterprise or the Business is already fully engaged in a six sigma business process improvement programme of their own.

My experience demonstrates that if IT can act as a showcase to demonstrate the value and approach, the Business is more likely to buy in, as they will see a less risky and more immediate release of value from an iterative approach to BPM deployment. What better way to deliver and demonstrate tangible results and value than by addressing your own IT process improvement challenges?