Optimising business process efficiency and flexibility through reduced friction

INFOGENCER

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES
A Guide to the Business Value and Impact of Information Technology Solutions JOURNAL

Optimising
Business Process
Efficiency and
Flexibility
Introduction by Jason Chester
CEO and Director of Research – Infogencer

Industry Perspective by Garth Knudson
Director, International Sales and Alliances - HandySoft

Industry Perspective by Matt Davies
Senior Director of Product Marketing – Cordys

JULY 2012

WWW.INFOGENCER.COM/BPJ

Welcome www.infogencer.com/bpj

Welcome to this issue of the
Infogencer Business Perspectives Journal
While there is certainly no shortage of information on IT solutions and
services, the vast majority is technically oriented and aimed at a
technology audience. What is often overlooked is that investment in
IT solutions and services must be predicated on solid business
benefits. Our objective with the Infogencer Business Perspectives
Journal is simple: to provide business and commercially-oriented IT
management with perspectives on the business value and impact of IT
solutions and services.
Jason Chester
As business managers are becoming much more involved in IT CEO and Director of
Research
investment decisions, and (we hope) that IT management are Infogencer
becoming more commercially aware of the business impact of their
decisions, we believe that both audiences need a common and business focused
viewpoint. Through this Journal we aim to serve that need by helping to stimulate
thought and debate as to where IT investments should be focused to address some of the
most critical business opportunities and challenges facing organisations today.

Following our independent introduction, we are joined by a small number of senior
executives from the vendor community who provide their industry perspective. It is worth
remembering that these contributors have a wealth of practical and real-world experience
to share. It is also most likely that it is through the adoption of their solutions and services
that organisations can address the issues raised.

In this issue we cover the importance of optimising the efficiency and flexibility of business
processes. The top challenges regularly cited by our clients are the improvement of
business productivity, agility and cost reduction. As business processes underpin
practically everything an organisation does, they are prime candidates for addressing
these challenges.

In the introduction, we discuss the impact that friction, inflexibility and complexity has on
business processes and the subsequent impact on business performance. We then look at
the challenges that business management face and the responses that are needed to
counter their impact to improve the efficiency and flexibility of their business processes.

Following our introduction, Garth Knudson the Director of International Sales and
Alliances for HandySoft discusses two of the most fundamental components to successful
business process improvement: methodology and talent. Finally, Matt Davies the Senior
Director of Product Marketing for Cordys discusses the central role that Business Process
Management plays in addressing the challenge of improving business operations.

We hope that you enjoy this issue.

Jason Chester

July 2012 | Infogencer Business Perspectives Journal | 2

Introduction www.infogencer.com/bpj

Optimising Business Process
Efficiency and Flexibility
Jason Chester Business processes are the substrate on which every organisation is formed and without
CEO and Director of them an organisation simply would not function, if at all exist. While we are not always
Research for conscious of them, they underpin every single activity the business performs. Developing a
Infogencer corporate strategy, designing new products and services, executing a global marketing
strategy, processing an employee expense claim, answering a customer query, replenishing
inventory or paying a supplier are all manifestations of business processes.

By definition, a business process is a collection or sequence of related activities and tasks
that together produce a desired outcome. A process may be structured (‘tick-the-box’
processes) such as processing customer orders or unstructured (‘dynamic’ processes) such
as budgeting or responding to customer correspondence. All organisations will have
processes that fit both of these descriptions, however many will fall somewhere in
between. While we tend to relate the term business process with more structured
activities, unstructured business processes are just as worthy of management attention.
Collectively these business processes form the basis for all the activities that the
organisation performs. In its purest sense, one could argue that the act of business itself is
the orchestration of a complex set of interconnected business processes.

More often than not, these business processes emerge and evolve as the organisation
grows without much management attention or intervention in their design. While we are
more aware of their inputs (such as receiving a customer order) and outputs (such as the
recorded increase in revenue) business management are often less aware of the internal
processes that go on in between those start and end points. Most processes just seem to
‘happen’, much like our autonomic nervous system which keeps us breathing and our

 In its purest sense, one
could argue that the
act of business itself is
heart beating, yet they are essential to an organisation’s health and fitness.

While business processes are fundamental by enabling an organisation to conduct its
business - friction, inflexibility and complexity are their nemesis.
the orchestration of a
complex set of Business Process Friction and the Impact on Efficiency
interconnected
business processes. As a business process is executed, each step imposes a friction which increases the overall


latency of the process. The amount of friction each step creates can vary enormously.
Automatically updating a database record will be negligible but manually re-keying a paper
-based form will create a significant amount of friction. This friction builds up through
each step and over long and complex processes, or highly unstructured processes, this
friction rapidly becomes significant. When business processes are repetitive, which almost
all are, this friction accumulates further over each cycle. In high volume transactional
scenarios where the individual process may seem efficient, the friction generated over
these high volumes can again become significant.



This friction acts as an inhibitor which slows the organisation down and increases its
operating costs. While friction is present and unavoidable in all business processes of
course, it is vital that it is kept to a minimum. Any excess or unnecessary friction will lead
to the processes being inefficient, which in turn leads to a significant and avoidable cost
burden to the organisation as well as reducing its operational performance.

In the current climate, the efficiency of business processes could not be more important.
With more competitive global markets, subdued demand and competitive pricing
pressures all placing greater stress on maintaining margins, organisations must seek the
efficiencies needed to protect them. Where business processes involve the interaction of
the workforce, efficiency becomes even more critical. For most organisations the
workforce represents the single most costly asset and in many cases can account for
upwards of 70% of total operating costs. Improving process efficiency and reducing
process cycle times by reducing the friction in business processes increases overall
productivity, enabling the organisation to utilise fewer resources to achieve their
objectives.

To optimise the efficiency of business processes, business management and their teams
need to look closely at their process structures to identify where change is needed to
eliminate the unnecessary friction within these processes. By looking at the overall
process flow, unnecessary steps or more efficient flows should be identified. The
remaining steps that are essential to the process may also cause a high degree of friction.

