Friday review - What happened last week 30th October 2009

With the inclusion of posts on the Posterous Cafe, hopefully this will be a regular weekly consolidation post highlighting some of the key entries made on the Posterous Cafe that may have escaped your attention.

What is ITIL? - A post from the ARIS BPM community which focuses on ITIL V3 and lays the foundation for further posts relating to the use of ITIL within the ARIS ITIL Reference Model

Pegasystems merges Agile methodology with BPM - A software update from Pegasystems which incorporates agile methodologies with BPM itself. Not totally sure of the value of this as it seems to be expanding the software to do things outside it's core competencies. If you know better let me know.

Do Process Exchanges really work? - A debate topic from Jim Sinur about whether vendors should swap processes as a means of preventing reinventing the wheel, or whether this won't work in practice. What do you think?

IBM Congos 8 mash-up Service - An article identifying new improvements in the SOA space from IBM/ Cognos

'Why processes not technology will drive business improvement: A very interesting article (From Computer Weekly) about the movement away from 'IT Departments to 'Business Process Departments'

What are the hot questions in BPM? Gartner's Jim Sinur posits 5 questions that need to be asked in relation to BPM as a capability now that it is becoming more and more mainstream. Personally I think at least 4 of them are 'generic' capability questions, but Jim answers them nonetheless.






Reminder: 'The Perfect Process Project' is still available. Don't miss the chance to get this valuable insight into how to make business processes work for you.

Click this link and follow the instructions to get this book.



For more about me check out my "About Me' page

All information is Copyright (C) G Comerford

"Tone from the top" - is your project already doomed?

I was in discussion yesterday with a senior manager at a major international bank. They have set up a worldwide business process initiative and were looking for people with my skills and experience to come on board to help. I told them I was happy to do so, and we discussed terms etc.

The main reason for the discussion, though, was for them to understand my skills and expertise when it comes to processes. Obviously they have never met me and they don't know whether I am up to job they were offering. As such this was really a job interview. One question they asked actually got me thinking about a situation which I wanted to discuss with you today.

The questions was "What is the main stumbling block you have encountered when trying to implement a BPA initiative across a large organisation?". The answer to this was actually really, really, easy. It's the same answer that I would give to the questions "What is the main reason a lot of projects do not achieve successful completion?". The answer is 'change management"

I told him that the single most important thing to have in place to ensure the success of such an initiative was a good level of change management. It is too easy when working in a small project of 10 to 15 people to forget that what you are defining and mandating may affect thousands of people in the organisation. In the case of the last company I worked at as an employee they had 45,000 people in their employ. We would be directly affecting a large proportion of them and we were relying on our ability to sell the proposition as a means of making it work. Suffice it to say we had problems.

But as I was talking about this it occurred to me that there was another way of thinking about this. It is a method which is mentioned in my book "The Perfect Process Project" and it is completely applicable here: "Tone from the Top" or senior management buy in.

Let me explain.

Several years ago, at the company I was working in at the time, the top four senior managers in the organisation had a meeting. They were the CEO, the CIO, The VP of finance and the VP of Manufacturing. At this meeting they decided between themselves that they were going to replace all the legacy finance and manufacturing ERP software with a global implementation of SAP. Shortly after this meeting they sent a memo out to all their direct reports telling them "You will implement SAP". These direct reports, in turn, sent this down to their subordinates telling them "They guys at the top want SAP installed. Make it happen". Before long I experienced things such as line managers funding and attending SAP training internally so that they would have knowledge and expertise when the package came on line. Everyone had the 'let's implement SAP' mindset. It was all being led by the 'tone from the top' i.e. the senior management buy-in.

Can you imaging the difference if someone at a lower level had tried to sell this to his people without getting the buy-in from people above him? Can you imagine how much more difficult it would have been to get people motivated if there wasn't someone at a senior level - someone with a written and agreed objective linked to their performance payment - who had made it his mission to make this happen? And now we had the top four people in the organisation buying into this. In words and in actions.

It made a huge difference.

I will say, at this point, that I was one of many people who didn't think that the SAP decision was the correct one. The business case was weak, the benefits were ethereal and the timescales were unrealistic (and indeed with the benefit of hindsight we were proven correct). But this didn't detract from the fact that everyone in the organisation was aligned behind the senior management in making this happen.

Compare this with the previous organisation I worked with. We had been tasked with implementing an ERP system across 13 European countries in 18 months. This was a difficult task at the best of times, but things were about to get a lot worse.

