Expand your universe! The 2011 Metastorm Global User Summit and Partner Symposium is taking place November 7-9^th at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Virginia. 

Regardless of where you are on the spectrum of enterprise architecture, business process analysis, and business process management, there is opportunity to innovate and extend your reach to drive further strategic and operational improvements. 

Join us this November to explore:

–   Best practices for your transformation initiatives

–   How leveraging social BPM and online collaboration tools can support your process improvement efforts

–   New Metastorm Cloud technologies and how they help build a stronger EA roadmap for success

–  The future of Metastorm’s software applications and solutions

Stay tuned for more about the Metastorm Global User Summit registration information and program details!

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When I asked the attendees to describe their ability to handle major and ongoing changes within their organization in a poll, 63% of participants indicated that it was “slow, painful and expensive” and 31% said that efforts were “disjointed and siloed.”  Meaning only 6% of the 83 participants who responded believed that their organization “could be an industry model for business transformation.”

I’m not surprised.  Often, organizations struggle to manage change because they lack a consistent approach to business transformations.  Determining the end goal of a transformation (whether it be upgrading to a new technology, seeking operational efficiency, or staying ahead of competitor innovation) is one thing, but trying to figure out a successful, cost effective way to roll out the transformation takes deep insight into the day in and day out activities and processes within the organization.  

What organizations need to do is figure out how to communicate and collaborate across the enterprise so they can break down the obstacles to change. One way to achieve this is to align the organizational structures against a framework that enables organizations to prioritize and manage transformation initiatives – while also providing visibility into key organizational practices and providing vehicles to help people in cross-functional roles communicate and work together more effectively.      

Today, Metastorm announced a new Business Transformation Practices Framework that is designed to do just that.  The framework helps organizations eliminate the competing practices and communication barriers that prevent change and help them prioritize and manage transformation initiatives to achieve consistent and repeatable processes across current and future transformation activities.  The framework is complementary to and integrated with the Metastorm ProVision® and Metastorm BPM® software – ensuring that multiple, business transformation initiatives can be tracked, monitored,  implemented and fine-tuned through business architecture and business process adjustments on an ongoing basis.

If you’d like more information about the Business Transformation Practices Framework, you can contact me or go to www.metastorm.com/transform to read white papers, download solution sheets and register for upcoming business transformation webinars. An onDemand video of The Power of Business Transformation webinar from last week is also available here. 

I also encourage you to join me for my next webinar – How to Manage Industry-Specific Change Using a Business Transformation Practices Framework – on Tuesday, March 15^th at 11:00 am EST, register here.

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Several analysts at the conference focused on addressing this topic and while each came at it from a different angle – depending on their research coverage area or discipline, one thing remained consistent:  transforming business is all about managing organizational change and culture change. This often understated consideration is critically important because without support, consensus and buy-in within and across the organization, true business transformation is not possible.   

If the goal of business transformation is increased productivity, we need to figure out how to align IT goals with business needs and how to measure results against business outcomes.  According to John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco, who delivered one of the conference keynotes, changing process is the only way to bring about productivity improvement.  I think many people agree that process change, management and optimization are essential for enabling business results.

We heard over and over that the key to addressing the IT/business alignment challenge is making sure that business and IT speak the same language.  If you are talking about databases and routers and I am talking about revenue per employee and faster time to market, we are not speaking the same language and our goals are not the same.   When evaluating technologies and concepts, we need to ask how they are going to enable business results.  If we can successfully translate technology into productivity, IT budgets will grow dramatically.  If we can speak a common language, it’s a win-win for business and IT and we can move the culture of the organization forward.

ITxpo highlights:

The business/IT alignment conference theme resonated with the attendees we spoke with during the conference.  We met with attendees from a wide range of industries – financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, energy and utilities, telecom, Federal government, armed services, state and local governments – who are looking at how EA, BPA and BPM can help them better understand their enterprise, simulate and analyze changes and process improvements and execute those changes in a way that positively impacts business outcomes. Several current customers who stopped to speak with us (thank you for stopping by!) are looking to expand their use of Metastorm, with many interested in learning more about our cloud modeling capabilities in Metastorm M3 and about Metastorm Smart Business Workspace.  

