Borner's Corner

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

 

 

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Organisations can derive these benefits from technological solutions, but can they meet these short term needs (downsizing for lean-ness and moving towards centralised control for agility) whilst also addressing long term strategic aims that prepare them to exit recession better equipped for the future than they were when they entered?

I believe that they can. This is having one's cake and eating it, and a solution to this dilemma is Business Process Management.

BPM is getting a lot of attention. Forrester Research estimates that BPM license, services and maintenance revenue will grow from the $1.2 billion we saw in 2005 to more than $2.7 billion by 2009 "an adoption trend vendors and practitioners alike can't ignore".

BPM has come a long way from the workflow systems of the 1990s; those old workflow systems managed document-based processes where people executed the workflow steps of the process.

Today's BPM systems manage processes that include person-to-person work steps, system-to-system communications or combinations of both. In addition, BPM systems include integrated features like enhanced (and portable) process modeling, simulation, code generation, process execution, process monitoring, customisable industry-specific templates and UI components, and out-of-the-box integration capabilities along with support for web-services-based integration.

All of these ingredients translate to increased interest today in BPM suites because they bring businesses a higher level of flexibility for business processes while reducing risks and cost. Think of BPM suites as offering a way to build, execute and monitor automated processes that may go across organisational boundaries.

But the key here is higher level of flexibility and reduced cost. Lean and agile. Just what we need now, in turbulent times, and to set ourselves up for the future.

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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.

 

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