The Process Ninja

Is BPM a Dirty Word?

 It has become increasingly popular these days to bash BPM and, in particular, to propose that BPM is dead. Whilst not wishing to sit in my glass house and throw stones after my Lean Six Sigma obituary post I don't think that BPM is dead. It does, however have a major image problem.

Part of the problem is that for want of a better reason we've given it a name - BPM. What do you mean? I hear you cry...well BPM isn't really about BPM is it? It's about what BPM achieves that is the important thing. Managing processes for the sake of managing processes isn't what it's about - it's all about making businesses make more money at the end of the day (unless you are public sector or charity of course). But making money requires looking after customers and looking after costs which is where our old friend BPM comes in.

The problem with a three letter acronym comes with the association that every three letter acronym requires an IT solution and a six figure software package. BPM or whatever we decide to call it next doesn't have to be so complicated that we have to spend millions on software solutions. Don't get me wrong I am not knocking IT completely, just saying that there are simpler and more flexible ways to get started without shelling out your hard earned company dollars. Start simple, prove the concepts, get some quick wins on the table THEN sell the six figure software solution to your company!

So whilst BPM may be starting to become a dirty word to some, it's really an irrelevant discussion as BPM to all extents and purposes is just about doing business and doing it well. The names will change but essentially the overall concepts will remain the same.

So what I'd like to suggest is that while the process academics waste their time arguing over what to call BPM next you should be quietly getting those post-it notes, brown paper and highlighters out. It's time to get back to basics and prove what we're doing can be both simple and effective.

ARIS Express Released Today - Do We Care?

The full version of ARIS Express is released today. You can download it at: http://www.ariscommunity.com/aris-express

It's advertised as the "world's first BPM tool" - I'm sure it isn't but it's a catchy strapline right enough.

The question is - do we care? Who exactly are ARIS expecting to use this product? It's obviously designed to be a visio killer, but without swimlanes it's a toothless tiger. So Visio users won't switch to it, ARIS users won't use it as they already have the full blown version and it's arguably too complex for small business owners to get their head around.

I can somewhat understand the marketing strategy - get those using visio to switch to ARIS express as it saves them some money - they'll like the product and then eventually upgrade to big boy's ARIS...and pay lots of money...or will they?

Answers on a postcard, please.

- TPN

Will ARIS Express be a Microsoft Visio Killer?

At ProcessDays 2009 I found out about a new (Free) ARIS product called ARIS Express. ARIS Express is essentially a very cut-down version of the full ARIS version designed to compete with Microsoft Visio. As a regular user of Visio I was keen to have a look at ARIS Express to see how it compares.

I should point out that ARIS Express is currently in Beta mode, so I'm not going to be too harsh on them with this review - I'm sure there is more development to come. I certainly hope so...I should also point out that I have never used ARIS so I'm an ideal guinea pig to test how easy or hard it is to switch from Visio to ARIS Express!

So, how does it stack up? Well, the interface is certainly lovely - nice colours, a small but useful array of process models. It is basic but has enough to satisfy most basic users. There is no doubt that you can create some nice looking process models with it and pick up how to use it fairly quickly. It's a little bit clunky in terms of use - for example, not being able to drag and drop shapes. The Fragments feature is nice (where you can save groups of shapes together for future use) and there are a few useful export options (although PDF export did not work for me).

Where I can see great value for ARIS Express is for small and medium businesses who do not have the capital to purchase BPM software. However, these small businesses are unlikely to ever upgrade to one of ARIS's paid solutions (surely IDS Scheer's underlying marketing strategy?) so while this is good for them I don't see IDS benefitting from it.

My main concern with ARIS Express is that if it is designed to compete with Visio then there is a certain amount of functionality that it needs to have. I can fully understand why IDS Scheer don't want to give too much away, but at this stage I don't feel that ARIS Express has quite enough functionality to compete with Visio.

The main reason for this is ARIS Express's inability to display processes in swim lanes.

Like them or lump them swim lanes are more common than a cup of tea and are a fundamental part of most organisations' process mapping. If only ARIS Express had this functionality then I really believe it would be in a position to compete.

As it stands it's a case of "close, but no cigar"...

- TPN

Process Days 2009 - Reflections & Highlights

I was lucky enough to attend Process Days 2009 this week. I attended some of the masterclasses and most of the two day conference. Overall I really enjoyed the experience - I met a lot of great process people, learned a bunch and was inspired, awed and somewhat depressed by the whole experience!

I have to say it was also a great experience to meet the guys from Leonardo Consulting - a nicer bunch of people you could not wish to meet!

At the conference there were some truely brilliant presentations (and if truth be told a few truely awful ones) but there were three presenters that really stood out for me:

- Alec Sharp. Alec is a process modelling guru and gave one of the most highly useful and practical presentations that I've ever seen. He is a brilliantly charasmatic presenter with the ability to keep everything simple (even when on the phone from Vancouver!). I'm going out to buy his book as soon as I can. In just a few slides he changed how I thought about process modelling forever.

- Professor Michael Rosemann. Prof R works at the Queensland University of Technology where he runs the http://www.bpm.fit.qut.edu.au/ - however this alone doesn't encompass all of his work - he is one of the world's best BPM gurus. He gave a few different presentations - all brilliant - and I recommend you look into some of his works and books.

- Joerg Kluckmann. Joerg is the Marketing Dude from Aris and he gave a brilliant presentation on New Generation Process Inteligence (including a fascinating presentation which included Football!) Some of the stuff that IDS Scheer are working on is really exciting. They are launching a new free Aris product (Aris Express) as well as an Aris "MashupZone". Check out the IDS Scheer website for more details.

Overall Process days was a great event and has really given me a huge amount of inspiration to keep spreading the BPM message. On the other hand I felt a little bit depressed and envious when I saw some of the big BPM initiatives that people are involved with at the moment and some of the cool software tools they are using to do it. I live in hope that I will soon get the opportunity to test myself in one of these organisations!

This is just a taster of what I experienced of Process Days 2009 and it has helped to stimulate a maelstrom of ideas in my little Ninja brain that I'll look forward to sharing with you over the coming weeks and months. Until then I encourage you to investigate some of the previous links in more detail and should you require any further details on Process Days, check out the Leonardo Consulting website.

Till then, keep spreading the BPM message.

- TPN

A bit about DST’s Automated Work Distributor (AWD) - BPM Software

Before I say anything else, I receive no payments, no special favours or anything else for mentioning BPM software sold by these guys or anyone else. I just like letting the world know about the BPM software that is out there, because process automation rocks. They did buy me a coffee, though, which was nice.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Nick Frolich (Director of Sales for DST Global Solutions) last week. Believe it or not but I was totally unaware that their product (Automated Work Distributor) even existed or who DST were. Turns out that they are the biggest supplied of BPM software to the financial service industry in the world, which makes me look pretty thick. Saying, that their clients span a multitude of different industries.They have 400 clients using AWD worldwide and have been going for 30 Years. I didn't even know they made software back then...

What 's impressive to me were a number of case studies that outlined the tangible benefits of implementing the software. Some highlights included:

• Reirement Plan saving project where AWD reduced loan processing time by 84% & reduced FTE's by 67%
• Mailroom workflow project that saved $2M over 5 years
• Life insurance project - achived 50%+ efficiency gains in processing
• Life insurance servicing project - per transaction processing costs reduced by 55% with 21% internal rate of return
• Hospital project - saved $1M by automating paper based systems

These are the kind of stats I like to see. Proof that automation of process provides tangible benefits. I'm not saying that AWD should be your chosen BPM system - that's up to you, but it's certainly a product worth looking at if you are looking at automating your business processes.

TPN