My Process BLOG has moved to http://jongryder.wordpress.com/

BPM Real Life Solutions: How to improve AFE approval turnaround time and increase AFE accuracy and reliability

I have a number of colleagues that have gained significant experience in the Oil and Gas Sector, helping their clients to realise real value from the deployment of the XMPro Business Process Management solution.   Phil Taphouse based in our [Professional Advantage] office in Perth, Australia, is one such individual. 

I wanted to draw your attention to a recent blog post from Phil on the topic of AFE's.

It is easy to reduce AFE turnaround time. Just make ball park estimates, use some data from a previous project, some quick calls to equipment providers, some high level assumptions and bang out an AFE. Right?

Whilst the above scenario is exaggerated, there is pressure on upstream O&G Exploration and Production operators to fast-track work programs, and get approvals quickly to speed up project execution.

The implications are that the operator will give a less than favourable impression to investors and AFE participants alike if costly overruns are the consequence.

The converse of this is that the O&G operator implements compliance measures on the operations. Although the standardization creates greater accuracy and certainty, it builds pressure within the organisation. AFE approvals are slowed down, decision bottlenecks are created. The consequences are that projects can be cancelled or project costs could increase.

To understand the AFE creation process, we need to consider that the AFE is the final step of many during the estimation process.

The final, most detailed estimate is the AFE estimate. But there are other estimates made first that will inform this. At the top end, we have an Order of Magnitude estimate (50-100%) which is used for project screening. Then Equipment Factored (25-50%), used for feasibility studies, where each of the major equipment components are given numbers and factors such as $/metre drilled . An Economic estimate at around 25%, provides a level of confidence. Contractors are contacted to provide their input and greater equipment detail costing is sought. The final stage is the AFE Estimate which should be the cost control estimate used in reporting internally and to participants. An AFE estimate should be reliable, within 10%.

To get the required AFE estimate accuracy of within 10%, the operator will need a robust policy, compelling workers to follow extensive and complex processes for AFE approvals.

It is easy to see the effect this can have as many AFEs work their way through the layers of the organisation creating decision bottlenecks. Along the way, a variety of word documents, forms, quotations from suppliers and commentary are attached to the AFE before it reaches the CEO’s desk for final approval.

The conundrum then is how does an organisation get reliability and certainty in the process, following policies and procedures, yet at the same time speed up the turnaround time?

Ultimately, it is about being able to manage the process. We have to make the process effective in achieving the goals of time and accuracy and at the same time, easy and user-friendly for operations staff.

This all points to having a workflow solution. Workflow, though, is not just about providing a structured, pre-defined workflow. In a multi-disciplined team, we may need more flexibility to allow more ad hoc, unstructured processes to occur yet still maintain control. This allows for decision making within the process itself, for instance, routing to another department or supplier as project details clearer.

In the next blog, I will write about the final stage of the AFE process. This is the Review stage. How can we perform better? How can the process be more effective? How do I measure effectiveness?

What has BPM got to do with Human Physiology?

I came off the phone yesterday after having an in depth discussion with a colleague regarding BPM and our solution XMPro.  My wife asked "What is this BPM you are always on about?".  Straight to the point my wife! 

I then set about explaining... but before I got involved in trotting out jargon and industry speak it occurred to me that I had to find a way to explain this concept in terms my wife would appreciate.  My wife is a practice nurse at GP’s surgery and spends her life explaining complex medical conditions and treatments, to lay people who are not medically trained, and so without in any way being condescending want the explanations delivered in terms they can understand. 

So I set about explaining BPM in terms of human physiology...

If we assume that the human skeleton represents the core structure of the organisation, divisions, departments, teams and individuals there are four key elements which sit inside and around this skeleton. 

Individuals Organs  such as the brain, heart, lungs, liver etc represent the key business/transactional systems within a business, all of which are required to do a specific and highly focused series of tasks upon which the body relies.

