MAY 2011 / VOL. 2 / N0. 2 BPM E-ZINE ASSESS FOR SUCCESS: MEASURING BPM’S BENEFITS We’ve all heard variations on the classic business caveat that you can’t manage—or improve—what you don’t mea- sure. Nowhere is that more true than in BPM. This issue of ebizQ’s BPM Quarterly offers tried-and-true best practices for accurately gauging the progress of any BPM effort. Also inside: expert advice for cutting the complexity out of BPM and for integrating BPM into all-important customer relation- ship management processes. And, as always, the BPM Digest offers a variety of tips, insights and resources. Read on! —ANNE STUART, Editor 3 BPM DIGEST 7 BPM METRICS: TO REAP BPM’S BENEFITS, MEASURE ITS RESULTS 11 KEEP IT SIMPLE: TIPS FOR CUTTING THE COMPLEXITY OUT OF BPM 15 BETTER TOGETHER: BPM & CRM quarterly BPM QUARTERLY E-ZINE • WWW.EBIZQ.COM 1
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M A Y 2 0 1 1 / V O L . 2 / N 0 . 2
BPME-ZINE
ASSESS FOR SUCCESS: MEASURING BPM’S BENEFITSWe’ve all heard variations on the classic business caveat
that you can’t manage—or improve—what you don’t mea-
sure. Nowhere is that more true than in BPM. This issue of
ebizQ’s BPM Quarterly offers tried-and-true best practices
for accurately gauging the progress of any BPM effort. Also
inside: expert advice for cutting the complexity out of BPM
and for integrating BPM into all-important customer relation-
ship management processes. And, as always, the BPM Digest
offers a variety of tips, insights and resources. Read on!
—ANNE STUART, Editor
3BPM DIGEST
7BPM METRICS:
TO REAP
BPM’S BENEFITS,
MEASURE ITS
RESULTS
11KEEP IT SIMPLE:
TIPS FOR CUTTING
THE COMPLEXITY
OUT OF BPM
15BETTER
TOGETHER:
BPM & CRM
quarterly
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A data visualization of emergency incidents in Madrid between 2009 and 2010
To put emergency responders on the scene as quickly as possible, you need more than fast cars and good radios. You need to orchestrate absolutely everything about the organization, synching not just the people from the different agencies—fire, ambulance, police and traffic agents—but all the processes and technology that serve them as well. The city of Madrid did just that—with help from an IBM business process management solution that integrates the disparate applications, data and processes of its different agencies. Since implementing this solution, the city has reduced Madrid’s emergency response time by 25%.
A smarter city is built on smarter software, systems and services.Let’s build a smarter planet. ibm.com/response
Smarter business for a Smarter Planet:
Making the fastest people in the city of Madrid 25% faster.
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IN TODAY’S rapidly changing busi-ness environment, taking a system-atic approach to decision-making ismore important than ever, accordingto research from IDC. “Convergence of intelligent
devices, social networking, perva-sive broadband networking and ana-lytics is ushering in a new economicsystem that is refining relationshipsamong producers, distributors andconsumers,” IDC analysts say in arecent report. The resulting flood of new data,
ever-faster cycle time and growingadoption of analytics are all increas-ing awareness about the importanceof decision management, the ana-lysts say: “There is both a need and
an opportunity to change how decisions are made to harness these new circumstances to achieveadvantage in the market.” What’s behind the emphasis on
effective decision-making? “Enter-prises succeed or fail based on thedecisions made by executives,”points out Maureen Fleming, pro-gram vice president of IDC’s BPMand middleware research. “Theycompete effectively or lose marketshare based on the operational deci-sions made by their managers. Andthey are more or less profitablebased on the day-to-day decisionsof the various knowledge and lineworkers who make up most of theworkforce.” In today’s constantly changing
“intelligent economy,” companiesneed greater visibility into the inter-nal and external processes underly-ing those decisions. As a result, IDCsays, smart organizations are begin-ning to understand the need to shift
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Digestbpm
from “the art of the decision” to “thescience of the decision”—a manage-ment science that’s increasinglysupported by technology.That, in turn, is driving demand
for decision management solutions,including project-based and trans-actional decision management com-ponents, applications and platforms. How much demand? IDC projects
that the overall market for decisionmanagement solutions, which wasabout $5.2 billion in 2009, will reach$10.8 billion by 2014, a compoundannual growth rate (CAGR) of near-ly 16%. Breaking that down, IDCexpects that by 2014:
� Decision management compo-nents will grow to $6.2 billion.