The objective then needs to be to look where elements of the business process can be
automated or streamlined to improve their efficiency. Manually re-keying the information
from a customer application form is a good example, especially if the number and
frequency of documents processed is high. In this example the implementation of
document scanning and recognition solutions may significantly improve the efficiency of
the overall process, release resource and increase overall productivity.

How and where the workforce interacts with business processes is also an area that can
cause a high degree of friction. Traditionally, business processes have been locked within
enterprise applications such as CRM and ERP. This requires the user to ‘go to the process’
when interaction is required. Yet most users are spending an ever increasing amount of
time outside of these applications such as on email, enterprise social networks or mobile


devices. The ability to integrate business process with these environments enables the
process to ‘go to the user’, greatly increasing both the efficiency of the process and the
Task switching
between applications is productivity of the user.
known to be a
significant drain on It is also often the case that a single business process may spread across many enterprise
employee productivity applications. For example, processing a customer order may involve eCommerce, CRM,

 ERP and finance applications, as well as external resources such as currency conversion or
credit scoring. Task switching between applications is known to be a significant drain on
employee productivity. By overlaying a process-oriented interface that provides a single



integrated workspace, efficiency and productivity can be significantly increased. Solutions
(known as composite or rich web applications in the industry) which enable organisations
to achieve this are gaining prominence and for good reason.

Business Process Flexibility and the Impact on Agility
Not only do business processes enable the organisation to do what it does, collectively
they also form the instruction set that defines how the organisation does what it does.
When an organisation wants or needs to do something differently, it inevitably involves
the change to one or several business processes. For most organisations this is easier said
than done. More often than not, business processes are ‘hard-coded’ either in enterprise
applications - such as in CRM, ERP and financial systems - or worse still in people’s heads.
This situation creates two fundamental problems for organisations. Firstly, the lack of
visibility makes it impossible for organisations to have a holistic view of their business
processes, how they work and their interdependence with other business processes.
Second, is the impaired ability to change those business processes to meet the new
objectives quickly and efficiently. Together, these leave organisations no option other
than to invest significant time and resource in the discovery of and re-engineering of
business process to respond to change.

 Flexibility is also
fundamental to
delivering high levels of
This can place the organisation in a precarious and risky position. With rapidly evolving
competitive markets, the volatility and uncertainty of the business environment in which
they operate, the commoditisation of products and services and rapidly changing
customer service and
satisfaction. customer needs all demand greater speed and agility. The ability to respond to new


opportunities and challenges quickly and efficiently not only enables the organisation to
remain competitive but also encourages greater levels of innovation (both internally and
externally). For organisations that are unable to achieve that, they will inevitably lose out
to organisations that can.

Flexibility is also fundamental to delivering high levels of customer service and satisfaction.
Consumers and corporate buyers are becoming more promiscuous, and organisations that
expect their customers to conform to their existing business processes will become extinct.
Customers increasingly decide how and when they interact with the organisations they
deal with such as through social media or mobile devices. Organisations need to be able to
adapt their business processes to these changing customer requirements, or exceptions,
over time or on a customer-by-customer level. The emerging trend of mass customisation
should not just be seen as a product or service marketing tool, but as an emerging trend in
how customers interact with suppliers.

Unlike the challenge of improving process efficiency discussed above, the problem with
business process flexibility is that the changes required are often unknown until the need
for that change arises. In this case organisations must avoid being the rabbit staring at the
headlights. Instead, business management need to look closely at their ability to quickly
and efficiently affect change within their organisations. From a business process
perspective that means ensuring that flexibility is ‘built-in’ not only where processes are



more likely to be subject to change but also where change is less likely. What-if and
scenario exercises may be useful in highlighting particular problematic areas. However,
achieving this level of flexibility is no mean feat and will require organisations to undergo a
fundamental shift in how they manage their business processes.

Business Process Complexity
Complexity is perhaps one of the most significant business process challenges facing
organisations. The proliferation of distributed and interconnected applications, the
diversification of products and services, more complex customer interactions and the
networked economy for example, all increase the complexity of business processes
exponentially. Not only do individual business processes become more complex but the
interaction and interdependency with other business processes creates a web of
complexity that soon becomes difficult, if not impossible, to manage. This level of
complexity can have a debilitating impact on an organisation’s operational and strategic
performance. Complexity brings increased operating costs, increased operational and
compliance risk, management distraction and impairs the organisation’s ability to respond
to new opportunities and challenges.

Business process complexity in a typical organisation is considerably greater now than it
was a decade ago and will be considerably more complex a decade from now. Unless
action is taken now to manage complexity, organisations at some point will reach a tipping
point where complexity overcomes the organisation’s ability to deal with it.

Summary
Process friction, inflexibility and complexity all impose a form of virtual ‘drag’ on an


organisation’s performance. An apt analogy would be that of an aircraft in flight. Air
(business processes) is the substrate in which the aircraft (organisation) is able to fly
Unless action is taken (operate and compete). The air imposes a drag on the aircraft as it moves through it. The
now to manage greater the amount of drag that accumulates, the less efficient the aircraft is. This causes
complexity, the aircraft to travel slower, be more difficult to manoeuvre and increases operating costs.
organisations at some
The more aerodynamically efficient the aircraft is, the more it is able to operate more
point will reach a
efficiently and flexibly. The same is true for organisations. As business processes
tipping point where
complexity overcomes
introduce drag through inefficiency, inflexibility and complexity - the cumulative effect
the organisation’s slows the organisation down, making it less efficient, less flexible and more costly to
ability to deal with it. operate.

 Just as the designers of aircraft strive for greater improvements in performance, business
management need to recognise the same need within their organisations. This is not a just
problem for the IT department as is often perceived. Creating an operating environment in
which to optimise business process efficiency and flexibility should be a major priority for
senior business management.



Management Challenges
and Responses

Culture and Management Discipline
The term Business Processes Management (BPM) is commonly ascribed to a range of BPM
technology solutions. However, business process management is a management discipline
like any other. While technology solutions are a valuable tool in providing the capability
for organisations to manage process efficiency, flexibility and complexity more effectively –
they are only a part of the solution. To think any differently is a dangerous and risky
assumption. Business process management should be seen as an organisation-wide
management culture and discipline which is embraced by management at all levels within
the organisation, from CxO down to operational and line-of-business management. This
enables the organisation to create an environment in which there is a broad recognition of
the direct impact that business processes efficiency, flexibility and complexity can have on
performance.

