• Improved ability to focus on the customer is a primary concern.
• Cost reduction, regulatory reporting, rapid delivery of new products & services are and will continue to be top of mind.
• The retiring workforce is seen as a risk, as are meeting the requirements of the “new” (social and mobile) employee and customer profiles.  This drives a perceived need to get new and improved systems in now.
• There is major focus on consistent brand experience and integration across channels (esp. w/mobile)to improve customer service/satisfaction.
• Banks are often pursuing business process and case management solution purchase decision as though getting an application (vs. a BPM technology platform)
• A natural cycle of refresh is happening and banks are open to new sources – the notion of an app is morphing… Build or buy,  is no longer the simple question … category is blurry, a continuum.
• Many of the banks start with a modernization approach (technology focus) but then find they need a business transformation.  
• IBM, Oracle, Microsoft  identified as strategic vendors, but  banks of all sizes seem to be willing to go for mixed solutions and heterogeneous approaches.

Of course, it’s important to realize that the above points are a result of my conversations and not necessarily a scientific study.  I would be interested in your views and what you are seeing and hearing in the banking industry for process improvement initatives.

and this new video on the future of productivity

I just returned from this year’s Forrester Business Process Conference (#BPF11) in Boston and once again gained some great industry insights. I was especially taken by the keynote from Forrester’s Craig Le Clair who has done some outstanding work on the role of dynamic or adaptive case management in achieving business improvement. Craig was joined by Steven J. Spear, Senior Lecturer at MIT, expert on achieving operational excellence and author of “The High-Velocity Edge.” Together their message focused on what needs to happen differently for our business process solutions to meet today’s more demanding customer expectations.  READ MORE

Also be sure to check out my article series in CMSWire – my latest are:

 ”How Community Banks Can Use Adaptive Case Management to Cost Effectively Capture and Service New Customers“. I review three key areas where case management can facilitate positive change: “focus on customers, not products”, “integrate process and content for better decision making”, and “respond to unpredictable events and exceptions”.

How Adaptive Case Management Can Help Businesses Innovate where I talk about the big breakthrough value with adaptive case management (ACM) coming from solutions driven by those who are technology-agnostic, who simply want the business results that adaptive case management can deliver. In this article I explore how forward-thinking business leaders will use adaptive case management, including some of its social business aspects, to help foster knowledge worker innovation and win market share.

I just returned from vacation at Lake George <sigh>. Since I am by nature an introvert, a big part of my vacation time was spent at the Lake in quiet solitude… catching up on reading, watching our golden retrievers swim, and contemplating life.  Yes, it was wonderful,  and no  it did not in any way affect my apparent obsession with process improvement and case management.  In fact, it made me think about the power of “social” collaboration capabilities within case management. I believe the combination can help transform knowledge worker intensive processes like insurance underwriting, claims adjusting, customer on-boarding, credit claims disputes and more.  Here’s a few resources I recommend that explore this idea; including the upcoming  ACMLive Virtual Summit.

My colleague Steve Russell has written on this subject.   Summarizing his chapter in the just published book Social BPM: Work, Planning and Collaboration under the Impact of Social Technology, Steve says,

“Instead of starting with the process model, start with the participants within the process. Once their needs are understood, processes can be developed that support those needs, not the other way around. Social technologies exist to accelerate social conventions that people already participate in. When evaluating how participants work within a process, how they collaborate and access information should be a part of that analysis. By having social technologies as a part of the BPM toolkit, the value delivered to a participant is increased.”

BPM guru Sandy Kemsley and Steve co-authored a series of articles on BPM.com around “Getting Started” and talk about this aspect there as well  in terms of ”Ensuring User Adoption.” 

And in Steve’s eBook “Killing the things that Kill Productivity”  one of my favorites was “A Little Help Here” that talks about collaboration — providing users with a network of easily accessible experts and consultants.  For knowledge workers, especially those that might be more introvert than extrovert, case management and social collaboration capabilities provide a framework for learning from their peers and an experts network. By integrating collaborative capabilities into case management applications, these collaborations can be contextual in that transaction specific information can be shared and the collaboration itself can be linked or copied into a system of record so audit trails are more complete and reconstructing how decisions were made is easily enabled.

You can hear Steve talk more about case management and social collaboration at the upcoming ACMLive Virtual Summit – June 22 – 23 (hashtag #acmsummit).  There is no charge this week for Registration  -  same week registration will have a fee.  Steve’s interview session is on the 22^nd but I recommend the entire agenda for those interested in case management.  I really like the tag line for this summit… Learn about the new tools to help us do more of what we do best.

