tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60975234131123619822024-03-13T21:11:51.675-07:00BPM in ScotlandAnthony Murphy is owner of Lithe IT Ltd, the business process management consultants based in Scotland. This blog allows Anthony to provide his views on the many benefits offered by BPM and comment on industry trends and events.Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-44546736912267159852013-04-15T05:15:00.000-07:002013-04-15T05:17:19.186-07:00Automating SharePoint Interactions using Kofax TotalAgility 6.0<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The example below demonstrates how straight forward it is to
upload a document automatically into SharePoint online using a process executed
in Kofax TotalAgility 6.0.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is a simple example which only touches the surface of
the product capability.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With on-premise implementations of SharePoint the
capabilities increase significantly allowing us to easily develop processes to
automate:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Checking documents in and out of libraries and
marking these as electronic records.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Storing meta data associated with documents,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Creating new SharePoint sites,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Creating new folders in existing document libraries,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Adding calendar entries, notifications, announcements
and modifying any SharePoint list,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Moving existing items to new locations and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Deleting content.</span></div>
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="color: black;">TotalAgility can also monitor document libraries within SharePoint on-premise sites to react to content changes</span>.</span> For instance, if a member of staff was to upload a new document into the library we are monitoring this can automatically:
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Launch a new case or process in TotalAgility
driven by the meta-data stored with the document in SharePoint,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Trigger events in TotalAgility which will impact
existing processes or</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Modify the state of an existing process which can
affect reports and prioritisation.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These features require zero code and little time to implement.</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This capability can transform the handoff process between
departments as once controlled by TotalAgility the hand-offs become predictable,
controllable and transparent. This is a simple and easy to achieve first step
to increasing process automation with SharePoint and Kofax TotalAgility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For more information on licence costs and how to maximise
benefit from existing implementations contact Lithe IT at </span><a href="http://www.litheit.com/contactus%20or%20on%20+441413143707"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.litheit.com\contactus
or on +441413143707</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> or email me directly at </span><a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lithe IT Ltd is a Kofax Gold Partner and experts in
implementing Kofax TotalAgility</span></div>
Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-32909352963312886392013-03-19T05:12:00.002-07:002013-03-19T07:26:46.128-07:00Cloud BPM, SAAS and SMEs - A Perfect Match?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">BPM, and the implementation of BPMS, has long been
considered the domain of large companies with high numbers of complex
processes, enterprise systems to integrate, business analysts on staff, and massive
capital budgets. I believe that assertion no longer holds as SAAS based
applications are now making process automation relevant to SMEs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We have all seen Microsoft invest heavily in the SAAS market
with Office 365 amongst their flagship offerings. SMEs can now afford to use
the enterprise class technologies including Exchange, Dynamics and SharePoint
to differentiate their business processes. Five years ago these technologies
would have been considered out of reach for the SME due to high set-up and
maintenance costs. This is clearly no longer the case.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As impressive as the products mentioned are, a significant
driver for the growth in the traditional BPM market has been the need to
automate processes and data across enterprise technologies. As SME’s use the
same products it is inevitable that they will require similar integration
solutions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Large organisations find change hard. They employ people as
project managers, business analysts and change managers just to implement new
systems. Few can honestly describe themselves as Agile. Contrast this to an SME
where Agility is not seen as a luxury, but more of a necessity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If SMEs cannot change rapidly they will disappear quickly.
They need to re-invent their processes and seek to continuously improve to
remain successful. They cannot afford to add manual steps which add no value
and delay service to the customer. SMEs don’t possess the appetite, budget or
IT staff to implement on-premise BPM solutions. Their key to maximising value
from SAAS must also be found in the cloud.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I work with the Kofax TotalAgility platform, which is now
available as a SAAS solution in Microsoft Azure, with a rental price model</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">. TotalAgility
provides the desired integration between these Microsoft products via a user
friendly interface. There is no code required so processes can be rapidly
created, keeping costs low.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Consider the following complicated sounding use case.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Challenge</b>: <span style="color: red;">A customer wants to request an appointment for a sale visit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: red;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Solution</b>: <span style="color: #9bbb59; mso-themecolor: accent3;">Using TotalAgility, running on
Azure, a web page can be created to facilitate the request. On submission:</span></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #9bbb59; mso-themecolor: accent3;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An
appointment can be booked in a SharePoint 365 Calendar with an SLA driven task
assigned to the relevant sales manager (a business rule would determine the
manager),</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #9bbb59; mso-themecolor: accent3;"></span><span style="color: #9bbb59; mso-themecolor: accent3;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A
new prospect record can be created on CRM Dynamics on-line to record the
