Many Process Analysts see themselves as “Process Engineers,” and they take the designation quite literally.  They like to staff the project with like-minded people, not those pesky line workers who say, “But that’s not how we do it.”  Shortly after project kick-off, the Analysts dive into as much process detail as possible, as rapidly as possible.  They generate thick notebooks of swimlane diagrams, waving them around as if they were Holy Writ. These Engineers preside over process work sessions which are jaw-droppingly boring, mistaking the nodding heads of dozing participants for some kind of agreement on issues.  They are invariably shocked and dismayed to find that their final output -say, a Requirements Definition document – is panned by project team and sponsor alike.

So, what are they doing wrong?

Frequently, they are not attending to the “People Stuff”.  Now, a thorough discussion of the People Stuff would take a good deal of time, and should really be the subject of its own training course.  I will just touch on a few key pieces of advice here:

1. Start working on the People Stuff during your very first discussion with the Project Sponsor.  That person has an agenda of his/her own (no, really!), you need to determine what it is, and whether it will be a barrier to success.  One of my best projects, years ago, was one that never even got started.  I determined in my initial meeting with the Sponsor that he was demanding a lot of time and money for automation which would be of minimal benefit to the organization.  I made the case for tabling the project (and I had to make the case multiple times, because he was politically influential).  I count it one of my great successes, because I actively promoted the good of the company over the pet project of one person.
2. Determine the stakeholders – ALL of them.  Any stakeholder whom you ignore will show up at the worst possible time in your project, count on it. And, a stakeholder who has been ignored can be a powerful antagonist to the success of the initiative.  A good way to identify the stakeholder is to use the ProVision Business Interaction Model. This modeler helps you to push your team through the task of identifying touch points and it provides a really useful visual for your scope-setting conference with the Sponsor.
3. Ask every stakeholder: “What does success look like to you?” Ask them to pretend that the new process has been implemented successfully, and has been operating perfectly for six months: “What are you seeing? What are the things you love about this new process?” These discussions will surface some objectives which no one has talked about yet.  If undiscovered, these desires would have been voiced only at the time of project ”go-live,” when it would be too late to address them. 
4. Push both the Sponsor and management to get some workers of all levels on the project team.  You really need the day-to-day experience of all levels in order to get clarity on what the process SHOULD do for them.  Managers will tend to define the process according to the documented policy, line workers will tell you how often they have to violate that policy just to meet the goals set by management. Your job is to surface the real process; identify the broken parts, and help your clients to design a better way of doing things. Bleasdale’s Third Axiom of Process Management:  Honor the REAL process. If it’s broken, fix it; but don’t pretend it’s working when it’s not.
5. Plan to do a lot of crowd control in your work sessions.  There is no free lunch for the Process Analyst:  you must prepare for the work session with forethought; spend a lot of time developing visuals which will elicit maximum understanding and engagement, generate a good agenda, and keep to it. Provide descriptive meeting notes and lists of “takeaways” for the team to work on for the next session.  Without these tools, your meeting will degenerate into a “venting session.”  All this preparation is very difficult, very time-consuming – and a big part of the “magic” which makes a project successful.  Incidentally, I strongly advise tag-teaming the work sessions, with at least two people working on facilitation and scribing.  It is virtually impossible for one person to facilitate AND take notes.  When the facilitator stops to document issues or questions, that lull in the action sucks all the energy out of the session.
6. Find out what individual team members like, and provide it.  If possible, get a small budget for refreshments. Keep in mind that the people staffing these projects are doing ‘extra’ work. Yes, they really have full-time jobs; and they must add these meetings, and your wearisome take-away assignments, to their already-crammed workload. This causes them to feel a bit entitled to a treat, now and then; and it is only fair for you to provide it.  If money is tight at my company, I pay for candy myself (customer service is my thing.). My clients are very appreciative of the fact that I care enough to learn their preferences, and the sugar keeps the energy level up for those long afternoon work sessions.
7. Perhaps the most important advice on the people stuff—Plan to work harder than the rest of the team. If you are running the process analysis portion of a project (or the whole initiative), you are the one who sets the tone for diligence, precision, and thoroughness. Your audience will care only as much as you do. So, you must be willing to set the standard for others to follow. And, from a pragmatic standpoint, you will not be able to hold other team members accountable unless you have demonstrated that you have gone above and beyond. 

