Over the next several weeks, we'll examine DCM from a variety of angles. We'll offer features and expert Q & As on using analytics for better case management, building effective DCM architectures and obtaining the best possible case outcomes, among other topics.
Meanwhile, I invite you to browse our existing DCM content. A few recent highlights:
--By enhancing 'knowledge work,' DCM generates new value for businesses, by Lynn Haber.
You'll also find advice for using DCM to manage "untamed processes" in this exclusive ebizQ Guide.
Again, there's much more to come!
]]>Not surprisingly, DCM is also a key discussion topic here at Forrester's annual Business Process Forum in Boston, where the focus is on "the new world of customer engagement."
In a session titled "Servicing Customers in a Dynamic World," Forrester analysts Craig Le Clair and Connie Moore noted that many of today's employees work in complex, information-intensive, heavily regulated environments. Bottom line, in their view: It's harder and harder for employees to get work done. Meanwhile, customers often get lost in the shuffle.
Moore and Le Clair emphasized that dynamic case management can empower employees,which in turn, improves customers' experiences.
The analysts offered the following steps for getting started with DCM:
--Build a strong business case. Look to delay packaged-application upgrades; transfer work from IT to the business; control and standardize; implement agility and new customer-service metrics.
--During the initial project phases, set the tools aside. Focus more on the new process than on the old manual system.
--View DCM as Lean approach for automating processes.
They also shared these best practices for long-term success:
--Use a "design-for-people" approach.
--Focus on exceptions and the people involved with them.
--View case management as a dynamic business application.
-Design for continuous improvement, include flex points in the design and be capable of evolving at the pace required.
The analysts also offered these practical tips:
--Identify which processes need DCM.
--Look at processes holistically--not just the structured parts.
--Add collaboration, social and content to your strategy.
--Use analytics to determine the next best action.
--Look broadly at how information is used.
--Determine whether content repositories need consolidating.
Finally, tackle a major process that's causing pain, looking at it from the outside in. "You will get much more sponsorship if there's a known business problem," Moore advised. "The ones that cause the most pain are cross-functional." Look for processes with lost information, long processing times and multiple handoffs, she advised.
The result, if you're successful? Expect resistance to change to vanish.
More Business Process Forum coverage to come...
]]>Of course, that's classic advice, but as suggested by the conference title--"The New World of Customer Engagement"--BPM professionals need to adopt dynamic new approaches to managing customer relationships.
"What was good enough before is not good enough today," Derek Miers, a Forrester principal analyst, warned in one of the event's opening sessions. And, he added, customer-engagement approaches that work right now won't be sufficient for long; they'll need to continue evolving to meet changing customer needs. "We almost have to rebuild the ship while we're at sea," he noted.
Miers also encouraged BPM pros to involve customer service representatives in customer-facing process-improvement efforts: :"Your people on the front lines know more about customers than you think they do," he said.
In response to an attendee who asked plaintively "Does every company always have to 'wow' the customer?" Forrester Principal Analyst Mike Gualtieri urged attendees to simply focus on efforts that increase customer desire. Sometimes, that does mean providing a "wow" experience, he said. But "sometimes it means getting the best price with no frills." Or it might mean solving a customer problem, prompting a response along the lines of "Wow, now I don't have to think about it."
He also recommended following the famous advice of Apple's Steve Jobs, which he paraphrased like this: "I don't ask my customers what they want. I try to design products and services that customers don't know they want yet."
Much more to come from the forum, which is running simultaneously with Forrester's Content & Collaboration and Application Development Forums in Boston.
At Forrester's Business Process Forum, attendees will explore "the new world of customer engagement." Forrester analysts and industry leaders will focus on how businesses can transform customer service with new BPM strategies, approaches and technologies.
Meanwhile, the concurrent Forrester Content & Collaboration Forum revolves around a simple question: "Is your workplace ready for the mobile workforce?" C & C forum speakers will talk about smart content and collaboration strategies for going mobile.
