I read Neil Ward-Dutton’s post yesterday and burst out laughing.
No, don’t get me wrong it is a great post, but the reason for my reaction was that it reminded me of this video I will share with you in just a moment.
Neil’s point is so true. The post talks about the scepticism creeping in to the value promised by BPM, because if there is so much tom-tom about what it can do, where are the droves of exhilarated folks telling you what it has done?
Each year we bring out the drums and trumpets and make all that noise about how this year, it is finally really, truly, indeed is going to be the year for BPM. But, the year passes by with no substantial earth-shattering outcomes. And the drums come out again.
Neil says, summing up his post,
… [these are the reasons why] we haven’t yet seen an obvious “year of BPM” – and they’re not about to change any time soon. So when the next BPM doubter asks me “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” I’ll say “No, we’ll be driving for a while yet. Be quiet and enjoy the scenery.”
But let me put up a counter thought. Don’t get me wrong though, I am no authority to say if we are there yet – but I’m just putting this thought out just for the sake of, well, bouncing thoughts –
If you as a firm doing BPM, found great success and returns that make you laugh madly all the way to the bank, driving you to the edge of delirious insanity, what would you do? Think about it. You have made this great decision and got this incredible pay-back. It’s given you a great return – lower cost, higher productivity etc (lets say the whole hog). Its given you competitive advantage.
So why would you run to your competitor and tell them “Look what we did! Look what we did! We cant tell you this, but that’s how we got better than you!”
So do you think, companies will play down the success they achieve out of BPM? If they do, would their BPM vendor know? If the vendor did, would they agree to stay quiet just because their customers told them not to let the word out?
Till we find answers, we have to just be quiet and enjoy the scenery. But, I will be someone in the car. Not sure who, but I am certainly in the car.
Have a great Friday evening and a wonderful weekend!
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Speaking from a vendor perspective, it is my ultimate goal to be able to reference BY NAME AND SPECIFIC STORY all of the successful BPM implementations from my customers
But the thing is….in many cases, my customers are implementing BPM technologies to advance their own businesses (and gain competitive advantages over their competitors).
So once their new business process is implemented and they start enjoying the rewards, it is the case often that they “brag” on the results of their new advantages….but certainly they are not going to announce how specifically they transformed their business. With too much information revealed, then surely all of their jealous competitors will look to do the same.
This leaves the BPM vendor in an interesting situation….where in some cases, stories are told in generalities (and often lacking the “juiciest” part of the stories). I am still happy for the successes we (as a BPM vendor) bring to our customers, but we still must respect their confidentiality for competitive advantages.
Speaking from a BPM vendor perspective, it is my ultimate goal to be able to reference BY NAME AND SPECIFIC STORY all of the successful BPM implementations from my customers
But the thing is….in many cases, my customers are implementing BPM technologies to advance their own businesses (and gain competitive advantages over their competitors).
So once their new business process is implemented and they start enjoying the rewards, it is the case often that they “brag” on the results of their new advantages….but certainly they are not going to announce how specifically they transformed their business. With too much information revealed, then surely all of their jealous competitors will look to do the same. In fact, I have seen this very thing happen in large cities across similar typed companies.
This leaves the BPM vendor in an interesting situation….where in some cases, stories are told in generalities (and often lacking the “juiciest” part of the stories). I am still happy for the successes we (as a BPM vendor) bring to our customers, but we still must respect their confidentiality for competitive advantages.