Industry Context

CIOs of B2B companies are faced with many challenges. They are to build more applications, at a faster pace with fewer resources. They have to integrate broader and deeper sets of data. All while being compliant and ensuring security. Employees must be enabled on the road; suppliers have to be brought closer to the organization. Communication channels have vastly expanded. Architecture models have proliferated, modernized and evolved.

Value Proposition

The solution: agile applications, delivered in a hybrid way, with end-to-end methodology delivered via measurable ROI. Software AG Live is a platform with 3 interlinked capabilities that deliver business agility and time-to-value, precisely addressing the challenges in the B2B space. The platform allows for the rapid development of applications that adjust to evolving business needs, their integration with legacy ground or cloud based systems and the business process documentation thereof.

Target audience

Focus for Software AG remains the Global 2000 and governmental audience. However, due to the lower barrier of entry that cloud represents, aspiring mid-sized companies will now also be able take advantage of Software AGs’ history of innovation. Beyond its traditional IT base, Software AG Live is particularly attractive for the business analyst profession and subject matter experts. Not only will they be able to design processes unique to their business area with Process Live (available Q3 2013), but they will also be able to implement them with AgileApps Live (available now). Finally corporate IT will be able to integrate these with existing systems using Integration Live (available Q1 2014).

As-a-Service

In developing our cloud proposition, Software AG paid particular attention to getting the service experience right. Amongst others, AgileApps Live, based on the recent LongJump acquisition, comes with self-service purchasing, automatic on-boarding and zero delay to deployment. This service orientation will be extended to the rest of the suite, a unique experience in the PaaS sector.

Differentiation

Three things allow Software AG Live to stand out. Firstly, on-premise, private cloud and public cloud are treated as equals. In other words 40+ years of on-premise innovation are now also available in the hybrid cloud. Second, data privacy and security are at the forefront of the service delivery experience. Diligence is given to ensure data is treated according to the world’s most comprehensive data protection laws and standards, which are further supported by leading security processes and technology. Finally, Software AG live is a unified platform with integration between its various sub-components.

Market promise

Software AG Live will …

1. Allow Capex to Opex transformation
2. Have returns measured in agility and time-to-market
3. Protect investments through high information security and data privacy

The post Introducing Software AG Live! A different approach to cloud computing that will stir up the PaaS market appeared first on Reality Check.

Here’s a summary of the highlights:

The new ARIS release provides social collaboration capabilities that leverage the wisdom of the crowd for process improvement and increased awareness and buy-in for your process excellence initiative.  Smarter analysis functions get more out of your existing process content and most notably  impact analysis has made a huge step forward. You want to see which IT system is supporting which process? This analysis is done in seconds and beautifully visualized. Cutting-edge user experience and self-explaining process visualizations will increase the process improvement footprint in your organization while central configuration, document management and license management/distribution will lower administration efforts. The new scalable private cloud architecture combines performance with maximum data security.

Process publication without the need to read a process model

ARIS Connect is a new product in the ARIS portfolio.  ARIS Connect generates process publication without the need to read an actual process model. With this anybody is now able to understand and improve processes.

Process modeling and social collaboration in ARIS Connect

In a process publication portal you can directly modify an existing process or design a new one. Need help? No problem, just start social collaborating to make the process better.

BPMN model in ARIS Architect

BPMN 2.0 is a first-class citizen in the new ARIS release. You can simulate, analyze, publish and export BPMN models.

Smart ad-hoc analysis in ARIS Architect

Let’s say you want to know which functions in a process are perfromed by Maria Lopez? Just use the ad-hoc analysis to find the answers in only a few seconds. Use the results to create output screens to share them in your organization.

Easy calculations and attribute maintenance

Spreadsheet is a new model type which looks simple but has a lot of power. Just drag and drop objects/processes on the grid and you can easily do calculations as you know it from Excel. If you change an attribute, it will also be changed in the models. You can directly create an ARIS MashZone dashboard on top of the grid.

I have been working with ARIS for more than 13 years now and I must say that this is by far the biggest step forward in ARIS history. So are you interested in finding out more?