Neal Lohmann’s Business Transformation and Architecting for the Cloud education sessions held during the conference were very popular as were Kevin Haugh’s Business Process Management (BPM) and Modeling for the Cloud sessions.  Mark DiGirolamo’s Enterprise Business Architecture sessions were packed with CIOs, Enterprise Architects, PMOs and technology leaders wanting to learn how to deliver more effective strategic business and IT planning.

Many attendees stopped  by after Salt River Project’s presentation on Tuesday and wanted to learn more about how Metastorm ProVision could be used to help them with their initiatives.  Many also visited us after Gartner’s sessions on the Magic Quadrant for Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) and the Magic Quadrant for Business Process Analysis (BPA), both of which positioned Metastorm in the Leaders quadrant.

The message echoed loud and clear throughout the conference: bridging technology and the business through business architecture and process improvement is critical for managing enterprise change and improving business productivity.  All in all, it was an informative and insightful week hearing from IT leaders who recognize that it is up to them to translate technology into business value. They seem energized to take on this challenge (or, perhaps more appropriately, this opportunity), and are ready for change.   

I think Mr. Chambers summed this point up and brought the conversation full circle by reminding attendees that: “One of the important things to remember as an IT administrator or business leader is that transitions wait for no one.”

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Yesterday I attended a presentation delivered by Salt River Project, the world’s 3^rd largest public power utility and a Metastorm customer.  SRP’s presentation provided a comprehensive look at how SRP is growing BPM from project focused, to business unit, to Enterprise IT within the organization. SRP also discussed the time and cost value (hard dollar savings) BPM is delivering to their 100+ year old organization and the role Metastorm ProVision has played in the success of SRP’s BPM program and initiatives.  During the presentation SRP made the following two comments, sparking universal nods across the audience:  

1.  Transformation relies upon the creation of scalable approaches, enabled by technology, to direct change that drives results. This requires bringing together people, process and technology.

2.  You are never done – BPM is an evolution.

You can read more about SRP’s BPM project and how they are using Metastorm ProVision to drive business value by reading Salt River Project’s customer success story.

I also attended David Cearley and Carl Crunch’s session on Gartner’s Top Ten Strategic Technology Trends for 2011.  The list they unveiled is consistent with what we are seeing and hearing.  In my view, a number of these technologies will prove to be highly disruptive and transformational over time.  The challenge and the opportunity we face today is that these technologies can be implemented in an almost unlimited number of ways.  The key though, is that they be applied in ways that deliver clear business value in 2011.  For instance, certain applications and solutions are superior candidates for Cloud-based deployment—those that benefit most from broad, elastic and collaborative usage.   An example of this is an offering Metastorm recently released – Metastorm M3 – which allows the masses to easily model/document the current state of the enterprise as well as desired improvements to it. 

The social and collaborative technologies mentioned are also exciting and hot.  But, if used in an unfocused way, can actually be detrimental to organizations by distracting people from their day to day work.  Hence, they too need to be implemented in ways that are designed to generate value.   One way that this can be done is by anchoring these technologies to the core business processes and work activities of employees, as we do in a number of our solutions.  

In short, these are some of the most exciting technologies we have seen in years.  Like many things their success will depend on how and where they are used.  Used well, they present opportunities for almost immediate value and competitive differentiation.  Used poorly, they could actually delay broader adoption in the organization.

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In an audience poll, 49% of participants said that their current EA and BPM efforts were separate and not aligned, 47% said they were separate but collaborating, and only 4% said they were fully aligned. 

Clay Richardson said that the problem we are seeing within organizations today is that everyone wants to drive strategy in different directions.  BPM teams are responsible for driving strategy for process transformation and EA teams are responsible for driving strategy for IT investments.  One major problem is that the teams do not see the value in the others’ goals and purpose.  EA teams just think of BPM as another technology investment and BPM teams just think EA is all about making pretty pictures.

