The Process Ninja

Self Service Portals - How to Get it Right or How to Get it Wrong

Maybe I'm just weird, or maybe it's my age, or maybe it's because I'm a man, but if there is the option of avoiding human interaction with a customer service person I will take that option every time.

It's more than likely due to my lack of patience with badly design IVR systems that send me around in loops then put me through to a queue which keeps me on hold for 20 minutes or my lack of faith in company contact forms and email addresses which disappear into black holes. But give me a self service customer portal and I'll be as happy as Larry - if it's done right.

Self service is all the rage - who would have thought 30 years ago we'd be checking into airlines ourselves? 50 years ago no-one thought we'd be pumping our own petrol! But today we are "outsourcing to the customer" whatever we can - and it makes sense:

• The company saves money by reducing reliance on staff
• The customer feels more "in control"
• The customer does not have to wait in queues

Of course the company foots the bill for the development of the customer portal, but if done right customer portals can be a huge money saver whilst simultaneously improving the customer's experience (the moment of truth). But on the flip-side, if done badly, customer portals can generate more harm than good, generating increased calls from angry customers and damaging the company's image.

Here's a couple of examples of good and bad customer portals:

The Good - Alphera

Alphera is the finance arm of BMW so you'd expect that their portal would be as good as their cars - and it is! Here's why:

Easy login with well designed screen:

Upon login there is a well designed screen with everything in one place. From here I can press on any of the large buttons to access the information I require:

 

There are also helpful links which will take me to some of the most common tasks.

What sets the Alphera website above others is the ability to update information i.e. rather than being a static portal. I can update my personal details, bank details and set up payment reminders. I have access to every piece of information I require and if my details change there is no need to contact the company by any other means. I have total control.

On the contrary, let's have a look at what I call the "lipstick on the pig portal" - the kind of half-baked portal the world can do wiothout:

The Bad - Optus

After I login I see a screen with my different services:

There is adrop-down which gives me four options:

1. Move house (how often does anyone do this?)
2. View my usage
3. Change service ownership
4. View my bills

Numbers 1&3 direct me to download a form that I need to complete and post - hardly an online portal! 

Number 2 links to another screen where I have to look at services individually (not in one). I click on my broadband service and I get a blank page with an error message. Lovely.

So what can I do? I can view my bills in PDF format and I can view usage on one of my services. View being the operative word: I can't update anything, can't change or cancel my service or buy any additional services. In short I have a limited, static service - lipstick on the pig. My only option if I want to do anything requiring some form of update is to call that hideous IVR and sit in a queue for 20 minutes (because I know Optus don't respond to emails or contact forms!) And at the end of my contract...I take my business elsewhere...

With customer portals we have a huge opportunity to improve the customer experience and to save money - they can even be revenue producing if done properly. But if you don't take the time (and let's be honest, money) required to get it right you may as well not bother.

Cheers,

TPN

A Handy List of BPM Bloggers

I'm all for supporting BPM Bloggers and I try to be involved with other BPM blogs as much as I can, so I'm happy to share a list of some of the other BPM bloggers out there. I can't promise they'll be as good as mine, but there you go!

Adam Deane has put together a very handy little list of BPM bloggers from all over the world (yours truly is in there).

Gary Comerford has also put together a list of "Ten BPM Blogs You Should be Following" and I'm pleased to say I made it onto that list.

Cheers,

TPN

ARIS 7.1 - It's a Kind of Magic...

I was lucky enough to have been given a very comprehensive demo of IDS Scheer's ARIS 7.1 recently. I was very keen to look at this version given that ARIS is once again the golden child of the BPA Software Gartner Magic Quadrant in 2010. In short I was highly impressed - and the reason for this is simple - ARIS is not just a BPA tool - it's an Enterprise Architecture tool (and more). 

What separates ARIS from some of the others in the herd is this EA approach - it's the connectedness of the tool from the top level business strategy right down to the lowest level of detail. The ability to drill down through balanced scorecards or through the org chart, through to roles, tasks and job descriptions means that their is an interconnectedness. Furthermore, job tasks and roles can be connected with portfolio management to enable complete visibility of the organisation's resourcing.

Because the tool also integrates down through to the technology via Webmethods (2 way) or Pega Systems (1 way) there is also complete visibility of the technology layer - therefore providing you with complete visibility of the CMDB!

Data being fed into ARIS can be displayed in real-time dashboards, or input data can be altered to enable process simulation to highlight potential problems with changes to processes and to enable processes to be continually tweaked and improved.

But if you want to start off with a standard framework like ITIL, you can do that too - ARIS already has ITIL and other frameworks built into the tool ready to be used (how you want to use them).

Finally there is also ARIS's "social BPM" capability: ARIS Align - essentially, facebook for BPM - a means of communicating and collaborating with your colleagues - and this can occur wherever you are in the world as ARIS align is 100% cloud based.

So, whilst I always view the Gartner quandrant with a fair degree of skepticism, it appears that there is definately some magic when it comes to the capabilities of ARIS.

- TPN

Alan Trefler at Pega Process Symposium 2010

I was lucky enough to attend the Pega Process Symposium 2010 yesterday, and even more lucky to see the presentation by Pega System's genius CEO Alan Trefler.

