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