 In trying to think of a way to synthesize it all, I remembered a conversation with a potential client a few years ago.  He wanted me to work with a group comprised of IT and Marketing folks, very cantankerous and opinionated.  He was concerned about the “volatility factor” on the team, and wanted reassurance that I could manage the personalities. He asked me, “Would you mind telling me your management style?”  I hadn’t had THAT discussion in years, and the question took me by surprise.  So I answered from the gut, but tentatively, “…I guess you’d call it:  “Mother Hen…” 

 Even as the words slipped out, I thought, “Oh, brother, this is a deal-killer for sure.”  But before I had even finished the thought, he blurted, “That’s eXACTly what we need!!!!”   

 That was an “Aha!” moment for me, as I came face-to-face with my own philosophy about The People Stuff, something I had never articulated before.  And, if you think about it, it’s really not a bad paradigm.  The mother hen clearly cares about her wayward charges, but she’s not going to be a pushover.  She constantly watches their progress, intervening when necessary to keep order.  She bothers them, and bothers them some more, until she achieves the desired result. She doesn’t harm them, but she doesn’t let them deviate from the chosen path either.

So, if you are your project’s Mother Hen, look at it this way: You may bruise ‘em a little bit – but you’ll keep ‘em all alive; you’ll all get where you are going; and you won’t inflict any lasting damage.  Not bad, as management styles go.

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

Pat Bleasdale is an AVP with Wilmington Trust, a financial services company in Delaware.  She is a veteran Business Process and IT professional, with extensive experience in management consulting.  She has been actively involved in process analysis and business transformation since the 1990s.  Her background spans multiple industries, in sectors as diverse as Financial Services and Manufacturing; and her clients have included Fortune 100 firms, as well as small and mid-sized companies.  In 2006, Pat joined Wilmington Trust as the Company’s Business Process Specialist, charged with developing and deploying a BPM framework, a process engineering methodology, and best practices throughout the organization. 

 Pat holds B.S., M.A., and PhD degrees.  In the 1980s, she coined what has become Bleasdale’s First Axiom of Process Management:  ‘Never automate a mess.’

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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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A recent report by industry analyst firm, Gartner, positions Metastorm as one of the top business process analysis (BPA) vendors in the world. The Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Business Process Analysis Tools” report positions Metastorm ProVision for BPA as a leader in the business process analysis space, and explains several key differentiators for Metastorm.

The report states that “based on Gartner customer feedback, Metastorm has one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the BPA market.” It also recognizes Metastorm for its ease of use and process discovery capabilities, its pre-built connector to SAP, and its integrated market-leading EA and BPM capabilities.

Metastorm also recently released the newest version of its enterprise modeling, business architecture, and business process analysis tool – Metastorm ProVision Version 6.2. Key features of the new release include support for the latest modeling standards, improved ease of use, and extended support for enterprise collaboration, which includes sharing and reuse of models, objects and libraries, as well as enablers for Process Centers of Excellence.

Bill Aronson, founder of the Enterprise Designer Institute, has even authored a fully-illustrated, third party book entitled Metastorm ProVision Version 6.2 Made Easy, in which he shares tips and tricks about the newest release. To learn more visit Bill’s storefront.

For expert advice and instruction on Metastorm ProVision, we currently have several upcoming, hands on Metastorm ProVision training courses. These are offered in person in the United States and the United Kingdom, or via WebEx where they can be accessed from around the world.

And don’t miss our EA and our BPA boot camps. Both will be held in Baltimore, Maryland from May 20th-21st, 2010.

Still wondering what all the buzz is about? Visit our website to request a trial version of Metastorm ProVision (registration required), and see for yourself why industry analysts rank Metastorm ProVision as a leading tool for Enterprise Architecture and Business Process Modeling and Analysis.

