BPM on Steroids

Last week, I participated in my first of many BPM Twitter chats with @ProgressSW. Shout out to @marcobrambi, @robstoltz, @HBonCX, @khanna_aj, @dajb2, @seabird20.

If you have any thoughts or topics you’d like to see addressed in future chats, I’d love to hear from you; tweet me @mgualtieri.

The handle for this conversation was #responsivebiz.

To start, what is #BPM on Steroids? Why did you choose this theme?

• BPM is popular for enterprise business software solutions, but is not always enough. Thus it needs steroids.
• Steroids? Well, yeah - I mean additional features and components such as business rules, business events, analytics, and other tools.
• BPM = business process management for those newbies

What are the key elements of BPM on Steroids?

• BPM combined with strong business rules, business events, analytics, services, data, transactions
• BPM is very powerful, but cannot exist in a vacuum.
• BPM on steroids also means exposing processes on multiple devices in beautiful ways

We've seen @Gartner_Increcently using the term IBO – intelligent business operations. How does that relate?

• Yes. Gartner talks about IBO and calls the software technology to achieve it iBPMS intelligent BPM
• Pure BPM has narrow view on business solutions. You need these other elements: events, rules, analytics, cx, etc

What are others calling it? 

• We call it RPM - responsive process management. It is integrated suite: biz process, rules, events, analytics, data

What's wrong with #BPM? 

• BPM is often oversold as a silver bullet. Silver bullets only kill werewolves.
• Traditional BPM vendors say everything is a business process. Wrong! Everything is a customer experience.
• Sure business processes are important to customer experience, but must be connected to the real world of complex events

So how can RPM create a better consumer experience?

• RPM - responsive process management was designed to allow firms to model all aspects of the business - not just process.
• It all starts with events, then process, rules, data, services, analytics, connection to legacy - you need it all
• The customer experience must start with the customer. Too many firms have myopia and start with the process
• I often hear "everything is a business process". You don't get great customer experience starting there
• If you are designing a solution, start with customer personas first and then bring in events, process, rules

What about companies in the news recently that could’ve benefited from RPM? 

• The US Congress could be more responsive. But, seriously…
• Most large firms feel the pressure of customer experience. They must respond faster too fickle customers otherwise…they will go elsewhere.
• Can't change your process fast - toast
• Can't change rules fast enough – toast
• Can't detect event patterns fast enough – toast
• Can't monitor and incorporate legacy processes – toast
• Can't connect to big data and transactional data fast - toast

What do you think are the most pervasive pain points that RPM addresses? 

• Most important motivators of biz change: customers, operational efficiency, risk avoidance, good/bad executive decisions
• Legacy technology hangover is a real bummer. You need solution technology that work with it, but not be constrained by it

What are the most common obstacles to embracing RPM? 

• Common obstacle is to see big picture. Gartner IBO sets the broader context for BPM on steroids.

Let’s end by going back to the future. What are the most imp trends in #BPM? #predictionsfor2012 or beyond?

• The most important BPM trend is the most important biz trends. I call it customer choice and voice drives all.
• For BPM specifically, I would say context aware for mobile and seamless connections to legacy junk

The fact is: There are no silver bullets to solving the most complex business problems. You need a seamless combination of business process, rules, events, data, transactions, and great user experience design to build a great solution.