Jim Sinur

In a past success snippet on Intelligent Business Operations (IBO), I shared how linking an iBPMS to the “internet of things” through visible and intelligent tagging . See http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2012/01/10/success-snippet-intelligent-business-operations/   This time I want to share a story about configuration and personalization. The industry is healthcare again, but there will be other industries for future posts. This is about the lifecycle of health events in the lives of people starting with prevention.  There is a flavor of health and wellness in this situation, but there are processes included around disease management and collaborative care here as well.

Health Workbench Approach:

This organization leveraged the strength of their iBPMS to create a health portal which became each individuals window on their own health. This organization created a custom health communication platform (workbench like with multiple customized tools) for each client/person managing their own health. This workbench included, but was not exclusive to providing a dashboard of recommended activities and actions. In addition rewarded activities were highlighted and encouraged. In some cases these activities were considered advisory and optional, but in other situations the actions were considered mandatory. Either way, individuals were provided custom content and participation groups to explain and encourage each action.

Complexities:

This approach requires a significant amount of configuration/rule changes in a narrow  time to change window as more clients and participants are added. In addition, current clients can be tracked  in real time and with instant preference changes. All of this has to happen on diverse technology platforms with diverse media types.

Results so Far:

The amount of change supported has increased five fold, new product types have been invented, and the cost of change has been reduced by 50% overall because less time is needed for each change.  All of this was accomplished without dedicated time windows for change because of visual validation and the speed of change inherent in the iBPMS.

Net; Net:

The result is a continuum of health customized by client and individual resulting in a better health experience. This is a truly adaptive and  mass customized platform that can be leveraged for increased life quality and longevity.

The above success story has been summarized and made anonymous to get the essence of the success documented quickly. The source of this success story is a technology provider named Pegasystems.

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Cloud EA ERP Green IT Governance Innovation Optimization Social Strategic Planning Success Technology Virtualization Visibility     Tags: BPM, business, Business Process Improvement, Business Rules, Decision Management, events, Green, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, Social, symposium

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It’s nice to have a boss that really understands the area he manages. This is worth a listen especially if you are contemplating coming to any one of our BPM Summits in 2012. This is an Interesting video introducing the theme we have this year about BPM and Change. Organizations are now using BPM to raise revenue as well as the traditional benefit of cost savings, so come and see us at one of the summits to hear about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdq7q9cVJg&list=UUSNX50LYGXWV_e5UWZGPGbw&index=1&feature=plcp

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Challenges EA IT Governance Optimization Simulation Social Success Technology Visibility     Tags: BPM, business, Business Process Improvement, Business Rules, Decision Management, events, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, Simulation, Social, symposium

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We all know that changing peoples work habits is a challenge. Imagine having a group of high level executives that are used to “ the good old boys” network for doing business where everything was done because of a personal relationships and very manual. Enter BPM and the visibility it provides.

The Business Problem:

This organization used a network of distributed businesses to reinsure risk. The company had the challenge to determine if it could broker risk with the most solid of partners. Quite often this need to happen quickly. It was all done backroom and not in a visible fashion. So each deal was costly and sometimes not timely enough. The requirements were demanding. The customer and broker could override any deals based on extensive qualitative and performance information about carriers in context. Automation was desirable, but the broker still stays in control despite any number of communications and conclusions. This meant that context had to be captured to insure auditability.

The BPM Solution:

Deliver “Knowledge in Context” while continuously updating a dashboard with drill down detail on client carrier selection decision, margin information, priorities, reason for selection. At any time comprehensive analytics on broker performance, carrier performance, customers, deals, client priorities had to be available. Additionally, this brokering capability needed to be on a global (Multilingual) platform, with opportunity for local behavior through rules, “skins” etc.

Net; Net:

The network of executives was pleased with the visibility this automation provided and the “back room” culture has been changed forever. Going forward this is a good base for a variety of analytics going forward. This could easily grow into an intelligence business operations solution when real time events will trigger automatic analytics, intelligence and actions.

The above success story has been summarized and made anonymous to get the essence of the success documented quickly. The source of this success story is a technology provider named Kofax/Singularity.

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Green IT Governance Innovation Optimization Social Strategic Planning Success Technology Visibility     Tags: BPM, business, Business Process Improvement, Decision Management, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, Social, symposium

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I call this one “real time resource management”. One of the challenges, for organizations, going forward is how to dynamically balance resources for client satisfaction and optimization. This innovative use of simulation and “the internet of things” together really points to one of the future directions of the intelligent business process management suite (iBPMS).  This one is all about managing surgeries and leveraging the right resources at the right time. I found this one fascinating.

