Although, BPM and SOA are distinct disciplines, the complementary nature of the two truly enable exponential efficiency and business value when coupled together. Designing your business processes in a service-oriented mindset will allow for the most dynamic, agile and flexible processes—processes that can handle change—known and futuristic—at the pace of business needs. Effective business processes are those that are orchestrated through a set of business services that can be dynamically assembled at the time the process is executed. There are many different definitions for SOA; but we believe the best is “formalized common sense.”
BPM enabled by SOA services enable the optimization of business processes that can deliver cost benefits and competitive advantages. The most advantageous are those that also provide improved visibility into real-time operations yielding a quicker path to realizing the value of greater efficiency and flexibility. These are all capabilities needed by the insurance industry to be able to embrace change and become more agile.
So what does it mean to have dynamic business processes, or is it just another buzz word? Dynamic processes are a real differentiator for insurance companies that embrace change. They allow insurers to serve their customers and agents in the manner they choose. Processes are assembled at process execution based upon policies, information content, rules and events within the business service. They provide the flexibility needed to be competitive, but BPM does require a discipline and one size does not fit all, especially in the insurance industry.
This is an excerpt from a recent whitepaper “Insurance: Realizing the Full Potential of Change Shifting the mindset to create dynamic business models by leveraging BPM and SOA as true enablers” authored by Deb Smallwood & Cindy Maike, Co-founders of Smallwood Maike & Associates and published and sponsored by IBM. Contact Deb Smallwood at dsmallwood@smallwoodmaike.com for a copy.
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