� Decision management applica-tions will grow to $3.8 billion.
� Decision management platforms,which are starting from a smallbase, will grow to $834 million.
Meanwhile, IDC expects decisionmanagement software to play anincreasingly important role in a vari-ety of arenas: “It can have a pro-found impact on creating competi-tive advantage in commercialtransactions, enabling sustainablemanagement of communities andpromoting appropriate distributionof social, health care and education-al services.” —ANNE STUART
For information on obtaining the full report, “Worldwide Decision Management Software 2010-2014: A Fast-Growing Opportunity to Drivethe Intelligent Economy,” visitwww.idc.com.
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SOURCE: GARTNER INC.
Rapid growth for use of business process models
Gartner Inc. projects that the use of comprehensive business process models will grow rapidly among business managers
Sidesteppingtwo common BPM suite traps ALL TOO OFTEN, companies invest inBPM suites that help them rack upsome initial successes, but ultimate-ly leave many initiatives in danger of stagnation or flaming out, accord-ing to a recent Forrester Researchreport. “To avoid BPM flameout, business
process professionals should be-ware of the two most common pit-falls of BPM suite initiatives,” SeniorAnalyst Clay Richardson warns inthe report, “Forrester’s Best Prac-tices Framework for BPM Suites.” He identifies those two problemareas as:
1 Lack of a strategic focus on business value. Many compa-
nies have grand plans for becoming“process-oriented,” but haven’tdeveloped concrete blueprints fortransforming that vision into reality.In many cases, they haven’t ade-quately addressed stakeholder con-cerns or potential constraints ontime, money and other resources.“Implementing a BPM suite shouldbe tightly linked to business goals,be focused on customer outcomesand clearly identify the methodolo-gy and constituents that will beaffected,” Richardson writes.
2 Lack of attention to structur-al and political issues. Some-
times, BPM suite initiatives degen-erate into “technology-centricprojects aimed at basic processautomation, without any thought ofcontinuous process improvement,”Richardson says. Such projects maywell result in cost savings, but theirsheer scope and complexity blurstheir ultimate value. Meanwhile,that complexity, combined with thelack of clear objectives, shift thefocus away from the important workof process redesign.
“A BPM suite’s potential lies notin technology itself, but instead inusing technology alongside an in-depth understanding of the mission-critical cross-functional business todrive continuous improvement andprocess transformation,” Richardsonsays. “The most effective BPM suiteinitiatives frame success by theiroverall impact across the organiza-tion and core business processes—but they’re implemented in focusedincremental steps.”—A.S.
For more information, or to order thereport, visit www.forrester.com.
In many cases, companies haven’t adequately addressedstakeholder concerns.
“Case management has a very strong effecton your ability to innovate and to create personality around the experience that acompany provides. It also gives much morecontrol and standardization of processes that traditionally have been very, veryunstructured.”
—CRAIG LE CLAIR, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
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SOURCE: “THE BPTRENDS SURVEY REPORT: THE STATE OF BPM 2010.” THE FULL REPORT IS AVAILABLE AT WWW.BPTRENDS.COM.