Managing the Surgical Theaters:

The first step in this intelligent operation revolves around looking forward to the scheduled surgical procedures for the coming day. The first step is to use simulation to schedule the surgical theaters and to make sure the right resources are in the surgical theaters at the precise moment they are needed. Patients and doctors are the primary scheduling components, but there are specialty nurses, attendants and workers that need to be scheduled in sequence. Surgical theaters need to be prepared for each medical procedure and different procedures require different equipment and different sub-procedures. Early every day a simulation is run with resulting charts to show the optimal sequence and overlaps in a time line fashion.

Managing the People Involved:

Each patient, doctor and worker has there individual time line with each staging area and surgical theater shown as a “going in” plan for every individual possible. If everything goes to plan the resulting simulation is the guide for optimal resource utilization with minimal impact on the patient while being cognizant of leveraging the rarest skills the best way for any given day.

Managing the Dynamic Surgical Procedures:

What make this IBO better than those I have seen in the past in the surgical management process is the ability to tag every person with a tracking device to watch the actual movement and completion points (milestones) with visible tracking on top of the original plan. So the state of the patient, doctors, nurses and support staff is know in “real time”. If something happens that takes the plan in an unexpected direction (longer procedure; patient reaction, worker delays and equipment issues), the plan can be re-simulated based on the complications/deviations and project a new plan in “near real time”. 

Net; Net:

This results in a safer and better experience for the patient in tandem with dynamic resource scheduling. Going forward each piece of equipment and it’s state will be known to predict potential unexpected/undesired states. For instance each scalpel will be tracked and it’s state of sterilization and factored into the original plan as well as the “real time” adjustments.

The above success story has been summarized and made anonymous to get the essence of the success documented quickly. The source of this success story is a technology provider named Bosch/Inubit. 

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Cloud EA ERP Green IT Governance Innovation Optimization Simulation Strategic Planning Success Technology Visibility     Tags: BPM, business, Business Process Improvement, Business Rules, Decision Management, events, Green, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, Simulation, symposium

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Because of business pressures, we can’t just do things the same way anymore. Organizations have to increase their situational awareness, sharpen their decisions, and quickly respond with goal directed adjustments and results. I expect to see the advent of more IBO supported by an intelligent business process management suite(iBPMS) starting with leading edge organizations and eventually permeating many organizations over time. This is a real change for organizations attempting to leverage intelligent, agile and responsive processes. I even see this tying to the “Internet of Things” where identification and intelligence is leveraged in new and innovative processes. 

The iBPMS: Really?

With the emergence of social, mobile, presence and the cloud more people intelligence can be mustered to decisions, policies/rules, goals and radical process improvements instead of just polishing the stones (necessary, but not sufficient).  In addition, machine intelligence can be embedded and/or surround processes to assist the humans in a near real time fashion. While both of these trends will be strong for 2012 and beyond, the addition of context sensitivity/pattern recognition will be enhanced to detect expected and unexpected conditions in and around the processes. This will allow businesses to be intelligently reactive and proactive in certain situations.  The iBPMS contains strong aspects of all three, so this will become reality for some in 2012 and many in the up coming future. If you want to read Gartner’s view of the iBPMS see the following blogs and the research note entitled “Selection Criteria Details for Intelligent Business Process Management Suites”, published November 17th, 2011 as G00219274.

Additional reading:

http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=256&mode=2&PageID=2350940&resId=1852115&ref=QuickSearch&sthkw=sinur

http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2011/08/08/next-gen-bpm-making-your-processes-smarter/

http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2011/08/23/next-gen-bpm-eye-candy-for-all/

http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2011/08/15/next-gen-bpm-encouraging-your-processes-to-listen/

Net; Net:

The iBPMS is not for every organization, at the moment, but sooner of later organizations will be pushed to add intelligence to their processes, even if it is adding real time BI. For organizations that are not interested in adding intelligence into their processes, the traditional markets of BPMS, workflow and integration can help organizations to save money and make progress.  Over time the business pressure will drive organizations to the iBPMS.