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En route home from one of my latest trips, I received an email asking me to write a blog post about business process improvement projects.

As I sat on the airplane, and the pilot announced that we were next for takeoff, I thought, “This is all going just as planned. The process is working great, and in a few hours I will be home after a week of traveling.”

That’s when the engine and plane stopped. What had gone wrong?

Well, planning is the answer. The air traffic control out of Atlanta had stopped us on the taxiway because of some sort of congestion. Although there was undoubtedly a plan for us to take off at a certain time, some other factor had disrupted it.

That is when I started to think about how, to any business process improvement project, proper planning is just as important as process discovery. Planning out your work, goals, participants, and time helps tremendously in the entire process. And, just like the plane trip home, planning does not mean that there won’t be any turbulence or disruptions during the flight.

In fact, planning will help you be prepared for the turbulence.

The same way the airlines tell you to buckle up – there is some rough air ahead! – proper planning helps move you and your team members along your process modeling and improvement efforts, and helps you overcome and continue to move forward even if you do face turbulence.

So often we are having a pain in a particular area and just jump into buying, fixing, or even changing the business process and technology without properly planning or asking the important questions first. What solution do we need, and how will we use it? What solution best enables us to understand and improve our business processes and subsequently execute improved processes? How can we make use of our existing technologies, and does this solution aid us in doing so?

If you don’t take the time to plan properly, your team may initially be successful in spite of itself, which in turn creates a false sense that your success can be repeated again and again without “wasting time” to plan out your work. I have seen this attitude fail at the most inconvenient time – when things are the most critical to the business.

So, where do you start planning? This goes back to an acronym that I live by, and that is KISS, or Keep It Simple, Silly – or any other way that you have heard is stated. There are two simple questions that you need to answer:

1. Why are you starting the project? Without this simple, two line mantra you will wander all over the place never knowing whether or not you are headed toward the Promised Land.

2. What is the end objective? What I mean by that is – get an agreement or understanding from the project sponsors of what the definition of success is to them.

So, by now you will know where you are going, and how to recognize when you get there. But between Alpha and Omega, or the beginning and the end, there is something in between, and a time box that you should identify. Identifying key dates and milestones will help to ensure that the tasks are going according to plan. This allows for a redirection of resources if the milestones are not being met.

Finally, time box your entire effort. Analysis is integral, but make sure you avoid Analysis Paralysis by ensuring you keep it on a schedule, and that the project continues to move forward. Keeping things to a shorter time frame motivates the team to get things done – this prevents you from falling victim to the dreaded “never-ending project.”

To conclude I want to reiterate the high importance of planning your project out. Keeping things time boxed, and keeping your goals in mind will help to ensure a successful project. And don’t forget, keeping your sanity during the entire process should be one of your goals too.

Happy planning and Good Luck!

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

Brian Chaney is the Director of IT Strategy & Architecture at Copper River IT where he is responsible for Enterprise Architecture, BPM development, CMMI compliance and other process-centered areas. Brian has guided Six Sigma projects, more than 50 Enterprise Architecture initiatives, and successfully completed the life-cycle of Six Sigma and Enterprise Architecture into BPM.

Brian is a Six Sigma Black Belt with a proven track record of structuring and implementing projects that yield measurable results including reduced customer wait time, productivity gains through multiple change and improvement initiatives, and cost savings.

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In this blog post, I will draw parallels to Metastorm’s “Get Lean for 2010” program with the goal of helping organizations that find themselves stuck at certain points in a process improvement initiative to get themselves back on track and avoid failure. The article describes three phases of a typical process-improvement project:

Stretching Phase- Those involved are flexible, open to change and have the proper level of support to guide their focus.

As during the initial success of a weight-loss program, at this point in the initiative the team is focused on what is important and necessary for the greater success of the project. With the support and insight of the improvement expert, the team sees significant results.

Yielding Phase- With the project being deemed a success in initial results, the team loses their process-improvement expert and champion to other projects. The team begins to struggle, finding it difficult to match the success of their earlier achievements.