Pega are a heartening success story - from their origins in 1983 when Alan borrowed money from his mother to finance the start up of the company in his bedroom to today where they are a multi-million dollar company. Pega have grown due to their unique approach to BPM - the removal of complex coding to enable process agility via business rules (that the business can change rather than the IT nerds). It has proven to be a winning formula that has the "bone collectors" like IBM and Oracle choking on their dust. But more than this, their focus on serving their customers (including Citi who have been a client since the beginning in 1983) is unique - providing support to all versions of their product since inception.

In Alan's presentation he highlighted the fact that although there has been a 10,000x increase in the innovation in computers there had been no innovation in the way we have applied them to business problems. However, Alan's view was that "BPM threatens to change all of that". To enable this to occur Alan detailed three key factors that needed to occur:

1. Directly capture objectives in technology ("business metaphors")
2. Automate the programming
3. Automate the work (the purpose)

Not surprisingly pega has done all three. It now stands as a unique proposition as a BPM product with a built-in development environment, something that Alan describes as a "enormous competitive differentiator".

Pega's focus on simplicity and agility is highly commendable, but for me what sets them apart is their commitment to their customers, whose lives they are making easier, simpler and more successful.

- TPN

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

Will Twitter Embrace Process or will it become "The New Spam"?

Twitter - love it or hate it, it's the big thing at the moment. I use it myself, but only as much as I can stand to and only for business purposes.

But recently I've noticed that all I'm getting through these days is what I call "twitter spam" - "followers" whose only updates are the same as those crappy spam e-mails we're all now so used to. Twitter is in danger of becoming the new spam. And what about cybersitting? At the moment I can (and as a test I have) registered twitter names of major corporations that don't quite get it yet (shame on them!) - how long before someone invents a little piece of software that starts registering thousands of twitter names and then puts them up for sale?

I see twitter as being like one of those kids who grew up in a commune like River Phoenix or something - a brilliant genius, but not quite living in the real world - full of innovation and creative spleandor, but not able to live with normal society. Twitter's free and easy lifestyle is about to end, I fear. With innovation comes responsibility- twitter has triumphed, but now some rules have to be put in place to protect it's users and to protect it's end goal.

Dare I say it, it's time for process.

- 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

A Tale of Two (Sales) Processes - Why You Must Adapt or Die

I'd like to share with you a couple of examples of sales processes. One that works, another that doesn't. Together they beautifully demonstrate the gap that can be bridged by solid process.

First let's talk about the broken process...

Grosby are an Australian based manufacturer of shoes and slippers (owned by the evil pacific brands empire). I love their slippers having had a lovely pair of leather slippers that I bought last year. However a rather tragic washing machine incident ended the life of my beloved slippers. So, thinks I, I will simply go to the website, buy another pair and in a few days I will be reunited with my beloved slippers. But alas, the Grosby website has no option to buy online. Instead of investing in the technology to sell direct, they choose simply to sell via retailers and make less money. Go figure. Maybe this is one of the reasons they are making bugger all money.

So anyway, my next step is to look on their website to find a retailer, which I do and I trek off down Pitt St to get them. Three shops later (one of which is a women's footwear store), I find that none of them actually stock any Grosby slippers so I return to the office empty handed. In desperation I use the "contact us" option on their website and send them a long e-mail, pouring out my unbridled love for their rare, sacred slippers. I just want to buy their product!

In the midst of the global financial crisis Grosby must be doing amazingly well! Not only do they not care that the information on their website doesn't actually lead you to their product but that they are doing so well that they don't even need to respond to a poor consumer desperately wanting to give them his money!  

Now let's talk about a process that works...

When I went to buy a new pair of glasses the other week I looked at a lot of retail stores. After realising that I'd have to sell a kidney to afford anything other than a giant pair of blue plastic glasses that would make me look like a children's TV presenter from 1984 I decided to look online.

After a bit of googling for glasses I found a website called "Clearly Contacts". Turns out that they are a global company, but very cleverly they have a web prescence in every country. They have also had the smarts to market themselves online as selling multiple products. So on I go, order my glasses online and I'm done in a few minutes. Well actually I'm not because the advertising on the website gets me thinking and before I know it I've bought a 6 month supply of contact lenses too! So I complete my transaction and am happy before I realise that I have not put in the code to get a 10% first time customer discount and free fedex shipping (for orders over $200). So I e-mail their customer service who refund my 10% and upgrade my shipping within a couple of hours - no questions asked.

So what's the message here?

• Look at your sales processes - are you going the whole way?
• Cherish every customer inquiry as an opportunity to make money
• Use automation - why sell in a store when you can make more money selling online?
• If you have a website, for god's sake make sure it is accurate
• If you don't respond quickly to customers, there is a competitor who will

But the bottom line is that YOU MUST invest time and effort (and gosh, maybe even some money) to keep your processes and systems competitive. Maybe a website with information was enough in 1999, but in today's environment no-one can afford to be complacent - there is always a hungry upstart snapping at your heels.

Heed my words people - adapt or die.

TPN