Speaking of “what we do best,” I think it’s time for me to go back to the Lake…

So here are a few of my favorites:

Getting started.  On the evening before the event kickoff there was a workshop aptly entitled Getting Started with BPM. By way of full disclosure, this workshop was hosted by my company Global 360.  It was conducted by Donna Tellam, a user experience expert at Global 360.  I favor this workshop because it takes a user-centric approach – just as Global 360 focuses on “Persona-based” BPM – the workshop looks at the “people who do the work’ and their process personas or roles (Builders, Managers, Participants, Customers), providing all important techniques for early end-user involvement to drive adoption and stakeholder buy in.  I especially favor this workshop because it is delivered by an outstanding practitioner who shares her first hand experiences.  If you are interested in learning more about the techniques you should check out this previously recorded webinar  Practical Approach to Getting Started with Business Process Improvement.   At Gartner, there were more than 90 attendees at the workshop and I think this is a reflection that business process management – both as a technology and a discipline – is being evaluated and adopted by “the majority.”  I’d be interested in others observations on that.

Productive co-existence.  Another of my favorites is Bill Swanton, who I first met as an industry analyst at AMR Research before it became a part of Gartner.  Bill’s session focused on Peaceful and Productive Co-existence of Enterprise Applications and BPM.  He gets at the essence of why you would use a BPMS with your ERP system by posing this question: 

If all my competitors use SAP [or Oracle] ERP, then how do I get a competitive advantage?

 As Bill explains with some great examples to illustrate, a BPMS helps you to:

• Abstract out specific info and present it in a role-specific UI, say for a Buyer in the procurement area
• Link across system boundaries – while sitting lightly on top of those systems
• Escalate service issues more quickly to speed up the process
• Improve a quote-to-cash process by analyzing risk without slowing down the deal
• And, Change a competitive process more quickly without disruption/risk to core ERP systems

You can check out this podcast if you want to get a little more around Bill’s views on the subject.

The great debate.  I really like the way this session was put together.  While clearly preparation had been done by the analysts, they presented a very “in the moment” conversational and interactive debate on Case Management vs. BPM. Led by Toby Bell, with Janelle Hill and Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, each analyst took a different perspective as they debated the subject based on their respective areas of research and “personas” — content, process and vertical industry respectively.  Some of the nuggets from the debate:

• case management may well be a style of work but not all instances of this style will  necessarily need to be managed as a case
• applying case management will be important where high value people and processes are involved
• decision management is a key element, as are the documents and information needed to make a good decision
• unstructured or unpredictable are indicators for case management
• coordination not automation of work
• a good case management system “learns”, detects emerging patterns
• case management fills the white space for vertical industry applications and domain expertise and IP are important

and my personal favorite

• the user experience will be critical to success.

I participated in a Case Management Roundtable later in the conference led by Nathaniel Palmer and Tom Shepherd (@TomShepherd) where many of these same themes emerged from the conversation. Both Nathaniel and Tom are contributors to one of my favorite books on the subject of case management – you can check out info on that and learn more about case management at  Mastering the Unpredictable.

Tips from the trenches.  As a confessed “BPM-aholic”  and a recovering Green Belt, my favorite session of all was the panel hosted by Elise Olding (@EliseOlding) – Tips from the Trenches: Delivering Business Value on your 1st BPM Project.  Elise happens to be one of my favorites not only for her holistic perspective on process improvement (not just  technology), but also because in my view she has been instrumental in bringing “Social” to Gartner.  While Elise provided great guidance to the panel, they were the stars of this session.  Each providing great experience-based advice from the trenches.  Beth Gollogly from Iron Mountain  - a fellow member of the PEX Network, Diane Jaskolka from Arrow Electronics and Shawn Solomon from Enmax all provided such good practical advice that I couldn’t take notes fast enough.  My favorite parts of the discussion centered around how to build the team (look for aptitude and attitude), how to choose the process owner and how to organize the program for success. One of the best stories was from Beth who related how she realized early on that people were calling it “Beth’s program” and she knew that she had to make it their program to be successful.  I wish I could share a recording of the session with you; while I don’t have that I can recommend an equally good set of tips from the trenches from another one of my favorites Sandy Kemsley (@skemsley).

