Execute Business Processes Better Through Proactive Learning Alerts

  

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As software providers, we would all love for our applications to be truly “plug and play” and be easy enough to never require training.  But the reality is that software applications, no matter how simple, require supplemental learning and education platforms (even Microsoft NotePad has a Help menu).  Software vendors who create applications more complex than Notepad often offer the following education and training deliverables:

• Onsite / Offsite / Elearning Training
• KnowledgeBases and FAQs
• Training Videos and Workshops
• Online Help and Print Documentation

All of these learning offerings have one thing in common:  they are reactive in their approach.  No matter how available, convenient, and robust these learning platforms may be, each requires the user needing knowledge to seek them out.  There is a lot of recent talk about “Process Intelligence” in the BPM space.  Using that as a beginning point, as a BPM Server is responsible for process execution and metrics, the BPM Server inherently has the understanding of how the processes are being executed.  The BPM Server understands which users are most efficient, least efficient, and which areas of the human-based process are the slowest to complete.

With this understanding, as processes continue to execute, a BPM Server can couple new task activations with proactive learning information to the user.  In addition to getting an email notification that there is a new task to review and complete, the BPM Server can also alert the user that their average execution time is longer than their peers, and then provide hyperlinks to custom learning links on how to better execute the task at hand.  This proactive learning model serves well where process participants are compensated for task efficiencies (considering cases like call centers, support help desks, etc.).

We are in an information age where almost any question we want to know can be answered through the internet.  Conversely, we all have more daily tasks and work first to resolve the most pressing, in-your-face items.  Coupling help links with work task notifications can result in your process participants taking the initiative to read more on how they can ultimately help themselves in their daily work.  BPM and Process Intelligence are much more than automating and managing business processes; they are providing a process framework to drive efficiency and improve on your current process execution.

Relevant Links:

Rethink The Ways You Update Your Process Participants

Social Media & Mobile Technology: Changing Process Improvement

BPM Rules and Alerts - Helping Avoid Process Hiccups

Chris Adams
VP Product and Technology
Ultimus

Monitoring and Managing Your Business Processes

  

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Process Solution Software is full of various tools and applications that can be tailored to your process needs. It is important when beginning your process automation efforts that you take the time to familiarize yourself with the features and functionalities that your new software suite is capable of. A common pitfall I often see is process owners rushing into their new project and falling short of the full potential value because they fail to incorporate and use the features they have at hand.

Process modeling and automation are two very key steps when beginning your process improvement efforts; however, modeling and automating your workflow are not enough, especially when it comes to proving the return on investment to shareholders. When it comes down to it, the simple fact is that you want to be able to monitor and manage your business processes. By “monitor” and “manage” I am referring to the ability of your software suite to give you valuable insight into the activity of the business process and the status of tasks.

In quality process solution software, monitoring and managing your processes should include a number of tools that enable you to understand and control your process including:

• INSTANCE MANAGEMENT: Users can pause, resume, restart or delete instances; Users can manually override instance data
• WORKFLOW INITIATION: Workflows can be initiated programmatically or excluded from manual initiation; Workflows can be initiated only by select users;  Workflows can be initiated through a link on an external web page;
• WORKFLOW MONITORING: Users can monitor the status of all workflow instances in a single view or they can monitor status of individual workflow instances; There is a graphical monitoring console from which users can drill down to see workflow instances in a particular status; Workflow projection capabilities;
• WORKFLOW STATISTICS: User workload report; Instance cycle time statistics; Instance aging statistics; Workflow routes statistics; Workflow steps statistics; Workflow user statistics;
• AUDIT TRAILS: Audit trails are captured for workflow events, user inputs on forms, user assignments/releases,  escalation actions,  notifications and for each successful rule execution;
• RESOURCE ORGANIZATION: Software suite includes both centralized and distributed resource ownership and administration; Includes graphical organization hierarchies;

It is through the use of such tools that companies can realize the true value and the best results from their process solution software. An automated process, in the end, doesn’t mean much unless you have the ability to manage it, track metrics and identify areas that need further improvement and optimization.

What is most important is that as you are researching process solutions, narrow down your options by identifying providers that meet these process monitoring and management functionalities. As I end this post, I would like to note that Ultimus Process Solution Software was recently reviewed in a technology evaluation and was ranked above the competition in every category.