Both events will run Thursday and Friday (Sept. 22-23). I'll share highlights here and elsewhere on ebizQ. Meanwhile, please see our special collection of pre-event Q & As, podcasts and articles on our Business Process Forum page and our Content & Collaboration page.
If you'll be attending either Forum, please stop me to say hello. I'd be delighted to meet any of ebizQ's readers or contributors in person.
]]>Overall, participants in Gartner's global BPM spending survey were bullish on BPM spending, with 54% planning an increase of at least 5% this year. Nearly 20% expected an increase of 10% or more.
Survey respondents in the Asia/Pacific region, where some countries are experiencing strong economic growth, were especially interested in investing in BPM: Fully 25% said they expect increases of at least 10% this year.
What's behind the overall upswing? "BPM is focused on improving business outcomes and explicitly meets the objectives of many organizations' return-to-growth strategies," Teresa Jones, a Gartner principal analyst, explained in announcing the survey results. Gartner also cited increased interest in SaaS tools, which offer a cheaper entry point, and a shift toward funding BPM projects from business-unit budgets rather than IT, reflecting emphasis on BPM's business benefits.
But Jones cautioned companies against becoming over-optimistic about process-improvement potential. "There is a mismatch between what users think they will achieve from BPM and what they actually achieve," she said. "Understanding the real benefits and how to measure them will help organizations create better business cases and get the expected business results." (For advice on measuring the success of BPM efforts, see ebizQ's exclusive excerpt from the book "Faster Cheaper Better" and "Assess for success," the cover story in the current edition of our BPM Quarterly e-zine.)
The survey, which included nearly 600 midsize-to-large companies in 14 countries, indicated that companies' initial BPM investments fall somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000. Gartner calls that range low in comparison with the cost of many BPM-suite implementations. The upshot: Many companies want BPM capability--but aren't ready to buy a complete suite. As Jones put it: "Most people improve process by process."
For information on obtaining the full report, see "BPM Survey Insights: Most BPM Budgets Set to Increase This Year."
]]>For starters, you'll find plenty of new articles, including Crystall Bedell's package on case management in financial services, Alan Earls' look at approaches to process governance and Joe McKendrick's discussion about decision management systems.
We've also published another edition of the BPM Quarterly e-zine. This issue includes articles on:
--Measuring the success of your BPM efforts
--Simplifying your approach to BPM
--Combining BPM and customer relationship management (CRM).
The free e-zine also offers:
--Predictions for the growth of decision management
--Advice for avoiding "BPM flameout"
--Other timely tips and resources.
Read and enjoy!
]]>Meanwhile, here are a few quick big-picture insights and predictions from the opening and closing presentations.
From Gartner Fellow and Vice President Ken McGee's opening keynote:
On BPM and business:
--"This is the age of the two B's: business process and business intelligence."
--"This is the time for the business process professional, and I'm here to tell you this will be the case for a very, very long time."
--"In your careers, you have spent far more time in growth [periods] than in recession....Now is the time to seize the opportunity...2011 will the most important year for the rest of your career."
On BPM and technology:
--"By 2016, one-third of worldwide mobile consumer marketing will be context-awareness-based."
--"Through 2015, pattern-seeking technology will be the fastest growing intelligence investment among the most successful Global 2000 companies."
--"Through 2015, 80% of enterprises will lack a coherent approach for dealing with information from the collective"--that is, social networks and social computing.
-- "By 2016, all Global 2000 companies will use public cloud services."
From the closing keynote by Gartner Fellow and Managing Vice President Daryl C. Plummer:
--"Agility is about optimal sense-and-response. Resiliency is about stability amid repeated adaptation. The future requires both for the stability of a competitive organization....By 2021, true agility will depend on resiliency."
--Visibility is critical: "If you can't see it, you can't fix it. You probably don't even know you have it."
--"Cloud computing is beginning to change next-generation BPM thinking...[But] it's a fantasy to think we'll be doing 100% of BPM in the cloud."
Among Plummer's recommendations:
--"Seek agility and focus on resiliency in process as well as operations."