BPM spending prevails Spending on BPM remains strong even in tough times, according to
a BPTrends survey of 264 business and IT professionals. Asked whether the sluggish economy had affected their BPM projects, respondents replied:
34%We didn’t cutback our BPM
spending
29%We cut back,
but have continued
BPM efforts
12%We cut back
sharply, but arenow beginning
to becomeactive again
8%Other
7%We cut backbut are nowbeginning toaccelerateagain
EXPERTS AGREE: The objective of abusiness process management pro-gram is continuous improvement.But as the old business adage goes,you can’t manage—or improve—what you don’t measure. John Dixon, a Gartner Inc. research
director, sums up the matter thisway: “BPM without metrics is just a shot in the dark.” In fact, accurate,relevant metrics are becoming in-creasingly important to companiesseeking to make smarter, more agilebusiness decisions. By the end of2013, he predicts, “50% of all firmswill embrace end-to-end perform-ance metrics or lose their sense ofcontrol and become less competitive.”Gauging a BPM program’s suc-
cess begins with a formal strategy,which should strive to benefit thewhole organization, not just thebusiness units involved. “Manytimes, people will implement BPMwithin their department, and they
make some improvements withinthe department. But those improve-ments get lost when you look at thebottom line,” says Lisa W. Hersh-man, CEO of Hammer and Compa-ny, a business process educationand research firm. Those diluted benefits make it
difficult for executives to see theresults of—or value in—a BPM ini-tiative, and they may lead to ques-tions about investments in bothpeople and technology. For thosereasons, formal efforts to measureBPM success must cross depart-ment boundaries, just as end-to-endprocesses do.
ESTABLISHING A BASELINEThe first step in developing a strate-gy for BPM metrics is understandingthe current state processes thatyou’re considering changing. “Acommon mistake is not creating a
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BPM metrics: To reapBPM’s benefits, measure its resultsThe best way to win support for future BPM initiatives: quantify the achievements of current and past projects. Here’s authoritative advice for tackling that task. BY CRYSTAL BEDELL
baseline” for existing processes,says Hershman, also co-author of“Faster Cheaper Better: The 9 Leversfor Transforming How Work GetsDone” (Crown Business, 2010).“People get so excited and jumpright into it,” she says. “Take thetime to understand the current statebefore you start designing to thefuture state.” Without a defined baseline, it’s
tough for an organization to quantifyprocess improvements. Stakeholdersinvolved with a given process maybe able to attest that it’s more effi-cient, more effective or otherwisebetter than before—but there’s noreliable way to provide that to deci-sion-makers. Not having a clear cur-rent-state picture also makes it moredifficult to decide about futureimprovements.“Too often, what we see is that
the organization can agree what theproblem is—the process is ineffi-cient—but how are they measuringefficiency? Where is it today, andwhat would be an improvement?”says Gartner Vice President andDistinguished Analyst Janelle B. Hill.“If that’s not clear to everybody atthe beginning, they struggle to makeproposed changes.”
DEFINING SUCCESSOnce you’ve established a baseline,you can determine what constitutessuccess. “Know up front what theprocess improvement is that the or-
ganization wants,” advises Hill. Thatinvolves setting clear definitions andgoals for improvements, such asshorter cycle time, higher through-put or increased productivity.But don’t limit your BPM program
to operational improvements; thinkabout using it to build business aswell. Says Hershman: “It’s not justabout cost-cutting and efficiencies.It’s about growth, being easier to dobusiness with, and focusing on thecustomer. A BPM program can real-ly help enable business results.” Once you know where you’re
starting from and where you’reheaded, you can measure improve-ments. Metrics vary based on theprocess involved, but Gartner’s Dixonsays that following a few generalguidelines can help ensure accurateassessment for a variety of differentprojects (see accompanying article,“BPM metrics: 7 best practices”).
DOING THE JOB RIGHT Meanwhile, here are a few otherexperience-based tips for gaugingthe success of your BPM programsand initiatives:
� Measure selectively. When itcomes to determining what toassess, Hershman cautions againstthe temptation to measure every-thing. “If you measure too manythings, you’ll only focus on thoseyou can hit,” she says.
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(Continued on page 10)
BPM metrics: 7 best practices GARTNER ANALYST John Dixon has a simple formula for why it’s important to gaugethe success of BPM efforts: “No measures = No results = No justification.” And ulti-mately: “No sustained improvement.” In other words, if you can’t quantify the results of your BPM projects, you’re un-
likely to reap long-term benefits from them—or gain support for future initiatives. At a recent international Gartner BPM Summit, Dixon offered the following best
practices for applying metrics to just about any BPM undertaking:
1. FOCUS ON OUTCOMES Measure results delivered, not steps taken. Iden-tify the most-valuable contributions. Make sure that all stakeholders concur on thedefinition of a good outcome.