 Process rant alert: With apologies in advance to the many forward thinking,  technology-enabled companies in the healthcare insurance arena, this article is  both a rant about inefficient processes and a plea for better customer-oriented service from that sector.

 Six weeks ago I accidentally (yes accidentally) slammed the car door on my husband Tom’s hand while rushing to beat the beltway traffic for a meeting.  It was very early in the morning and a bad cut,  so we headed over to our local emergency care facility for x-rays, tetanus shot, nerve tests and stitches.  The good news  was that there was no nerve damage, just a chipped bone and a deep cut that would heal over time.  The doctor and all the technicians and assistants at the facility provided top notch medical care. We went back to remove the surgical splint 2 days later and then to remove the stitches 10 days later.  Each time we used our Healthcare Insurance Card and our Flexible Spending Card and felt lucky – especially at that first visit when we were so upset -   that the payment side of things was that simple.  Well, the hand healed really well without infection or permanent damage. I had thought the only bad aftermath would be my newly inherited chores – snow shoveling and  dog walking – and  the required  incessant apologies to my injured spouse.  There was more.  

Two weeks ago I received three letters in the mail from my FSA card provider for the emergency care facility visits.  In each separate letter there was a paper to be filled out and a request for a detailed invoice or EOB to be attached and mailed back with the letter to substantiate the claim charges.  Ironically at the top of each letter was the phrase “Convenience Card Substantiation Request.” So this morning I spent an hour printing out EOB documents from my healthcare insurance provider’s website to combine with my Flexible Spending Account servicer’s requests for substantiation.  I’m packing them into a large envelope and heading over to the post office to send them in.  This is not convenient in anybody’s definition of the word.

 My colleagues and I  see process improvement opportunities every day and successes when the latest BPM and case management methodologies and technologies are applied.   Today I just experienced firsthand what happens to the “customer” when they aren’t applied. 

Oh, and did I mention I am really sorry Tom for slamming your hand in the car door.

The webinar includes an interesting discussion for those concerned with successful BPM projects.  BPM.com  Editor-in-Chief and well-known industry expert Nathaniel Palmer and Global 360′s Donna Tellam are both experienced practitioners and excellent presenters. 

Nathaniel does a great section on developing a narrative first, rather than jumping into boxes and lines process modeling.  I especially like this approach because it is useful for both structured and unstructured process patterns.

Donna who is an expert  in user experience design (and helped conduct the AME Learning Labs  last November to rave reviews), shares some great techniques to put the “user” at the center of your design and involve the process participants ” early and often.” 

I participated in this webinar when it livecasted and have since listened twice to the replay – there is a lot in there to learn from!

 My eBook is now available! Thanks to the more than 700 people who have downloaded it so far.  You can get a copy out at Global 360  Better Together  (requires registration) or at Nothing But SharePoint.  

 Appreciate the comments so far…

 ”These are first person, real world stories, with no “Geek Speak”. Business Process Management is the next growing stage in SharePoint. Reading Deb’s book will give you the ideas you’ll need to get started in BPM. “  – Mark Miller (EUSP)

The eBook includes a collection of articles originally published on EUSP endusersharepoint.com that describe how process and content together are a powerful means to make better business decisions.  These stories exemplify how commercial and government organizations are using powerful content tools like SharePoint with Business Process Management technology and methodology to drive performance improvement.

Table of Contents

• Introduction  
• Remember Minority Report?  
• Find your Productivity Loop  
• Backslide
• Don’t talk to customers
• SharePoint: It’s not just a destination, it’s a journey
• The Power of Positive Pessimism

Let me know which story resonated with you and also would be glad to hear your own stories and comments!

I realize that results are what we all work so hard to achieve.  ”Where you finish” – the outcomes – are the point of what we do.  What I’ve learned though in project after project is that a good start will be critical to success.  

So as a self-confessed BPM-aholic, I am always interested in techniques for effective Process Discovery.  In that vein I want to share this eGuide: Getting Started with Process Improvement Projects, Guide to Process Discovery & Sample Templates. 

The guide is a version of what was included in our Learning Labs at the AME Conference (covered in my previous post).   Response to those labs was great and just one more indicator to me that both new and seasoned practitioners alike are eager for best practices on getting started.  