 This poor collaboration between EA and BPM teams creates a major disconnect between the strategic goals and objectives of organizations and the actual day-to-day execution at the process level.  Clay talked briefly about the hundreds of different frameworks that are designed to bring EA and BPM together to meet a common shared vision – ideally an organization would find a middle ground that incorporates standards but also gives them the flexibility to incorporate their own uniqueness.

Clay explains that capability maps –which are an organizational model associating the business capabilities, processes, and functions required for business success with the IT resources that enable them – are important to have because they identify and prioritize the capabilities that need to change and transform over time.  Business and IT users can utilize capability maps to highlight the weak and broken processes within their organizations and also identify the relationship between bad data and broken processes.  In essence, capabilities serve as a common language that both business architects and process professionals understand.

But organizations are not necessarily taking advantage of capability maps to bridge the EA/BPM gap.  Of the 80% of webinar participants that responded to our second poll question – Where are you with capability mapping? –  50% said they would like to start a capability mapping initiative, 31% said they have already started capability mapping, and 18% said they are currently starting a capability mapping project. 

Clay mentions that more and more BPM vendors are beginning to think about capability models, and Metastorm leads the market in providing native capability mapping and enterprise modeling in its enterprise EA and BPA software which can be directly aligned with processes on the Metastorm BPM platform.

To close the webinar, Neal Lohmann discussed Metastorm’s Business Transformation Practices Framework, which is an executive management framework designed to align the people, process and technology initiatives of an organization closer to its business strategy and vision to help support and promote new, innovative business strategies, while meeting long-term objectives.  The Metastorm Business Transformation Practices framework is founded on capability and operating models, and when aligned to an organization’s own framework supports the development of operating models that accelerate productivity, reduce system complexity, create market driven strategies and enable ongoing change and transformation.   

Neal encourages organizations to align business practices against the Metastorm Business Transformation Practices Framework in order to identify the gaps and mitigate the risk between EA and BPM users.  Establishing a clearly defined vocabulary through capability modeling will allow organizations to operate more effectively and implement successful business transformations.

If you missed the live webinar, don’t worry!  You can view the complete Forrester webinar in the onDemand section Metastorm’s website.   Interested in learning even more about Business Transformation Practices?  You can also listen to the “Leveraging the Business Transformation Practices Framework to Transform Your Business” onDemand webcast, featuring Kevin Haugh and Neal Lohmann.

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A session yesterday morning given by Leon Pillich of AIA Software showed their solution for document creation processes.  They have integrated their software with Version 9 of Metastorm BPM® and the process allows the user to create a document using predefined sections of text.  Some sections may be mandatory whilst others will be optional and selected by the user.  It’s also possible to use different sections or document templates according to data entered into or retrieved by the process.  When the process is designed, one can indicate whether a user is allowed to edit a section of text or not as part of the process.

The software is already in use by many financial services organizations but during the session there was interest shown by organizations from other sectors.

Bob Moore of Business Transformation Institute delivered a session Tuesday on Nymbul BPM^TM.  Nymbul BPM is a Metastorm BPM client for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.  The process designer builds a Metastorm BPM process as it would normally and it is delivered by Nymbul BPM to the Apple device and takes advantage of all of the features of the Apple User Interface.  Provided you are connected to a network, you can process all of the Metastorm BPM folders on your To Do list using your iPhone.  BTI have finished development but are waiting on Apple certification before they can release it.  With the rapid growth in use of iPhone, this new Metastorm BPM interface will be a winner.

=======================================

Neil Hudspeth is the Senior Director of Partner Marketing at Metastorm

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Her piece of advice was to utilize process models before moving into swim lanes. According to Pat, working with a model provides the sponsors with a view of the process steps in a more familiar context that makes sense to them from the very beginning.

Pat said that a great piece of advice to remember is that “the tools don’t rule you, you rule the tools.” In other words, just because you can use a swim lane right off the bat, does not mean that you have to use it right away.  

Ask the sponsors the magic question – “What do you have that already exists?” Usually this will spark an “aha moment” and they will produce a wealth of valuable process information that they already have on hand like written policies and procedures, spreadsheets, and sometimes even workflows that you can use to create the basic process model.

