Comments on: The Secret is Out: The Business is Building Processes and Applications http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/ A member of the Gartner Blog Network Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:21:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Stefano Pogliani http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2605 Stefano Pogliani Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:08:49 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2605 I think that, as for everything, the truth is not on the extreme. I think that "user created Business Processes" are required in order to keep on with the backlogshort-circuit intermediation that can introduce noise As someone already stated before, this is not fundamentally different from what happened 15 years ago (or longer) when business users started to use Excel (and Access). The need is there, but sometimes if the need is not properly followed and governed, it could introduce additional issues. So, I think that the convergence between 3 technologies may perhaps address the need in an "enterprise way": SOAPortalsMashups I have written a couple of posts sometimes ago in my own blog : <a href="http://tech.poglianis.net/2006/08/27/two-faces-of-the-same-coin/" rel="nofollow">Two faces of the same coin</a> and <a href="http://tech.poglianis.net/2007/10/15/mashups-web20-and-the-soa-cake/" rel="nofollow">Mashups, web2.0 and the SOA cake</a> In this sense, I think that Cloud and SaaS may be accelerators (because of the possibility to quickly and cheaply realise what is needed) ut do not change the scenario (in the sense of the needs and the solution) I think that, as for everything, the truth is not on the extreme.
I think that “user created Business Processes” are required in order to
keep on with the backlogshort-circuit intermediation that can introduce noise
As someone already stated before, this is not fundamentally different from what happened 15 years ago (or longer) when business users started to use Excel (and Access). The need is there, but sometimes if the need is not properly followed and governed, it could introduce additional issues.

So, I think that the convergence between 3 technologies may perhaps address the need in an “enterprise way”:
SOAPortalsMashups
I have written a couple of posts sometimes ago in my own blog : Two faces of the same coin and Mashups, web2.0 and the SOA cake

In this sense, I think that Cloud and SaaS may be accelerators (because of the possibility to quickly and cheaply realise what is needed) ut do not change the scenario (in the sense of the needs and the solution)

]]> By: Alok Misra http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2596 Alok Misra Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:14:29 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2596 Jim, You pose some very good questions about IT’s role in the Cloud world. Will IT continue to play an important role within their organization, when the business now has the option of getting their apps developed on platforms such as Force.com, without IT involvement? CIOs need to do some serious thinking and figure out how they’d add value. I've covered some of this in my blog post at: http://www.navatarforce.com/financial/does-the-cio-have-a-role-in-the-cloud/ Would love to hear your views. Alok Misra Principal Navatar Group www.navatargroup.com Blog: www.navatarforce.com Jim,

You pose some very good questions about IT’s role in the Cloud world. Will IT continue to play an important role within their organization, when the business now has the option of getting their apps developed on platforms such as Force.com, without IT involvement?

CIOs need to do some serious thinking and figure out how they’d add value. I’ve covered some of this in my blog post at:

http://www.navatarforce.com/financial/does-the-cio-have-a-role-in-the-cloud/

Would love to hear your views.

Alok Misra
Principal
Navatar Group
http://www.navatargroup.com
Blog: http://www.navatarforce.com

]]> By: Jim Sinur http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2527 Jim Sinur Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:57:55 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2527 Overall business contexts, technical contexts and information architecture is always important. Agreed. BPM is a key discipline that is quite pervasive. Overall business contexts, technical contexts and information architecture is always important. Agreed. BPM is a key discipline that is quite pervasive.

]]> By: Clayton Costa http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2491 Clayton Costa Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:18:07 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2491 Jim, It's an interesting trend to observe, after all. But I think that BPM suites are not the perfect tool to automate ANY kind of process. I mean, BPM is great for *some* use cases, not for all. The risk of the business area building (automating) their own process is the one Maslow called "the law of the instrument": "Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding". Or, in other terms, give BPM (and cloud computing resources) to the end-users and they will start to re-build the entire applications porfolio - without big concerns with things like SLA's, governance, security and so on. If we take the departamental workflow projects of 90's as an example, we find thousands of very sucessful projects - that didn't scale enough, or changed fast enough, to follow the pace of businesses, and died - or became "legacy applications" to the IT departments. BPM can be a very powerful tool to enable better and more agile business processes, but without considering the overall IT architecture... it might be just (another) IT wave... Jim,

It’s an interesting trend to observe, after all. But I think that BPM suites are not the perfect tool to automate ANY kind of process. I mean, BPM is great for *some* use cases, not for all. The risk of the business area building (automating) their own process is the one Maslow called “the law of the instrument”: “Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding”. Or, in other terms, give BPM (and cloud computing resources) to the end-users and they will start to re-build the entire applications porfolio – without big concerns with things like SLA’s, governance, security and so on.

If we take the departamental workflow projects of 90′s as an example, we find thousands of very sucessful projects – that didn’t scale enough, or changed fast enough, to follow the pace of businesses, and died – or became “legacy applications” to the IT departments.

BPM can be a very powerful tool to enable better and more agile business processes, but without considering the overall IT architecture… it might be just (another) IT wave…

]]> By: BPM Blog - Ultimus http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2425 BPM Blog - Ultimus Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:24:02 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2425 [...] was recently reading a blog from Jim Sinur of Garnter, The Secret is Out: The Business is Building Processes and Applications. It got me thinking on this [...] [...] was recently reading a blog from Jim Sinur of Garnter, The Secret is Out: The Business is Building Processes and Applications. It got me thinking on this [...]

