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Adaptive Discovery™

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Accelerating the Deployment and Adaptation of Automated Business Processes

Introduction The benefits of Business Process Management (BPM) are well documented. For example, a recent study from Gartner found that 78% of successful BPM projects delivered an internal rate of return greater than 15%, with some returns as high as 100% or 360%.1 The study also found a strong focus on business processes with significant human involvement, rather than pure system to system integration efforts. In addition to financial returns, users consistently cite the ability of BPM to reduce errors, improve service levels, and increase visibility as important benefits. Because of these results, Gartner expects that BPM will continue to move up as an investment priority for organizations seeking competitive advantage. The first step in BPM is to discover and define processes targeted for automation and improvement. While the high-level concept of processes and their importance is easily understood, the details often are not. The need to “discover” the details of processes and develop detailed process maps to capture the flow of activities is a significant and timeconsuming challenge for BPM projects. Until those details are uncovered, the process cannot be automated. This paper first explores the challenges of “process discovery.” It then presents Adaptive Discovery™, a new innovation from Ultimus that accelerates the deployment and adaptation of automated business processes in a practical, efficient manner. This patented technology simplifies the discovery effort, shortens deployment cycles, and enables process changes to be implemented quickly and easily. With Adaptive Discovery, the effort required to succeed with BPM, and continuously adapt and improve processes, is less than ever before. Business Processes are Dynamic Business processes are everywhere in organizations. Some have been defined with a great deal of detail and rigor. For example, loan processing is a core function for financial institution that has many personnel dedicated to the effort. As a result, the details of how loans are processed are typically well understood. On the other hand, the vast majority of processes in a business are not well defined or documented. They have evolved over time as a result of simply doing business, with people making decisions on how to address situations on the fly. If successful, the decisions are applied for similar situations and over time become the accepted process. If unsuccessful, other approaches are tried until ones that work are found. Processes evolve iteratively, almost following Darwin’s theory of evolution. Often, the exact mix of tasks, participants, rules and systems change based on the specifics of each case of a process. As processes evolve they become increasingly more complex in order to respond to the variety of situations within the organization. For example, consider how a company responds to prospects when they require a price quote—a “Quote Process.” The goal of the process clearly should be to provide the customer with an accurate, competitive quote as quickly as possible. Sounds pretty simple, right? However, the details behind this “simple process” become complex as soon as one delves deeper into the business requirements, such as: Are quotes for existing customers handled differently than new prospects? How are requests that require some customization handled? Does the process change for large orders? How does a desired delivery time frame impact the process? Does the timing of the request (i.e. end of year) impact process? How do competitive pressures or changing business conditions impact the process To understand and automate processes, business users and IT professionals must work together as a team. Business users own the process. They know what the process is intended to do and how it should flow. They make decisions and adjust the process as often as necessary to meet their needs. IT owns the technology infrastructure that is used when these processes are automated. They understand the need to manage data, integration, and systems operations.