--"Focus on collaboration, not just on process improvement. If you collaborate [well enough,] you may not even need that process."
--"Intelligence must be embedded in your business."
--"The cloud will invade your plans. Ride out the storm."
These are just a few of the choicest tidbits. Watch for more conference-related coverage soon!
People here seem genuinely pumped about the promise that BPM holds for their projects, their organizations and, in many cases, their own careers.
I'll be blogging and writing articles soon about what's gotten people talking this week, including expert insights, recommendations and predictions (about process trends, not about the ominous weather). Meanwhile, here are a few quick attendance numbers to illustrate the level of interest in all things BPM:
--Number of attendees: 840+
--Countries represented: 27
--U.S. states represented: 38
--Percentage of attendees from very large enterprises: 43%
--Number of attendees from Global 500 companies; 72
--Top five industries represented: Government (43%), financial services (21%), manufacturing (13%), services (12 %), health care (9%).
--Attendee business/IT breakdown: 60% IT; 40% business
It's quite a crowd. I'm off to another keynote session. Much more to come!
]]>I'll be there from the opening reception to the closing keynote, covering the highlights both here and in future articles on ebizQ. You can expect selected coverage from all three tracks--beginning, intermediate and advanced--on a wide range of BPM trends, issues, strategies and more.
I'm especially pleased that ebizQ's parent company, TechTarget, is co-hosting a panel discussion called "Operational Intelligence: Linking Processes to Performance for Increased Insight." In this session, a select panel of advanced BPM practitioners will talk about how they use process activity to help their organizations reach key goals. We'll share their stories and their advice.
Guest keynoters include Phil Eastman II, a master instructor with Prosci Research, and Don Tapscott, chairman of the IT analysis and thought-leadership firm Moxie Insight and author of 14 books on technology and business. Gartner keynoters include Research Vice Presidents Janelle B. Hill and Ken McGee and Managing Vice President Daryl C. Plummer.
If you'll be at the Gartner BPM Summit, please let me know--I'd love to meet you in person. Either way, please watch this space for on-the-spot reporting. And visit ebizQ after the event for follow-up posts, articles and other coverage.
]]>Also history: ebizQ's sixth annual BPM in Action virtual event, "Building a Faster, Smarter Enterprise," held earlier this month. But you can still watch the sessions at the BPM in Action website until April 10.
Expert presenters include:
--Craig Le Clair of Forrester Research, speaking on "Supporting the Information Worker: What Organizations Want from Case Management."
--Kathy Long of Innovative Process Consulting, speaking on "Process and Rules: Two Sides of the Same Coin?"
--Roy Schulte of Gartner, speaking on "Improving the IQ of Your Business Operations."
--James Taylor of Decision Management Solutions, speaking on "Analytics in Action: BPM and Intelligent Operations."
But wait, there's more. We also recently published this quarter's BPM Quarterly e-zine, also free for the taking at least throught May. Highlights include:
--A special two-part package on BPM and Software as a Service (SaaS).
--An update on Business Process Modeling Notation 2.0 (BPMN 2.0).
--"The BPM Digest," a collection of short tips and updates.
Enjoy these resources while they're available--and rest assured that we've got plenty more coming!
This year's theme is "Building a Faster, Smarter Enterprise," and we've got a stellar lineup of expert speakers ready to provide practical advice on how to do exactly that. Highlights include:
--Craig Le Clair of Forrester, speaking on "Supporting the Information Worker: What Organizations Want from Case Management."
--Kathy Long of Innovative Process Consulting, speaking on "Process and Rules: Two Sides of the Same Coin?"
--Roy Schulte of Gartner, speaking on "Improving the IQ of Your Business Operations."
--James Taylor of Decision Management Solutions, speaking on "Analytics in Action: BPM and Intelligent Operations."
By the way: The event is free. You'll be able to ask questions during the live Q & A portion of each session and explore the exhibit hall. So what are you waiting for? Register now! And be sure to visit the ebizQ conference booth--editorial staffers will be there all day, ready to chat.
