Browsing Category IT Industry

The IT industry and its dynamics – market, resources, markets, demand, and so on.

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….

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#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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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#BPM in 2011 – Looking Back and Looking Forward

2010 was a good year for BPM – more firms took to BPM, while many firms already using BPM set off to unlock more value from BPM; most top vendors posted another year of great growth; overall BPM visibility increased significantly and it is gradually becoming less of a concept understood only by few and defined differently by many. What most purists and proponents fundamentally think and opine on BPM tends to get a little muddled – if I may…

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Social Media – The Stage is Being Set for #BPM

An article from BNet that I had come across few months ago  presented findings from a Nielson survey on how Social Media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc broke down by age. The data was very interesting because the more active users – comprising of over two thirds of the total number users – came from upwards of 25 years of age. Last week I chanced on a comprehensive report from another of Nielson’s studies that reveals more specific demographic…

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IBM’s Lombardi Acquisition – Will there Be A Shuffle In The BPMS Market!?

The news has really created quite a buzz and almost everyone who is following BPM is excited about this announcement. Why would IBM, an arguably formidable player in the BPM market in its own right, acquire a pure-play BPM product like Lombardi? Lombardi has reported record performance in recent years. Blueprint itself has worked up a good momentum around the cloud offering and has gathered thousands of customers. Compare this with BPM Blueworks that IBM had initiated earlier this year….

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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…

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IBM #SWUIN

This years IBM event – Software Universe –  was bigger with record participation of over 2500 and over 300 certifications as claimed by an official tweet from IBM (IBM also uses the occasion to offer certifications to interested software pros.) I had attended the last year’s event and since then, Although I have been looking forward to these two days at the event and had blocked my calendar 6 months in advance, I still had to miss the second day…

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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…

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