While still relatively immature as a concept – business process governance is a more
formal approach that involves setting standards, priorities and goals which are clearly
aligned with the organisation’s operational and strategic objectives. Under a business
process governance framework there is perhaps a clearer understanding and definition of
an organisation’s processes, their owners and the stakeholders involved in optimising
them. Business process governance frameworks often see the creation of centres of
excellence or competency centres which bring together business and IT management and
their teams with clear objectives and areas of responsibility.

For most organisations, other than those in highly regulated industries such as financial
services, somewhere in between those two approaches will be a good starting point. What

 Business process
management should be
seen as an organisation
is important is to clearly define who are the processes owners (most likely business
managers), the participants which are critical in supporting and enabling change (most
likely IT and business analysts) and defining clear goals and objectives that can be used to
measure success (or failure of course).
-wide management
culture and discipline This culture and discipline also, and importantly, extends to the design and
which is embraced by implementation of an organisations technology and application portfolio. Visibility is
management at all perhaps one of the most fundamental challenges to overcome when optimising business
levels within the
process efficiency and flexibility. William Deming is often mis-quoted as saying “what
organisation
cannot be measured cannot be managed” however in the case of business processes –


what cannot be seen cannot be managed – is certainly true. Before an organisation can
even attempt to improve its business processes, it must be able to have a holistic view of
them, their interaction and interdependence with other business processes, applications,
systems and people.



More often than not, the individual steps that make up a business process are often
contained within, and spread across, a wide range of enterprise applications and database
systems. These steps and their associated business rules (discussed later) are often ‘hard-
coded’ within the applications themselves. This cloak of invisibility makes it impossible for
non-technical staff, such as business management and analysts, to visualize a business
process and its interactions. Where people interact with system-based business processes
(system-to-human) or where processes involve direct interaction between colleagues
(human-to-human) the definitions, instructions and rules of these processes are often not
documented well, if at all.

Therefore vital to a business process management culture is the de-coupling and exposure
of business process and business rules from within the technology and operating
environment. As we shall discuss shortly, this transparency enables a business process
management framework to interact with the systems and procedures, providing a solid
foundation on which to manage and orchestrate business processes.

Establishing a Business Process Management Framework
By creating a business process improvement culture, or more formal governance
programme, business managers and their teams will soon have an understanding of what
is, and what is not, possible and the processes most in need of attention. However,
without a business process framework in place, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to
manage and implement their transformation. It is somewhat akin to a person with
paralysis – the head can imagine whatever it wants, but the body is not going to do
anything.


A business management framework consists of both a methodology and a set of tools and
solutions. From a methodology perspective, the most common is based on the business
It is somewhat akin
to a person with process life-cycle as described and illustrated here:
paralysis – the head
can imagine whatever
it wants, but the body
is not going to do
anything.





Design – The identification of existing processes and the desired design of processes to
optimise efficiency and flexibility. Design includes elements such as process flow, alerts,
notifications, exception handling and escalation rules for example.

Model – Takes the theoretical design and produce a model of the business process in an
operational setting such as assigning business rules to processes. Modelling also allows
organisations to simulate the process in operation and conduct ‘what-if’ analysis to test
the processes prior to execution.

Execute – Implementation of newly modelled business process into the operational
environment by integrating and orchestrating the business process across with people and
enterprise applications and systems.

Monitor – Track and monitor overall process performance as well as monitor the progress
of individual process instances. Monitoring can be valuable in identifying processes
inefficiencies and bottlenecks.

Refine – Based on information and feedback from the modelling and monitoring phase of
the life-cycle the process can be re-modelled to improve efficiency and flexibility further.

A separate report could be written just on this business process life-cycle, if not each
individual phase; however the above serves as a high-level illustration as to a common
approach to managing the design and implementation of more efficient and flexible
business processes.

Implementing a business process management framework and methodology is in itself a
complex and difficult challenge. In our view, this is where Business Process Management
solutions become an important consideration for organisations.

 This single holistic
view and management
of business processes,
Business Process and Case Management Solutions
Business Process Management solutions provide organisations with an integrated and
from design through to
collaborative environment for implementing and managing this or similar business process
implementation, is for
life-cycle methodologies. In addition to the features that enable the organisation to
us one of the most
profound capabilities discover, document and design more efficient business processes, execution and
provided by BPM monitoring are perhaps the most critical and most valuable. Based on common standards
solutions. (such Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Execution Language


(BPEL)), BPM solutions enable the integration and orchestration of business process
execution across the organisations applications, systems and people. This single holistic
view and management of business processes, from design through to implementation, is
for us one of the most profound capabilities provided by BPM solution.

Re-use of business processes and business rules are also a valuable capability provided by
BPM solutions. In many business processes, elements will be common across a number of
different processes. Likewise, common business rules such as customer credit limits,
inventory re-order levels, or escalation procedures will also be used across many business



processes. The repositories provided by BPM solutions enable these elements to be
designed and managed in a single instance which can then be integrated into, or re-used
by other business process. This can significantly reduce overall complexity and increase
flexibility by providing a single point of change.

The capabilities that BPM solutions provide are particularly valuable to business processes
that can be very clearly defined with a set of steps, procedures and rules. However, with


processes which are more unstructured and variable, or rely heavily on human judgement
or collaboration between individuals, such as handling customer complaints or sales
This is the stuff of enquiries, the BPM solutions as described above may not be appropriate. In this instance,
fairy tales and unless several BPM vendors provide specific solutions known as Case Management solutions.
the organisation is truly These provide much of the same level of capabilities to manage and monitor these more
exceptional it will not
dynamic processes, but allow for the flexibility and variability that is required.
happen this way.
Later in this paper we have invited a small number of leading Business Process

 Management vendor executives to provide their Industry Perspective on how their
solutions can address these challenges in more detail.