Also make sure that you interview all sponsors to determine what it is that they do every day from their perspective, and make sure that you observe the work so that you have a more complete understanding of the atmosphere, attitudes and aptitudes involved.  Sometimes these things can open up the conversation to determine how to better perform the process, or where disagreements exist.

Once you have this basic process model you can use it to determine “what do we need to make this work,” and “how would this process look if it were totally built out and perfected?” Additionally you can use the model for phasing, scoping, keeping sponsors engaged, status reporting and project planning.

After creating the model and having the sponsors on board you can then move into using swim lanes – this time with a more advanced understanding of how the process will actually flow, with better sponsor buy-in, and greater direction.

These things will help you avoid the dreaded moment when you launch the process and the sponsors say, “That’s not how we do it” – or, as Pat calls it “the day of unpleasant surprises.”

Happy modeling everyone!

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First I attended Forrester analyst Clay Richardson’s discussion, How Capability Maps Can Bridge the Gap Between EA & BPM – Disciplines and Technology. Clay asked the question, “Why do Enterprise Architects and BPM people never get along,” and “how do we get them to talk to each other?”

Clay said that whenever you ask a BPM person what EA is all about they will tell you, “pretty pictures,” and whenever you ask an EA person what BPM is all about – they say it’s a new way to build business applications.

But this lack of collaboration between EA and BPM is a recipe for disaster.

Clay recommended that since both groups understand capabilities, organizations should utilize capability maps as a “Rosetta Stone” to help them find a common language and to highlight weak or broken processes and also identify relationships between bad data and broken processes.

With the help of capability maps EA and BPM teams can work in better harmony to understand what the business knows today and where it is going tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon I attended Allergan Senior Analyst, Tom Holmberg’s discussion, Optimizing Processes & SOPs Utilizing Metastorm ProVision®. Tom discussed how his team is using Metastorm ProVision to create greater efficiencies by streamlining the many different processes across regions and functional groups while aligning all SOPs (standard operating procedures) within the research and development departments to make the processes, and the compliance activities associated with them, less cumbersome.

The team started creating standard processes by interviewing the many people involved in the different process variations – and then identifying the best, and most common practices and applying them to a new, universal model. From there they were able to automate, and then determine the areas where they can improve or tweak the new model. Now SOP documents are directly attributed to activities, available in the repository, and built in to the model itself so that users can easily access the proper document that applies to the action that they are performing.

Both talks were very insightful!

Today was a great day of insights and ideas, some awesome new product innovations, open forums and an overall great time spent with our customers and partners. I’m greatly looking forward to see what tomorrow has in store!

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Mr. Webber designs, creates and performs startling effects for film, theater and television productions – including notable work on Forrest Gump, Casino and Oceans 13 – his discussion was equally as impressive as his background! The overall message was that in thinking outside of the box, or taking a different perspective, you can achieve things that you never thought possible.

Next I attended an introduction to Business Transformation Institute’s new Metastorm BPM® iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch application – Nymbul BPM – which puts the capabilities of business process management into the palm of your hand! This ap is very cool, and its potential for innovation is great. I would definitely recommend that you go give it a try in the partner pavilion.

So what’s next? We’re just about to unveil our exciting new product innovations, which we are very excited to share with you all! Later I will be attending Forrester analyst Clay Richardson’s discussion – How Capability Maps Can Bridge the Gap Between EA & BPM – Disciplines and Technology.

Be sure to stay tuned, because there are still many more exciting sessions and events coming up!

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And earlier this week, BPTrends published an interesting case study on Metastorm customer the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) – a professional body for pharmacists and the regulatory body for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in England, Scotland and Wales.

The organization chose Metastorm ProVision® to model and improve the as-is management processes that the Secretariat undertakes, and the procedure for dealing with the ever-growing number of customer complaints and the paperwork associated with them. It also chose Metastorm BPM® to subsequently automate the new and improved processes.

Check out the case study to learn how RPSGB accomplished its goals of having at least 80% of the investigated cases passed to the Investigating Committee within 3 months of the completed investigation, and how the application has significantly reduced the number of investigations that remained incomplete after six months.