interaction,</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #9bbb59; mso-themecolor: accent3;"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: #9bbb59; mso-themecolor: accent3;">A
document detailing the appointment is created and saved in a new SharePoint
folder, before being sent as an attachment to the customer, with details of the
sale person who will call.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: #9bbb59; mso-themecolor: accent3;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It might sound complex, but this is a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">zero-code</b> process that can be completed in a matter of hours.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The combination of an agility-enabling BPM tool with a
business pre-wired to embrace agility is for me a perfect match. In the world
of SAAS, I believe cloud based BPM will become increasingly important to SMEs
just as on-premise has for large organisations.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you want to discuss more about how Kofax TotalAgility 6.0 running on Microsoft Azure can help
improve your business agility please contact me at </span><a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> for a
chat or visit </span><a href="http://www.litheit.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.litheit.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> for more
information.</span>Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-10305083317092597322013-02-04T06:29:00.001-08:002013-02-04T06:36:35.217-08:00Process Maps as the Knowledge Bridge (Part 3 of the Lithe IT KTA series)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Over the years IT and the business have tried to find new ways of understanding each other. We’ve seen increasing effort to bridge the gap using methodologies such as Waterfall or Agile, with ever increasing sophistication (and in many cases documentation) to reduce the knowledge chasm that all too often exists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">No matter the methodology adopted or the type of business problem under review, in my experience, both groups are drawn to the power of a process map to act as a modern day <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rosetta Stone</a></i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Maps offer a common language or a “Knowledge Bridge” between both sides, as they provide a visual translation of the written requirement. The IT developer wants maps to help them understand the flow of their application. For the business, maps provide a way to describe their process in a much clearer way than words alone can offer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But why are these maps not updated after the project completes? (Or in many cases as requirements change throughout the project) Failure to keep up to date process maps leads to erosion of the knowledge bridge, and creates the need to re-map the next time a change is requested.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you agree in the benefit of the process map, you should also see the benefit in keeping the maps current. But will this require more effort during the project?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With <em>Kofax TotalAgility</em>, the answer is No. Instead of writing code to implement maps, TotalAgility uses the maps directly to execute business processes.</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red;"></span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Remember a project you have worked on in the past where process maps were used to describe the desired business process. There was probably a series of workshops to create the map, with a document circulated at a later stage asking for a collective sign-off before IT commenced on the implementation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">You probably only looked at the map again if the IT team delivered an application that didn’t meet your wishes, and you were arguing over whose interpretation of it was correct. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Contrast this with a Lithe IT project, where we build, execute and verify your process map in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kofax TotalAgility</i> during the workshop sessions. We automatically build user input screens and integrate these into the process (with zero code) to allow data entry to drive the direction individual process instances take. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">With TotalAgility, Lithe IT will bring your process map to life</b>. When the workshop is complete we will have created a working version of your process and will have had the opportunity to verify the flow. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As workshops continue, maps become a living and breathing version of your desired process. They encapsulate the SLA’s, process escalations, resource allocation rules, quality controls and much more, so that managers have the ideal support to create efficiencies and improve service. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This sophistication is created with zero code, and provides the knowledge bridge between IT and the business as both sides communicate at the process map level.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you would like to experience the transformational capability of <em>Kofax TotalAgility</em>, as implemented by Lithe IT, give us a call on UK +141 314 3707 or email <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">. We would love to hear from you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lithe IT is a Kofax Gold Partner based in Scotland and recognised TotalAgility experts. We operate globally with recent engagements in Africa, South America and Europe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For more information on Lithe IT visit <a href="http://www.litheit.com/">http://www.LitheIT.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-53285106025232068802012-12-05T08:48:00.002-08:002012-12-05T08:48:33.080-08:00Kofax Total Agility can help your organisation get things done! Part two of the Lithe IT Total Agility Series
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Customers are almost always demanding. They expect results
quickly, accurately, at a low price and with the minimum of fuss. How many
businesses can look in the mirror and confidently state that they meet this
demand every time?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you manage your workload via a daily list in your notepad,
or on a free app you downloaded, then your business has significant room to
improve. Who can see your list and monitor your progress? Do they need to
interrupt to ask what you have on and when you expect to finish? Do you have to
inform managers if you have too much to do meet deadlines? Are you prioritising
the correct tasks?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Solve these problems using Kofax Total Agility (KTA), with
help from Lithe IT.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">KTA offers a number of features which are simple to implement
and will rapidly improve process efficiency within any business. I’ve covered
my top 5 below.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Set deadlines and
durations for each task. </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Setting task deadlines is common and is helpful when