Enterprise-wide vs. Process-centric Focus
Although business processes are involved in everything the organisation does, addressing
them over this broad landscape will be undoubtedly troublesome. The grand vision often
sold by incumbent suppliers of BPM solutions is that of enterprise-wide processes flowing
in a seamless manner, with management looking on proudly at their process flows in
action. This is the stuff of fairy tales and unless the organisation is truly exceptional it will
not happen this way.

Increasingly, organisations are taking a more process-centric approach. Identifying process
areas which have the greatest potential impact on efficiency, where flexibility is more
critical to operational change and where complexity is a concern are of course higher
priorities for management to address. This approach will enable organisations to realise
greater returns more quickly before extending their reach deeper into and further across
the organisations processes.

The new breed of BPM solution providers supports this approach much more favourably.
By providing solutions ‘out-of-the-box’ with fast deployment timeframes, easy to use point
-and-click, drag-and-drop functionality and backed by proven methodologies, organisations
can start to reap the rewards quickly and without too much (if at all) technical resource
required to support them. As well as these ‘on-premise’ deployments, BPM solutions are
increasingly been delivered as a cloud service. This will often provide the fastest time to
solution route and will enable organisations to have a business processes management
framework in place within days. The cloud option will also provide the least risk by
providing organisations with a relatively low cost entry point enabling them to conduct
pilot projects and assess the value of their capabilities.



The mere mention of cloud-based applications brings with it concerns around security and
privacy. While there are genuine reasons for some concern, we should not believe
everything we read in the papers. Some of these concerns are misguided and it should be
the job of the organisation to decide their own level of acceptable risk. This will vary
depending on the nature and sensitivity of the process and the data passing through the
cloud service. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss cloud-based security and
privacy in any great detail other than to flag it as an issue.

Summary
Achieving greater business process efficiency and flexibility is undoubtedly one of the most
important challenges that business management face. While many vendors would like you
to believe otherwise, there is no technology ‘silver-bullet’ that will solve all these
challenges in one fell swoop. While BPM solutions play a major role, it also involves a
seismic shift in management’s mindset, developing a business process management
culture and discipline, developing and implementing a cohesive business process
management framework and changing the way organisations develop and implement
technology solutions.

While there is no end point, in that optimising business process efficiency and flexibility
will always be an ongoing process, there is most definitely a starting point. For every
organisation that will be different. Some may be well on the road with ambitious
enterprise-wide business processes management programmes, while others may want to
look at implementing very limited or specific business process using a cloud-based
solution.

Jason Chester is the CEO and Director of Research for Infogencer -
jason.chester@infogencer.com

To comment on this article e-mail bpj@infogencer.com


Industry Perspective www.infogencer.com/bpj

A BPM Market Perspective
Garth Knudson Business Process Management (BPM) can be defined as a:
Director, International
Sales and Alliances  Management philosophy emphasizing process innovation and optimization
for HandySoft through greater visibility and control over participation and policies.

 Methodology defining and supporting organizational change.

 Suite of tools enabling, instituting and optimizing change through process
discovery, design, automation, and analytics.

Each definition plays a critical role in project success. In fact, the success of any BPM-based
application is a combination of executive commitment (philosophy), project management
and development methodology, solution innovation (product suite capabilities), and
maybe most importantly, talent (people).

BPM Success Dependencies

In order for Executives to be committed to a BPM project, they must 1) understand the
value of BPM to reduce costs, improve services, and enable compliance, and 2) believe that
both the talent and the tools can deliver on that value proposition.

There is ample proof that BPM pays dividends. Examples include:

 Touchstone Health – Automating insurance appeals cuts 30% in annual
operational costs.

 Jardine Lloyd Thompson – Streamlining employee benefits services reduced
overhead by >$3M annually and contributed to growth in company’s 2010
trading profits by 50%.



 U.S. Navy – Transforming credit card micro purchasing reduced cycle time by 3.2
days and decreased in contract defects 30% for a 400% ROI.

 Samsung – Adding control over contract management reduces annual oversight
by $845K, material selection by $338K, and increased production volumes by
$2.5M.

 U.S. Dept of Energy – Streamlining loan guarantee program reduces evaluation
time by 65% for savings of >$2M annually in annual operational costs and
oversight.

But just because others have had success, executives still need insurance that the
organization’s team and tools can deliver. Team members must be qualified and remain
proficient in both methodology and toolset. This is much more than just a one-time
training session. It is continuous investment in talent (the right people) and know-how
(best practices). As BPM is multifaceted, team members must also have expertise in
project management, business analysis, technical design, and application development.
Moving across roles, team members must know how to combine elements of Waterfall,
Agile, and Scrum to collect requirements as well as design and implement applications

Furthermore, BPM can be applied to any type of process. Although today’s BPM solutions
automate and optimize transactional and structured business processes exceptionally well,
industry experts surmise that only 20% of the work performed by employees each day
adheres to well defined process. The other 80% of work is more project-based, goal-driven,
or task-oriented. As executives want to get the most out of their investments, both team
members and tools must be able to adapt design and development to all process
scenarios.

Process Spectrum

BPM can be easy and straight-forward. But it can also be highly complex, integrated with
multiple applications, taking on a variety of workflow scenarios, culling hundreds of
metrics, and executing thousands of work items every hour – in essence, running the
business. There is no room for failure.

At HandySoft we understand this important combination of methodology, tools and talent
to foster executive commitment and enable process automation across all process types.



Methodology
Working with customers we have used Waterfall, Agile, Scrum and other methods to
design, build and implement applications. Combining this know-how of Rapid Application
Development techniques with the dynamic capabilities of BizFlow, we have created a BPM-
oriented methodology called Rapid Process Management (RPM).

RPM enables customers to deliver solutions faster with fewer issues and resources by
pulling forward process design and development during requirements analysis. As BizFlow
provides process modelling linked seamlessly with rapid forms design, team members can
build and show functionality as requirements grow and solidify. Testing and QA can occur
in parallel during the development phase.

As a result, business owners can literally see the solution evolve early in the project,
affording the opportunity to provide precise feedback needed to reduce cycle iterations.
Customers have experienced between 10% and 40% savings in application
implementations and deployments.

HandySoft uses RPM with customers. Through talent development exercises, HandySoft
also teaches this methodology in both classroom and on-site instruction.