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Cloud EA ERP Green Innovation Optimization Simulation Social Strategic Planning Success Technology Virtualization Visibility     Tags: BPM, business, Business Process Improvement, Business Rules, Decision Management, events, Green, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, Simulation, Social, symposium

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Boy, last year went faster than ever, but it is one I want to put in the rear view mirror as I had a challenging year personally. However, BPM was still on the grow with the emphasis on mobile, social and cloud. Next year looks to be exciting with the emergence of the intelligent BPMS driven by the need for more intelligent business operations. Here are my top highlights for 2011:

1. Recovery from some real nasty health issues and back to full steam

2. Sherry and I are at the 13 year mark of our marriage

3. The kids are all gainfully employed and the grandchildren are doing well

4. Andrew took a couple of new contracts as an Art Director in the LA area (animation for games under NDA)

5. Despite a six month forced time off; the art work continues

6. Leading a small group in our home (church related)

7. Won an art accolade and put up my new web site. http://www.james-sinur.com/career/

Paintings:

Digital Art

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Cloud EA ERP Green IT Governance Innovation Optimization Simulation Social Strategic Planning Success Technology Virtualization Visibility     Tags: business, Business Process Improvement, Business Rules, Decision Management, events, Green, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, Simulation, Social

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This is an unusual success snippet in that the client has allowed me to identify who they are, so you can verify with them instead of believing my summary. The reason given for sharing this is that the organization does not feel that this is business proprietary, but a great technique to share with others. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is leveraging ABPD in the constructing of their new applications which are extended and improved over their legacy claims applications.

Find Process Flows in Legacy:

BCBS is using ABPD to discover behaviors and/or implied flows inside the legacy claims application. This helps spec out the new replacement applications/processes and look for better rule settings. If tweaks in the legacy application are found they can be used to save labor that can be applied to running parallel applications for a period of time.

Emulating and Extending Process Flows in the New Applications:

The ABPD technology can run the processes in the new applications quickly while the rest of the applications team can construct deep logic that is necessary to support the business and link to and via the processes. Some of these processes end up as temporary bridges and others will become permanent because of the processes optimization capabilities contained in ABPD technology.

Net; Net:

This is a pretty creative use of ABPD and different than I have seen before. Usually I see ABPD used for incremental improvement and better resource utilization for process/application operations. This is a smart replacement approach that leverages ABPD in the old and new worlds. Much better than “rip and replace” in my mind and saved BCBS adding FTEs to complete the conversion/extension.

The above success story has been summarized to get the essence of the success documented quickly. The source of this success story is a technology provider named Open Connect. 

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Innovation Optimization Success Technology Visibility     Tags: BPM, Business Process Improvement, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, symposium

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I like to call this one” T2M squared” because of the leverage applied to gain and maintain speed. This organization provides a rating service that can be customized and leveraged by other organizations. This means they offer several versions of standard online ratings that can be customized for each provider(their clients)which, in turn, can be customized for providers customers. So the level of flexibility hits at least two levels can be customized in a rapid fashion. Kind of like a bullet train; fast 

This organization provides core logic for multiple verticals which can be customized for quick deployments initially and quick changes in an ongoing basis. This is what I call core logic with local variations. They leverage hosted pre-built rule solutions that are quickly tweaked. They and their clients can schedule rule changes without relying on their information technology departments. This allows for low cost changes within their pre-built verticals as well as for their down-stream customers. This allows for quick fundamental change that is self serviced. This allows their clients to provide “ the flavor of the month” for their customers. This has become so popular that their clients are providing the same change capability “on premise” for their customers.

The biggest hurdle is creating a cyclical change approach because changes can happen so quickly that people can’t keep up with the pace of change.

Net; Net:

Business rules enable business driven change at hyper speed, but watch out for organizational and people change dynamics.

The above success story has been summarized and made anonymous to get the essence of the success documented quickly. The source of this success story is a technology provider named IBM. 

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Cloud EA Green IT Governance Innovation Optimization Strategic Planning Success Technology Virtualization Visibility     Tags: BPM, business, Business Process Improvement, Business Rules, Decision Management, events, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, symposium

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I received a friendly note from one of the early process practitioners in the process industry, Andrew Spanyi, this weekend. He pointed out a cover article he penned (I would guess keyed in, but penned sounds cool ) for the December 2011 issue of Strategic Finance magazine. I found it to be quite good, but aimed at the CFO. I really think that it really applies to anyone trying to effect change; especially those of us who are influencing process work in the world today. I have included a link for your convenience.

Andrew hits hard on three basic beliefs, listed below. I would encourage you to read the article as it is crisp and concise besides being worth the read.

Measure what matters to customers,
Forge essential partnerships, and
Promote an enterprise view.

http://tinyurl.com/cog82b7

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Category: Applications BPM Business Process Improvement Business Rules Challenges Cloud EA ERP Green Optimization Social Strategic Planning Success Virtualization Visibility     Tags: BPM, business, Business Process Improvement, Business Rules, Decision Management, Green, Optimization, Process Improvement, Process Management, Simulation, Social, symposium

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We wish you the best this Christmas season and New Year. If you don’t celebrate this time, excuse us for having some joy  

BTW: Thanks for your continued readership and comments. I hope to delight you from time to time and inform you mostly.

Warm Regards,

Jim, Sherry and Maggie Mae

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