prioritising work or measuring success. When tasks also have an expected duration
set (the time it takes for a worker to complete the task from starting to work
on it) KTA can measure if the deadlines are achievable. For instance, if I have
ten tasks to complete in a day and each takes 30 minutes actual work time then
all is good. If the task duration is extended to 1 hour then there is a
problem. Giving KTA this data allows it to take action to re-allocate work, or
inform managers of potential problems.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Configure SLA’s to
provide visual cues and effect task allocation</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">KTA allows service levels to be implemented for all
processes, and individual task activities. Measuring the SLA of an individual
task allows worker efficiency to be tracked and can highlight where bottlenecks
exist in the wider process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">KTA displays current SLA status for activities using symbols
and colours to provide an immediate visual recognition of problem tasks. Five
different colours can be used, displaying tasks which are approaching deadline
using traditional RAG, and also to display tasks which have failed their SLA. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Service levels can also be used to automatically assign work
to a team where that is appropriate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The overall process SLA is what is important to the
customer. KTA also allows this measure to be set and tracked in time and against
budget.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Where SLA’s vary dependent on the customer, process skins
provide a simple way to cope with this. See part 1 for more details.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Use escalations to
allow problems to be resolved before affecting the customer SLA</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With KTA there are no limits on the number of escalations
that can be set. I recommend only escalating key events, as most organisations
elect to escalate via email. If escalations are too frequent they are often
ignored.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">You can set escalations on individual tasks and for the
entire process. Escalations are most powerful when there is still time for
someone to fix the issue, before the SLA fails. Keep this in mind when
designing an escalation approach.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With KTA there can be multiple escalations on an individual
activity. This allows provides the ability to widen the visibility of the
problem throughout the organisation, as the deadline gets closer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Escalations do not need to be an email. I recommend taking
more proactive steps so that the decision of the manager can be built into the
process at design time. An example may be automatically re-allocating the task
to a specialist team.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Build support for
surge into processes where volumes can greatly vary<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many businesses, such as those in the Insurance Industry,
frequently have to cope with rapid surges in process volumes. Such surges can
cause logistical problems as managers scramble to re-allocate workers to help
process the increase in workload. With KTA you can build in surge management
into the processes.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One approach is to provide managers with the ability to immediately
dial up or down the level of manual checking that occurs within affected
processes. Under surge conditions, checks may be reduced to speed processing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another common response is to increase the size of the
processing teams. With KTA, managers can loan resources from across the
business, without involving IT, and automatically have them presented with
surge tasks. These resources can be at a different geographic location and can
be added and removed with no delay. This approach is especially powerful when
all information relating to the process is held electronically.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Use Targets and
Alerts to provide real-time info to managers<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, I recommend using KTA to monitor real time activity
and targets to keep managers informed of the current operation situation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are no limits to the number of alerts that can be
configured. For example, the system can be configured to track the number of
applications received over a 15 minute window. If the number exceeds a set
threshold then a process could be launched to automatically set up surge
conditions. This process could dial down checks, increase the resource
available to process the applications, or take any other desired measure.
Finally it could send alerts informing that a surge has started.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Targets are a great way to motivate teams. KTA allows
targets to be set and displayed using real-time charts within dashboards. These
allow resources to see how close they are to achieving or exceeding targets. I
recommend combining desired targets, with high performance targets to drive
performance past what is acceptable.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">KTA also allows QA to be integrated with targets to ensure
that only work of the required quality counts against the targets set.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Within this post I’ve outlined some features within KTA
which can be easily implemented. These will provide the visibility managers
desire and provide the best support to allow organisations to meet the demands
of their customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you want to
discuss any of this please contact me at </span><a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> or visit </span><a href="http://www.litheit.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.litheit.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lithe IT are Kofax Gold Partners and specialise in the
implementation of Kofax Total Agility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-55332297881400430412012-05-17T14:51:00.000-07:002012-05-17T14:51:19.497-07:00TotalAgility Series Part 1 of 10 - Business Process OutsourcingAs a partner of Kofax, I spend a good amount of my time keeping up to date with the features in their leading BPMS, TotalAgility. I aim to help existing and prospective TotalAgility customers use their BPMS in ways that will surpass expected benefits. To achieve this a strong understanding of the capability is required, but it is also important to understand how to apply that capability to support process improvement.<br />
<br />Over the course of this series I will pick out some of the features I like to focus on and will try to highlight just how valuable these can be.<br />
I've decided to start by looking at how TotalAgility can help drive process improvement in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organisations. A successful BPO aims to standardise processes as much as possible across the different faces it presents, branching only when required to meet customer requirements.<br />