Talent Development
Notwithstanding your methodology and product suite, your people are responsible for
building and delivering solutions. That makes hiring and inspiring people your most
important job.

In the context of BPM, people need to understand both the science and art of solution
innovation. Process-driven applications are more than just workflow activities linked
together by business rules. They include interfaces and forms that if designed well can
provide highly intuitive user experiences generating rich data sets for reporting and
analytics.

We have spent years developing and fine-tuning training programs that speak to the art
and science of BPM. So too have other BPM vendors and consultants. Take advantage of
these courses. Knowing BPM fundamentals as well as key product functionality will enable
team members, particularly business analysts, to lead more thoughtful and creative
requirement sessions. Knowing advanced development techniques will help designers
create more adaptable, user-friendly applications at a faster pace.

As a best practice, all BPM team members should participate in courses on process
modelling, forms design and development, and user experience design. Topics include:

 Process Modelling – Create project, create workflow (using BPMN), add business
rules (e.g, roles, responsibilities, policies, procedures, routing, escalations,
scheduling, etc.), add triggers (agents, components, SQL activities), design sub-
processes, publish process models, create templates, control versions, foster
collaboration

 Forms Design – Review design methodology covering application map, page
structure, field details, bindings, testing, and publish functionality; learn to use
controls (i.e., buttons, boxes, hyperlinks, tables, maps, charts, hints), hide and
restrict fields, use advanced bindings (i.e., dates initiator, random number
generation), leverage data sources, use events (i.e., calculations, form navigation,
autofill), create multiple forms, create headers with partial pages, use tabs, verify
bindings, read error logs, create calls; leverage CSS

 User Experience – Create interface design (navigation, views, menus, users,
groups and roles), create domains for reports, format pages (tabs, portlets,
dashboards), integrate with portals (SharePoint)

 Integration – Integrate with databases, 3rd party systems, email, LDAP, EDMS,
adaptors, themes, process variables, reports

 System Architecture – Review requirements and options for 1-tier, 2-tier, 3-tier
environments; review options for SaaS and Cloud deployments



 Reporting – Design and build reports, graphs, dashboards; create ad-hoc reports,
schedule reports, run analytics, leverage BI

 Administration – Install products, manage users and user groups, upgrade
applications

 Methodology – Collect requirements, analyze and design workflows, review
project timelines and budgets, fix specifications, follow RPM

You cannot invest enough in talent. Whether educating current team members or finding
new people you need to invest in the best talent available to maximize your investment in
methodology and tools. They are the ones who make your investment in BPM really
payoff.

Talent Development
As stated above, processes vary. In
fact, the same process (e.g., accounts
payable, purchase requests) varies
from company to company. No one
process is uniform across all markets.
Furthermore, process-driven
applications are made up many
moving parts – workflows, forms,
user interfaces, reports – that all
must work seamlessly to deliver
flexible, intuitive solutions allowing
users to efficiently do their work.
These conditions necessitate an
innovative, yet cost-effective
platform for creating rich-internet
applications as the speed of business.

In 1999 HandySoft launched BizFlow BPM. We were the first to combine process modelling
with forms development into one platform. And we were the first to enable process
automation beyond structured processes to ad-hoc workflows, case dockets, and
completely dynamic tasks.

Today, BizFlow is an intelligent BPM Suite (iBPMS) enabling customers to create highly
adaptable, web-based solutions with rich analytics and executive dashboards.



Key BizFlow differentiators include:

 Process automation across the full spectrum of processes

 Rapid development of applications for all devices

 Deep analytics for process intelligence

BizFlow continues to
be the first and only
BPM suite to
automate all process
types. Designers can
quickly build
transactional,
structured, and case-
oriented applications.
These apps inherently
support ad-hoc,
collaborative
activities.

Moreover, users can
create their own
projects and tasks.
“Quick Process” allows
users to rapidly design
and execute projects in 5 easy steps: 1) Create checklist, 2) Outline tasks, 3) Add details, 4)
Set reminders, and 5) Review. You can immediately execute as well as reuse quick
processes. You can share
documents (via laptop,
SharePoint, Google Doc), share the
process, and share the goals. You
can plan projects anytime, from
any device. There is no need to
involve IT.

The UI combines work area with
checklists, responses, instructions,
and a discussion area to ensure
healthy collaboration and efficient
execution. With permissions, users
can change the process on the fly
to get the job done more quickly
or effectively.



BizFlow also allows
completely dynamic project
management and action
tracking. Users simply 1)
Initiate task, 2) Describe
task, 3) Select participants,
and 4) Determine deadlines
and priorities.

With both Quick Process and
Dynamic Tasking, users get
the same benefits of control,
visibility, and compliance as afforded by structured BPM applications. They can track status
with a full audit trail of user interactions.

Application development is enabled by a rapid development platform BizFlow WebMaker.
With it developers use a codeless, WYSIWYG environment to design and visualize web
apps. Just drag and drop visual components, database fields, and web service components
onto your page. Tabs, accordions, and layout groups help you to simplify formats and
maximize space. With little effort, add cutting edge effects with calendars, a rich text
editor, and professionally designed styles. Same data and same business rules play in a
form regardless of device used. You don’t need an android specific developer. You don’t
need an iOS developer. All you need is a BizFlow developer to deliver solutions for iPad,
iPhone and Android-based users.

BizFlow also comes with functionality
to quickly create forms. It allows
users to: 1) Create smart forms that
adjust to client interaction (add/edit
fields, ask/answer new questions, add
comments, attach docs), 2) Change
workflow scenarios based on end-
user interaction requirements, 3)
Create custom email templates for
each stage of the workflow, and 4)
Add personalized branding. Pushing
out forms design empowers users to
interact in new ways with each other,
clients or general consumers. It
allows mass customization for
process driven applications.



In addition to rapid forms design and execution, BizFlow makes deployment and
troubleshooting simple and easy. You can open up the debugging dashboard with server
logs, refresh logs, view the current configuration, and restart your application without
interfering with other applications.