At the project kick-off meeting in Germany (an affiliate that was already running a well established - German - SAP implementation) we were introduced by the Finance Director as follows "Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for attending this kick-off meeting today. Gary and Luc are here to put this package in and replace our SAP system. We know that it isn't as good as SAP and we will lose a lot of functionality because of it, but let's let them explain it to us". He then turned around and sat down leaving my boss and I to try and salvage the situation. Talk about the wrong 'Tone from the top'! Needless to say that was a long, drawn-out and difficult implementation.

As you go about your work today - especially those of you working on projects and implementations - ask yourself how many of them are actually being championed by a senior manager in the organisation. A senior manager who has his performance measured on the success or failure of this project. If you don't have one in place, ask yourself if the project is as successful as it could be.

Photo of Barack Obama courtesy of Pete Souza, official White House photographer


Reminder: 'The Perfect Process Project' is still available. Don't miss the chance to get this valuable insight into how to make business processes work for you.

Click this link and follow the instructions to get this book.



For more about me check out my "About Me' page

All information is Copyright (C) G Comerford

The Posterous Cafe

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed a couple of things recently (other than the change of template for this blog)

1) I'm posting a lot more shorter articles than I used to
2) These articles generally finish with an 'Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous' entry at the bottom of them.

These two items are related. Using Posterous - the email-in blog application - I have created a blog that I can use to automatically post relevant articles I find. These may come from Google reader, Friendfeed, Popurls or just general browsing. If I see an article that is relevant that I wish to comment on I will post it the The Process Cafe Posterous. From there it will go out on twitter to the 700 or so followers I have there. If the article is particularly interesting I will also then autopost it from Posterous here to the Process Cafe. So any article with 'Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous' can be accessed directly on my Posterous blog.

You might want to have a quick look at the Posterous blog as it does contain a few links that don't appear here on the Process Cafe. Think of it as 'bite sized Process Cafe'

(By the way if there are articles I note that I just recommend you read without comment these appear in the 'Process Articles in the News' section in the right column of the Process Cafe.)


Reminder: 'The Perfect Process Project' is still available. Don't miss the chance to get this valuable insight into how to make business processes work for you.

Click this link and follow the instructions to get this book.



For more about me check out my "About Me' page

All information is Copyright (C) G Comerford

Why processes, not technology, will drive business improvement

Businesses are constantly seeking new ways to maximise their profitability and this is never truer than in today's tough economic times, writes Alan Bowling, chairman of the SAP UK & Ireland User Group.

Traditionally, businesses had large IT teams with a complex range of skills that could keep systems constantly in tune with the changing needs of the organisation.

However, over the next few years we will see a shift in the types of businesses that use IT successfully and the ways they use it. Those that will likely be most successful will be those that focus on modelling and modifying their business processes rather than concentrating solely on the technology.

This is a very interesting article (From Computer Weekly) about the movement away from 'IT Departments' to 'Business Process Departments'. The author contends that software will become so sophisticated in the coming years that a need to manage the application and technology will be replaced by a need to manage the actual process that is being modeled. I'm not totally aligned with this as a concept (because I firmly believe that the capability is what should be managed rather than the underlying technology), but it is interesting to note that a move such as this would effectively spell the end of traditional IT departments and replace them with something more akin to a Business Process Management capability.

Your thoughts on this?

Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

What are the Hot Questions in BPM?

We are at a significant point in the maturity of BPM as a management discipline. The organizations that have been leading the charge in BPM are taking it to a new level, hence my previous posting on What’s Hot in BPM? http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/10/22/whats-hot-in-bpm/

There is also a new wave of fast followers that are lined up to jump on the BPM bandwagon and they have been the dominant question askers at our most recent BPM and Symposiums here in the U.S. I’d like you to see the top 5 hot question areas for BPM that I have sensed.

1 What are the Benefits of BPM?

2. How Should I Get Started?

3 How do I set up Organizational Supports?

4. Which BPM Technologies Should I Use?

5. How do Business Rules Help BPM?

Jim Sinur from Garner has asked 5 hot questions related to BPM. These have come primarily from the Gartner BPM conference held recently.

I'm interested to hear if you have any additional questions that are important to you as an organisation, or more importantly do you have some good answers to these questions? It strikes me that these, generally, are fundamental questions that would be asked of any new discipline being brought into an organisation rather than just BPM.

What are your thoughts?

Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

"Things they are a changing" at the Process Cafe

Chiemsee - Bayern - DeutschlandImage via Wikipedia

The Process Cafe is approaching it's third year in existence (2.75 to be strictly accurate) and I figured it was about time to see if I could change the layout and design of the site.

To be honest I was never really taken with the old 'dark blue background' look of the site but - of the basic templates provided by blogger (who host this site) - it was probably the one I thought reflected the style of the site the best.