<br />Kofax directly supports BPO via its Process Skins feature.<br />
<br />
As the name "skin" suggests, a Process Skin stores context specific information that can be applied to the parent process, to alter how individual instances operate. Skins can radically change the look and behaviour of a process, or can effect only minor change. <br />
<br />
They are incredibly easy to set up and amend, allowing a BPO to configure a single process with multiple skins, where previously they may have been forced to configure and maintain multiple processes to achieve the same goal.<br />
<br />
Almost every item that is used to define a process and user activity can be overridden in a skin. Examples include providing context specific names for activities in work queues, setting specific task durations, priorities, and SLA's and much more, all relating to the business unit the process is executing for. <br />
<br />
At design time, rules are defined that TotalAgility uses at run time to decide which skin, if any, to apply to a process. This is a powerful approach as it allows new skins to be added without needing to alter the underlying process, allowing change to be implemented with low risk.<br />
<br />
For BPO organisations, the functionality within Process Skins alone makes TotalAgility a product that should be seriously considered.<br />
I also see benefits for non BPO organisations. Many such businesses execute almost identical processes across different divisions or function areas, such as responding to customer requests. Rather than configuring a process per division, TotalAgility allows a single process to be created and augmented by multiple skins, each applying a set of changes specific to the individual division initiating the process.<br />
<br />
By using skins, an organisation can reduce the number and complexity of the BPMS processes they create, can achieve improved operating consistency, and can increase their ability to react quickly and safely to changing business conditions.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you want to discuss more about how Lithe IT can help you to exceed your expectations, please contact me at <a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</a> or visit <a href="http://www.litheit.com/">www.LitheIT.com</a>.Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-84806123593380214232012-04-23T07:08:00.001-07:002012-04-23T07:11:27.941-07:00Potential Benefits of Integrating Capture with BPM<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I attended the Kofax Customer Connect event in London last
week, and had the pleasure of delivering the final presentation of the day
where I was able to relate some of my experiences of using TotalAgility in the
UK public sector. I also sat on the Experts panel alongside John Newton (Co-Founder
of Alfresco Software Ltd), Derek Miers (Principal analyst at Forrester) and
Anthony Macciola (CTO of Kofax). It was very interesting to hear their views on
the potential impact of mobile capture at the point or origination on business
processes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anthony Macciola preceded the panel by giving a fascinating
presentation where he demonstrated new capability to move document scanning out
of the back-office and onto smartphones. Using an Apple, Android or Windows
device, with the Kofax mobile application installed, a document can be photographed,
cleaned up, and processed on the phone, allowing the user to add meta-data
before uploading the scanned content to the central BPMS for inclusion in
business processes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When you consider delays and failures that occur in
processes waiting for copies of documents to be posted and received as
evidence, it made me realise why Kofax are very excited about this new
functionality. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By integrating capture capability into the TotalAgility
BPMS, which they intend to do this year, Kofax will offer a differentiated BPMS
platform which can be used to improve customer service by delivering faster response
times, as data extracted from photographs on phones will be immediately available
for use within a process instance.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lithe IT is a Kofax partner, so I am excited to see this functionality
released as I can see a great number of opportunities to enrich business processes
with it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can also see this as a way to improve processes within an
organisation. Imagine the time-consuming activity of claiming expenses where
receipts are gathered, documented and sent to a line manager for authorisation before
typically passing to Finance for final sign-off and payment. By taking a photo
of the receipt at the point it is incurred, this could be transformed into a
process taking seconds, allowing the salesperson to spend less time on admin
and more on selling!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Before the conference I was unclear on the full benefits of the
Capture Enabled BPM message that Kofax are using. I remain unconvinced about
the phrase being used as I feel it doesn’t adequately explain the potential
being offered, however I am now fully engaged with the opportunity to transform
both customer and staff engagement models.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you want to talk more to me about this entry, Lithe IT,
or my experiences with Kofax TotalAgility, please drop me a note at </span><a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> or visit </span><a href="http://www.litheit.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.litheit.com</span></a><br />
<br />
For more details on the event visit <a href="http://london.kofaxconnect.com/">http://london.kofaxconnect.com/</a>Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-28670058684820990852012-04-02T02:05:00.000-07:002012-04-02T02:05:21.822-07:00Tips to avoid pain in your BPMS implementation<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">Many businesses approach a BPMS implementation with
hope and excitement, buoyed by the promise of rapid project completion,
business empowerment and impressive ROI. But not all achieve the benefits they
expect, and have to battle through considerable pain before achieving success.<br />
<br />
There are a number of reasons for this pain, one of which is poor quality of
the implementation. I believe that by applying lessons of how to develop good software to BPMS projects, quality will be improved.<br />
<br />
I offer 5 tips, taken from the habits of good developers, for process engineers to follow which will improve the quality of the implemented solution. These alone do not guarantee success, but will increase the quality and maintainabiity of the BPMS technology solution.<br />
<br />
<strong>Tip 1 – Create Standards and Enforce Them</strong>
<br />
Ask a group of developers to review a code block and you will find a strong
correlation in views as to the quality of the code. Present a group of process
engineers with a workflow diagram and the result is very different. They
comment if it adheres to the BPMN standard but often will not be critical of
the underlying implementation.<br />
<br />