With BizFlow, you also have a web-based solution for on-demand analytics. Online analytic
data with multi dimension data cubes or Big Data empowers users to dive deep, explore,
and harvest intelligence that boosts competitiveness. Users can add measures, filters with
complex conditions, and drill down and up. Save or export the analysis results into excel,
pdf, or other formats and share them. Run reports on demand or schedule them to deliver
reports via email. Run reports online or via iPad apps. Process intelligence is at your
fingers.

Summary

BPM applications are the result on talented people
using innovative software in a methodological fashion.
HandySoft is committed to empowering people with
training and best practices. We are focused on
producing new functionality that simplifies
development and expands usage into all workflow
scenarios. And we are committed to helping customers
deliver projects through rapid process management.



About HandySoft

HandySoft is the leading global provider of business process management software and
solutions known as BizFlow®. HandySoft is the first in the industry to seamlessly integrate
and automate both formal processes and ad-hoc tasks to drive visibility, control and
productivity across all work that happens within an organization. With BizFlow®, process
participants – executives, managers, knowledge workers – are assured of visibility into and
control over process execution to vastly improve productivity, quickly adapt to changes in
their business, and ensure compliance.

With the experience gained from supporting more than 600,000 users worldwide,
HandySoft can help all types of organizations accelerate their business transformation
objectives through process automation, optimization, and sustainment.

3141 Fairview Park Drive
Suite 850
Falls Church
VA 22042
TEL: (703) 645.4500
FAX: (703) 703.991.0331
www.handysoft.com

Content provided in this Industry Perspective is proprietary to HandySoft Global
Corporation

Garth Knudson is the Director, International Sales and Alliances
for HandySoft - gknudson@handysoft.com




The Challenge of Improving
Business Operations
Business Process As you’ve read in the introduction, processes are fundamentally linked to a company’s
Management and its business operations and its strategic performance. Process efficiency, flexibility, complexity
Role in Improving and governance combined with business priorities are all key factors in an organization’s
Business Operations business operations.

Cordys recently commissioned wide
Matt Davis
ranging research into business
Senior Director of operations across 700 business and IT
Product Marketing for decision makers across key verticals
Cordys such as financial services,
telecommunications and
manufacturing. This research looked
into the demands and pressures under
which business and IT operate and the
impact on the relationship between
them. The figure below shows the top
six business operations priorities in
2012 and how their importance has
increased.

Alongside those business priorities
you can see the improvements that
the business decisions makers wanted
to see across their organizations. All
five areas of improvement fall under
the remit of a good Business Process
Management platform.

There were some very interesting
findings in the research and you can
find an infographic summarising them
here and the full report can be found
here.

Within the report there are two
further findings that are particularly
relevant for the role of BPM in improving business operations. 96% of the business
decision makers surveyed feel they are under pressure to improve and progress how their
business operates. 72% of those same business stakeholders report that IT is not helping
them achieve these business priorities. The rest of this paper will discuss how BPM helps
improve business operations and aligns business and IT.



Aligning the Change Cycles
of Business and IT
As previously mentioned, the big challenge in improving business operations is business
stakeholders being under increased pressure from their business priorities but at the same
time struggling because IT can’t help them achieve these priorities. The Cordys Business
Operations Platform helps tackle this problem by synchronizing the change cycles of
business and IT and their relative difference in speed.

The picture below shows how the business changes quickly, in some cases every quarter.
The technology change cycle is much slower, on average 6-10 years. This creates the
inherent problem described earlier, that the business has to change ever more quickly but
IT can’t keep up. Clearly, ripping out technology every time the business changes isn’t
going to work. This is where a Business Process Management platform such as Cordys
helps align those different speeds of change.

In the diagram above, the Cordys Business Operations Platform with its BPM and Case
Management capabilities is key to synchronizing these change cycles. However, to really
deliver on this promise of improving business operations, BPM needs to have supporting
capabilities. These supporting capabilities give you the ability to extend the reach of your
processes to really maximize their impact and deliver on the promise of efficiency,
flexibility and business agility. These supporting capabilities fall into two categories; firstly
enabling technologies such as cloud computing, enterprise mobility and social
collaboration, and second is supporting BPM capabilities such as integration, business
rules, presentation / user interface, case management etc.



Customer Showcase – Smarter Business
Operations in the Insurance Sector
ASR – a leading Dutch insurance organization selected Cordys to tackle their business
challenges which were:

 Compliance with the rapidly changing regulations

 Increase market share

 Reduce time to market of new products and services

 Increase efficiency

 Improve process visibility

ASR selected Cordys to provide better information management, decision
support tools, improved process and case management. With Cordys, ASR
delivered flexibility and agility across the entire organization. A summary of
their benefits include:

 Claims operated over 80% Straight Through Processing (STP)

 Processing time for pension plan participants decreased from 13 minutes to 2
minutes

 Reduction in FTEs from 80 to 60

 Highly adaptive to changes in legislation

 Improved customer service

 Reduction in storage costs

 Ability to cross-sell leading to an increase in market share

A full set of Cordys case studies can be found here.



Extending the Reach of Your Processes with Cloud
Computing, Mobile Technology and Social Collaboration

There are three big factors dramatically influencing the way organizations are managing
and operating their processes today. These are cloud computing, social collaboration and
mobile technology.

Cloud Computing
The speed of getting started is a huge benefit of bringing cloud technology to BPM.
Typically, BPM-in-the-cloud providers should offer this capability “as a Service”, meaning
that customers can start with BPM without having to install and set up the software
themselves. The price point to enter BPM through the cloud is usually lower due to the
“pay for use” subscription model. Also – customers can try BPM to see what it is all about
and if it is right for them. Another advantage is that it is easier to orchestrate applications
and data that reside in the cloud, so running BPM in the cloud makes processes more
efficient.

That last point is particularly important. Increasingly we’re seeing business stakeholders
choose Software as a Service for cost effective, fast delivery of critical IT capability. This
really helps the business in the short term. However, this can create two potential issues;
first you create a “Shadow IT” department in the cloud, secondly you create a process
problem. How does an organization deliver truly enterprise wide business processes when
they have a mix of applications and data both on-premise and in the cloud. This has been
termed the “mess of many” and can be illustrated in the diagram below.