The nervous system acts as a connector to the rest of the human body and allows the brain to issue a ‘thought’ which the nervous system converts into an action.  In terms of the business the nervous system equates to the Process Management Structure, which ensures that the enterprise strategy and planning [from the brain] is converted into operational reality across the ‘body’. 

The circulatory system critically delivers oxygen and ‘food’ to the body and is representative of the IT Systems which deliver infrastructure, e-mail, desk top access and access to the business systems [organs] around the body. 

The lymphatic system crucially provides the body with its ability to fight ‘foreign bodies’ and infections, and hence represents the control and compliance framework designed to manage risk and deliver control. 

Just as in the human body, all elements need to work together and so in an organisation we need to see these elements; organs, nervous system [process], circulatory system [IT] and lymphatic system [Compliance and Control] all to work together, if the body/organisation is to be healthy and achieve its strategic goals and objectives...

...now my wife she gets it, because I provided her a relevant context for my explanation.  I appreciate that this is an extreme example but when speaking to prospects and client’s alike making BPM relevant to them bears fruit for myself and my colleagues at Professional Advantage.

I would like to acknowledge Sourcing Shangri-La for providing me with the inspiration for the explanantion and this blog post.

Mobile BPM...so what's the BIG deal?

We have only just got used to the latest TLA [three letter acronym] BPM, when someone comes along a puts an M in front of it – Mobile BPM.

I heard it said only recently that the best thing you could possible say about this, is at least it is no longer a TLA! But is that really the best thing to be said about MBPM?

In a seminar series I ran in the autumn of 2010 a number of attendees expressed disbelief in the notion that there was any need for or indeed any value in, delivering business process management solutions on mobile devices.

Six to nine months down the line the growth in mobile devices is showing no signs of slowing and in fact, recent surveys suggest they are infact growing rapidly.

The IBM 2011 Global CIO study canvassed more than 3,000 chief information officers globally.  This survey revealed that mobile devices such as tablets, smartphones and notebooks come second on the survey’s must have technology shopping list 74 per cent of CIOs saying mobility solutions were the next best way to boosting competitiveness.  

We are now entering detailed discussions with these same organisations about potential BPM projects, where there is a high mobile requirement, and in one case the requirement is entirely conceived as a mobile solution for remote staff.

Whichever way you look at it, so many of us spend so much more time ‘on the road’ travelling, working outside normal offices hours, not being tied to our desks, and in the possession of mobile devices and technology, that up until now, we have been unable to fully exploit.

The case for Mobile BPM is made in a white paper we [Professional Advantage] have recently published. I suggest you take a read...and discover how we can you and your organisation can fully utilise the mobile devices, that until now have been executive ‘toys’ rather than effective business tools.

Download Whitepaper at http://www.profad.co.uk/invite/bpm-whitepaper.htm

THE FIVE COSTLY MISTAKES OF BPM: Observations in the field...from Jonathan Marcer the head of the PA XMPro BPM Team

My colleagues and I have been witness to a large number of discussions around why BPM projects fail, mistakes of BPM etc.  As with a large number of discussions in and around the BPM space they are just a little too theoretical.

My colleague Jonathan Marcer, the head of XMPro BPM Team in Sydney, Australia, has published a blog post where he has put together his thoughts on the '5 Mistakes of BPM' based upon real life experience 'in the field'.

I recommend you read the post at http://linkd.in/maLKUD

When delivering mobile BPM solutions; what are your experiences of the preferred and or most prevalent mobile devices in use?

Based upon a number of current live Mobile BPM deployments and feedback from a series of MBPM webinars we have run this year, the picture seems to be that the mobile device market place still remains somewhat fragmented.

Our experience is that no one player has become or is becoming dominant.

The most prevalent devices are not surprisingly: the Blackberry, the iPhone/iPad, Windows Mobile Devices and Android devices, but most organisations either have not set or even started to consider setting, a corporate preference or standard for which devices their users will have.