With BPMS there are often many ways to achieve the same goal. Make sure
standards are defined up front to gain a consistent approach when implementing
processes.<br />
<br />
This is also true for documentation. Coders expect to create an amount of
documentation and to have it critiqued, but this control is often missing when
reviewing BPMS implementations. Make sure all processes have an agreed amount
of documentation to improve understanding and re-use.<br />
<br />
Standards should be enforced using frequent peer review as is common in coding
projects.<br />
<br />
<strong>Tip 2 – Architect your Solution for Re-Use</strong>
<br />
In any software development project, good developers are obsessed with code
re-use. They use code libraries which contain tested and reliable functions
which can be used across many projects. Developers know that re-use is a key
factor in achieving stability and speed.<br />
<br />
When starting a BPMS implementation, take time to consider how to build
processes that can be re-used across multiple solutions and implement a
configuration management approach to support re-use.<br />
<br />
<strong>Tip 3 –Create Test data and Build Test Harnesses</strong>
<br />
Developers build separate applications known as test harnesses. These execute
code blocks, using pre-configured values and data. If the results of executing
a test harness are unexpected the developer immediately knows their code is
producing incorrect results and will debug and correct.<br />
<br />
When implementing the BPMS take a similar approach. Design test data and
harnesses which will be re-used throughout the project lifecycle. This will
speed up process creation and produce higher quality output.<br />
<br />
<strong>Tip 4 – Gain Confidence in Requirements before Building User Interfaces</strong>
<br />
Good developers take time to ensure requirements are robust with data and
process flows agreed before they build user interfaces.<br />
<br />
BPMS implementations could learn from this and avoid wasted effort on
implementing screens which may significantly change if the process has not been
properly defined.<br />
<br />
<strong>Tip 5 – Test All Likely Execution Paths</strong>
<br />
All good developers know that their own test strategy should cover a range of
scenarios, designed to test the “non-happy” but all too frequent execution
paths.<br />
<br />
Process design should have a similar degree of coverage, ensuring that all
likely execution paths are configured and tested so the end user is not
presented with an error strewn application or one which doesn’t support the
business process.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>Summary</strong><br />
<br />
Following these simple and somewhat obvious tips, will have a significant
impact on the quality of your BPMS implementation. It can be tempting to buy
into the hype of “zero-code” and “rapid ROI” and forget about the need for
standards and control. When the lessons of successful software development are
applied to the BPMS, your chances of success are significantly improved.<br />
<br />
If you want to talk more about your BPMS ambitions, or how to avoid
implementation pains, contact Anthony at <a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</a> to discuss
how <a href="http://www.litheit.com/">Lithe IT</a> can help.</span><o:p></o:p><br />Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-3655288838880157582012-03-20T08:30:00.001-07:002012-03-20T08:30:53.222-07:00Kofax Transform 2012 – my thoughts<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I travelled to the Kofax Transform 2012 Conference, in San
Diego, intrigued to see what position TotalAgility would take within the Kofax
product suite. I was invited to present my experiences of using
TotalAgility, but was unsure what interest there would be from attendees in
hearing a BPM story.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I need not have been concerned; my session was well attended
and generated good questions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The talk throughout the three days was massively focused on
the capabilities of TotalAgility and where it fit into the product offering by
Kofax. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At times it felt as if Kofax was re-positioning as a BPM and
case management company with a legacy scanning department, but I don’t believe
that is an accurate assessment to make. There was not much time between the
acquisition of Singularity in December 2011 and the conference starting, and
unsurprisingly Kofax wanted to put this new offering centre stage. It
represents the path to higher margins and new sales to existing customers who
are perhaps doing all they can with the Kofax Capture products.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My take home for existing Kofax customers is that Capture will
continue to be developed separately from TotalAgility, allowing them to remain
on the same upgrade cycle as they anticipated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, it is clear that TotalAgility will be extended to integrate
with Capture, providing a compelling out of the box (OOTB) offering for organisations
considering process improvement in the front office as well as back. With
integration to any CMIS compliant ECM already available OOTB, the offering
becomes differentiated from competitors and well placed to attract Kofax
Capture customers to extend automation and process improvement into the front-office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The conference probably gave TotalAgility the most “air-time”
it has received to-date in front of a captive audience. From the discussions I
had with attendees during the conference, interest and excitement levels were
high, and I think the acquisition will turn out to be a prosperous decision for
Kofax and will sharply increase the install base of TotalAgility.</span></div>
If you want to discuss this, please contact me at <a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</a>, or visit <a href="http://www.litheit.com/">www.litheit.com</a> for more information.Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-72368371288180845492012-01-16T04:47:00.000-08:002012-01-16T04:47:29.970-08:00BPMS, A Compliance Officers Best Friend<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I recently updated the Lithe IT website and added a new link
to highlight one of my favourite features that leading BPMS support, improving compliance.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I often think that being a Compliance officer is very
similar to providing an IT service provider, in that senior people only want to
talk to you when something goes wrong. Within IT and the wider business a
considerable amount of effort is spent measuring and proving compliance with
stated business processes, regulatory and legislative rules, and client instructions.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve experienced this in both the Financial Services and Public
sectors within the UK and have first-hand experience of how time consuming it
is. It is also often regarded as a burden as it often means extra work in
gathering and completing templates.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Imagine having improved controls, reducing the data
gathering and proof effort, with immediate highlighting of potential problems.