This diagram shows how using SaaS can lead to substantial challenges when trying to
deliver the benefits of enterprise wide data, integration, processes, user interfaces and
governance.

There are great benefits for cloud computing when it comes to BPM and solving this “mess
of many” issue – increasingly there is a need for a “hybrid” approach to business processes
that interact not only with people but also on-premise and cloud based information and
software.

The Cordys platform gives you all the benefits of BPM discussed in this paper but also a
number of benefits from the cloud. These include:

 No upfront investment – companies don’t need to spend on hardware, support
services, installation, etc

 Enterprise ready – A high performance, secure, scalable multi-tenant enterprise
cloud platform

 Productivity – A no coding, easy to use, highly collaborative approach to BPM

One note of caution and pragmatism, as with all areas of this industry, there is a lot of hype
around cloud technology and getting to the real benefits can often be drowned out by
“cloud washing”. There are three things to really consider when it comes to BPM and the
cloud:

 Do you have people, data, or services in the cloud that your processes need to
work with?

 Do you want to actually execute processes in the cloud? If so, how do you include
your existing data and systems that aren’t in the cloud?

 Cut through the hype. Is cloud really suitable for what your organization needs to
achieve today, tomorrow or somewhere in the future?

You can read more on this subject at a recent Cordys blog posting here.

Enterprise Mobility, Mobile Technology and BPM
There is no great secret that the emergence of mobile technology is changing the way we
all do a lot of things. This is especially true when it comes to the impact mobile technology
has on business operations and the processes that support them. This huge shift means
that the default way of interacting with applications, services and processes will become
the mobile device. This has significant impact on business processes and increasingly the
approach to business processes will be to design “mobile first”.



Not only will mobile devices change the way we interact but mobile adoption will actually
lead to an evolution of BPM as a technology and a discipline. BPM already acts as the core
to the next generation of composite applications that are made up of process, data, user
interface, rules etc. BPM platforms will actually evolve to be the way of delivering
enterprise mobility and addressing the “Bring Your Own Device” challenge while still
allowing excellence in business operations, corporate governance and compliance.

Social Collaboration
The way our enterprise business technology works is a long way behind the technology we
use for our personal lives. Outside of work we’re more social and collaborative through
technology than we are in the office. For the last five years we’ve accepted this but, as the
“digital native” has an increasingly important role as not only a customer but also an
employee, this old fashioned acceptance of hard to use technology is becoming less
accepted.

At Cordys we’re trying to help fix that by spending a lot of time making sure the way users
interact with our technology is easy to use, collaborative and highly productive. In fact
Cordys is one of the few platforms recognized as the new generation of “Productivity
Platforms”. A practical example of this is how we allow social collaboration when it comes
to modelling organization, processes and cases. Everything with the Cordys platform is
browser based. Collaborative modelling in Cordys allows users anywhere in the world to
work together, in real time, in the web browser to model, document and capture their
business operations. The image below shows Erik and Johan collaboratively modelling
together in “whiteboard mode” on an order process in their web browser whilst chatting
about the process and their requirements.



Customer Showcase – Extending Office
Collaboration Suites with BPM, Cloud and
Mobile in the Manufacturing Industry
Valeo, a leading French automotive manufacturing organization, has been using Lotus
Notes for more than 10 years with 32,000 users, 6000 applications and more than 250
servers running. Valeo was looking for an innovative way to reduce the office
infrastructure costs while simultaneously improving user collaboration and productivity.
Their main business challenges were:

 Improve user collaboration and productivity on top of their new cloud office suite

 Replace Lotus Notes applications

 Make applications available anywhere anytime with a focus on mobile

 Make business processes less dependent on organizational changes

 Increase development efficiency

After a thorough evaluation of market place alternatives, Valeo decided to move to the
cloud and deploy Google Apps for Business to the company’s entire office-based
workforce. The Cordys platform was then chosen by Valeo to add cloud based Business
Process Management (BPM) and mobile capability to their Google Apps and to integrate
Google Apps with their enterprise software.

Valeo achieved a number of business benefit, the key ones being:

 Enterprise BPM for 32,000 Google Apps users

 250 servers reassigned or decommissioned

 6000+ applications in Lotus Notes will be reduced to less than 1,000 on the new
Cloud Platform

 Complete “Office in the Cloud” with governance and control

You can find the Valeo case study here.



The Next Generation of Enterprise Applications
are Composite and Process Centric
There is a lot of talk and a return of focus on applications and application development
right now. This is at least partly triggered by the popularity of mobile applications, app
stores, platform as a service etc. For enterprises, we’re going to see BPM and process take
an important role in applications. In fact we’re seeing the next generation of enterprise
applications be composite and process centric. What does this mean? The applications and
services that you need to deliver to keep improving your business operations and customer
service will be composed rather than developed and they will be made up of many
different “fragments” such as data, cloud services, on premise systems (ERP, CRM) and
mobile presentation options. The thing that guides or binds these fragments together will
often be process or a case. The series of applications that you deliver to your “customer”,
be it internal or external, are often very varied. One advantage of a composite application
delivered by a feature rich BPM platform is that it is faster and easier to create this variety
of complex solutions but not have to re-invent the wheel each time. Take three examples:

1. Your first application might be a shipping & fulfilment solution made up of ERP,
Supply Chain Management, integration and some processes

2. Your second application might be a customer service solution made up of CRM from
the cloud, MDM to get a single view of customer, content and document together
with a case centric approach

3. Your third application might be a mobile application that on-boards a new customer
quickly and allows them to start consuming products and services from the first
solution above whilst ensuring customer service thanks to the second solution above

All of these applications are composite. As you mix more and more of these things
together, you’re really creating a composite application made up of all of these parts.

Here is a real world customer example from a manufacturing company using Cordys. This
company has delivered a composite application assembled in weeks that combines fully
integrated case management driven by MDM combining Salesforce.com, an ERP system,
M2M, content management, real time monitoring of devices, and mobile device working
all composed and delivered through your browser. You suddenly start to realize that this is
a completely new kind of composite application that is process centric and combines
mobile, social and cloud.

So what are composite applications?

 A way of building user interfaces to present processes, cases, applications,
dashboards etc to users

 The capability for business users to self assemble or compose business mash-ups
made up of internal and external information



What do they give you?