I would be interested in hearing your point oif view on this?  Thank you.

Don't children ask the best questions...? AND Push you for a real answer!

In my last post I recalled a conversation with my wife about what I do for a living, and specifically what does all the jargon we use, actually mean.

Now it has come down to me being interrogated by my ever inquisitive children; "What do you actually do dad?"

This got me thinking about summing up what I do, comprehensively but succinctly, and I turned first to the summary I have on my LinkedIn page which of course will give my children the answer they seek...won't it?

"I work with organisations to help them define business requirements, simplify the complexities and deliver end-to-end process solutions with measurable business returns and critically build long-lasting relationships based upon tangible benefits derived by all parties in the relationship." 

...I guess not, after reading this I am not sure I understand what I actually do.

One of the distinct advantages of working for an Australian company is that my antependium colleagues often have a very useful knack of cutting through all the ‘BS’ and get to the point very quickly.

Upon speaking to my colleagues we came up with the following summary:

I [we] deliver innovation solutions to very painful [process] problems.

Is it that simple? I guess so…

I am off to re-write my LinkedIn page and update our website.

I’m lovin’ it…or am I?

My wife has, for almost all of my 16 years in the industry, questioned me about the TLA’s [three letter acronyms] my colleagues and I use. Earlier this week she gave in to her curiosity and asked me what BPM is and then asked me to give her an example of a business process.

Before I could think of an appropriate answer, a perfect opportunity arose, which did the job of answering her question and providing her with a perfect example of both a business process and how processes can ‘go wrong’.

Whilst in the car with the family, I pulled out of a retail park when the cry came from my two children, “Can we have a milkshake from…” I pulled up to the ‘first window’ to place my order and pay for the two shakes. What I had not done, was go through the drive through channel properly and place my order via the speaker and screen at the remote order station.

The staff member was not expecting me to arrive at her window unannounced. She was shocked to see me pull up: ‘How did I get there without ordering at the proper point in the process? What was she to do now? I saw panic written all over her face because her daily routine [i.e. the order/payment/sale process] had broken down. She turned to her colleague, “What do I do now?” Her supervisor also seemed flustered at this occurrence and they both referred to their computer screen, as if that was going to provide them with the answer to this problem.

The process did not allow for this ‘exception’ or perhaps, the staff members were not trained to process the order in a different way’, I am not sure which. But what I do know is that the answer came back; “You will need to drive round the building and place your order via the drive through channel, we cannot take your order here”

Had the process designer not foreseen a customer being able to drive up to a payment window without going through the drive through channel? The process was a standard organisational process, had it not been adapted for this particular site with a different layout? Had the process designer seen the exception, and judged it to be so rare an occurrence, that it was not cost effective to implement a one off process for this site?

I am not sure how this happened, but suffice to say, the staff was embarrassed at having to provide such a ridiculous solution and we, as customers, simply drove away to another vendor just 50 yards away.

In this very brief incident we witnessed a business process in action, and witnessed how business process issues [untested assumptions, and/or poor design, and/or poor staff training, and/or lack of adaptability and/or a poor cost benefit analysis], lead to a loss of revenue.

Now I accept that a the loss of a £4 drinks order hardly constitutes a disaster…but as we drove away another vehicle, a people carrier this time, pulled up to the window, without going via the drive-through channel – PANIC!

This is hardly an empirical test, but it seems as though ‘the exception’ to the standard process is not so rare, and the potential loss of income is significant when driving to a competitor is easier than driving round the building, placing the order to a disembodied voice via a speaker to then proceed, through the channel’.

Mobile Technology...is it a case of VHS vs Betamax?

In one corner we have Apple with their IPhone/iPad combination, in the second corner we have the real heavweight Microsoft, with Windows Mobile, in the third corner we have Android and in the fourth corner sits Blackberry. "Seconds OUT, let battle commence or should I say escalate!?!"