With a leading BPMS this can be quickly achieved.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A BPMS will rapidly become a Compliance Officers best friend
as it will:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Provide a full audit trail of all process
execution, showing interactions by systems and people,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Retain a complete change history for all
processes and show which process version a specific instance used,</span></li>
<li><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Automate many manual process steps reducing room
for non-compliance,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mandate checklists and authorisation workflow to
be completed during process execution,</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Integrate with existing systems and processes,
so that results can be achieved rapidly,</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Enables mobile workers to take part in processes
including those using mobile phones to connect,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Allow business rules to be defined and managed,
separate from process workflows, which will control the execution path,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Deliver real-time reporting on targets and
events so that specific conditions can trigger alerts,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Modify the level of checking required based on
skill level of the operator taking part in a process.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For these reasons, I believe a BPMS is the ideal technology
to implement a control framework, and therefore becomes a Compliance Officer’s
best friend.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you are interested in finding out more about how a BPMS
can help you contact me at </span><a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">,
call UK <span class="baec5a81-e4d6-4674-97f3-e9220f0136c1" style="white-space: nowrap;">(141) 314 3707<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6097523413112361982#" style="border: currentColor; bottom: 0px; display: inline; float: none; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: static !important; right: 0px; top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: 16px;" title="Call: (141) 314 3707"><img src="data:image/png;base64,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" style="border: currentColor; bottom: 0px; display: inline; float: none; height: 16px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: static !important; right: 0px; top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap; width: 16px;" title="Call: (141) 314 3707" /></a></span>, or tweet me @Anthony_LitheIT.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">See </span><a href="http://www.litheit.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">www.LitheIT.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> for
more information on Lithe IT and to download the comprehensive and free BPMS
Selection Guide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-10884753394393566402011-10-26T04:59:00.001-07:002011-10-26T05:03:57.287-07:00Do “to-be” process models improve agile project governance?<span style="font-family: Calibri;">BPMS vendors are strong proponents of using agile methods to
implement their solutions, highlighting the increased potential of rapid ROI
compared to using traditional waterfall approaches. I believe that there are a
number of tests which can help determine if agile methods are likely to work,
but I’ll leave that subject for another day. Assuming these tests are met, I
strongly agree with the vendor position.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It can be a hard sell to Finance Directors who are rightly
wary of such promises, even if agile is likely to succeed. It becomes an even
harder sell if the balance of risk of not achieving the ROI lies with the
customer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A recurring complaint levelled against agile methods,
especially by those new to them, is that the business cannot define strong
acceptance criteria in advance of the project as functionality delivered will
be determined during each sprint. This is a valid complaint as it makes it
difficult to create a contract where the vendor is “on the hook” to deliver a
working system. It is unfair to expect the vendor to commit to a fixed price
contract without knowing the work involved, and equally unfair to expect the
customer to agree to write a blank cheque to support implementation. So what to
do?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I advocate spending time to develop a robust “to-be” model
using the BPMN 2.0 notation. The approach to modelling depends on the level of
improvement sought, knowledge and availability of skilled process experts, and
timescales to deliver change. To become best in class, it is hard to see how
external benchmarking can be ignored; similarly if the process needs to be
operational within a short timeframe then a FAST method is likely to offer the
best approach.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Once a verified model is created it allows the business to
determine those activities which are “Must haves” to be delivered during the
project. It is also important to define acceptance criteria for each activity,
understanding that this is unlikely to be universal for all parts of the
process. For instance, customer facing process activities are likely to contain
data validation, error handling, performance constraints, escalation steps, and
conform to a defined accessibility standard. For other parts of the process it
may be acceptable to live without an escalation alert, custom error handling,
or a pretty screen. Creating an acceptance matrix and linking each activity to
this is a good way to gain and document agreement and doesn’t require too much
effort.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With this information available, the customer and vendor can
enter contract negotiations better able to agree on the work required for the
creation of an end to end workflow, with those activities categorised as “Must
haves” fully configured, creating the potential for acceptance criteria linked
to a payment schedule. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I don’t want to suggest that a “to-be” model is right in all
circumstances, but from a governance perspective, it is difficult to make a
good argument against creating one. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">If you want to discuss this or any other BPM related subject
please drop me a note at </span><a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com,"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">AnthonyMurphy@LitheIT.com,</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> visit </span><a href="http://www.litheit.com/"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">www.litheit.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
