Government Technology | Volume 9.3
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DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
personal work queues, or support interactive people-based tasks and decisions. BPM is a convergence of workflow and EAI. BPM is, however, more than just the automation of processes and simplification of application integration. BPM is a business management practice that encompasses process automation, process modelling and process monitoring, and adds simulation, process modularisation, service orientation and process optimisation. It is based on a number of principles and methodologies such as process-centricity, process excellence and core competencies. A more formal definition reads: “A management practice that provides for governance of a business process environment toward the goal of improving agility and operational performance” – hence the likelihood of a measurable Return on Investment (ROI) from its adoption. RETURN ON INVESTMENT In fact, in a recent AIIM survey , 49 per cent of those who reported carrying out an ROI exercise on their BPM investment indicated a payback period of less than 18 months with 72 per cent achieving savings within two years. As regards project implementation, over half take nine months or less to BPM enable a process on average, with 75 per cent taking less than a year. It is no surprise, then, that 63 per cent of survey respondents indicated that BPM was imperative or significant to the success of their organisation. Given the likely restrictions on IT spending as budgets tighten up, producing a return within the first year seems like a very compelling case. However, as with any business change
process, implementing BPM brings its own challenges. The AIIM survey indicated that the biggest management challenges were resistance to change, lack of understanding of what BPM is and underestimating the time it takes to map and agree processes. As regards technical challenges, integration with other systems was by far the largest, followed by unexpected exceptions requirements and overcomplexity of the process and rules engine. PROCESS OWNERS One of the most interesting findings of the study was that the most likely indicator for a successful BPM project is that a process owner exists. Process owners are responsible for the management of processes within the organisation. They are the people who receive the solutions created by an improvement team and end up being responsible for managing the improved process. The role of process owner does not yet exist for many organisations that have yet to establish a process-centric approach to managing business. Many individuals participate and perhaps provide management within a process, but no one person owns it. Process owners often have to transcend departmental barriers (as processes do), and maintain a vigilant inspection of the process itself, continuously looking for improvements and opportunities. This level of scrutiny is fundamental in the early stages of BPM, when the process must be analysed, modelled, and reengineered. PROCUREMENT STRATEGIES Business process management suites and tools might have a heritage in forms scanning and
document management, they might come from middle-ware and modelling applications, or they might be part of an enterprise system such as SAP. Within the AIIM community, we see a preference for purchasing BPM as part of the ECM suite (36 per cent), but if we add together dedicated BPM suite suppliers and best-of-breed BPM tool suppliers, we have 48 per cent of respondents that would more likely look to BPM-specific suppliers. We must, of course, overlay on this the level of vertical market expertise expected of a BPM supplier, and this can indicate very strong candidates of each type within specific vertical markets. To help users implement a BPM strategy in their organisation, AIIM has developed a BPM education programme which consists of 2-day Practitioner and 4-day Master training classes which can be taken as public or private classes, or online – see www.aiim.org.uk/ training. AIIM is the international community that provides education, research, and best practices to help organisations find, control, and optimise their information. AIIM offers training courses in ECM, Electronic Records Management, BPM, eMail Management, and E2.0, both online and as public classes. Notes 1. A free copy of the AIIM Industry Watch report “Business Process Management (BPM): are we making the most of contentdriven processes?” can be downloaded from www.aiim.org.uk/surveys
FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.aiim.org.uk
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