And don’t forget, the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference, which will be held May 18-19 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, is only 12 days away. We’re gearing up for an awesome time filled with interaction, insight, ideas and inspiration! Have you registered yet?!

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Charles Dickenson’s A Tale of Two Cities describes the economic disconnect between the lavish lifestyles of the French Monarchy and the marginalized citizens of France.  

This same drama plays out in organizations where regional departments insist on maintaining their own processes in order to accommodate their “regional differences.” These departments may not understand how their “superstar” performance may actually be causing underperformance in another department, or even the company as a whole. 

So what’s the cause of this process disparity? Well, the root cause is often “a tale of two processes.”

 From the perspective of the regional department, their unique processes allow them to produce at a high rate of efficiency.  They may not understand why the corporate office wants them to tweak their excellent processes.  Let them eat cake!

From the perspective of the downstream department, their daily work is chaotic due to the high level of process variation.  As a result of this variability the customer processes lose output efficiency – thereby becoming rate limiters to the downstream processes.  The consequences are unfortunate for the customer department as they become marginalized in the company. Cursed bourgeois regional departments!

Just as in the French Monarchy, executives in the company may understand that there are issues, but do not understand the root cause of the problem, scope of the issue or even the solution of how to fix it. 

Yes, the French peasants did eventually revolt against the governing class and threw the country into chaos, but I am not suggesting that you to go out and storm the executive floor of the office with torches and pitchforks (that may not go over well)!  

Instead, you should utilize the discipline of Business Process Analysis to help the entire organization see the “big picture,” to see how their actions are effecting the organization as a whole, and to understand that this “tale of two processes” needs to be remedied with a process revolution.   

Leading a process revolution must be conducted with participation of all key stakeholders, either as active participants or decision makers – just like we’ve learned in revolutions, success comes from accord.

The first step is developing the current state models with all the key stakeholders.  This model serves two purposes: first, it’s a basis for future state analysis; and second, it’s an eye-opening form of “group therapy” that allows all of the departments to understand how their processes impact other departments and the company as a whole.  The current state meetings sometimes start with short tempers and accusations, but will quickly turn to understanding and “hugs” as true complexity and  processes inefficiencies are exposed. 

Next, future state process models are developed with the same stakeholders who should now be refocused on improving the organization (the best revolutions work when you plan your post-revolution environment ahead of time!).  The future state models should drill down deep enough to expose the roles and responsibilities, deliverables, triggering events and decisions.  Through this exercise, a careful examination of regional / functional processes should be conducted, and a “best practices” approach that can be used by all departments should be explored.

And just like is typical to most revolutions, the improvement phase can have its own issues as vested interests in controlling new departments, roles and retaining power can muddy up the waters of forming a new process. This is where Business Process Management can come in handy, because the organization will have a way to enforce the changes, and keep the process revolution moving forward!

So my fellow revolutionaries, good luck, and Viva le Process!

==========================

Tom Holmberg is the Senior Business Process Analyst at a pharmaceutical company. Tom is responsible for all aspects of Business Process Analysis within Research and Development. His current focus is integrating Enterprise Architecture with the Business Process Architecture. He has 11 years experience in process optimization with specialty in aligning talent / technology / business process. Tom has worked in the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Supply Chain Industries.

Tom holds a B.A. Psychology with an emphasis in Industrial / Organizational Effectiveness; Masters of Business Administration from University of Phoenix and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification from the University of California, Irvine.

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During the conference we will be unveiling new product innovations. Two new products slated for release this year will give Metastorm customers the power to take modeling to the cloud, share and collaborate on goals, capabilities and processes, and empower users with a new workspace that will increase productivity and visibility, and leverage information and capabilities across the Metastorm Enterprise software suite.

An exciting new session has also been recently added! Clay Richardson, Senior Analyst with Forrester will present: “How Capability Maps Can Bridge the Gap Between EA & BPM – Disciplines and Technology”

We’ve assembled an impressive lineup of speakers from numerous industries who will share best practices, lessons learned and other insights that will prove invaluable to your Metastorm projects. Check out the conference’s loaded speaking agenda here!

