The Insider's Guide to Next-Generation BPM
By Moe Ananthasothy, Consulting Manager, Axsium Group , 10/15/2009
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Introducing new technology to a company is often like a game of Jenga.
The popular game starts off with a tall, stable pillar constructed of hardwood blocks. As players remove blocks from the bottom of the structure and place them on the top, the entire pillar increasingly becomes unstable. Ultimately, if you remove the wrong block, or place it in the wrong position on top, the whole pillar comes tumbling down.
This is not unlike what happens when companies deploy a workforce management (WFM) software solution. Many companies make considerable investments building a solution, only to weaken it by removing or changing key pieces.
While implementing a WFM solution, many companies will engage in an endless series of customizations. Many times, these customizations are the result of push-back from operational stakeholders who are resistant to change, and unfortunately may slowly convince the project's decision makers to revert back to old practices and systems. This can add scope, cost and risk to the implementation. In the long term, it can challenge the viability of the WFM solution.
It is not necessary to avoid customizations altogether if the organization can follow two simple steps and encourage end users to embrace change. In this scenario, customizations and the increased costs they represent can be kept to a minimum.
The first step is selecting the right WFM vendor. This involves forming a selection team that includes executive stakeholders and representatives from all areas of operations. The selection team must rigorously evaluate the core capabilities of the WFM software and ensure it matches the operational needs of the business.
Second, the organization should only consider customizations if the core system is missing essential processes and features, or when it lacks efficiency for end users who rely heavily on it for their daily duties.
A word of caution: customizations should not be used to sustain or restore a flawed business process that existed prior to the introduction of the WFM software. WFM technologies are designed to replace outdated, outmoded and inefficient business processes. Fear of change can, however, cause some organizations to cling to those old processes so fiercely they try to build them into the new WFM system.
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