Without Nokia having recently dropped its own Symbian technology, in favour of Windows Mobile, my boxing ring analogy would be looking pretty weak.

Conversations (and event polls) we have with clients and prospects alike, would indicate that many organisations are yet to even consider a corporate standard for mobile devices, let alone decide on which mobile technology to adopt. 

In addition it is clear that for many organisations the mobile devices used by their employees are, beyond calls, e-mails, calendars and of course games and social networking totally under utilised. They are in short corporate gadgets and 'play things', and organisations do not fully exploit the opportunities available to them by adopting a mobile element to their business systems strategy. 

I recently read somewhere that BPM and particularly mobile BPM, is a technology waiting for a problem to solve. 

The truth is that those of us deploying this technology are getting on with the job of helping our clients to address their critical process issues, concerns and pains; rather than waiting for the perfect storm (mobile technology, bpm technology and market awareness) which is some way off, and if some commentators are to be believed, may never actually happen! 

The key is helping organisations see how Business Process Management principles, solutions and mobile solutions, can solve the problems they face now, rather than trying to convince them that some BPM nirvana is just around the corner!

http://www.profad.co.uk/invite/bpm-whitepaper.htm

PEOPLE, processes and products...

When it comes to BPM I hear a lot about SOA, XML, Web 2.0, EAI, BPMN, ECM...and after a while I am sure all one hears is blah, blah, blah, because this is only technology [apologies to the technologists amongst you]. 

Process may be well conceived, designed and built and the technology may well be great, but the one factor I hear very little mention of in all the BPM ‘chatter’, is the word PEOPLE. I would strongly suggest that the absolute key to a BPM project's success is understanding, appreciating and considering the very people involved in the process.  

It is all well and good to say consider the people...but how?

I would suggest there are a number of practical ways to achieve this:

• Understand how each person in the process operates e.g. how does he or she measure their own success as a part of the process and measure the success of the entire process if that is appropriate to them.

• Involve each a person with a direct [and indirect?] interest, involvement, or investment in the process that will therefore be affected by the process change.

• Ensure that the interface for each user or group of users, is appropriate to their circumstances and requirements; MS Outlook, browser, mobile etc. as well as how the process success is to be measured for or by them; reporting and analytics.

As a vendor of BPM and P2P solutions, we have had an application in our portfolio [for many years now] called 3P, which delivers additional workflow capabilities beyond standard industry P2P requirements. 

Why 3P I hear you ask...? 3P stands for People, Processes, Products.

The reason PEOPLE comes first in the list, is that it is people beyond everything else that we consider as being critical to any and all BPM projects. In addition when we say PEOPLE, we not only include employees, management, directors and shareholders; but also suppliers, partners, advisors and clients.

We [the team at Professional Advantage] believe that a lot of BPM projects fall short of delivering on their promises, because the implementation project fails to correctly predict the impact of PEOPLE issues...and this is not a mistake we make.

PERSPECTIVE...

A Terrace?

A Patio?

Your perspective...your point of view?

I have been following, and at times contributing to a number of discussion groups which have in one way or another been focusing upon the reason for BPM project failure.

In these discussions, I have made the point that each person’s perspective on the project; in terms of its importance, relevance, scope, objectives etc. would have a significant impact on the potential success of that project. “So what!” I hear you say, isn’t that the same for all solution based projects, and to some extent I would agree. I would suggest however that business processes go to the heart of how a business operates, the activities individuals undertake on a daily basis, and ultimately have a major impact on how successful a business or organisation is, in achieving its goals and objectives. Process based projects therefore require executives, management, employees and project/solution partners to understand, that not everyone sees things the same way! Effective change management and hence the success of the project, comes down to understanding and acknowledging the different perspectives people have, and accommodating these differences in the project.

Thank you to David Macdonald for this image.

A portion of Humble Pie for the gentleman in the corner...

I recently commented on an Adam Deane Blog Post focused upon  the topic: BPM Centre of Excellence.