Relevant Links:

BPM Rules and Alerts - Helping Avoid Process Hiccups

Reduce Process Rework with Role Definition in Organizational Charts

Controlling Process "Rework" with Lean Six Sigma Practices

Mary Katherine Strupe
Ultimus

BPM Process Execution Must Respect Process Resources

  

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As a result of doing your due diligence of process discovery, mapping, and simulation, you find yourself ready to automate what you consider to be the “perfect process”.  You have designed the process to take into all of the discovered “What If” situations and have built the proper system integrations, notifications and reporting and BI.  But have you fully considered your resources, i.e. the people participating in your process?  Have you taken into account that people get sick, people go on vacation, and that at periodic times people become overloaded with work?  If you have not considered these process resource situations, then you are putting the efficiency and effectiveness of your automated business process at risk.

Each of these resource situations challenge the concept that business processes can properly be mapped and modeled.  Because no one has the foresight to see into the future and exactly predict how resource levels will be, it is important that your business processes adapt to changing resource situations.  Adaptive processes are more than just being flexible in process execution.  Adaptive processes understand real-time resource constraints and make run-time decisions to overcome process bottlenecks and roadblocks. 

Adaptive processes cater to the following situations:

• It is inefficient to activate a new task to a user or team that already has a task backlog.  Adaptive processes understand the backlog situation and activate the task to the user’s peer, relative job function, or another designated work team.

• Activating new process tasks to users who are not available to review the tasks creates “silo” effects of process information.  Adaptive processes understand when users are out of the office and not available for new work and assign new process tasks to available, in office workers.

• Many business processes are high volume and need to execute quickly.  In order to do this, steps in the process have defined periods of time where the tasks must execute.  Adaptive Processes understand when tasks go late and overdue and automatically reassign these tasks to other coworkers.

• As part of a process definition, steps in a process are assigned a recipient or recipients.  Depending on specific data situations, bottlenecks, or process inefficiencies, different people may need to be involved in the step in the process.  An Adaptive Business Process Management Suite must include a rules engine that allows for dynamic recipient assignments for process steps.

All in all, no matter how much time and effort is spent in discovering, mapping, and automating a business process, if you have people involved in the process execution, unforeseen situations will occur.  While Adaptive BPM Suites provide adaptive functionality in areas other than human resource needs, human-based processes can execute only as quickly as the human themselves.  And as we all wear multiple hats in today’s company, it is important that an Adaptive BPM Suite respects dynamic working structures.

Relevant Links:

"When It Rains, It Pours"

"Process Automation - Think Outside the Box"

"Knowledge Workers Need BPM"

"Dynamic and Flexible Routing in Business Processes: Unstructured Processes"

Chris Adams

VP of Product and Technology

Ultimus

Social Media & Mobile Technology: Changing Process Improvement

  

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The world of work and business is changing quicker than anyone would have thought. I often wonder who hasn’t jumped into the social technology pool?  Even my parents post to Facebook letting me know of their plans to come into town for a visit rather than use the “old school” phone.  In 2004, when Facebook first emerged, it was nothing more than a college networking site. To even become a member,  a college email address and university of attendance were required. Yesterday a video from BBC News announced that Facebook has grown to 500 million users worldwide. What’s more impressive is that as of February 2010, 100 million users were accessing Facebook from mobile devices, according to a post on the Facebook Blog.

With social media and mobile technologies quickly taking over, businesses are being forced to adapt to the new way of life by integrating their software and technologies to comply; a practice that I believe holds great value for companies, specifically as it relates to productivity.  Many people, and now businesses, use social technologies as output channels for other types of communications such as:

• Knowledge transfer
• Staying abreast of the latest happenings in your field of business
• Voicing dissatisfactions

Coming from a workflow automation approach, in which tasks and requests often require management or supervisor approval before further processing can be completed, the ability to be able to access such information is critical to the process time. Mobile technologies have opened another door for companies invested in process automation suites. Approving, forwarding and handling requests while changing planes or out on the golf course are now possible, allowing the process to continue on its route without any hiccups.