Had I been on Wordpress I would have been using the Thesis design that has become very popular so I was overjoyed to discover that a Thesis style template has been ported across to Blogger free of charge via Blogspot-templates.org.

After spending about an hour transporting it across and working out the widgets etc. I'm now happy to launch the new look and feel of 'The Process Cafe'.

There will probably be a few minor adjustments over the coming days as I work out what tweaks need to be made, but this is the basic new structure of the site.

UPDATE: "Related Posts" are now added to the bottom of every post on this blog. See other posts similar to the ones you are reading. Also the site navigation has been made easier by displaying the archive by category rather than by date (See the left of the page)

You'll notice there is now a menu at the top. I will probably be adding a couple more entries to that as I work out what is best for you, the reader. In the meantime there is a link to my consulting site, and contact details for me.

If you have any feedback please let me know (click on "Contact' above or leave a comment below)

If this is your first time here and want to subscribe please click the RSS icon on the right

P.s.. Don't forget the Free Consulting offer is still valid until at least the end of October 2009!




Reminder: 'The Perfect Process Project' is still available. Don't miss the chance to get this valuable insight into how to make business processes work for you.

Click this link and follow the instructions to get this book.



For more about me check out my "About Me' page

All information is Copyright (C) G Comerford

Process - It's about the customer

I dislike this time of year. it's usually the time when lots of different things relating to my car come up for renewal. Things like the MOT*, the tax disc** and the insurance all expire around the end of October/beginning of November. It can be an expensive time of year.

As usual with my car insurance the insurance company sent through a notice showing my premium for the upcoming year. As usual I then jump onto a price comparison website and see whether I can beat that premium. I can by about 17%. As usual I call back my current insurance company and the conversation usually goes like this:

Me - "Hi I've just received a quote from you for next years insurance. Is that the best quote I can get from you?"
Call centre - "Let me just check that" (keys being tapped on the computer) "Yes, Sir. That's the best quote we can get without lowering your standard of cover"
Me - "I have been on the web and I have three quotes for like-for-like cover which substantially undercut you. So I'll ask you again. Is that the best quote you can offer me?"
CC - "Hold on one moment, Sir" (keys being tapped on the computer) "I can apply a discretionary discount which will bring the premium down by 15%. Is that good enough?"
Me - "Well, I don't know. I've called and offered you an opportunity to keep my business and only when I've threatened to leave have you made any move to try and stop me. What would you do?"
CC - "I don't know sir. It's entirely up to you"
Me - "Can you match the premium I am being offered by AlliantGeneralUnion Insurance?"
CC - "I'm sorry sir, we can't"
Me - 'Thank you. In that case I won't be renewing with you next year. Thanks for your coverage this year, though"

This has happened over the last 5 or six years - more so with the invention and popularity of price comparison websites. However this year was different. I am currently insured through a major consumer retail outlet chain. They quoted me an increase of 17% in my premium this year. Again I went on the web and found a number of lower quotes, although this year there were no exact 'like-for-like' matches. Each one that was lower required a higher excess (deductible) payment if a claim was made. I called my insurer anyway:

Me - "Hi I've just received a quote from you for next years insurance. Is that the best quote I can get from you?"
Call centre - "Let me just check that" (keys being tapped on the computer) "Yes, Sir. That's the best quote we can get without lowering your standard of cover"
Me - "I have been on the web and I have three quotes for virtually like-for-like cover which substantially undercut you. So I'll ask you again. Is that the best quote you can offer me?"
CC - "Yes it is Sir. Let me see if I can lower your premium by altering your excess" (sound of keys being tapped) "I can get a slightly lower premium by increasing your excess by another £100 per claim. But I'm not sure you would want to do that. Your excess has actually increased this year already over last years amount. We wouldn't want you to pay too much on a claim"
Me - "So what would you do in my situation?"
CC - "I understand that if you're shopping for the cheapest premium we may not match other sites. But we don't want to lose you as a customer. I have worked for this company for many years, I've worked in their retail arm and I believe them to be the best company in terms of overall customer service on the market. Can I also tell you about some of the additional benefits you will get with your existing cover which may not appear on some of our competitors sites..."

She then went on to detail a number of items which were indeed 'added value' items that other sites were not able to offer at that premium (For example a rental car for the whole length of your vehicle repair, not just for 48 hours - which is a standard on many insurers). She finished by repeating the two comments which actually swayed me "We really don't want to lose you as a customer, sir, but we do understand that it is your choice"

There was no 'hard-sell'. There was no 'Oh, we've magically found another 10% premium reduction now that you've bothered to call us about this' and there was no 'We can decrease the premium by dropping your level of cover, shall I go ahead and do that?'

