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

Related posts:

1. Live from the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference! It’s finally here! This morning we kicked off the 2010...
2. UC2010 Insights, Ideas and Inspiration! This afternoon was filled with ideas and innovation. First I...

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!

Related posts:

1. Live from the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference! It’s finally here! This morning we kicked off the 2010...
2. Putting the “global” in the Metastorm Global User Conference Today Chairman and CEO of Metastorm, Bob Farrell, spoke with...
3. Countdown to the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference – 29 days! Don’t miss out on learning about the new innovations that...

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!

Related posts:

1. UC2010 Partner highlights I attended two sessions this week both delivered by Metastorm...
2. Live from the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference! It’s finally here! This morning we kicked off the 2010...

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!

Related posts:

1. Live from the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference – Day 2 This morning I attended an awesome discussion from Pat Bleasdale,...
2. Putting the “global” in the Metastorm Global User Conference Today Chairman and CEO of Metastorm, Bob Farrell, spoke with...
3. Countdown to the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference – 29 days! Don’t miss out on learning about the new innovations that...

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?!

Related posts:

1. Another Green customer success story Last week, we had a blog post about sustainable business...
2. BPM for healthcare part 2 On April 9, the presidential administration announced that the Department...
3. From projects large to small, BPM fits all As we discussed last week, the Metastorm survey revealed some...

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.

Related posts:

1. An African tale – the chicken and the pig A very good friend once asked me to write her...
2. European business managers meet in Belgium to discuss how to improve quality of processes Today the Quality Expo 2009, hosted in Antwerp, Belgium, has...

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!

Related posts:

1. Countdown to the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference – 5 days! Wow, time really flies – I can’t believe that the...
2. Live from the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference! It’s finally here! This morning we kicked off the 2010...
3. 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference- Hurry, the early bird registration rate is ending soon! Have you registered for the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference...

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!

Related posts:

1. Metastorm Enterprise Process Advantage Awards This week Metastorm issued a call for entries for their...
2. Countdown to the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference – 29 days! Don’t miss out on learning about the new innovations that...
3. Live from the 2010 Metastorm Global User Conference! It’s finally here! This morning we kicked off the 2010...