As enthusiasm for the project begins to fail, morale suffers and everyone begins to return to their old ways of executing processes  – just as we so often give up on our weight loss or fitness goals and surrender to our old lifestyles.

Failing Phase- At this point the team questions the purpose of the project. After all, they aren’t experiencing any real benefit from their efforts. As enthusiasm for the project hits an all-time low, nobody steps up to reinvigorate the failing initiative, and everyone ultimately reverts back to their previous level of productivity.

Now, and only now, the executive level is informed that the process-improvement project has been an utter failure. In the weight loss paradigm, we just gain our old weight back and are really no better off for our efforts.

I think the reason that many process-improvement initiatives, like weight loss initiatives, fall into a pattern of destruction is because they are viewed in the wrong light. The true benefit of any process improvement project should be the overall enhanced health of the organization. When you look at the project this way, and provide it with the proper amount of support that it truly needs and remain committed – even after that the initial excitement wanes –you will achieve success.

Technology solutions like Metastorm’s software suite of business process management (BPM), business process analysis (BPA) and enterprise architecture (EA) can be the support that your project needs to keep it focused while enabling your organization to holistically model and analyze, tweak and perfect, and execute more agile, productive and streamlined processes – allowing your organization to turbo-charge its process-improvement initiatives and providing complete visibility into the project.

Having the right technology and tools in place to monitor progress and make process improvements easier helps. BPA tools help you identify your “fattest” processes – giving you the right focus. BPM software gives you the foundation you need to generate efficiencies, track results, and fine tune activities to achieve the desired outcome – and most importantly to maintain it long term.

Learn more about how you can shed fat from your business processes here.

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Once, while at the breakfast table in yet another hotel, in yet again another part of the world, I thought about reliability and the human factor:

My waiter was slow.

While sitting there, two words came to mind – dedication and commitment. How strange that two things so simple get to be so complex.

At the very moment my food arrived, a thought sprang to mind—the chicken and the pig. 

Staring at me trusty bacon and eggs I realized that this chicken and this pig are my dedication and my commitment.

You see, as it happens to be – the chicken was dedicated – it contributed to my breakfast.

Albeit, I certainly appreciated and enjoyed the fruits of her dedication, and she certainly has to endure the pressures of life to produce – she will still do so day for every single day of the rest of her life.

She, however, did not give her whole self – she didn’t make a commitment.

The pig on the other hand, is fully committed. He contributed to my breakfast every fiber in his body so to speak. He gave his all.

You see, dedication is only a half effort. Commitment is investing every fiber of yourself, and settling for nothing but one hundred percent.

In the business world this is the same.

Some companies and their people are dedicated and do well. They consistently maintain steady growth, explore other areas, and generally keep their shareholders and clients happy.

Then you have the few that stand out above the rest. Those fully committed companies. The ones that do not grow “on average” – they dominate the market. These are organizations that are committed. They give their all, and in return, their success is unmatched.

And strangely – a study published in last year’s Harvard Business Review examined these very same, top global companies – the clear differentiator to their success is the management of business processes. Almost 90% of all companies surveyed live and preach process management. They are dedicated to it.  They live by it!

So my message – Be the new normal.  Be processed.

As I run out of thought – I hear my neighbor’s cat. Since he is on holiday he asked me to feed the thing…

Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Nice kitty.

 – Francois Potgieter (Bytes Technology Group)

===========================
Francois Potgieter is the Business Unit Manager at Bytes Technology Group where he is responsible for the Enterprise Information Management solutions (EIM). The business unit focuses on business process management (BPM), document management and general EA consulting. Francois is based out of Johannesburg, South Africa.

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Of course this new, unwavering display of willpower and drive usually lasts until around March when gym attendance slowly trickles back to its normal, pre-resolution-season numbers. But there are always those dedicated few who come out on top – leaner, more agile and energized, and of course, healthier and more resilient than ever before.

A recent Financial Times post outlines ways that we can increase our chances of being successful with our fitness resolutions – one being to enlist a personal trainer. Another important element to a successful resolution season (and beyond!) is of course, to evaluate the way we treat our bodies – Are we drinking enough water? Are we wasting calories on poor food choices? Are we getting enough sleep, or spending too much time watching television?

