To me it seems that with the onset of ‘Social Media’, the bigger theme of a ‘Social Paradigm’, and the associated chatter these have generated, has driven all of us into some kind of a ‘me-too’ mode. Almost everyone in the industry – you and me included – has a point of view. Almost every enterprise software worth its salt has released, is releasing, talking or thinking about ‘social’ features. The BPMS market has not been spared either has…
Browsing Category Business
Ok, That’s Enough. Let’s Now Do Some Real BPM.
All this Business Process Management talk is getting boring. And clichéd. Blogs. Forums. Communities. White papers. Analyst calls. Product vendor presentations. Webinars. Analyst events. One-on-one meetings. Gardens. Roof tops. That’s an indicative list of all the places where it has been said time and again that BPM is first a (management) concept THEN a technology. Not one, not two, but hundreds of bloggers, analysts and thought leaders, including the self-proclaimed (the tribe is ever increasing) have said that enough….
#BPM Agility, Change, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
I think there is a need for this thing called Agility in your organization. You agree? You do? OK. I had a feeling you would. It is a burning need, no? Third degree, even. Now let me ask you this. Of all those people in your organization – CXOs, Business users, process owners, compliance managers, IT, you name it – who do you think has the biggest need for that agility? [sound of clock ticking] Ok, let me pose that…
BPM Change – Getting Colleagues to Come Along
Organizational change in any form, evokes much the same feeling you have when you are on a diving board looking down at the cold water below. Although you know it will all be fine in under 20 seconds after you’ve left the board, for the 20 seconds before that actually happens though, you display emotions that seem to suggest you are about to confront a most dreadful event. The thing is, that hesitation, that sense of apprehension, is not…
Cutting A Deal
Here is a video that leaves very little to be said about a rather painful aspect of the vendor-customer relationship. Thanks to Faun for sharing this.
Metrics Can Mean Everything. Or Nothing.
During a long weekend last year, a group of friends and I headed to a small sea-side town around 100 miles from Bombay. Enroute, we stopped at a small hotel for refreshments – a franchisee of a reasonably well known restaurant chain in India. However considering it was along a highway, although a busy one, we weren’t sure of the quality of their service or their menu items. Such a situation calls for a safe bet on steamed ‘Idlis’,…
#BPM and Change Management – Time to Tie The Knot?
Call it culture, resistance to change, fear, politics or just old fashioned pig-headedness, but BPM initiatives are seldom without change issues and internal friction of some kind. And as we see BPM adoption increasing, there is increasing proof of the existence of such a thing called BPM Inertia. And it compromises the degree of BPM success. It seems to me that almost any firm running a BPM initiative acknowledges the need for change management at the beginning, but not…
A Reality Check on Agility and BPM
So, that BPM product demo excited you? The vendor demonstration of agile features may well have made your mouth water. You now think your investment in BPM licenses will make your firm agile. Well, sorry to be the one to break it to you, but it may not. Maybe you should think again. Sure, BPM can give the power of agility to organizations. But let’s face it, it’s really not BPM that’s going to get you there. No. It…
Are You Letting Good get in the way of Better?
To me, if there is only one striking difference between a BPM solution and a conventionally developed application, then it is the opportunity to unlock hidden potential for improvements. Many organizations at the crossroads of a decision do overlook this aspect and decide against BPM. I have come across a few in the past. Reasons, however, maybe attributed to high license costs or other such considerations. Of course, while this may well be true, the question I often ask…
Time to Get Cracking With BPM
A little more than a fortnight ago, I had bounced a few thoughts about how BPM should not merely be about automation but should instead be about unlocking competitive advantage. I had taken an example of two firms in a quest for competitive advantage implementing packaged software; and discussed whether they would find a definitive edge over each other even if they both choose the same software products. If they both got on the BPM bus, there could in fact…
Enable, Empower, Improve, Unlock: Your #bpm Mantra!
BPM should be about exercising and asserting your firms business priorities, along its lines of control. Especially lines at the top and the bottom. Sure, you’ve heard it before that BPM is about the business. But indulge me for a bit. Let‘s say the CIO of a manufacturing company A buys product X because it can help optimize inventory and reduce costs. He gets the software implemented and X nicely fixes not just that bloated inventory but also that big…
The Challenge of Getting BPM to Deliver
If you follow the BPM market, you would agree that the expectations today from BPM have seen a change from what it was a few years ago. Although the driving concepts and the fundamental promise of BPM may not have changed, they are certainly being better appreciated today and by a wider audience at that. One of the things I cherish most in my role is the opportunity to have conversations with customers and prospects who are thinking about BPM…
Who Is the Boss in Social #BPM – You or your Customer?
How will social BPM affect your customer? The possibilities that Social concepts lend to BPM are interesting. Doug Mow used the the right words – Today’s social media reality makes the customer a very influential source of word of mouth pressure both positive and negative. I think the use of the word Influential is very important to note. There has been much said about how Social Media will impact traditional methods of managing functions that involve customer interactions with the…
IT priorities, Return on Investment from #bpm and the CEO
The recession may have started to ease up, but the pressure on CEOs to get more competitive and drive growth will continue. Alongside that, the need to keep a closer watch on expenditure is likely to also continue for sometime. This is particularly true about IT investments – something that took quite a big hit in 2009. According to Gartner, IT spending is forecast to a 5.2% decrease from 2008 spending of $3.4 trillion and is expected to return to…
Emerging from one era, into another…
Even as we begin to hear about the easing up of the recessionary phase, it is not difficult to see that things are not going to be the same as they were before. And one of the biggest impacts this recession is likely to have is not in our pockets, but in our minds. Whether it is you or your organization, the biggest effect may well be the shift in thinking that this recession has brought about. And it does…