Business Process Management: It Ain't All About the Technology
Aberdeen advises CIOs on how to minimize islands of application functionality and manual workflow integration points to lead to more flexible business processes, fewer integration headaches and achievable ROI goals.
And for those "best in class" companies, Donham recommends two steps to make their BPM efforts even better. First, he advises them to focus on what he calls "event-driven" BPM. "Event engines will help bring your BPM efforts into real time," he writes. "Being able to monitor and manage discreet transactions as they happen within a process will bring insights into how to further optimize the workflow." Next, he says that they should establish a repeatable ROI model for BPM projects that's based on what happened in previous efforts. Identifying and tracking operational costs are a great place to start, he notes, because they are simple to measure. He adds, "A clear ROI will make it easier to get critical buy-in from business units for the next project."
Lastly, Donham warns CIOs to not fall into what he calls the "technology trap" with their plans. "BPM requires expertise and commitment on the process side as well as the product side," he writes. "Research shows that the 'best in class' companies are using converged BPM products as a natural extension of their existing BPM practice."