]]>OpenText, a Waterloo, Ont., provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software, described the acquisition as "a merger of Metastorm with a subsidiary of OpenText." OpenText expects the $182 million deal to close by March 31.
Since the announcement last week, analysts and bloggers have been weighing in on the deal's potential impact. Here's a sampling of reactions:
Gartner: The acquisition "will enable OpenText to strengthen its enterprise content management platform and will help it compete for opportunities in the case management and SharePoint markets, particularly in the public sector," Gartner analysts Janelle Hill and Toby Bell wrote in their analysis a couple of days ago. However, they see a potential downside--"further confusion regarding the business strategy behind OpenText's many acquisitions."
ECM strategist Lee Dallas: "Much like [OpenText's] StreamServe acquisition from late last year, this fills a gap in their overall business-application portfolio," Dallas wrote on the Big Men on Content blog he co-authors with Marko Sillanpaa.
Document Boss: The Document Boss blog team called the acquisition "no surprise," noting that OpenText continues "to be the most acquisitive company in the ECM sector." But in the bigger picture, according to the Document Boss blog, the acquisition "speaks volumes about the importance of BPM and accompanying analytics, and we expect more core ECM companies to add robust BPM capabilities throughout 2011."
What do you think? As always, I welcome your opinions and insights.
]]>All I can say is: I wish I'd started digging into this book much sooner--like on my very first day as editor of ebizQ.
As many of you know, ebizQ was acquired by TechTarget nearly a year ago. I came aboard several months later. Since then, we've been gradually sharpening our editorial focus to specialize in process management and improvement. Going forward, you can expect all our content--from articles to blogs to forum discussions--to increasingly zero in on BPM.
So for me personally, Mahal's book couldn't be more timely. But my sense is that "How Work Gets Done" is a terrific resource for BPM professionals of all levels. If you're a newbie, you'll find yourself in the hands of a guide who explains things clearly and logically. And if you're more experienced, you're still likely to fill some knowledge gaps and pick up some valuable tips.
Paul Harmon, founder and executive editor of Business Process Trends, said this in reviewing the book: "If you have ever wished you had a very practical friend who could sit down and talk you through just what's involved in improving how work gets done at your organization, this is the book!" I wholeheartedly agree.
To see for yourself, please read two ebizQ articles in which Mahal breaks down a business process, piece by piece. (The material, adapted from Chapter 4 of "How Work Gets Done," is, of course, reprinted with the publisher's permission.) Part I looks at inputs, outputs and outcomes. Part II looks at guides and enablers, and offers several important takeaways.
I invite you to read and enjoy -- and learn. I certainly did.
]]>And, the analysts warned in releasing their annual BPM prognostications, lack of attention to BPM could cause other enterprises to wind up as big-time losers.
Specifically, analysts predicted that "Between now and year-end 2014, overlooked but easily detectable business process defects will topple 10 Global 2000 companies."
In other words, analysts say, process failures at 10 corporate giants are likely to damage reputations, alienate customers, provoke regulatory action or even bring down the whole business. (For more details, see "Tip: Want competitive advantage? Make BPM a core competency, Gartner says.")
See this announcement for more on Gartner's prediction and a link to the full report,
Meanwhile, what do you think of Gartner's prediction? Agree? Agree with reservations? Disagree? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The online survey, still open at this writing, asks BPM "change agents and architects" to assess their BPM efforts in areas ranging from strategic objectives to skills management to business architecture to process governance, among others.
Peters' initial conclusion, based on 125 anonymous self-evaluations: "The majority of organizations are not ready for sustainable BPM change."
He backs up that statement with several data points. On the good-news side: Nearly two-thirds of respondents see process change as a path toward "cross-functional optimization through common best practices, standards, and shared insights."
And among the bad-news highlights: Slightly more than half the respondents say their organizations' various BPM initiatives "pursue different objectives and are executed without coordination."
So, BPM professionals: If the survey's still open, I encourage you to take the 10-minute self-assessment; the results could be an eye-opener. I also invite you to share your thoughts on BPM change sustainability and how it might be improved.
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