- Visit our ARIS 9 website

- Attend our webinar series to see ARIS 9 in action

- Follow our ARIS blog on ARIS Community and read our post series focusing on the hottest ARIS features in the coming weeks.

The post ARIS 9 – The future of process is out now appeared first on Reality Check.

For those of you not familiar with Electrolux, it is a Swedish company with 58,000 employees in over 60 countries. They manufacture and sell cookers, ovens, dishwashers, laundry products, vacuum cleaners, air conditioners and products of professional use. The company has started to make the move from a manufacturing organization to a consumer-driven business which, as you can imagine, comes with its own set of challenges. The biggest challenge was to break up organizational silos to improve customer-facing processes in an end-to-end manner. Obviously you always step into someone’s territory if you improve processes end-to-end. For this, it was key to have the leadership team behind the project. This was exactly the case at Electrolux. Process improvement was seen more as a management discipline than technology. Management set the objective to make processes transparent and to simplify, improve, and manage them.

So for phase 1,

Jean started the project (initiated by a new ERP implementation) by creating a BPM framework defining governance, roles, communication, and methodology based on the C-level objective to simplify processes. With this, the process improvement initiative was nicely integrated in the corporate strategy and thus became a high priority in the organization. Because of this, teams directly approached the BPM competence center to support the mapping of as-is processes and to improve them. The competence center checked first which teams are interested in process improvement and chose them to participate first. Early results were used to convince the other departments to participate. After the collaborative process design/improvement exercise, done collaboratively by business and IT, the processes were implemented in an ERP system.

Phase 1 benefits for business…

- Processes gave visibility to the business and influenced other functions/silos transparent

- Now decision making is based on the full understanding of end-to-end processes

and for IT:

- Improved translation from business requirements

- Now ERP implementation is based on improved processes.

During phase 2,

the objective was to achieve higher process visibility. Electrolux wanted to see what was happening across the entire distribution network in real-time. They wanted to know: How many orders are coming in? Which orders are coming through which distribution center? Where are the orders coming from? Answers should be provided in real-time and filtered by product line.

The BPM team wanted to analyze trends so problems could be fixed before the customer discovered that there was an issue. Which is why having real-time information and analytics were a key part of their process improvement strategy. They could no longer wait for a daily shipment report; it was critical to identify problems in real-time and have the order corrected immediately. Understanding these requests created immense benefits.

To get the supply chain visibility they need, Electrolux chose iKnow from Software AG to define metrics and monitor KPIs gathered from the ERP system. iKnow at Electrolux is today providing visibility for:

Phase 2 benefits:

- Real-time information vs. a day old BI report

- Inventory issues found before consumers discover them

- Identify and correct process bottlenecks before the consumer is affected

- Helping the business to deal with exceptions instead of dealing with everything

During this initiative, Electrolux learned that by defining to-be processes before the ERP implementation and enriching the operational system with iKnow Process Intelligence, Electrolux got a supply chain solution that improves processes and provides actionable information. Jean also mentioned how important an appealing visualization of data is. Working with data is just more fun if it looks good. It also helps to use the dashboards to turn real-time data into real-time information and with this, turn them into real-time action. iKnow comes with very nice dashboards that really want to make you play/work with it. You find example dashboards for service level agreements, inventory management, and others here.

One of the key pillars of success for Electrolux was the collaboration between business and IT which isn’t always easy because they speak different languages and use different tools. But they realized they had the same objectives and by achieving end-to-end process visibility they are able to  move from a reactive to a predictive management approach. Having consistent objectives for business and IT helped a lot in getting both parties to work together and drive results.

In the next phase, Electrolux will move from the order-to-fulfillment process to order-to-cash, covering multiple channels. iKnow will be used for the BPM team as a follow-up step to process mapping.

A big thank you to Jean Lastowka for the great presentation! Me and the entire audience were really impressed with what the  Electrolux team was able to achieve in just one year.

You find further reviews of Gartner BPM Summit sessions in Sandy Kemsley’s blog: http://www.column2.com/

The post Process improvement and real-time supply chain visibility at Electrolux appeared first on Reality Check.

