Preparing For The Economic Up Turn

Manage the increased complexity of critical business processes, says John Cachat, President of Silico Corporation. BPM will help.

A wide range of companies are investing in Business Process Management (BPM), recognizing that implementing business process improvements may be one of the major deciding factors in determining which organizations are best able to weather the current economic storm and be efficient when the economy turns around. Companies leveraging BPM as part of their corporate strategy in the face of such difficult times will likely be among the top performers in the coming years as the economy improves.

In the current economic climate, many companies are primarily focused on the bottom-line benefits of BPM for controlling costs and improving operational efficiencies. The emphasis at these organizations is toward quick value, bite-size investments that will provide the fastest impact. Even as these short-term priorities dominate the current market, long-term strategies focusing on initiatives critical for business success, including eliminating waste from global processes, must exist today.

When the economy begins its turn-around, companies are also looking for a technology framework that may provide the opportunity to do more with less, which means they will not have to bring back all the employees that have been laid off or bring on all the new hires that are planned.

"As companies try to find cost optimization opportunities during the economic downturn, business process management (BPM) investments can provide a cost savings of as much as 20 percent within the first year of implementation, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts have said enterprises can achieve the payback from their BPM implementation within a year."

Cachat recommends a proven approach:
• Start small and grow
• Start with labor intensive processes with high volume of documents/forms
• Look for technology that will allow end user configuration under a controlled IT environment and allows easy integration with existing enterprise applications.

Forrester Research defines Business Process Management (BPM) as designing, executing and optimizing cross-functional business activities that incorporate people, application systems and even business partners. This definition means that BPM is more than just workflow technology or collaboration with a SharePoint site. The technology to support BPM must provide the following capabilities:
• Cross functional processes (Human to Human)
• Integration with business systems (Human to System)
• Software integration (System to System)
• Integration with business partners (Customer, Suppliers, Internal)

Cachat further suggests the following technology deployment goals:
• Do things through the most well known interface in the world—email
• Provide people with a link from email that asks them to do something, they do it, and the “app” does the rest
• Zero based training— customers, employees, and suppliers will not even realize they are using an “app”

SummaryEven though companies have implemented spending freezes, now is the time to review and prepare for BPM investments so that when the budgets open up again, the BPM proposal is on the top of the stack.

About the AuthorJohn Cachat is President of Silico Corporation (www.silicocorp.com). Silico helps organizations improve by focusing on people, processes, and then technology. Silico's business process management (BPM) services include state of the art technology for rapid solution development®. We do this by helping with leadership, teamwork and problem solving. The results are continuous improvement throughout the organization by focusing on the needs of the customer, empowering employees, and optimizing existing activities in the process.