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!

The post Process Improvement trends at the Gartner BPM Summit 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?

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