Not only can critical tasks be approved on the fly, but alerts and status updates can be sent to all of the process participants notifying them of progress and providing them visibility into the process. In this on-the-go mode of operation, mobile technologies (in addition to catering to the immediate needs of a process task) also serve as “glue” holding colleagues and business partners together. Integration of mobile technologies into the execution of business processes is essential as it: Eliminates re-creation of work and notifications Provides quick and simple web based interfaces allowing critical processes to be expedited forward, reducing process wait times Serves as an audit trail of communication that can be traced back to the initial request

Ultimus has taken several initiatives to ensure process participants are knowledgeable of tasks and can access process updates through various social media tools. The Ultimus Adaptive Process Automation Suite provides numerous choices for interaction including:

• Alerts through Social Technology sites, such as Facebook and Twitter
• Emails
• Text Messages
• Web based forms
• Alerts to pagers and beepers
• Voice based messages

Time and execution are more important now than ever before. As mobile technologies and social media sites continue to evolve, it is crucial for companies to equip their employees with the right tools to be able to effectively complete work on the fly as well as make mission critical decisions. 

Is your company up to date with the latest mobile technologies? Does your company facilitate the sharing information and status updates with social media sites?

Relevant links:

The Age of Social: Thoughts from Forrester’s CRM Tweet Jam

Social BPM is a Methodology FIRST, Just like BPM

Rethink The Ways You Update Your Process Participants

Mary Katherine Strupe
Ultimus

BPM, ACM, ECM… At Its Core, Your Company Simply has Process Needs

  

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Yesterday was one of those days where I felt worried for the customer who has process needs.  I participated in a TweetJam hosted by Forrester on the subject of Adaptive Case Management (ACM).  Topics discussed included:

• What exactly is ACM?
• What are the differences between ACM and BPM?
• How does ECM and ACM overlap?  Or do they?
• Examples of real-life uses of BPM and ACM

While all of these subjects in themselves are valid and worthy of diving deeper into, some comments in the TweetJam certainly left me alarmed for today’s process customer.  Participation in the TweetJam was from process industry experts, process vendors, and anyone else who has interest in the subject.  I can certainly understand how process vendors would present arguments that while true, promote and highlight their own products.  But after the TweetJam was over, and I was sitting back thinking on the whole of the event, I was certainly discouraged on how much disparity and disagreement there was on the process space including:

• “BPM cannot even cover 1/3 of a company’s process needs”
• “ACM is not an extension of BPM”
• “CRM and ECM are both dying technologies”
• “ACM is how work really gets done”

I worry about statements like these, as I wonder how plugged are we really with our customers?  I can walk into most any company today and see that they are deeply invested in CRM, ECM, and BPM / Workflow technologies.  How can all of these technologies be antiquated?  In my conversations with opportunities that are experiencing process pains, rarely do I hear “Only if I had a ACM or BPM solution, then my Capital Request problems would be OK”.  While people are aware of ACM and BPM solutions, their primary reason with bringing an IT solution in is to help them with their specific process (where the goal of the customer and the process vendor is to then help with other process problems). 

The only reason process companies are in business today is because companies require help with documenting, understanding, managing, and automating their processes.  Every company today has a wide range of processes with varying process profiles:

• Simple straight-forward processes that involve just a few steps and few people but could possibly execute 100s or 1000s times a day
• Back-office processes that integrate and communicate with numerous databases and applications
• Dynamic, unstructured processes that can take many twists and turns depending on the data at hand and the decisions made by the people involved in the process

While I feel it is important that we, as process experts and process vendors, understand our space and our technologies, we must not forget that customers come first.  We, as a process expert and vendor, owe it to our customers to service them with quality PROCESS SOFTWARE, whichever specific process slant that software has (ACM, BPM, Workflow, etc.).  The more we try to segment the process space and develop “niche” process solutions, the more fragmented the process space comes….and ultimately, the “process concept” will become yesterday’s business strategy.

Relevant Links:

Common Misconceptions of BPM

Knowledge Workers need BPM

Architecture of an Adaptive BPM Platform

Chris Adams
VP Product and Technology
Ultimus

BPM Rules and Alerts - Helping Avoid Process Hiccups

  

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There is nothing more frustrating than when there are hiccups in a process, especially ones that can easily be avoided. This morning, after hitting the snooze button one too many times, I awoke to find that something had gone terribly wrong with my coffee pot. At this point, I would like to refer back to a blog I wrote several weeks ago about automating the process of brewing coffee with a timer. While all is working well with the timer, this morning’s process hiccup was caused by human error- a factor that all processes are subject to and must take into account.