As a result I have renewed with this company. This is the first time I have renewed with my existing insurer for about 6 years. As I did this I got to thinking about the 'process' behind all this.

For one thing the call centre was focused on providing me a good service. This wasn't just some 'let's find out what the problem is and solve it in 90 seconds' deal to keep the call centre metrics working. This was a genuine attempt at providing me with the service I needed. In other words this was customer focused rather than business focused.

This was a company which was happy to let me go to another company if I was only wanting to be driven by price alone. In other words they knew that price is not a driver for their customers (at least not a KEY driver). They were focused on keeping me as a customer without reducing their income. They did this by focusing on the intangible benefits.

Thirdly (and, in my mind most importantly), they spoke to me as a human being not as a credit card on the end of the phone. The lady on the end of the line actually worked for the company in question (rather than some offshore call centre outsourcer), and she was passionate about the company itself.

I know there are others in the process-sphere who refer to this as 'outside-in' process design - focusing on the 'successful customer outcomes' rather on what is needed internally for the company to work correctly. Whatever you call it, it certainly worked for me.

Could it work for you?

* MOT - A government mandated vehicle inspection required every year for all vehicles over 3 years old. A certificate is issued which is required for insurance purposes
**
Tax disc - A yearly payment made to the government which is based on type of vehicle and size of engine. In return you receive a small circular sticker for the windscreen of your vehicle. Payment is mandatory and non-payment can result in police action.




Reminder: 'The Perfect Process Project' is still available. Don't miss the chance to get this valuable insight into how to make business processes work for you.

Click this link and follow the instructions to get this book.



For more about me check out my "About Me' page

All information is Copyright (C) G Comerford

Top 10 Reasons to Manage Processes - BPM from a Business Point of View

Top 10 lists have become popular, so let's look at the top 10 reasons to manage your business processes...

Your Thoughts...

The order of these is somewhat arbitrary - what would you add to this list?

Keeping it Real!

Scott Cleveland at eBizQ has a list of 'Top 10 reasons to manage processes. These include
Actually see the activities required to provide goods or services
Identify activities that don't add value to the goods or services
Stop performing non value add activities [reduce costs]

As he says himself 'What would you add to this list?

Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

Metastorm Recognized as a Technology Fast 500™ Company | Because Process Matters

Today Metastorm announced that it has been recognized as a Technology Fast 500™ company, Deloitte LLP’s ranking of 500 of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Rankings are based on percentage of fiscal year revenue growth during the five year period from 2004–2008.

Metastorm has been recognized in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 program for Maryland for the past six consecutive years and its inclusion in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Program for North America demonstrates Metastorm’s continued focus on executing its strategy.

View the press release to learn more about this announcement.

From 'Because Process Matters' - Metastorm gaining recognition in the technology sphere. This is a topic close to my heart as I am currently negotiating with a merchant bank regarding helping them with their Provision/Metastorm implementation. It's good to see a tool vendor such as Metastorm gaining recognition

Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

What does "Free Consulting' Mean?

Business Process Modeling Techniques in Softwa...Image by Ivan Walsh via Flickr

I want to say a few words (about 1000 really) on giving away consulting following the re-opening of the Free Consulting Offer

Obviously giving away what you do is never going to make you rich. In fact studies have shown that things which are ‘free’ are not treated with as much reverence as things which are paid for. So why would anybody give away anything for free? Well the easy answer is ‘To allow folks to try it and see’.

It’s a similar model to the one which hundreds, nay thousands, of software manufacturers work off: You download some of their stuff, try it out for a while (either fully functional but limited in some aspect such as saving completed pieces of work, or hobbled to allow a majority of things to be tested but not everything) and then either you like it enough to buy it or you don’t.

This isn’t the open source model where you an have the software fully functioning and at no cost. This is ‘try-before-you-buy’ware. If you are serious about using this tool long term (i.e. after the trial period) then you need to start dishing out some wonga (That means ‘paying for it’ in the venacular).

The free consulting offer is similar in nature. As a potential customer you get the opportunity to try me before you end up paying anything. It is a chance to evaluate me, my company, my ability to work with your organisation, and to determine if you think I bring value to the table. Conversely it is an opportunity for me to determine whether I feel your project or proposal is set-up to succeed and if I can add value to it by my presence. Usually one or both of these things will occur. In which case you, as a customer, can then look at what is being offered and determine whether this is something you wish to invest in.