Of course, technology is a critical component to leveraging the power of the four forces  but organizations also need to align the  culture and behavior with the technology.  It’s not enough to enable collaboration with technology but organizations need to do more.  One example coud be to incentivize individuals to collaborate and exchange knowledge. A simple and productive way to incentivize people is to use gamification techniques for process improvement.

What always excites me about attending Gartner conferences is seeing how our technology roadmap and in particular our upcoming  release lines up with  current and future technology  trends defined by Gartner.

Our ARIS 9 release is built on a cloud architecture, with  social collaboration capabilities at its core. ARIS  can be used on  mobile devices which  brings analysis of process information to your fingertips. The user experience has been enhanced  to make process improvement simpler and available to the  masses. I have been working with ARIS for over 10 years now and I must say (of course my opinion might be a bit bias) its never been  easier and more fun to improve processes and make them better.

But don’t take my word for it, make your own opinion. Attend our ‘ARIS 9 Innovations‘ webinar series where you’ll learn everything from what’s new in the latest release to how customers are driving new and improved value with their ARIS investment.  My next post will be a complete review of Jean Lastokas’s session on how Electrolux is changing the game through real-time supply chain visibility. Stay tuned!

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Having gone through this process (no pun intended) many times with many organizations, I’ve come up with 5 simple questions that help organizations determine what processes have automation potential and the possibility of offering high value results.  Here it goes:

• Do you have any  “paper heavy” processes? Is there a paper form that gets routed to different process participants as part of the process?

• Do your process workers waste time looking for forms or documents they need to complete a specific step?

• Does the process require manual duplication of data? Where maybe an email address has to be manually copied from one system to another?

• Do your processes “hang” because one of the process workers didn’t receive an email that tells them to proceed with the next step?

• Are there other “routine” tasks that are very time consuming or can halt the process in its tracks if the task owner goes on holiday or simply forgets  one day?

If you can answer “yes” to one or more of the above questions, you are looking at a process with automation potential. If you’re still not 100% sure whether a process is a good fit for automation or you want more time to  figure out the impact of such a “yes” then it’s time to  speak to the people who perform the process day in and day out.

But beware, these process owners might be comfortable with the status-quo, in fact they might find what they do today is the ideal process. It could be that many of them have already created their own workarounds to avoid potential process problems. Either way, you should gather these details first hand so you can create the perfect automation scenario that reduces error rates and significantly decreases process cycle times. Would you agree?

The post 5 Questions to Ask Before You Automate Your Business Processes appeared first on Reality Check.

Let’s start with the age old question of, what’s required to get IT and the business aligned? And equally important, how do we keep them aligned beyond the first  meeting? It’s not as simple as asking the  business to describe their requirements as a process model. Although process models are a good start and an important  approach to build on, I believe we can get much closer to an approach that business and IT can follow together.

Here is the recipe I have in mind:

1. Tools alone are not sufficient enough for successful business / IT alignment and good project results. Solid project management and communication structures, together with a good methodology, are crucial if an organization hopes to achieve good results with Business Process Management.

•  Business people need a way to capture and document processes with all the elements important to them. The tool that supports this activity has to be usable by non-developers.

2. Processes that have been created by the business need to be communicated to IT in a way that they can use the model as a starting point for the technical implementation. Without having to re-model the process from scratch. So you need a model transition from a process design tool to a full-fledged developer environment without media breaks due to different model formats and such.

3. In the course of the technical implementation of a process, the model always gets changed (i.e., to illustrate exception handling, task locking, etc.). Now IT needs a mechanism to communicate these model changes back to the business.  Why? Because the business needs to be able to understand if the original intent of the process logic is still represented in the technical model.

4. Next you need a way of comparing the technical model to the original model and also a mechanism that allows the business user to approve or reject any changes in the technical model. This approval / rejection mechanism also implies that we need the ability to go back and forth iteratively between the line of business and IT during the process implementation phase until the result satisfies both sides.

Having such an iterative approach that works through bi-directional communication between the business and IT means that all subsequent change requests can be handled in a structured way. If the business has new ideas a few months later, the above mechanism would allow for transparent collaboration. Also, if the IT infrastructure changes these changes can be communicated back to the process owner on the business side.