I walked sleepily into the kitchen to grab that wonderful first cup of coffee, only it wasn’t there… not in the pot anyway. Last night when the coffee was prepared and plugged into the timer, the coffee pot was not properly placed in position on the hot plate. The type of coffee maker I was using is one that can be paused mid-brew.  The piece that temporarily stops the coffee from filling up the pot was half way closed. The end result was a terrible disaster including:

• An excessive amount of water in the coffee grains and on the counter
• Coffee grains in the water compartment
• And, a very empty coffee pot

As I was cleaning up the mess, I began thinking about how hiccups can be avoided in the business world by implementing a Business Process Management (BPM) Suite.  Business processes are created and automated for several reasons:

• To understand the process and its structure in its entirety
• To have knowledge and understanding of process participants involved and their roles
• To ensure a steady stream of work is being processed and completed in a given time
• To yield greater visibility into critical areas of a business

Where a BPM Suite provides true value to a workflow is in its ability to attach rules and alerts to key steps of the process. In my process hiccup example above, had there been something to alert me that the coffee pot was not properly positioned, the mess, frustration and time required to clean up could have been avoided.  In the business world, a process hiccup could be something as simple as forgetting to attach a document before sending the task to the next process participant or not having completed a form in its entirety. BPM Rules and Alerts are in place as check marks and take effect when something more is required.

Taking the time to set up rules and alerts is a best practice for anyone with process improvement initiatives. No matter what the industry, department or role is every process is subject to human error in some way, shape or form. Being prepared for such mishaps helps businesses prevent more serious hiccups and the costs associated with restoration.

Is your company currently using BPM Rules and Alerts to help protect your company against process hiccups?

Relevant Links:

Staying One Step Ahead of Your Processes (and not running out of milk!)

Using Adaptive Discovery- A BPM Best Practice

BPM- A Sustainable Strategy for Your Company

Mary Katherine Strupe
Ultimus

Architecture of an Adaptive BPM Platform

  

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Blog activity earlier this week by Jim Sinur categorized today’s processes for a business between structured and “guiding” (or unstructured).  I will admit that I have not seen the “guiding” term used to date; yet another new process description term.  Despite all of the recent recognition of processes being dynamic in the Business Process Management (BPM) / Adaptive Case Management (ACM) spaces, the majority of processes in business have ALWAYS been unstructured.  Following the recent trend of stratifying and categorizing processes, my take on process stratification is: 

Thinking back to the inception of automated processes, the reason why workflow technology came first, arguably, is that it is “low hanging fruit”.  Like with any large project across the enterprise, the concept of starting small and growing from initial successes is a well understood strategy to achieve large scale success.  In the case of satisfying process automation needs across your enterprise, there are two keys to ensure project automation success can extend across the enterprise:

• Do not lock into a technology that ultimately can only reap the “low hanging fruit”
• Do not start with a BPM automation platform that is overly complex and requires long project cycles to achieve even the smallest of successes

This is where Adaptive BPM provides the best solution across your enterprise.  As your business processes could arguably be classified as workflows, structured business processes, and adaptive unstructured processes, an Adaptive BPM Suite provides functionality to cover all of these process type needs.  Specifically, with an Adaptive BPM Suite platform:

• Workflows can be created, automated, and managed easily and without any coding expertise
• Structured business processes allow for process scalability, process change management, and the ability to delegate process oversight and administration duties across your company’s work team
• Basic ground works for unstructured business processes where processes can be “partially” defined in the initial stages.  Furthermore, these dynamic processes can be extended, matured, and further constructed depending on the process needs and how the company comes to realize how the processes will best work in their company.

This last type of process, the dynamic and unstructured process, requires a specific BPM Suite architecture to supports its use case.  If the entire process logic and construction is defined in a single entity, then architecturally, it cannot be dynamic (e.g. there is nothing dynamic in editing and recompiling a large computer program each time any single minor change is needed).  So how does an Adaptive BPM Suite architecture look?  To support dynamic and unstructured processes, a BPM Suite must be able to break apart the process definition and allow for each part of the process to grow, mature, and be reutilized and repurposed.  An example of this architecture would be the following:

Over the next year, there will be many publicized educated opinions about BPM, Case Management and Adaptive Case Management.  Rather than decide on a process technology and adjust your process needs to fit that technology, you should think of the opposite.  First take an inventory of your existing processes today, the people involved in those processes, and how you expect your process needs to grow over the next 1-3 years.  From there, invest in a quality BPM platform that is flexible, dynamic, and adaptive to grow with your process needs.