Working with a company such as mine is an investment - on both sides. You will invest time and effort in understanding my methods and deciding if we are compatible in a working environment. In return you want, presumably, a reliable resource that can help ensure your project will stand a better chance of being successful, or completed, or accepted than if you didn’t invest that commitment. I will invest time, energy and skill in understanding your needs, proposing solutions and helping implement them. In return I want a customer who I am going to work well with, who I can help to be successful and who I then hope will pass on word of mouth to other companies and recommend me for future work. Occasionally the answer to that is going to be ‘No’. Which is the whole reason for doing this with no commitment on either side.

There is a catch to this though, and it comes with the comment I made above about “things which are ‘free’ are not treated with as much reverence as things which are paid for”. Obviously if we are both going to the trouble of spending time, energy and commitment in working together for a day, we need to understand that this is to be treated as a ‘proper’ day’s work. It’s not ‘Some guy’s come in on a freebie let’s give him a load of stuff to do’. You have to imagine that you are actually paying for my time even though you aren’t. In fact depending on how far away you are from my home base you could be paying something anyway as I will still need travel and other expenses reimbursed. But generally as long as you and I are clear about what we are trying to achieve, you have a definite objective for me, and we are both clear about what success looks like, you should be able to get a lot of value out of a days free consultancy from me

What kind of consultancy do I offer?

Well let’s imagine you are thinking of outsourcing some of your work to a third party. It could be a department or a function or just a block of work you don’t particularly see as being core to your business. Prior to doing this you will need some sort of understanding of what that function/department/work actually is, what the steps are that are involved in it and what, exactly, you wish to outsource. This will involve some process discovery and documentation. I can help with that.

Or maybe you’ve decided that you are needing to find some efficiencies in your existing workflow and want to start by documenting your current state process map. I can help with that.

Maybe you have already done that and are looking to understand what changes will need to be made to create your future state? I can help you with that.

Maybe you are looking at bringing in a tool to help with your BPM project. I can help with that.

Maybe you’re completely lost, you know you need to do something about your processes but don’t know what, I can help with that.

Or maybe you are right in the middle of a major project and just need some extra resource to help in documenting, or interviewing, or designing or any of the other project related items. I can help with that

Perhaps you’ve implemented a BPM system and need somebody who can come in to design and code the automation part of the software: Sorry, you’re out of luck - I don’t do that!

Are you looking for a fully fledged project manager to come in and take your project by the scruff of the neck and push it forward to completion? Well I used to do that, but not anymore. You probably need to look somewhere else for that

So the summary of all of this is that I have a specific skill set which I am happy to come and speak to you about. I won’t try to fleece you with claims of ‘Yes I can do that, no problem’ when clearly I can’t, for the same reason as downloading a piece of video editing software that doesn’t actually deal with High Definition video is not useful if HD editing is what you want to do. You’re not going to end up buying are you?

So contact me at the details above and let’s see if we can do some business.


Reminder: 'The Perfect Process Project' is still available. Don't miss the chance to get this valuable insight into how to make business processes work for you.

Click this link and follow the instructions to get this book.



For more about me check out my "About Me' page

All information is Copyright (C) G Comerford

Pegasystems Brings Social Media Collaboration to BPM Solution

Pegasystems Brings Social Media Collaboration to BPM Solution

10/14/2009

Pegasystems Inc., (NASDAQ: PEGA) today announced enhanced ease of use and functionality to its social media and collaboration capabilities. Now, its industry-leading SmartBPM� not only enables process owners and clients, but also their customers, to share ideas and suggestions in real-time. Process discovery is accelerated, and teams work on process iterations more collaboratively and dynamically.

ebizQ received the following:

Pegasystems� SmartBPM uses social media as an interactive and real-time collaborative environment to aid the planning and execution of business improvement projects. By extending is existing tools for ad hoc collaboration, SmartBPM makes it even easier for project teams to connect, add user-generated content, vote, and rank items associated with any given project. By reaching out to customers and clients, SmartBPM now allows critical real-time customer feedback into the process improvement process.

Highlights / Key Facts:

  • Process Stickies, Wikis, and Chat � New, real-time, electronic process sticky notes offer a quick way to capture comments, issues, or new opportunity for improvements. Process wikis support group editing and consensus for collaborative discussion. Instant messaging chat brings multiple people into discussion threads within the context of SmartBPM solutions.

  • Team News - Process participants can post and receive dynamic updates for project team members. Alerts, update notifications through familiar tools such as RSS Feeds, collaborative discussions, votes and polls help keep teams informed and focused.
  • Collaboration on SmartBPM Resources - Adapters for popular collaboration tools to support long running processes. If teams are using tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or SharePoint, they can embed links to Pegasystems� SmartBPM resources for expanded collaboration.
  • Cloud-based collaboration - All the native collaboration capabilities in SmartBPM are available in the cloud-based SmartPaaS� offering.