2. LIMIT THE NUMBER OF MEASURES “Focus. Don’t scatter your ef-forts,” Dixon says. “Concentrate on the measures with the greatest impact.” What’sthe right number? He recommends using just two or three.
3. SET CLEAR, SPECIFIC GOALS For instance, rather than saying “im-proved customer service,” set a specific goal and a timeline for meeting it. Makesure everyone understands these objectives.
4. MEASURE CURRENT PERFORMANCE It’s hard to prove how faryou’ve come without knowing where you started. Establish an accurate, relevantbaseline.
5. LINK METRICS TO STRATEGIES Show how BPM efforts align withbusiness strategies and help meet high-level organizational goals.
6. LOOK AHEAD, NOT JUST BACK “Metrics that predict results that youcan leverage by timely action are better than recording history,” Dixon says. Specifi-cally, watch for economic, competitive or market behavior that might prompt aquick course change.
7. MAKE METRICS VISIBLE AND ACCESSIBLE Metrics can motivatepeople—but only when they can see or find them. Expect some initial reluctance tochange, Dixon warns, but keep in mind that being able to demonstrate positive re-sults goes a long way toward gaining acceptance. —ANNE STUART
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Instead, aim to strike a balancebetween business metrics and cus-tomer metrics. “When I go intocompanies, things are put intofinancial terms, but rarely put interms of the customer,” Hershmansays. Organizations should to learnto balance “the voice of the busi-ness” with “the voice of the cus-tomer,” she says. To do that, she recommends considering these twocritical questions: “What do weneed to do to stay afloat financially,and what do our customers careabout?”
� Use the right metrics. Hill pointsout that process performance meas-ures (PPMs) are different from tra-ditional key performance indicators(KPIs). “A lot of our clients haveKPIs that measure task-level per-formance”—for instance, how manywidgets were produced, she says.“But those aren’t process perform-ance measures. Most PPMs arerate-oriented. A rate or percentagegives the process view,” sheexplains. So rather than saying howmany widgets the company pro-duced, a PPM indicates how manymore widgets were produced in thesame amount of time.
� Keep the effort going. MeasuringBPM success doesn’t just end whenthe metrics you collect align withthe goals you established months or
years earlier. In fact, it’s often justthe beginning.“That’s a bit of a problem—orga-
nizations thinking they’ve achievedsuccess and don’t need to keepgoing. Success suggests that it ends:You’ve achieved something andyou’re done,” says Hill. “But maturityis an ongoing concept.” The more mature a company’s
BPM program, the more ingrained itgets in the organizational culture.Eventually, continuous processimprovement becomes a way of life.“Companies that are mature seethis as an ongoing effort,” Hill says. The organizations with the most
successful BPM programs continu-ally revisit their processes to deter-mine whether they should bechanged. “There is no one perfectway of doing any process for anyorganization so that if you get itright now, you can continue doing itthat exact way for the next 10 or 20years,” Hill says. “You need to con-stantly monitor your processes toensure that they are appropriate foryour current circumstances.” The payoff? Serious competitive
advantage. “Companies that do thisare not only catching up with thecompetition but innovating beyondthe competition,” says Hershman.“You see it in their processes.” �
Crystal Bedell is an award-winning freelancewriter who specializes in covering technology. She can be reached at [email protected].
THERE IS A rich irony in the fact that BPM initiatives, which are typi-cally intended to streamline a com-pany’s activities, can themselvesend up unwieldy, unfocused or over-complicated. Indeed, BPM initiatives have a
natural tendency to expand. “Theycan start small, but as people seewhat is happening, they tend togrow in scope and complexity,” saysindependent BPM consultant SandyKemsley of Kemsley Design.