5. For all of the above, it is important to route and track interactions between “the business guys” and “the IT guys”. Email notifications for all involved parties and task tracking of what needs to happen next with the process model will ensure delays due to a lack of transparency don’t become a problem.

6. Last but not least, the tools should provide transparency between the process lifecycle and the lifecycle of services, as well as the data model that feeds processes. This might not be obvious to everyone immediately, but trying to manage dependencies between processes and the underlying service landscape can become a huge challenge very quickly if you don’t have a good solution in place.

Do you think these 6 steps could help better align IT and the business in their quest to communicate the right requirements and have a successful BPM implementation?

The post It’s About More Than Just Getting the Requirements Right appeared first on Reality Check.

With the release of ARIS 9.0 only weeks away, I thought it would be timely to highlight some customer successes that exemplify the power of process improvement. If your organization has similar complexities and isn’t quite sure what approach might work, reference these example as a possible solution indicator.

German Ministry of Defense: Business Process Management in Big Organizations

The Bundeswehr is a very large organization with more than 190,000 employees. This includes men and women in uniform serving in the armed services and organizational departments. Furthermore, there are approximately 125,000 members of staff working as a civilian labor force, mainly in the armed forces administration and in support areas. The existing application landscape is rather complex and consists of more than 1200 applications that have to be converted to a single integrated solution based on standard SAP software.

The German military chose to implement standardized software based on processes more than ten years ago. This marked the beginning of a comprehensive evaluation of nearly all its business processes using ARIS. Process models today depict not only the work flows related to IT implementation, but also illustrate the relevant departments by way of end-to-end target processes.

Challenges

• Process standardization
• Process adjustment
• Integrated IT- landscape of administrative and logistical systems
• Removal of legacy system by 2013

Solution

• Concept and realization of SAP- reference based process models and value-added chains
• Implementation, test and rollout for targeted processes based on SAP
• Migration/ redemption of applications and data
• Consulting services needed to support the project

The initiative has the objective to move the existing IT islands to an integrated Standard Application Software Product Family – this is also the name of the project: SASPF. Here you see the basic concept of SASPF.

Lessons Learned

• External support for complex rollout-projects recommended
• Quality of Master Data is critical
• User-Care (User-Help-Desk, Advisor) is important
• Change management must be a management discipline
• Standardization and uniform guidelines is needed
• Effective support from general management

Deutsche Telekom: Methodological Approach to Business and IT Transformation Programs

Deutsche Telekom set out to radically reduce ERP systems and simplify the associated business processes in each subsidiary. This project was steered from the beginning with strong business sponsorships for a process-driven approach and for shared IT and business goals. Deutsche Telekom chose ARIS for process documentation and standardization.

Challenges

• Different processes / IT in each country
• Different customer experiences & lack of flexibility due to complex processes
• Different data models, manual reports
• Partly manual and individual processes
• Many ERP systems

Objectives

• Cross country harmony / standardized processes / IT
• Improve unified customer experience and increase service performance
• Improve cost structure and reduce time-to-market
• Innovation leadership in individual markets and partners
• One common data model, Single Point of Truth for KPIs
• Standardize processes and create one ERP IT landscape
• Create easier implementation of organizational changes

Deutsche Telekom´s overall process  improvement Lifecycle consists of 4 phases: Define, Assemble, Execute and Control. In the first two steps, process guidance as a standardized approach was established:

• Early commitment from the business for results
• Structured and committed requirements along with business processes
• Process model serves as a binding basis (template) for roll out in all countries

The next step is to pilot an integrated BPM tool chain in the laboratory. The objectives is to establish an agility layer for end-to-end processes, to monitor process performance with Process Intelligence and to analyze process and service performance according to KPIs.