  • Supporting Quotes:

    Dr. Setrag Khoshafian, Vice President of BPM Technology at Pegasystems:

    �SmartBPM and social networking tools are completely complementary. On the one hand, SmartBPM provides the context for collaboration, both when building solutions, as well as when executing SmartBPM process applications. On the other hand, SmartBPM leverages social networking for collaborative improvement of BPM solutions.�

    Kerim Akgonul, Vice President of Product Management at Pegasystems:

    �We are providing users the ability to use the same tools and functionality that they are comfortable using outside of the office. This will allow project teams and users with more effective and timely ways to communicate with each other.�

    Janelle Hill, Research Vice President at Gartner:

    �BPM initiatives can benefit by using social media to enhance collaboration among business and IT roles engaged in the act of composition as well as with customers, partners and other external stakeholders. This is important in all styles of process and especially important in unstructured processes. Extreme collaboration throughout the process improvement lifecycle - from discovery through optimization - in the context of now will contribute to higher process performance. Social media supports a complete, customer-in approach, delivering the voice of the customer back to those that need to hear it the most.�

    Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

    The Free Consulting Offer: It's back!


    "When you're up to your a*s in alligators it's sometimes difficult to remember that the objective was to clear the swamp"

    Yes, It's back again.

    The GCP Consulting free consulting offer. For a limited time only.

    Here's the deal:

    I consult to organisations that want to get better. Companies who are in the grip of an economic downturn and who want to reduce their costs and overheads to increase and improve their bottom line. A lot of companies know how to do this (or think they do). But a lot of them don't know how to do it and need help.

    According to Gartner, BPM is the most important business initiative on CIO and CEO's plates this year - maybe in a big way, maybe in a small way. Presumably this means that a lot of these executives are looking to get started in this. I believe that this is not just big businesses, but smaller ones too: the companies who are, say, mature businesses with less than 50 people. Or it could be the larger companies that are spread across different locations etc. Either way there is a lot of confusion about what needs to be done, what the potential problems are and how they can be approached.

    So here's what I am offering:

    If you are either:

    a) Thinking about putting some sort of process improvement project together
    b) In the middle of a process improvement project and seem to be stalled
    c) Wondering what you can do to reduce costs and increase profit
    d) Trying to document your processes and need someone to help with facilitating a process discovery session

    then let me know. I will come in and provide one day's consulting for you to help you understand what you need to do to get things started or what you need to do to make things better in your current project. In fact anything you want to do with respect to process and BPM.

    And I will do all this for free! (Considering my daily rate for this is approx £750, this is quite a deal). All you pay are travel expenses - and I'll travel just about anywhere to do this. Globally.

    I'll even throw in a copy of my ebook "The Perfect Process Project" for you to keep and use as you see fit.

    What's next?
    If you want to take advantage of this offer then let me know via an email to G_comerford at GCP-consulting.com. Let me have your name, contact details, and some information about what you're trying to achieve and - if I think I can add some value to your efforts - I'll be in touch to help you.

    That's it. No strings attached. No obligation. Obviously I would like it if you decide later on to bring me on board your project for some paid work, but there is no obligation to do so. Yes, your details will be added to my mailing list, but that's spam free and is only used to keep you up to date with developments in the BPM world. But that's it.

    Think about it. Do you have anything to lose? Does anyone you know need something like this? Tell them too!

    I look forward to hearing from you

    P.S. Contact me now and see whether we can get something worthwhile moving in your organisation

    Image courtesy Daquella Manera


    Reminder: 'The Perfect Process Project' is still available. Don't miss the chance to get this valuable insight into how to make business processes work for you.

    Click this link and follow the instructions to get this book.



    For more about me check out my "About Me' page

    All information is Copyright (C) G Comerford

    BPMS vendor Cordys enabling business with eye to cloud development

    Netherlands-based BPM vendor Cordys this month struck a reseller partnership with large services and system integrator CSC. Cordys offers BPM software as a service (SaaS) that leverages a service-oriented architecture and comprises various pieces all built from the same set of Web services

    Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

    5 Simple Questions to see if your Business Process can be modeled and Automated using Workflow Software | ProcessMaker Blog

    I receive questions literally every day from companies that are looking for workflow software and/or business process management software to automate workflows and automate web-form processing.   Most of my team tell me that I am the worst sales person they have ever seen.  You see, after 10 minutes on a phone call I will often tell a potential customer that his/her process cannot be modeled in workflow software and cannot be automated using business process management software and bpm technology.   And then I will often recommend another type of software and another software company.

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    An interesting perspective from a BPM vendor. Not sure I totally agree with the conclusions derived from the 5 answers, but I think they are valid questions anyway. What are your thoughts on this?

    Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

    Rick Geneva - The next trend (BPM and the Cloud)

    The next trend

    September 14th, 2009 in Process Modeling, SOA, Uncategorized | leave a response

    In the IT world, trends come and go.  The next “must have” or “must do” today is a dust collector tomorrow.   Recently I had a conversation with a colleague about BPM, and whether or not it will continue to be a growing trend, or are its days numbered?   He said to me “are you still doing that process stuff?  BPM is old news.”  My reply to this was simple.  While trends of automating processes come and go, process management has been around since before the computer.  The computer enables people to be more efficient in many ways.  But the software you use today is constantly being replaced by latest, greatest trend.   BPM is not software.  It’s not something you buy.  It’s something you do. There are many systems on the market based on older technologies that make them go out of favor as new systems emerge.  But to say that BPM is ancient history would be like saying that business its self is ancient history as well.

    A rather long - but detailed - post on BPM and the cloud from Rick Geneva

    Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

    Reportlinker Adds Business Process Management (BPM)

    Reportlinker Adds Business Process Management (BPM)

     

    NEW YORK, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue.

    Reportlinker Adds Business Process Management (BPM)

    http://www.reportlinker.com/p0153907/Reportlinker-Adds-Business-Process-Management-(BPM).html

    The 2009 study has 609 pages, 211 Tables and Figures. Worldwide are poised to achieve significant growth as BPM is used to achieve more efficient automated process.

    The markets are anticipated to expand to provide productivity improvements for the enterprise. Worldwide BPM is poised to achieve significant growth as enterprise software offered by vendors provides competitive advantage to users because the cost of improving functionality is spread across the broad base of users. The markets are expanding in response to the need to provide core productivity improvements for business innovation.

    Business process management (BPM) aims for the achievement of greater value from existing software assets. IT investment allows the business process to be used to capture information electronically and automate services delivery. BPM is used to dynamically manage business logic with integrated application services. Business process management (BPM) is a central aspect of enterprise software.

    BPM vendors have strength across major areas of business evaluation. BPM is used for connection, integration, and service-oriented architecture (SOA) process management. IBM is the leader in every infrastructure segment, providing robust functionality. IBM enhanced its high position in this space via its strong support for both BPM and SOA. Both structured and unstructured process flows are automated via IBM middleware. Middleware is core to BPM for all vendors.

    Customer response and supply chain modules represent significant aspects of business process management (BPM). BPM has achieved the ability to manage human interactions for process and to achieve application to application process implementation. Attaching information to rules in an automated manner means existing business IT systems can operate more efficiently.

    BPM adoption is generally at the departmental level. This will change as the mainframe and shared workload become a more significant aspect of the market. Growth is driven by automated process. The value of automated process is at the very definition of the large enterprise. Process-centric organizations depend on BPM at the core of the IT initiatives. BPM works for supply chain initiatives, it works for partner collaboration, it works for management of all systems in the enterprise.

    The market for BPM products is evolving. Technological change brings robust functionality. Cloud computing and SOA represent a way to implement flexible systems. Business process integration software addresses a range of requirements. A comprehensive suite of application integration solutions can be applied to business process management.

    Business process management (BPM) and services oriented architecture engine markets at $1.8 billion for licenses, maintenance, and services in 2008 are expected to reach $6.2 billion by 2015.

    Business Process Management (BPM) Executive Summary

    BPM Cloud Technology Impact

    BPM Market Driving Forces

    Business Process Management License, Maintenance, and

    Services Market Shares

    Business Process Management Market Forecasts

    1. Business Process Management (BPM) Market Definition and Market Dynamics

    1.1 Business Process Management Platforms

    To order this report:

    Reportlinker Adds Business Process Management (BPM)

    http://www.reportlinker.com/p0153907/Reportlinker-Adds-Business-Process-Management-(BPM).html

    More market research reports here!

        Nicolas Bombourg
    Reportlinker
    Email: nbo@reportlinker.com" target="_blank">nbo@reportlinker.com
    US: (805)-652-2626
    Intl: +1 805-652-2626

     

    SOURCE Reportlinker

     

    Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

    It's amazing who might be looking

    The beauty of social networking is that you never know who might be looking.

    Take Linked-In, for example. I am on there (Profile here) and use it regularly for my business and to connect with people I meet and have interaction with. One of the things I like is that it tracks who looks at your profile and where you appear in searches. I was checking through my statistics today and it said 'Your profile has been reviewed by a Medical Writer at freelance'. So I clicked on the link to see who this might be. The first three names to appear on the list ('in order of relevance') are Chris Brogan, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama!