TYPES OF COMPLEXITYShe describes two aspects of com-plexity: one political and cultural;the other technical. “Keeping it simple culturally and
politically is important so that youdon’t get involved with areas youshouldn’t and don’t let the scopegrow,” she says. For example, a teamlaunching a BPM initiative may find
similar efforts, such as Six Sigmagroups or other process-improve-ment projects, underway elsewherein the company. That raises a natu-ral question: Should you combine
that new initiative with the otherefforts, or even just link to them?Kemsley’s answer: Probably not atfirst. “Eventually, you probably dowant to do that, but you might not
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Keep it simple: Tips for cutting thecomplexity out of BPM Business process management is often a massive undertaking—but that doesn’t mean it has to be a tangled mess. Here’s how to keep your BPM initiatives from mushrooming out of control. BY ALAN EARLS
“Keeping it simple is important so that you don’t get involved withareas you shouldn’tand don’t let thescope grow.”—SANDY KEMSLEY, Analyst and Consultant,Kemsley Design
5 tips for streamlining BPM initiatives
FOLLOWING IS EXPERT advice to help simplify your BPM initiatives and improve yourchances for success:
1. LET BUSINESS LEAD THE CHARGE The best BPM initiatives areprocess-driven, with business taking the leading role, says Forrester Research ana-lyst Craig Le Clair. If business doesn’t engage and shape the project from the get-go,it’s likely to result in false starts and changes in direction.
2. PROVIDE THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT Be sure your organization hasthe right level of process maturity and a culture of change that will support success-ful BPM simplification, says Le Clair. “Process maturity will help identify the bestprocesses to focus on and the right way to do it—and thus make it simpler to imple-ment BPM,” he says.
3. KEEP STAKEHOLDERS SMILING If those involved don’t feel goodabout the effort, that can complicate matters as well. Proper change management—for instance, clearly communicating how a process change will affect participants’work lives—will go a long way toward ensuring positive attitudes—and removingpossible barriers.
4. BE FLEXIBLE, BUT HAVE A PLAN BPM is naturally agile. It lends itselfto a spiral project approach, where you do a bit, then validate, and then do a bitmore. But if you do that without a framework and an idea of the end state, accordingto Nathaniel Palmer of the Workflow Management Coalition, “scope creep becomesinevitable—and also hard to identify until it’s too late.”
5. CREATE A COMMON LANGUAGEAmong the most basic issues for con-trolling a BPM project is coming up with an agreement about terminology. Takingthat step ensures that you’re describing things not only in a consistent way but withconsistent meaning. It’s easy—and all too common—for organizations to thinkthey’re moving toward a common goal, only to discover fundamentally differentpoints of view that can send them all the way back to the drawing board. —A.E.
want to burden a BPM project that’sjust starting out with those addi-tional things,” she says.
On the other hand, you don’t wantto totally isolate your BPM effort.That’s an excellent argument for
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establishing a BPM competencycenter or center of excellence—aplace to share BPM knowledge,skills and resources throughout theenterprise.
You can also get too complex withtechnology. Kemsley says the prob-lem often begins when customerssee a vendor demo that emphasizesall the bells and whistles of a BPMsolution. Then, instead of using theproduct in its basic out-of-the-boxform, they get seduced by visions of the many sophisticated ways it could be applied. “They end upturning it into a high-end graphicalapplication development tool andwrite a huge amount of complexcustomization,” she says. That, in
turn, complicates the constantchange and fine-tuning that areinherent in BPM, and in the result-ing work. “Typically, you’ll get somefeature in place that seems to makesense, but then when you see how it works, you’ll want to change italmost immediately,” Kemsley says.Instead, Kemsley recommends,
adopt as much of the out-of-the-boxfunctionality as possible for yourfirst BPM iteration. Then, after peo-ple have begun using the solution,you can consider customizing it,integrating it with other systems ordeveloping specialized user inter-faces for it.“It isn’t like you will go into pro-
duction with zero coding. That is afantasy,” Kemsley says. “But youshould be able to do something use-ful with minimum customization.”The goal is trying to keep the tech-nology as simple as possible upfront, letting the complexity growwith your needs.