The key points in the eGuide were featured in a  BPM.com webinar earlier this week: Getting Started with Process Improvement Initiatives. Plus the webinar included an interesting discussion around practical approaches for successful BPM projects from the presenters,  BPM.com  Editor-in-Chief and well-known industry expert Nathaniel Palmer and Global 360′s Donna Tellam.  Donna is an expert  user experience design practitioner and helped conduct the AME Learning Labs to rave reviews. Good news is that a recording of the webinar session content is going to be provided on-demand.  I’ll share that link when it becomes available - it is a good complement to the eGuide and definitely worth the listen. In the spirit of continuous improvement, I’ll be interested in your comments and feeedback on the eGuide and the session.  And, interested as well in hearing your project best practice experiences.

 As 2010 comes to a finish there will be many thoughtful posts and articles on the events and experiences of the past year as well as a good deal of looking ahead.  I for one will appreciate the retrospectives and lessons learned, and will be focusing on getting a good start on 2011!

I had the opportunity to coordinate two Microsoft University Learning Labs delivered by Global 360 design and process solution experts; one on “Getting Started with Business Process Improvement” and an advanced lab on “Continuous Process Improvement.” We had an enthusiastic turnout and my thanks to all of the Lab participants for your time and interest! I’ll blog more about the Labs in a follow-on post, but for now I’d like to share my observations on the overall conference.

 I attended a number of the conference sessions – the quality of the presentations was outstanding, but as always the opportunity for informal conversation and discussion were perhaps most illuminating.  Here are four trends I observed:

 1. There is a New Normal, Deal with it.

During the conference there was ample evidence of the “new normal” economy and equal evidence that companies are past denial and anger and well into the acceptance stage – dealing with the new economic order.  I had discussions with people who are dealing with plant closings, off-shoring and production cut backs from 24×7 operations to fewer shifts, fewer days. But the current economy notwithstanding, participants came from more than 20 countries with some companies sending delegations of 20, 30 or more. There were close to 2,000 delegates in total, an indication that even in the current economy – or perhaps because of it – companies are invested in and investing in process improvement.  

 2. Catalysts for change are making a difference.

All the delegates seemed highly focused on enacting process change to drive business improvement. I spoke with lean practitioners whose industry segments are contracting and are applying lean process improvement to remain competitive. Also to continuous process improvement leaders who are taking advantage of the market conditions to profitably grow their companies.  One breakfast session the discussion spanned Harley’s to healthcare, currency, and “green” paper mills. These are dedicated and informed practitioners who are catalysts for change in their organizations.

Coincidently I returned from the conference to read Forrester Research analyst Alexander Peters’ post Is Your Organization Ready For Business Process Change? directed to business process change agents and architects, who drive business transformations and continuous improvement initiatives.

 “Sometimes our conversation starts from methodologies and technologies like Lean, Six Sigma, ERP, CRM, or BPM, but it almost always ends up with questions about organizational design, governance, change planning, and execution. I believe that each process change initiative should start with a readiness assessment of the target organization. With that in mind, Forrester has developed an online self-assessment and survey tool that can help you get a feeling about where your organization stays with respect to four must-have process change capabilities: 1) strategy; 2) process execution; 3) structure; and 4) culture of performance.”

I’ll be very interested in hearing the results of that survey. The companies and their “catalysts for change” who presented best practices at AME2010 certainly seemed to me to have all four in good measure.

 3. Transformative Change is happening beyond the factory.

Lean and value stream mapping are driving some spectacular results not just on the Factory floor, but in the way materials, information and financials move along the value chain. And the “factory” is anything from a classic manufacturing operation to a hospital.

One of the most compelling sessions was delivered by St Joseph Health System  who is transforming healthcare delivery through the power of lean.  There was so much in this session that was inspiring – process improvement saving lives! St Joseph are quick to acknowledge that they have learned through other healthcare systems and manufacturing partners, and in turn they generously share their valuable lessons learned and best practices.

Two of their biggest challenges are leadership engagement and sustaining change.  To achieve both they focus on involving all stakeholders in the change process. They view educating their leaders as critical, they drive the team forward as a whole via the lean approach and they settle for nothing less than transformative change. One of the employees in a video said she now realizes she is ‘a bigger part of what happens here – it is all about improved patient care and outcomes. This gives us a motor on our boat instead of rowing to get the job done.”

 4. Charm City really is all that.

 One final observation on the PEOPLE side of things…The conference organizers were outstanding and so many of the people involved are volunteers, working practitioners from member companies and consultants – very impressive.  And every person I met at the Baltimore Convention Center, the hotel, restaurants and along the way were friendly and helpful.  Kudos to the association and to Baltimore who proved itself to be Charm City.