 High levels of productivity and speed for subject matter experts to create, share
and publish relevant business applications

 Technology in the workplace that is as productive as the consumer IT people use
outside work

 Disposable applications that solve a problems but can be thrown away

 Mix and match structured data from internal systems (e.g. ERP) with external
data (e.g. Google Maps)

 A rich way of participating in processes and giving the right information in one
place to the right person (customer, employee, business manager)

Data Driven BPM – Turning Big Data into Operations
Intelligence and putting it in the Hands of the End User

Big data is a subject that comes up prominently on the IT and business agenda. The use of
data has an important part to play in BPM and business operations. Many of our customers
have been using Cordys to approach BPM from a “data first” approach. The Cordys
platform is being used to pull together different kinds of data from all kinds of different
sources and put it together in different ways. This single view gives someone the
information they need, that they can drill down on in order to make a decision. The Cordys
platform typically pulls data together in a few different ways:

 Data integration – pulling different systems together and integrating data in the
traditional way

 MDM – creating a single view of customer, product, risk etc

 BAM – intelligence & data about how processes are performing

 Analytics to drive business decisions – hooking into data warehouses, reporting
etc.

We typically pull this data together into a business user dashboard presented in a browser.



Where the Cordys platform really comes into its own is when you want to make that data
“actionable”. When you’ve seen the trend, the risk, the opportunity or the action that you
need to do – what next? Do you do what we’ve always done by emailing someone, ringing
them up or sending them a fax? Where the sweet spot of data and process comes into play
is by making the data actionable. When you’ve seen the information that helps you make a
decision on a composite dashboard, I want to be able to fire off the business process to
execute the decision I’ve made. Maybe I want to escalate the data I’ve seen and pass it on
to another team to investigate using Case Management. Maybe I need to evolve my
actionable dashboard to “mash up” internal analytics with data from the cloud (maybe a
map, Salesforce, etc).

More and more, we’re seeing customers taking a “data first” approach to BPM. Just a few
selected examples include:

1. Reinsurance Counterparty Management – a real time data, actionable view of risk
position

2. Remote Service Platform – service management across a wide range of IP connected
assets also known as the “internet of things”

3. Operations Intelligence – decision management using “big data” from real-time data
sources.



Customer Showcase – Data driven BPM
Delivering Operational Intelligence to a Top
Three Global Oil and Gas Organization
One of the world’s top three Oil and Gas companies faced difficulties with real time
operations data. They faced a number of challenges:

 They needed to find a better way to get the latest relevant oil and gas production
and operational data in to the hands of the people that need it.

 This data was hard to get at, to keep real-time and to visualize.

 This impacted not only plant production and operational efficiency but also risk,
governance and compliance reporting.

 They had to find a way to automate and optimize business visibility and a way of
representing huge amounts of complex data.

They selected Cordys to deliver them a solution to these challenges. A summary of the
business benefits were:

 The ability to make smarter, faster, better business decisions by relying on
operational intelligence with an improved quality of “customizable” data

 Increased IT productivity by deploying standards-based service architecture to
empower business users to compose their own intelligence applications

 Improved business user productivity by optimizing analysis without needing
technical support

 Decreased development and implementation costs—deliver visibility into
business events and operations without tapping limited IT budgets or freeing
resources to work on other, more complex challenges

 Improved intelligence from multiple data stores for past and present business
trends



Conclusion

The key to a company’s business operations and strategic performance are the
effectiveness of its processes. These processes need to drive efficiency, add flexibility to
operations and bring agility to the business. This has to be done with the backdrop of
business and IT complexity and the need to provide governance and compliance.

As you’ve read in the introduction, processes are fundamentally linked to a company’s
business operations and its strategic performance. Process efficiency, flexibility, complexity
and governance combined with business priorities are all key factors in an organization’s
business operations.

Clearly, this is not easy or trivial. Business Process Management as both a discipline and as
technology helps deliver business efficiency, flexibility and agility whilst managing
complexity, governance and compliance. BPM allows businesses to start with the
organizational process view – what are my key business metrics that are driven by how my
company works – and then drive their business operations improvement from there

The reach of your processes and hence the impact on operational improvement can be
enhanced through the use of enabling and supporting technologies such as cloud
computing, social collaboration and mobile technology.

Processes also impact the way we deliver the next generation of applications that will be
inherently process centric and composed of many different enterprise “fragments” such as
data, SaaS, legacy systems and processes all delivered through multiple business and
technology channels.

Finally, the role of big data will play a key part in giving better operational intelligence to
an organization and BPM allows this data to be turned into operational intelligence and
put in the hands of business users. This allows the speed at which an organization can
answer important questions to be increased. Data driven BPM also allows a consolidated
view of information to part of a process in a way that couldn’t be done before. Ultimately,
all of these factors enable a company to make better business decisions.

The Cordys Business Operations Platform can help you improve your business operations
in the ways detailed above with an analyst recognised, industry leading, single platform
available on premise, in a private cloud or available as a service in the public cloud.



About Cordys

Cordys is a company that offers a Business Process Management Platform that has been
recognised, by analysts, as the most complete in the market. We’re used by over 250
organizations globally to improve their business operations. The founders of Cordys were
also the founders of Baan ERP and went on to help create Webex before starting Cordys in
2004.

Since our inception – we’ve been a company focused on helping organizations improve the
way they do business. We’ve always been focused on Business Process Management
(BPM) but we’ve always taken a broader view on the wider set of business and IT
capabilities that companies need. To try and explain what we do for our customers – we’ve
summarised in 6 “pillars” how organizations use the Cordys software.

 Improving customer service

 Being a product leader

 Maximizing existing IT investments

 Driving revenue growth

 Benefiting from cloud computing

 Making business operations smarter

Further Reading:

“Get started” with the Cordys BPM Healthcheck
Cordys and Vanson Bourne BPM research report
Case studies
Customer testimonial videos
The Cordys platform in action videos
The Cordys blog

Find out more at http://www.cordys.com

Matt Davies is the Senior Director of Product Marketing
for Cordys - mdavies@cordys.com



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