I have subsequently pondered the topic further, discussed it with colleagues and in hindsight I have come to the conclusion that my response was flippant and definitely ill-informed; hence the portion of humble pie I am now consuming.

I carried out an in-depth analysis of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) created by one of my organisations large multi-national clients. The conclusion I have come to is that for this client at least, the CoE gave all stakeholders a platform for discussion and information sharing, which in turn allowed for a greater degree of project ‘buy-in’ from the different groups involved in the project and the CofE. The client is convinced, and having listened to their experiences I too am convinced, that the CoE played a major part in the success of the original project. The CofE continues to deliver value as the client rolls out subsequent project phases.

How may you ask did this CofE contribute so successfully to the project; the internal project manager at the client explained that the CofE acted as the focal point for collaboration of people, teams and technologies, which were therefore focused upon the critical business and project objectives. In addition the client felt that education and training was also enhanced.

I will now put down my knife and fork and move on...

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

Apparently these were the words written on a sign that had hung on Albert Einstein's office wall. Now I am no Albert Einstein and that is self evident from reading my blog posts, but it occurred to me that Albert was on to something.

 Put another way [and I do not know who said this];

 You cannot manage what you cannot Measure!

Five to ten years ago all one could hear and read about was Business Intelligence, Analytics etc. and for some reason that I have been unable to fathom, ‘it’ seemed to have fallen off most people’s radar.

A number of surveys over the last few months however have highlighted the fact that the single highest priority item for senior executives is ANALYTICS; in all its forms and in all areas of the ‘business’.

In an earlier post I made the case for BPM providing the critical link between an organisations goals and objectives [its reason for existing] with the daily activities the organisation undertakes to achieve their specific goals and objectives.

In addition many organisations invest significant effort in measuring the transactions flowing through those processes; spend on X, costs of Y, profit on Z etc. It amazes me however that so many organisations [the largest majority] continue to look in the wrong place for the answers about Analytics.

So where am I going with this? Excellent question!

In numerous conversations with executives and senior management it occurs to me that they significantly under-estimate the importance of process and the view seems to be, that Analytics and Process exist in totally separate worlds; whereas I would argue they are intimately connected.

How can one ever know if a process is working without smart metrics? Or put another way, how can one know if the mechanisms one has put in place to achieve the business goals and objectives are moving us in the right direction, as effectively and efficiently as possible?

I would also ask what the point of a metric is if it does not measure the performance of some aspect of a process, and provide me with intelligence about how to improve it?

I would strongly suggest that an organisation would be well advised to start with a view of the ‘end-to-end’ operational business process and then define the right metrics by asking the right questions. These ‘right’ questions I would suggest would include: 'How would we know if we were being successful? What would be the critical indicator that warns us if we are going off track?’

So simply put I strongly believe and hence advise clients to always connect Analytics to Business Processes; failure to do so I would suggest leaves organisations ‘blind’ when they go ‘off-track’.


AND REMEMBER: Always keep count and always make sure you count what is worth counting!

FDBPM (Faith Driven BPM)

Faith Driven BPM...yet another very entertaining and satirical post from Adam Deane.  His theory on FDBPM is simply brilliant.  It has all the ingredients a of solid theory; it explains the past and present as well as providing all the possible excuses you could possibly want should the BPM initiative fail.  Briefly put Adam's FDBPM  post is based on three highly perceptive observations of human behaviour:
1. I believe it will work.
2. I hope it will work
3. If it didn’t work – it wasn’t me, it was just fate.

I am not sure my colleagues in our BPM/I professional services team here at Professional Advantage would embrace this approach... but having said that, I highly recommend you read this for yourself;  FDBPM – new Standard Business Process Management Methodology

Mobile BPM - so what is the big deal?

I recently presented a seminar series in which I made the point that; if Business Process Management is going to do for PROCESS what Goggle did for information, BPM must be MOBILE and ALWAYS ON.