Results

• Degree of process standardization: more than 80%
• Development of a group-wide ERP data model and process for maintenance
• Group-wide ERP IT Architecture developed
• Enterprise-wide portal concept developed

Lessons Learned (Dos and Don’ts)

Dos:

• Involve the business early
• Create a common criteria for standardization of measurement
• Create translation between business process view and IT standardization view
• Involve the national companies and C level support early

Don´ts:

• Use dogma method
• Use unaligned methodical decisions for single projects
• Use IT has the lead in the early phases (conceptual design)
• Have extensive tool discussions

To conclude with a quote from the project sponsor: Dr. Karsten Schweichhart, Vice President Group Enterprise Architecture / Deutsche Telekom AG: “On the long and exhausting way towards project success, it is strongly recommended that Business Architecture and IT Architecture share the driver seat in an aligned manner. We will never drive alone!”

Cable & Wireless: From Process Infancy to Enterprise BPM

Process Excellence is at the core of Cable & Wireless’s vision to be the mission-critical communications integrator. They elevated BPM from IT to a more strategic business level in the organization, and shared their experiences going from process infancy to Process Excellence. This customer story is interesting because of how Enterprise BPM factors into their plans, and what lessons they learned for strategic, transformational BPM programs.

Cable & Wireless simplifies process excellence to 5 components:

1. End-to-end process model: A single process asset with documentation standards. All processes housed in a central repository.
2. Process ownership: Every process has an owner who is held accountable for the measurement, control & outputs of this process.
3. Process control: All processes are held under a change control method balanced between central authority and local delivery.
4. Process measurement: Clearly defined efficiency & effectiveness measures are tracked for every process.
5. Performance improvement: A consistent and continuous improvement methodology to prioritize and execute a portfolio of inter- and intra-process improvement projects.

Cable & Wireless signed off on an investment in an enterprise-wide deployment of webMethods BPMS to implement and improve their critical processes based on these criterias:

• Criteria 1: Generate a positive ROI à Result: >£1M annualised hard benefits
• Criteria 2: Demonstrated demand beyond Quick Start à Result: 2 qualified projects – one from a quick start sponsor
• Criteria 3: Effective cross functional engagement during test drive à Result: IT BPMS Team and Process Excellence practice joined forces to deliver to internal customers

Best Practices

• Process Excellence is about the balance between effective process design, management and improvement
• Don’t lose focus of the two key Process Performers: People (owners & operators) & Technology (BPMS, Data, Development)
• BPMS is not about building new capabilities or installing a new IT platform – it is all about improving business performance
• BPMS may be an IT platform but it is NOT solely an IT initiative
• Agile Process – is not simply IT Agile Development it is about Rapid (governed) change from the business

To conclude with quote from the project sponsor, Mark Zirbser, Head of Operational Excellence at Cable & Wireless Worldwide: “Process Excellence is all about balancing effective process management on a daily basis with a drive for the improvement of process effectiveness & efficiency.”

You can see from these customer successes, process improvement solves many challenges and delivers real process improvement to all kinds of organizations. How has process improvement helped your organization? Did it help your organization deliver high quality IT solutions to meet business demands?

The post How Organizations Achieve Real Process Improvement appeared first on Reality Check.

The Deutsches Forschungszentrum fur Kunstilice Intelligenz (DFKI) examined three complex drivers for compliance externally imposed on organizations:

• heightened complexity of business processes with an increased number of process interfaces
• rising frequency of process changes
• a continuously growing amount of compliance regulations

To me, it’s obvious these drivers also drive process improvement but the question remains, “what should a process improvement/GRC platform provide to leverage synergies from both disciplines?”

#1 Technology:

A GRC solution should be built on a consistent set of data and should have a connector for all relevant regulations, requirements, and risks. The perfect connectors are processes. They visualize the relation between the assets; they enable impact analysis (which process is affected if a certain regulation changes) and they map GRC to operations and then to monitoring. The solution should also support workflows for defining, and communicating rules, instructions, controls and documentation of GRC activities. For more best practices in identifying the right GRC platform read, “Efficient Support for Internal Control Systems via a GRC Software Platform”  or visit the ARIS GRC lounge.

If you’re looking for a 3^rd party review of GRC platforms, download the latest Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Governance, Risk and Compliance Platforms.

#2 Organization:

Technology is important but don’t forget the organizational integration. Blended teams of process improvement and GRC experts tend to get the best results. The benefits of bringing these teams together leads to better processes with lower and transparent risks, 100% regulatory compliance, faster and cheaper audits and overall higher security for less cost.