KEEPING ON TRACK Complexity can afflict small BPMprojects as well as large ones, notesNathaniel Palmer, executive directorof the Workflow Management Co-alition, an industry group. For thatreason, he says, BPM projects of anysize need specific components tokeep them trim and on track, includ-ing clear governance, regular mile-stones for measuring progress and asolid communication plan. They also
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Complexity can afflict small BPMprojects as well as large ones. Forthat reason, BPMprojects of any size need specificcomponents to staytrim and on track,including cleargovernance, regu-lar milestones formeasuring progressand a solid commu-nication plan.
need well-established patterns forhow work will be done and how theprocess and workflow will be identi-fied, captured, and turned into anend state.Another reason BPM projects get
too complicated, in Palmer’s view:Thanks to the availability of fourth-generation language (4GL) capabili-ties, it’s now possible for just aboutanybody to, in effect, become a pro-grammer. “It’s easier for people toprovide direct input and even con-tribute models and business rules,”he says. In many ways, that’s a positive
development because it “shortensthe loop,” reducing or removing theneed for interpretation and transla-tion. Still, the idea of all those differ-ent chefs adding their own ingredi-ents to the mix helps explain why aproject might rapidly get more com-plicated. But how do you know if it is get-
ting too complex? Palmer says thebest indicator will be based on yourdefinition of success. “It goes backto the idea that, from the beginning,you need a yardstick for measuringyour final success as well as the in-crements along the way,” he says. Hesuggests scheduling milestones atleast every 30 days to gauge whetherwhat you’re doing is working. Discovering that there are signifi-
cant disconnects between plan andreality is, according to Palmer,
“almost inevitable.” That’s why heemphasizes the importance of fre-quent checkups: “You don’t need toget it right the first time, but if youwait too long and you don’t get itright, it will be too late.”
If there’s a motto for keeping BPMsimple yet effective, Palmer says, it’skeeping in mind that BPM is a teamsport. “No matter what the size ofthe project, the challenge is to getpeople to play together,” he says. True, many people think they’re
more efficient when they workalone—but that’s not the optimalapproach for BPM. “Alone, we cango fast; together, we can go far,”Palmer says. “That, more than anysingle thing, is what must belearned.”
Alan Earls is a freelance journalist who specializes in covering business and technology.He can be reached at [email protected].
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“No matter what the size of theproject, the challenge is to get people to playtogether.”—NATHANIEL PALMER, Executive Director, WorkflowManagement Coalition
WITH MORE AND more of the world’seconomy becoming service-based,it’s no surprise that companies ofevery size, in just about every indus-try, are turning to customer serviceas a competitive differentiator. Theresulting question, of course, is howto provide experiences that exceedcustomer expectations withoutbreaking the bank. One increasingly popular answer:
enhancing customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) with BPMtechnology and practices. According to Forrester Research,
organizations often struggle to meetcustomer expectations due to aninability to consistently managetheir customer service-related busi-ness processes. By adding a layer ofprocess to front-office paths, BPMcan make customer service-relatedactions more predictable, accordingto Kate Leggett, a Forrester senioranalyst. “The reality is that a customer-
service agent has to use, some-
times, tens or hundreds of differenttools during the day, hunting andpecking through all the systems tosolve a customer’s issue. In multi-step processes, agents don’t often
follow the same process,” Leggettsays. “Adding BPM is like handhold-ing the agent through the process. It creates reproducibility.”
PROCESS STANDARDIZATION Leggett offers the example of addinga family member to an insuranceplan. The service agent might firstneed to validate the caller’s identifi-cation, then confirm that no out-
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Better together:BPM & CRM Introducing BPM to customer relationship management can dramatically improve the service experience for customersand front-line employees alike—and provide strong benefitsbehind the scenes as well. BY CRYSTAL BEDELL
Combining BPM and CRM can helpservice teams seethings from thecustomer’s point of view.
standing payments are due, andthen finally add the relative to theplan. Each of these sub-processesmight require using a different system. Coupling BPM and CRM can
dramatically improve efficiency.“Information and knowledge pre-sented can be pushed to the agents
at the right point in the resolutionprocess,” which, in turn, helps thoseagents serve customers faster,Leggett says.Standardized processes can also
improve the service experience foragents and customers alike. By guid-ing agents through issue-resolutionprocesses, companies ensure a con-sistent service experience for theircustomers, Leggett says. Thatapproach also eliminates the need
for agents to memorize multiplesteps required to solve specificproblems, freeing them to focus onthe customer’s needs. Results:Agents need less training to provideservice that makes customershappy. Standardizing customer-related
processes with BPM can also helpcompanies meet regulatory obliga-tions. In heavily regulated industriessuch as financial services and healthcare, BPM can help ensure thatservice representatives execute thecorrect sub-processes required forregulatory compliance, helping pre-vent violations that can lead to heftyfines.