This point is ably taken-up by my Mr Pieter van Schalkwyk the CEO at eXomin in his XMPro Process Blog. Pieter makes the point that Mobile BPM is fast becoming a necessary component of the BPM tools that end users expect. The continuum of user interfaces extends past the conventional desktop applications that Business Process Management Suites used to deliver. With Gartner predicting that there will be more smartphone users in 2013 that PC users, the expectation to have processes “on demand, anywhere, anyplace” will grow.

May I recommend you review this post and others at the XMPro Process Blog.

NOTE: The BPM team at Professional Advantage can today deliver Mobile BPM solutions to organisations by utilising the XMPro Mobile element of the XMPro BPM suite.

BPM and Workflow; they are one and the same thing, aren't they?

I am often faced with the question from customers and partners alike; “What is the difference Business Process Management and workflow?”
The confusion often arises because misleadingly, these two terms are used interchangeably by individuals in the BPM space that should know better.

In short Business Process Management (BPM) is about managing a business problem whereas workflow is simple a subset of BPM it is an enabler, a technology. BPM uses workflow as one of its key dimensions in order to manage business processes.

These six BPM dimensions include:
• BPM has a human workflow (WF) dimension;
• BPM has a rules engine (RE) dimension;
• BPM has an enterprise application integration (EAI) dimension;
• BPM has a service oriented architecture (SOA) dimension;
• BPM has a content management (CM) dimension; and
• BPM has a business intelligence (BI) dimension.

Additionally a BPM Solution/Suite (BPMS) should allow for the configuration of all of the dimensions from one interface or product suite. A true BPMS such as XMPro provides the ability to create Composite Process Solutions (CPS) with all of these elements from a single toolset.

What are the potential costs of ignoring BPM?

I frequently read blog posts, articles and comments expounding the virtues and benefits of adopting BPM principles and solutions.

I thought that it may be interesting to consider the cost of the status quo or put another way doing nothing!

Pieter van Schalkwyk the CEO of our author partner - eXomin - has published a white paper 6 Hidden Truths to Lost Profit, in which he makes the case that:

• Businesses lose hard-earned profits in high volume transactions through inefficiency, inaccuracy and the costs of rework.

• Businesses lose profit in the supporting processes through poor customer service and quality issues.

• Low frequency processes lose profit through non-compliance, penalties and a lack of transparency.

In short the whitepaper explains six process characteristics that result in profit leakage that in Pieter's opinion need to be considered and addressed.

I do not intent to make this case here, but I strongly recommend that you download and review this document.

What do we mean by BPM?

I came across an interesting discussion on one of the LinkedIn discussion groups; BPM Guru, which asks What do we mean by BPM.

Greater minds than I have contributed some excellent posts to the discussion, but here is my attempt at answering the question:

BPM is a management discipline that treats process as an asset, where the asset if properly managed ensures that an enterprise aligns its business processes to its business strategy; leading to effective overall company performance through improvements in specific activities/tasks, either within a specific department or across the enterprise.


It presumes that business performance can be improved by assessing the performance of these assets. Makes improvements to these assets based on the assessment and by deploying these improvements with effective change management, ensuring therefore that the business makes the best possible use of the ‘process’ asset.

It measures the effectiveness of the asset in achieving improved business performance, and finally seeks to consider/make further improvements, based upon the outcome from the performance measurement activity.



  

STAY CONNECTED to your Business Systems

Let's face it...for the most part beyond phone calls, handhelds and mobiles are at best only used for e-mail and calendar management. To free up executives, managers and other key employees from their desks, organisations need to deploy mobile applications so that business decisions do not stop when individuals are away from their desks.

Join me for a 45 minute webinar on significant improvements that are available for your Blackberry, iPhone and iPad users. This webinar series will show you how to connect your mobile users to your business systems, and provide for real-time monitoring of their team's performance.  Wherever they are, and whatever mobile device they use, your people can therefore keep the business moving.