]]> By: Jonathan Sapir http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2387 Jonathan Sapir Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:20:49 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2387 Until now, IT had the sole means of production (programmers) and the sole means of delivery (the data center). The advent of platforms like Force.com will change the role of IT from builder to facilitator. We are seeing this being played out in the rapid growth of a compelling new analyst-centric methodology, whereby an analyst works closely with business users to build their own solutions. The analyst ensures that these solutions are built in a robust manner, and they interface with IT to provide the programming and integration services needed to fill the gaps left open by the platform. As these platforms become more and more powerful, the need for IT services will continue to diminish, and many business applications will be built without any involvement from IT at all (other than the analyst, who may or may not work for IT). This will happen a lot faster than most people think, causing a serious disruption in IT. Until now, IT had the sole means of production (programmers) and the sole means of delivery (the data center). The advent of platforms like Force.com will change the role of IT from builder to facilitator.

We are seeing this being played out in the rapid growth of a compelling new analyst-centric methodology, whereby an analyst works closely with business users to build their own solutions. The analyst ensures that these solutions are built in a robust manner, and they interface with IT to provide the programming and integration services needed to fill the gaps left open by the platform.

As these platforms become more and more powerful, the need for IT services will continue to diminish, and many business applications will be built without any involvement from IT at all (other than the analyst, who may or may not work for IT).

This will happen a lot faster than most people think, causing a serious disruption in IT.

]]> By: jon pyke http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2377 jon pyke Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:32:43 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2377 Jim you're right on the money but then you knew you'd get support for this from me. There will be many ways in which the cloud will change businesses and the economy, most of them hard to predict, but one theme is already emerging. In the current economic environment businesses will have to become more like the technology itself: more adaptable, more interwoven and more specialized. This has led directly to a big up take in end user driven process or application development - as always lots of terms emerging situational Applications, situational processes, mash up processes etc. But this is all about Business Technology and it is a very different proposition from what we think of as applications it therefore represents a very different opportunity and is a mechanism whereby a user can put together an “application” based around normal working patterns, using readily available services. This means that is possible to handle any sort of business problem usually tackled by enterprise solutions by being able to leverage the capability to associate virtually any number of web services within the context of an application. Process Provisioning is effectively an application generator within a process and is inherently more flexible, easier to provide, easier to manage and easier to use than traditional “ERP” type products. Jim you’re right on the money but then you knew you’d get support for this from me. There will be many ways in which the cloud will change businesses and the economy, most of them hard to predict, but one theme is already emerging. In the current economic environment businesses will have to become more like the technology itself: more adaptable, more interwoven and more specialized.

This has led directly to a big up take in end user driven process or application development – as always lots of terms emerging situational Applications, situational processes, mash up processes etc. But this is all about Business Technology and it is a very different proposition from what we think of as applications it therefore represents a very different opportunity and is a mechanism whereby a user can put together an “application” based around normal working patterns, using readily available services.

This means that is possible to handle any sort of business problem usually tackled by enterprise solutions by being able to leverage the capability to associate virtually any number of web services within the context of an application. Process Provisioning is effectively an application generator within a process and is inherently more flexible, easier to provide, easier to manage and easier to use than traditional “ERP” type products.

]]> By: The Secret is Out: The Business is Building Processes and Applications - Dhiren Shah’s Blog http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2372 The Secret is Out: The Business is Building Processes and Applications - Dhiren Shah’s Blog Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:16:50 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2372 [...] post: The Secret is Out: The Business is Building Processes and Applications :applications, building-processes, lifted-the-press, penny-arcade, seattle, the-secret, [...] [...] post: The Secret is Out: The Business is Building Processes and Applications :applications, building-processes, lifted-the-press, penny-arcade, seattle, the-secret, [...]

]]> By: Jim Sinur http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2365 Jim Sinur Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:49:50 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2365 What is new is the depth, breadth, intensity and benefit level involved. The game has been upped to a new level What is new is the depth, breadth, intensity and benefit level involved. The game has been upped to a new level

]]> By: David Wright http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/comment-page-1/#comment-2364 David Wright Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:58:17 +0000 http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2009/09/10/the-secret-is-out-the-business-is-building-processes-and-applications/#comment-2364 This is not new, starting back with spreadsheets being used as business apps, followed by Microsoft Access. Any app developed in this way has pretty much the same end; it becomes something the business depends on, and then it starts having problems that the business can't fix, and that's when IT gets called to try and save the day. I can see it happening again with these latest/greatest things available directly to the business. IT can't stop this from happening for all the reasons about limited resources and such. I have seen companies try to ban these apps because of the risks they bring, but that is not going to work. My idea was/is for IT to actively engage those power users out in the business, give them support in the tools they are using, including a process fo migrating an app to IT production, hopefully before it has problems. In this way, power users become a local extension of IT, adding to the overall resource pool. You can certainly get input for what the business needs in its systems by monitoring what the business is building itself. This is not new, starting back with spreadsheets being used as business apps, followed by Microsoft Access. Any app developed in this way has pretty much the same end; it becomes something the business depends on, and then it starts having problems that the business can’t fix, and that’s when IT gets called to try and save the day.

I can see it happening again with these latest/greatest things available directly to the business.

IT can’t stop this from happening for all the reasons about limited resources and such. I have seen companies try to ban these apps because of the risks they bring, but that is not going to work. My idea was/is for IT to actively engage those power users out in the business, give them support in the tools they are using, including a process fo migrating an app to IT production, hopefully before it has problems.

In this way, power users become a local extension of IT, adding to the overall resource pool. You can certainly get input for what the business needs in its systems by monitoring what the business is building itself.

]]>