ADDING FLEXIBILITY, ADDING CONTEXT Combining BPM and CRM can alsohelp service teams see things fromthe customer’s point of view. Forinstance, “The processes in call cen-ters are very much driven by thecaller,” says Janelle B. Hill, a GartnerInc. vice president and distinguishedanalyst. “BPM’s thinking in CRMareas can be really helpful for put-ting value back into the customer’sperspective.” The combined approach can also
improve customer service by pro-viding agents with more contextualknowledge—and the flexibility to acton it. “There’s a huge opportunity tofocus on how we can better supportthe knowledge worker whose work
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In industries such as financialservices and healthcare, BPM can helpensure that servicerepresentativesexecute the cor-rect sub-processesrequired for regu-latory compliance,helping prevent violations that canlead to hefty fines.
is not all routine,” Hill says. “Thepurpose of software is not simply toreplace people or to automate activ-ities that people used to do it; it canbe increasingly used to better coor-dinate those activities.” Leggett agrees. “Coupling contex-
tual knowledge to business process-es enables agents to deliver target-ed, personalized service tocustomers,” she says.Even in highly process-driven
industries (often the same indus-tries that are most stringently regu-lated), there’s still opportunity tosupport agents in ways that accom-modate the unpredictable nature ofhuman interactions. As Leggett putsit: “Even though the agent is being
led through a high-level process,there’s still opportunity for the agentto add their color commentary.” For example, in a BPM-enhanced
CRM platform, notifications with
contextual information may bepushed to a service representative’sscreen to help the agent providepersonalized service to a specificcustomer. So if a patient calls her
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Agents may needless training to provide service that makes customers happy.
Making the right match: BPM-CRM solutions
BOTH BPM AND CRM vendors recognize the benefits of combining the two technolo-gies and have moved to cash in on the trend. “True BPM players are moving into the CRM space, and CRM vendors have
moved into being able to offer a layer of BPM on top of their core CRM capabilities,”says Kate Leggett, a senior analyst for Forrester Research. Not surprisingly, that leaves companies wondering which dish to order: BPM with
some CRM on the side, or CRM with a helping of BPM. The answer: It depends. “Some industries are more process-driven than others,” Leggett points out. Such
industries—for example, financial services and insurance—may need very robustBPM capabilities. However, organizations in less process-dependent industries maybe able to get by with what Leggett calls “lightweight BPM.” “Both approaches have been popular and successful,” Leggett says. Ultimately,
“companies just need to understand and choose the level of process guidance thatmakes sense for their organizations.” —C.B
pharmacy or doctor’s office for arefill on her allergy medicine, thesystem may notify the agent thatthe patient has the option to takeover-the-counter medicationsrather than a prescription drug.
“Depending on the mood of thecustomer, the agent can communi-cate that or not,” Leggett says. “Thehigh-level steps are scripted, butthere’s a lot of flexibility in addingthat human element as you’re work-ing with the customer.” Finally, enhancing CRM with BPM
can help a company obtain a newperspective on its processes. “BPM,as a technique for assessing howwell companies are performingwhen it comes to managing cus-tomer relationships, helps compa-nies see where they deliver valueand extend process all the way tothe customer,” Hill says. “Taking theperspective of the customer as theprocess participant is one of thetechniques that can help youimprove”—all across the board.
Crystal Bedell is an award-winning freelancewriter who specializes in covering technology.She can be reached at [email protected].
• Business Process Manager Video - New BPM Solutions
• IBM Business Process Manager—Powerfully Simple
• BPM for Dummies Book
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