My HR Manager says: "I need to approve the termination pays by 2pm today, but I am out of the office at a conference and only have my iPhone with me."

My CFO says: "I have email on my Blackberry so why can't get I get access to my finance system to approve the supplier payments and new customer approvals?"

My new Sales Director has just bought an iPad. He wants to monitor the sales performance of his reps whilst on the road and get notified when orders with special discounts need approval before month end.

XMPro is a robust business process management platform, which will allow your mobile employees to handle and manage tasks, view and monitor business processes, access live reports, handle documents, and ultimately...

...allow these individuals to be highly productive without being tied to their offices or desks!

What you will learn:

1. How to implement consistent, reliable business management processes for your entire workforce.

2. How to configure the business process once and then deliver and support them to a variety of mobile devices including Blackberrys, iPhones and iPads.

3. How to deliver the same content to your office users of Outlook and SharePoint.

Who should attend?
CIO, CFO, COO
IT Managers
Business Process Improvement Managers
General Managers
Operations Managers

2011 Event Details
Tuesday 25th January: Click here to register
Thursday 24th February: Click here to register
Tuesday 22nd March: Click here to register
Thursday 28th April: Click here to register
Tuesday 31st May: Click here to register

Turning SharePoint from good to GREAT

Speaking to clients and prospective clients, I frequently and not unsurprisingly, come across Microsoft SharePoint.  There appears to be an awareness amongst users, that despite its obvious and significant capabilities and strengths, SharePoint is trying [and some would say failing] to be all things to all people.

With $1.3bn in sales, 100 million (yes 100,000,000) or more seats 'sold' over the last few years SharePoint is Microsoft’s faster growing server product. There is simply no getting away from the fact that SharePoint has a powerful place in the business software landscape. This status is clearly built upon SharePoint’s well documented strengths in the areas of Collaboration and Content Management, some would argue that despite this, it has critical limitations.

I came across the following comments in a publication ‘SharePoint as a Strategic Weapon’ from BPM Focus 2009: “…it is entirely possible to leverage the best parts of SharePoint – it’s Content Management and User Interface/Collaboration features – and still benefit from the best in class BPM capabilities.” The document goes on to say, “SharePoint provides strong capabilities to support the Portal and Collaboration as well as Content Management requirements, but it runs out of steam in the wider Business Process domain.”...and Forrester in a paper entitled ‘SharePoint and BPM - Finding the sweet spot’ observed that, “Out of the box, SharePoint processes are simple, so you can’t create seamless business process without a lot of custom coding.”

Taking this point further Pieter van Schalkwyk the CEO of our author partner - eXomin - has published a white paper on turning SharePoint from Good to Great. This focuses on my previous point that SharePoint attempts to be all things to all people and in doing so fails to be great at anything.

In reality we are seeing Microsoft mature its marketing message - can you spot the difference?



In 2007 this message included terms such as "Streamline Processes" and "Business Intelligence". Coming up to date, more generic terms appear in Microsoft’s 2010 ‘pitch’, which include "Composites" and "Insights". Reading between the lines this suggests to me an acknowledgement that all-things-to-all people is not a viable path to success. Indeed I would suggest that it highlights a realisation on Microsoft’s part that SharePoint forms only part and not the entire solution, for delivering better outcomes to end users.

In the area of Streamline Processes [e.g. Composites] specifically, this allows for and supports the existence of specialist ‘fit-for-purpose’ tools to address composite areas across the business, whilst standing firmly on the foundations that SharePoint brings in the server layer.

So how do we turn it from good to great? I would suggest by bringing worthwhile and tangible benefits to the key stakeholders; more control for the IT department, better and more visible process outcomes for the business and less confusion/more clarity for end users. Can I suggest you get a copy of the whitepaper "eXomin turns SharePoint from Good to GREAT"   here and make up your own mind?

Professional Advantage - XMPro