Relevant Links:

Knowledge Workers need BPM

Dynamic and Flexible Routing in Business Processes: Unstructured Processes

BPM Provides Value To Your Case Management Needs

Chris Adams
VP Product and Technology
Ultimus

Communication Just Got Easier

  

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What is workflow?  What is BPM?  What are the differences?  Can workflow or BPM help me with my business?  Despite the fact workflow and BPM have been around since the 90s, people have many questions regarding these concepts. 

Do you ever find yourself on a website with questions about pricing, number of user licenses or general BPM inquiries (even after reading through all of the pages / info sheets / blogs)? Well, no more waiting for answers or filling out a contact form - Ultimus announces its new Live Chat feature!  

When it comes to software suites with varying numbers of user licenses and purchasing options it is hard to know what the right fit is for your company. Moreover, there is always a question of what is really needed in a software solution and the best way to implement it. Ultimus recognizes this and has team members ready to take your questions and guide you in the right direction for your company’s Business Process Management (BPM) needs. With Live Chat any questions submitted during normal business hours will be responded to almost immediately.

Give it a try, click on “Live Chat” on the Ultimus homepage and say hello!

Relevant Links:

Getting Started With Your BPM Project

Using Adaptive Discovery- A BPM Best Practice

Come Join me on the BPM Playground!

Mary Katherine Strupe
Ultimus

Common Misconceptions of BPM

  

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Business Process Management is often misunderstood as a complex enterprise-wide solution. In my previous blog I mentioned that I believe the advanced features and functionality of a robust BPM Suite tend to cast shadows over the simple functionalities such as workflow.  Expanding on this, from my conversations in the field, I also find that many prospects think implementing a BPM Suite means they have to completely change the way the whole business operates.  This is not the case. 

BPM Software is not specifically designed  to redefine the concept of "process" in your entire company. Rather it is designed as a solution to improve the efficiency of your existing business processes. "Efficiency", when it comes to process automation, can represent a number of business goals such as:

• Reducing the time needed to execute your processes
• Reducing costs associated with your processes
• Eliminating wastes
• Better understanding the impact of headcount reductions and/or additions on your processes
• Improving process functionality

While some processes are departmental and involve work being completed and then sent to a supervisor for approval, quite often processes are cross-departmental in that they span multiple departments and involve many different people.

Starting at the Process Level and automating the flow of work from user to user is the true design of BPM Suites. It's when multiple processes throughout your company become automated with a BPM Suite that you start to realize the "enterprise" nature of BPM. It all goes back to the idea of Practical BPM and "Start Small, Think Big". As with any major initiative, it is a best practice to take one step at a time. After all, Rome was not built in a day.

Another area I find where many people get confused is on the ability of BPM to integrate with enterprise applications. While not necessarily an enterprise solution, BPM Software is like a glue for applications and software that currently exists in and span your company. It has the ability to integrate with multiple systems and connect them for the purpose of the process that you are automating. For example, a Vacation Request Process requires HR to reference a database that tracks accrued time off, the request has to be approved, notifications and additional approvals have to be sent to supervisors, noted changes have to be made with HR and sometimes with the accounting department as well depending on the amount of time and the nature of the vacation requested. Regardless, a single process can touch a handful of disparate systems.

It is important to remember that when thinking about purchasing a Business Process Management Suite. Moreover, when thinking about BPM think Process Level rather than enterprise-wide. Focusing on one process at a time has proven success for many clients that I see and work with today. Not only has it allowed them to fully understand BPM and all of its capabilities, it has also proven quick ROI.

Relevant Links:

Don't Just Consider Complex and Complicated Processes for Automation

BPM- A Sustainable Strategy for Your Company

Methodology For Fast ROI with BPM: "Rome Was Not Built In A Day"

BPM As A Foundation For Business Transformation

Mary Katherine Strupe
Ultimus