This really comes down to one essential question— Are we allocating our time and resources to ensure that our bodies are running at optimal efficiency?

A few months ago I explained that businesses are just like the human body – living, growing and continually changing. So shouldn’t you pay attention to how you allocate your time and resources within your organization? Just like your body, your business can also get Lean to become more agile and productive, and healthier and more resilient than ever!

Set a fitness resolution for your business in the New Year, and let us be your personal trainer! You can fast track your efforts to get Lean in 2010 with help from Metastorm’s Enterprise Architecture and Business Process Management software. Using Metastorm as your platform for getting Lean will enable you to:

• Analyze your operations and infrastructure to identify underutilized resources,
• Run process scenarios to figure out how to accelerate cycle times and improve results,
• Identify where time is wasted and improve on those business processes,
• Automate processes to increase efficiency, save money, and become more agile – do more with less, and
• Give your employees a toolset that will make them more productive from Day One.

With Metastorm’s help your organization can lose the ‘fat,’ accelerate results and rev up the corporate metabolism!

Want to know more about your organization’s connection to the human body? Read this recent article by Laura Mooney, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Metastorm.

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Well, one can hope anyways.

Nonetheless, this year’s “winners” certainly faced some serious competition.

My favorite moment on Fortune’s list is number 18- Anthony Armatys being paid a six-figure salary for five years for a job that he didn’t even have (somewhat similar to the character Milton in the movie Office Space).

But seriously—this kind of stuff happens in real life! Although both of the salary mishaps are grotesque examples, costly oversights on a smaller scale happen every day. Added up, these can cause some serious problems—squandered resources, lack of visibility and inefficiency are wasteful at best and disastrous at worse (think about the banking crisis—if banks had a little more visibility it could have played out much differently).

So what can we learn from history to avoid repeating it? If you don’t have visibility and control over your simplest processes (payroll for example) then you could be in for some serious problems.

This is yet another reason why CIOs have made business process management (BPM) a top priority for 2010—BPM enables businesses to optimize their processes for increased agility while providing visibility into who is doing what and how resources are being managed—fostering accountability and control.

Who knows? With the functionality provided by BPM you could have one of the smartest moments in business in 2010—a much more admirable achievement.

Learn how one Metastorm customer used Metastorm BPM® to increase visibility, accountability and control across the organization while achieving greater enterprise agility and efficiency.

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Coinciding with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, IDC released a buzz-generating report that found that 5.8 billion tons of CO2 emissions could be eliminated by 2020 with the help of certain green technologies.

The report examined four major economic sectors including the transport sector, which, according to the findings, needs to focus on supply chain logistics and private transport optimization for emissions reductions, and placed IT investments that enhance supply chain logistics among the most important to CO2 emissions reduction within this sector.

Streamlining supply chains is more than just a green initiative, however. In the new normal economy, technology is making the world smaller while greatly increasing the scope of business operations. Organizations who invest in IT to achieve the most agile and cost and resource effective supply chain will realize exponential ROI to outperform their competition.

Emphasizing this importance, respondents in another recent report Greater Innovation through Closer Collaboration said that it is critical for their corporation to respond to “competitive pressures to improve productivity and performance and customer demands for greater speed and visibility into supply and delivery chains” in order for them to survive in today’s fast-paced global marketplace.

The good news is that innovative technology solutions like business process management (BPM), business process analysis (BPA) and enterprise architecture (EA) can help you holistically model and analyze your supply chain and your entire enterprise, test the effects of potential change, and then execute leaner, meaner, and yes, even greener processes across your organization to achieve overall enterprise optimization by eliminating waste and accelerating performance.

Want to know more?

Metastorm’s complimentary eBook Green BPM- The Best Kept Secret for Meeting Your Company’s Green Mandates explains how BPM can help organizations:

• Reduce paper consumption,
• Reduce fuel and transport costs,
• And, of course achieve greater efficiency in their manufacturing and supply chain processes.