    (The Hillary Clinton link was especially interesting as I have recently being doing work on The Special Relationship - a film which deals with the link between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton. As part of this I got to work alongside Hope Davies who played Hillary Clinton in that film. Small world)

    Remember, you never know who might be watching, listening or researching when it comes to social media

    Autoposted from The Posterous Cafe

    IBM bulks out WebSphere's waistline • The Register

    IBM is expanding its portfolio of WebSphere business process management (BPM) and service oriented architecture (SOA) products in a major refresh.

    "This is a substantial release for us where we have lined up and concurrently releasing a majority of our products around version 7," said WebSphere general manager Craig Hayman. "But it's not just a product number - each is now deeply integrated. From the application server to the business process management stack to the registry and governance stack to the cloud offering, BlueWorks."

    Some details about the forthcoming expansion of IBM's BPM tools, courtesy of 'The Register'

    Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

    Business Rules Management – the misunderstood partner to process — JT on EDM

    Jim Sinur on the topic of business rules management – BRM – and its role as the misunderstood partner for process.  Jim argues you cannot survive, much less thrive, if you do not know your business rules.

    James Taylor on Jim Sinur on Business Rules Management (stick with me on this, it's worth it!)

    4 thoughts on the linkages and interrelationship between BRM and BPM. Worth a five minute read.

    Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

    Tim Wilson: Free BPM Modeling Tools " Business Process Management (BPM) – InSights

     

    z172725779I recently was asked by a customer if I know of any free process modeling and automation tools. This got me thinking of how many vendors provide a free edition of their software for unlimited use i.e. no trial basis or try before you buy editions. After some research I came up with the following short list:

     Free BPM and Process Modeling Tools:

    I have not evaluated each application so could not comment on their strengths and weaknesses but would be interested to hear about other free BPM and/or Enterprise Architecture tools so I can add them to my resource list

    -

    An interesting list. Also some good additions in the comments. Worth a quick look.

    Autoposted from The Process Cafe Posterous

    Exclusive Technology Survey Results

    CIO - Cloud computing services (60 percent), business intelligence (51 percent), and business process management (51 percent) are among the leading technology priorities of interest to IT professionals in the coming year, according to an exclusive survey among 797 CIO.com visitors involved in technology purchases at their organizations. The survey, conducted earlier this summer, also finds more IT buyers interested in cloud computing services and open source technologies than last year. Six out of 10 respondents count cloud services among the infrastructure technologies on their radar (36 percent) actively researching (24 percent), up from 46 percent in a similar survey conducted in November, 2008. Open source technologies are on the radar screens or under investigation for nearly half of IT buyers surveyed (48 percent), up from 37 percent eight months ago.

    Some interesting IT statistics from Computerworld. Click the link above for the full story

    Posted via web from The Process Cafe Posterous

    Let coffee be your guide to Process Experience – taraneon international blog

    Process Experience – The coffee example
    This presentation is also available for download

    My good friend (and fellow BPM Nexus founder) Thomas over at Teraneon.de has put up a very simple slide show to illustrate the concept of customer focused processes. He uses the example of making coffee (the Nescafe way and the Starbucks way). The thing I particularly like about this slide show is that whilst it illustrates quite clearly the different methods of doing things, it then identifies quite specifically the thinking which leads to 'bad' process design vs that which leads to 'customer focused' process design.

    In my dealings with customers I, too, have fallen into this trap because on big, complex processes it is easy to lose sight of who that process should be designed for. But by reducing everything to a basic 'cup of coffee' analogy, it makes it a lot easier to keep the target in mind.

    I would urge all my readers to take a look at this slide show and think about what it is indicating about process design generally.

    You might also want to take a quick look at the BPM Nexus (http://bpmnexus.ning.com/) and see what we are doing over there.

    Posted via web from The Process Cafe Posterous

    Appian Upgrades BPM Suite > > Intelligent Enterprise: Better Insight for Business Decisions

    Among the ease-of-use features in Appian 6 is one-click import, export and publishing of models, rules, expressions, forms and all other components of a process application. In addition, the upgrade offers application-centric portal views for end users.

    Click the link above for more details on the Appian 6 upgrade

    Posted via web from The Process Cafe Posterous

    BPO.biz : BPO Blog, BPO News, BPO Updates, Business Process Outsourcing Industry News » Is It The End Of BPO Business In India ?

    indian-bpo21.jpgMore business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers in India will exit the market in coming years, as it is difficult for them to 
    stay afloat in the current form due to the slowdown, according to a study released here Wednesday.  “One-quarter of the top business process outsourcing (BPO) service providers will not exist as separate entities by 2012,” said the study by IT research and advisory firm Gartner.

     

    Posted via web from The Process Cafe Posterous