or call me on 0141 314 3707.</span></div>Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-91883462187631722712011-10-12T03:07:00.000-07:002011-10-12T03:07:12.581-07:00Remove admin time by implementing Mobile BPM<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As consumers of IT we are used to being presented with
different interfaces when buying services. Consider the experience of Internet
shopping. The interface I am presented with is now device specific so that I
get the best experience on my PC, laptop, tablet and smart phone. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So why should it be different in a business to business
context? Many businesses develop applications that will only work over a
browser, and in many cases are limited to working only when on the corporate
LAN. To become agile, organisations should start to look at providing the information
their staff need, irrespective of location, on device specific interfaces.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Traditional IT departments shy away from multi-device
development as they typically don’t have the skills or budget to develop
applications for different platforms. They often cannot describe a positive ROI
when justifying the costs of multi-device development, and in doing so reduce
agility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With Mobile BPM solutions, this barrier is removed. Recent
innovations in BPMS vendor platforms are allowing processes and applications to be
developed once, and executed on the business persons’ device of choice, with no
additional development cost. The process designer can choose what information
is presented to mobile devices to allow them to complete their process step.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Imagine the benefits of allowing the Mobile BPM enabled salesperson
to initiate a sales process whilst sitting with the client, allowing them to focus
100% on the next lead when they leave the room, instead of heading back to the
office to complete an admin process. Imagine a process where VAT receipts are
uploaded as photographs, categorised and justified with minimal effort, again
freeing admin burden from sales and executive resources. The list of
possibilities is endless.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As Mobile BPM is relatively new, complex customisations are
not yet available out of the box, however what is there allows businesses to
increase efficiency, reduce response times and free their key resources to focus
all energy on what they are employed to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
If you are interested in finding out more about Mobile BPM and how it can help your business contact me at 0141 314 3707 or at <a href="mailto:AnthonyMurphy@Litheit.com">AnthonyMurphy@Litheit.com</a> for a chat. For more information about Lithe IT BPM services please visit <a href="http://www.litheit.com/">http://www.litheit.com</a>Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-53753040825695261782011-10-04T02:28:00.000-07:002011-10-04T02:28:17.435-07:00Do your work flow charts cause confusion?<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I believe that a good starting point for process improvement
is to fully understand the as-is process to be improved. Creating a flowchart
is an effective way of describing a process as most people in business have a
basic understanding of flow charts and feel able to interpret them. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If flow charts do not adhere to a proven and recognised standard,
which is fully able to describe the complexity of the current process, then they
invariably lead to confusion and are open to individual interpretation. This makes
it common place for different viewers to reach different understandings,
achieving the exact opposite purpose for drawing the diagram in the first
place! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If a best practise approach is followed, it is likely that most
misunderstandings will be resolved during a verification exercise; however it
is not guaranteed that all will, and it is much cheaper to get things right at
the first time of asking.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Using a standard such as Business Process Management
Notation (BPMN 2.0) addresses this problem. BPMN provides the capability for fully
describing complex processes occurring across multiple departments, systems or organisations.
It supports complex business events, message flow, inclusive and exclusive
gateways and merges, and provides a model which leaves no room for personal
interpretation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>BPMN is free to use</strong> as it is an open standard and can be
implemented with no specialist tool support. (See </span><a href="http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
for details on the specification). It is also used by leading BPMS vendors
whose systems turn BPMN models into executable processes. If you are
considering procuring a BPMS, then I’d recommend starting to model processes
using this notation right away, as it will help your selection process and ease
your implementation projects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Will adopting a standard mean individual interpretation will
go away? Unfortunately not, but I believe it goes a long way towards a solution
as it allows those familiar with the standard to fully understand and challenge
the model. In practise, if a model contains notation which is unfamiliar, I
believe most people are likely to seek an explanation, rather than fill in the
blanks themselves. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Have you experienced problems with process flow charts causing
confusion and want to learn more about BPMN 2.0? Contact Lithe IT on 0141 314
3707 and ask for Anthony or see our website at <a href="http://www.litheit.com/">www.litheit.com</a>.</span>Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-12134860732687869862011-09-25T03:27:00.000-07:002011-09-25T03:27:00.861-07:00Is a BPMS a friend or foe to the IT department?W<span style="font-family: "Courier New";">e all know of the expression that Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, so why should IT developers become the driving force for implementing a Business Process Management System?<o:p></o:p></span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">BPMS vendors are keen to stress that their software provides zero code environments, intuitive and easy to use graphical workflow tools, and wizard based screen designs. So do businesses who implement a BPMS typically retire their IT developers? The answer is a resounding no! <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Outside of business analysts, it will be unusual to find someone within business with the time or ability to create blank processes from scratch. They will not understand modular process creation; appreciate capacity, performance, or error handling implications of their designs. They don’t know about the pitfalls of poorly managed change control or configuration management. Only those with a solid grounding in IT can bring these skills to the party.