A few speakers have written guest blog posts that you can also check out:

The Art of the Peel – Pat Bleasdale, Wilmington Trust

Planes, Planning and Process Improvement – Brian Chaney, Copper River IT

Solving Pharma’s 11 Billion Dollar Revenue Leakage Problem – Ethan Smith, Metastorm

Stay tuned, because there are more to come in the next few weeks as we approach the conference!

So if you haven’t already registered, why wait? You definitely don’t want to miss this year’s conference!

The Metastorm 2010 Global User Conference will take place May 18-19 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront. We look forward to seeing everyone here in Baltimore for another fantastic conference filled with interaction, insight, ideas and inspiration!

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Check out this webinar, Countdown to Life Sciences Aggregate Spend Compliance, to learn how Metastorm’s Aggregate Spend Solution can help Life Sciences organizations manage, track and report on all physician payments by:

• Setting active alerts for corporate compliance policy and regulatory requirement breeches
• Defining and approving payment of all physician budgets and operating plans
• Enforcing proper approvals dynamically based on business rules governing giving

Webinar Date: Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Session1: 6:00 am PT / 9:00 am ET / 1:00 pm GMT
Session 2: 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm GMT

Register for 9:00 AM EST session.
Register for 1:00 PM EST session.

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In order to achieve the most success with a Lean BPM initiative, Chaney recommended that teams be small and agile. He said that it is important to ensure that a team has the right combination of skill sets, and that all members have a well-defined role. Make sure that the team has the correct mindset to work well with the business analysts and developers, and that everyone is brought into an executable environment. As usual, communication is a key factor in making a team successful, as is supporting the team and development cycles with the right tool sets and skills so that the project can move quickly and effectively.

Chaney also recommended that project managers time box the analysis phase so that the project doesn’t fall into analysis paralysis, because this will diminish its overall value. Setting a limit to the amount of time spent on analysis will help everybody on the team focus on what’s important for the project. With an end goal and a specific date, everyone can be better focused. BPM by nature should be  flexible and agile, so it is important to ensure that the team doesn’t get so caught up in analysis that they lose sight of that fact.

Prioritization of requirements is also critical. Make sure the team works on the most important things first. Chaney commented that 20% of processes are used 80% of the time, so if a team can get that core 20% “Leaned,” then they’ve addressed 80% of inefficiencies. He suggested prototyping the top 5 processes to show significant improvement early on, and to get everyone on board to expand the project across the enterprise.

Finally, Chaney encouraged rewarding the team if they have done a good job and are tracking ahead of schedule. Morale is very important to any process improvement initiative. If the team is not productively moving, they’re not really adding value.  So, if they’ve achieved their goal for a particular day, tell them to take the rest of the day off, and they will ultimately be more productive in the future.

Want to watch this webinar? Check it out as an onDemand webcast .

And don’t forget to sign up for the final webinar in Metastorm’s Lean Webinar Series, Lean to the Power of Three, which will run twice on Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 9:00 AM EST and 1:00 PM EST.

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If not, why wait? The early bird registration discount ends this Sunday, January 31, 2010.

Registering is easy! Just go to the official 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference page found here. Also, don’t forget that Metastorm is now accepting nominations for the 2010 Metastorm Enterprise Process Advantage award program. Details can be found here.

How to enter: 

In approximately 500 words, tell us how you or your customers have leveraged Metastorm ProVision®, Metastorm BPM®, or Metastorm Integration Manager (or all three!) to deliver efficiency, control, visibility, agility, and innovation in mission-critical ways.

Entries should be sent via email to erin.obrien@metastorm.com.  A team of respected industry leaders will evaluate entries and winners will be recognized at the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference. 

If you have questions about the award program or your entry, send queries to Erin O’Brien at erin.obrien@metastorm.com.

Learn about last year’s award winners here.

The submission Deadline is approaching quickly! Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your success!

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3. Call for entries–Metastorm Enterprise Process Advantage® Awards 2010 We are very excited to announce that Metastorm is now...

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