Comments on: Enterprise 2.0 ‘Changes the Game’ for Business Process Management

By: Jacob Ukelson

Jacob Ukelson — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:46:17 +0000

It is not that peopled don’t do these unstructured, ad-hoc, human processes today – it is just that they use email and documents as their defacto tools. I think we have a long way to go before web 2.0 tools start replacing those (email and documents) tools for getting the work done.

At ActionBase we looked at the problem from a different angle – how do we enhance email and documents to enable them with just enough structure to accelerate and manage unstructured processes without strangling them.

By: Amir Dekel

Amir Dekel — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:43:21 +0000

Social networking solutions are still just trying to find ways to become another interaction channel for a company with its customers while internal social networks are also still in their infancy. I don’t think anyone is sure how it will all turn out in the end, but right now there is valuable information that is either ignored or lost.

When you look at today’s BPM and Enterprise 2.0 initiatives you need to remember that the multi-channel and cross-channel nature of doing business has become much more complex than just managing a call/contact center.

BTW, I love ‘business process re-energizing” a lot!

By: Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:26:24 +0000

Jon: ROII rules!

By: Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:24:51 +0000

Amy: Thanks for your comments. I agree that BPM systems have come a long way in addressing human interactions and information gaps, the instantaneous access and collaboration enabled by Enterprise 2.0 approaches enriches these solutions. For too long, BPM has been seen as a cold efficiency approach — business process re-engineering is seen as a euphemism for layoffs and cutbacks that ignores the consequences on the rest of the organization. Let’s convert BPE to “business process re-energizing,” and get everyone on board with the approach. Broad participation and information-sharing will help that.

By: Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:18:09 +0000

David: Thanks for the additional feedback. Indeed, user context is a blind spot of automated BPM scenarios. There are even scenarios where human input is legally mandated in a process — such as in healthcare information processing. BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) advocates have long recognized this blind spot, and have even proposed an alternative standard called “BPEL4People.” Mashups may be a more effective way to address this challenge.

By: Jon Husband

Jon Husband — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:30:37 +0000

As Phil Gilbert of Lombardi Software put it, business process re-engineering is “a rigid sequence of events is one that does not suit human beings. The traditional notion of a business process comes from the manufacturing world where you can standardize the inputs and outputs of a given process.”

Just like the assumptions underneath standard ROI calculations.

Just think of all the hundreds of millions spent pouring the “electronic concrete” of large ERP systems over business processes, just as those business processes started needing to become (much) more flexible.

Customers are often the “prisoners” of electronified business processes, unfortunately (yes, I know “electronified” is probably not a real word_.

By: Jon Husband

Jon Husband — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:25:06 +0000

“A good, well-positioned Web 2.0 platform bypasses the obstacles in a hierarchy; it changes the game. You want expertise to be virally available. You want smart interactions to happen horizontally, not up a hierarchy, across a boundary and back down.”

Hey, Joe .. thanks for pointing to this .. and, you probably know what I think

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:50:02 +0000

As you mention, social networks helps strengthen the connections among members of an organization and allows information to move freely among those members – if this information sharing reflects the real-life way a business process works, then social network tools add an important element to BPM systems.

I would argue, however, that the role of human interactions is not a complicating factor of BPM, rather it is the main argument for implementing a BPM system. BPM software is designed to close information gaps among people and systems, and any good BPM implementation takes into account all of the “rainy day” scenarios along with the “happy path” that a given case should follow. Factoring in all of the potential human responses is part of any successful process automation.

By: David Davies

David Davies — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:18:11 +0000

Great insight on a blind spot of BPM. Rigid, algorithmic processes are great for automation but when you need human judgment and interaction, you need a “fit for purpose” blend of guidance, freedom and information, coupled with the right collaboration tools. In my view, enterprise mashups are the key aspect of enterprise 2.0 that will bring these elements together by “orchestrating” the user interface in the manner appropriate to the process and user context.