#3 Technology + Organization:

Process Improvement and GRC are one of a kind – both are about visibility, accountability and adaptability. As a matter of fact, many process improvement initiatives lead to higher risk and regulatory awareness and with this inherently define the purpose for GRC. The same principles apply to GRC. Many GRC initiatives lead to process thinking which drives the need for process transparency and management. The integration of process improvement and GRC technology as well as their blended teams are important for business success.

They don’t just need each other; they can’t exist without each other. Yes it’s true, GRC and Process Improvement are in love with each other. What about you? Do you have process improvement/GRC love stories to tell?

The post Does Governance, Risk and Compliance Management Love Process Improvement? appeared first on Reality Check.

• Start by describing your corporate strategy and then break it down to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Derive your process and IT landscape and create the link with strategy and KPIs
• Transfer business process models to technical models. Allow business and IT to collaborate guided by process governance
• Deploy the processes and make them operational
• Monitor and improve the executed processes, and then manage risks and possible compliance issues

But since we don’t live in a perfect world, it’s not always possible to start at the first step and then move to the next step accordingly. Often a process improvement initiative needs to be lightning-fast. There is no time to start defining a corporate strategy before you design and improve processes. You start by fixing  the obvious problems.

Let’s say the ad-hoc process improvement will lead to better KPI’s. Better KPI’s will also have a midterm impact on the corporate strategy. With this you can influence the corporate strategy overtime following a bottom up-approach. There was – and still is – an intense discussion about bottom-up vs. top-down approaches when it comes to BPM.

What do you think? Does a sustainable BPM approach need to start bottom-up or top-down?

Let me know what you think. You can always start by downloading the the Intelligent Guide to EBPM on your Kindle and then decide what approach works best for you.

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Recently, I conquered the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb. It was amazing! With stunning views and heights that make you question your sanity. But the one thing I kept focusing on was the impeccable process you follow to the top.
For those of you comfortable with heights and want to share an experience that lasts a lifetime, here’s the process:

• Everything is done online before you arrive at the bridge. You choose your climb option and pay for your experience before leaving your hotel room. When you arrive at the bridge you tell the guide your size to receive the  proper clothing. Then you’re shown to room number 1.
• Room 1 is where you get your jump suit, cap and clothes all in that order. All the items  are attached to each other so you can’t lose anything  during the climb. You change and put your own clothes in a closet. Of course the  key to the closet is on a lanyard so you can easily wear the key  around your neck. There are no pockets in  your jump suit eliminating the idea you can lose something during the climb. Now onto room 2.
• Room 2 is where you receive your safety belt. The safety belt  is attached to the wall in such a way for you to easily slip into it. They make this step so simple, you can’t mess it up even without any training. Time for room 3.
• In room 3 you walk through a training model to see if you can cope with the height. (This is where it gets real.) There are no wait times as you can chose various training options like how to use the safety lines. Before you know it, you’re off.
• You start the walk where every 20 minutes you get to a safety point where you can  get off the bridge if you don’t feel well. You climb your way to the top, where the guide is equipped with a camera to take pictures since you safely left your belongings back in the closet.
• After the climb, you walk down to room 2 again. You connect the safety belt back to the wall so you can easily get out and later others can easily step in.
• Back to room 1 you put your gloves, cap and the jump suit back in boxes marked with the right sizes. You get back into your own clothes and you leave the venue where you pick your pictures up on the way out. The pictures are of course  available as print or on a CD.

What amazed me about the bridge climb was not just the how small you feel at the top but how optimized the process is from  end-to-end. Each step was structured perfectly to maximize the number of  people who could do the bridge walk. At the same time, strict safety regulations and risk management were embedded throughout  the process. Balancing regulations with efficiency worked out perfectly. In addition the  heritage and conservation issues were addressed sensitively and it was no surprise to me why the company running the climb has received numerous industry awards.

This experience was unforgettable and the process was remarkable, I couldn’t help but share my excitement with all of you.  Do you have examples of a daily manual process that amazed you?

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