This eBook is absolutely a must-read whether you are looking to purify your enterprise for greater business value, to go green, or both!

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The Metastorm Enterprise Process Advantage Awards program is designed to recognize organizations that are successfully using Metastorm software to realize business objectives, achieve a measurable return on investment, and/or create strategic advantage.

Why Enter?

Winners receive a free pass to the 2011 Metastorm Global User Conference, and will be invited to participate in a thought leadership panel session to help other Metastorm customers learn valuable tips for achieving success.

Winners will also be recognized at the Metastorm Global User Conference and featured both on Metastorm’s website and in a press release that will be sent to technology and business publications.

As a recipient of a Metastorm Enterprise Process Advantage award your organization will gain recognition as a technology leader and a business improvement leader in its industry. You will also gain recognition for your innovative use of technology and your success within your own organization to help in further extending the value of EA, BPA, and BPM to other areas of the business.

So why wait? It’s easy to nominate your customer or your own organization today!

Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your success!

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Prior to working with Metastorm, one NBA team’s manual scouting system required multiple scouts to watch potential players while completing paper forms to rate their skill set. Next the forms were aggregated for each player, reviewed and ultimately used to create a list of players to be targeted during the NBA draft.

Not only inefficient, this system often led to inaccurate player data, inconsistency in rating between scouts, incomplete reports and a lack of structure when comparing players.

To solve these problems, the team’s general manager enlisted Metastorm to automate the scouting process with Metastorm BPM®—creating online player profiles and enforcing a consistent ratings scheme. Scouts are now able to better collaborate and share evaluation data in near real-time and management can pool different player ratings from multiple scouts and make evaluations based on a single, standardized score.

Metastorm’s unique process client for Microsoft Outlook improved the team’s ability to prepare for the draft – allowing scouts to run reports on top picks and automatically generate a “Player Brochure” on every player. These Player Brochures could be downloaded to a laptop or printed, so that all information on a player is organized and at hand on draft day.

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July webinars include:

Achieving Total Governance through Continuous HR Processes
Thursday, July 9, 2009
11:00am EDT/ 8:00am PDT / 4:00pm BST

In today’s economic landscape, organizations are being pressured to reduce costs, while continuing to maintain intra and cross functional operability. This includes corporate Human Resources (HR) which is being challenged to streamline personnel management and development practices, while aligning human capital with business goals. Come learn how an organization can optimize its HR processes and instill total HR governance through the implementation of an end-to-end HR process management solution.

To register, click here.

When Data, Process, and Legacy Systems Collide: Real BPM
Thursday, July 23, 2009
11:00am EDT/ 8:00am PDT / 4:00pm BST

Many IT solutions have been developed to address demand for unobstructed access to information collaboration that also enables speed and malleability. This webinar will show the collaborative power of enterprise process modeling including ways it repurposes business rules and shares information across vast data sizes and technology platforms. Learn how the visual workspace of modeling has become the killer application to marry the interests of business and IT.

To register, click here.

If you are looking for more information, Metastorm also offers an extensive library of onDemand Webcasts. Please let us know if you have any feedback or questions.

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The article titled, “How to Use Business Process Management and Enterprise Architecture Tools to Thrive in a Recession,” first outlines four ways BPM software can allow for cost savings. BPM software can:

• Increase efficiency
• Maximize current resources
• Lower risk
• Gain greater visibility into dead weight

While an EA software tool can help organizations evaluate and make critical infrastructure decisions that can dramatically reduce fixed-cost expenditures and ensure that any reductions are the right reductions to make. EA software can:

• Identify duplicate or underutilized overhead
• Optimize your value chain
• Quickly and effectively assimilate mergers and acquisitions

Investing in these types of tools will ensure that you are well-positioned when the economy rebounds.

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Over 400 end users from both business and IT responded to the survey, which was distributed to Metastorm’s global customer base.

On the morning of April 28th (EDT), we’ll post an exclusive sneak preview of the survey results on the Because Process Matters blog! Be sure to subscribe to the blog via email or check back on Tuesday to review the results before they are announced via press release to the rest of the world on Wednesday.

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