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">Business subject matter experts are able to view a graphical business process diagram and provide immediate feedback to analysts and developers. I believe that using a BPMS helps to solve one of the recurring IT complaints of poor quality requirements and badly defined change. Having the ability to modify the executable in discussion with the subject matter expert, by changing a diagram both can understand, will save the developer time, result in a better solution, and will allow the business user to test more effectively. It will also self-document and I’ve still to meet a developer who enjoys documentation!<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">There will always be room for Java and .Net development to enhance out of the box capability, but this will be limited to interesting coding scenarios and not basic screen or simple database connectivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New";">An IT department seen to be advocating Process Improvement, and not just wanting to complete another system upgrade, will raise the profile within the organisation. Once operational, business specialists will be able to manage and modify their processes without always coming to IT, but only within an agreed control framework. They will thank and praise the IT team that delivers this capability to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">If you want to find out more please visit <a href="http://www.litheit.com/"><span style="color: blue;">www.litheit.com</span></a>, or contact <a href="http://www.litheit.com/Contact%20Lithe%20IT%20-%20BPM%20Consultants%20in%20Scotland.cshtml">Lithe IT and ask to speak to Anthony</a>.</span>Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-49023926197517078582011-09-21T03:23:00.000-07:002011-09-21T03:23:56.822-07:00The role of IT in process focused organisations<span style="font-family: Calibri;">IT departments are often accused of not understanding the business, and it is true that the business rarely understands what the IT department does. To an IT manager achieving a service level availability of 99.95% might represent a great year and result in a bonus, but to the business, if the downtime occurred during a key trading window then IT has failed. So how can we resolve this anomaly, and how can Business Process Management help?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I believe that IT and business needs to become more focused on customer facing processes where IT is part of a cross organisation team measured on achieving process success. Consider the function of producing client reports within a financial services organisation. The target success is that 100% of client reports are delivered on time each month, with outperformance achieved by beating targets. It makes sense for all staff, including those in IT, delivering this process to be rewarded when these targets are achieved. The traditional model would see middle office staff challenged to meet the key business target and IT staff with an unrelated uptime, or response time measure. Providing a business focus for IT will encourage IT to make sure adequate support is available, and that appropriate capacity has been provisioned. It will get IT and business on the same page.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For this approach to work, a senior manager needs to be made responsible for delivery of each process, which in most organisations will lead to a degree of matrix management. Over the years I was always told that matrix management is bad and should be avoided, but I don’t believe that now. I believe that optimum performance comes from being a process focused organisation. That doesn’t necessitate the need for immediate restructuring as most benefits can be achieved using matrix management.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Identifying key processes and establishing a matrix management structure for selected processes, will allow organisations to become more responsive to customer needs. It will be easier to support continuous improvement of these key processes as staff from all disciplines will be rewarded to do this. From an IT perspective, it will allow the benefits of a functional structure to focus on delivering scalable, robust and affordable infrastructure and systems, whilst better understanding the various business activities which rely on those IT assets to be available.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Business Process Management provides the toolkit to help organisations design, implement, measure and improve these key processes. An investment in a BPMS, will further improve control, visibility and acceptance of this improved way of working, but this should only be done once the high level structures have been designed. To learn more about BPM, please <a href="http://www.litheit.com/Contact%20Lithe%20IT%20-%20BPM%20Consultants%20in%20Scotland.cshtml">contact Lithe IT and ask for Anthony.</a></span></div>Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6097523413112361982.post-89021477488644016032011-08-19T07:29:00.000-07:002011-08-19T07:29:45.264-07:00Office 365 - does this open the door for BPM?With the release of Microsoft <a href="http://www.litheit365.com/">Office 365</a>, there is now an even more compelling reason for small to medium sized businesses to embrace the cloud. In my view, I can't think of many scenarios where it would be better to implement an on-premise solution. Of course, larger organisations who have significant private clouds are likely to move slower.<br />
But as small businesses migrate, what does this mean for those working in BPM? <br />
<br />
For the vendors aligned with Microsoft (Singularity, Global 360, etc), I believe that this may be the door opening to a market ripe for the picking. Selling BPM to the small business is not the same as a large organisation. The need for solutions, and not capability, is more important and budgets for licenses and consultants are of a different level, if they exist at all. They have now got SharePoint on-line, but they don't want to have to pay for staff or partners to help them avoid the many potential pitfalls of a poorly managed SharePoint infrastructure. <br />
<br />
I feel cloud based BPM solutions could be used to automate and control these processes and allow the small businesses to see real value in process solutions. However the vendors need to provide cloud based multi-tenancy models, where usage costs for customers are at a similar level to Office 365.<br />
<br />
To reach this market the offering has to be compelling. I don't see the evidence that we are there yet but I do think the opportunity now exists - question is does anyone want to take it?<br />
Anthony Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14178648707749865763noreply@blogger.com0Glasgow, Glasgow City G1 3HL, UK55.8593023 -4.254884299999957955.8571918 -4.2561367999999575 55.861412800000004 -4.2536317999999582