Business Process Management & Workflow: An AIIM User Guide
Contents
1. Headquartered in Costa Mesa Calif the Company markets its innovative ECM solutions in more than 90 countries through its own global sales professional services and support organizations as well as via its ValueNet amp Partner network of resellers system integrators and application developers www FileNet com 800 FileNet HandySoft Corporation HandySoft delivers innovative solutions for business process management BPM and workflow automation to commercial and government marketplaces Built on the foundation of BizFlow the award winning BPM platform our solutions automate and simplify processes enforce best practices improve quality and productivity and foster collaboration internally as well as with customers and partners www handysoft com 000 753 9343 Hyland Software Inc Hyland Software established in 1991 is a leading integrated document management solutions provider Hyland develops OnBase enterprise class integrated document management software that combines the technologies of enterprise report management document imaging electronic document management and workflow in a single Web enabled application A core infrastructure of enterprise content management OnBase manages virtually every kind of document images reports statements application files Web pages HTML forms video etc as well as every stage of the document lifecycle creation input storage retrieval revision distribution and Web2. Website www strategy partners com ISBN 0 89258 397 5 No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the publisher or author Printed in the United States of America Published by AEN na The Enterprise Content Management Association AIIM International Headquarters 1100 Wayne Avenue Suite 1100 silver Spring MD 20910 US Tel 301 587 8202 800 477 2446 Email aiimQaiim org www alim org Business Process Management amp Workflow AIIM User Guide Introduction to Business Process Management and Workflow Business Process Management and Workflow systems are fundamental to Information Technology They provide technologies software components applications and solutions that A Describe the processes used by an organization to carry out fundamental tasks such as customer service so that they can be optimized and improvements in efficiency and effectiveness enacted routinely A Provide mechanisms for workers and management to measure how well tasks are being performed so that metrics can be applied that identify problems and provide techniques that can Improve performance A Capture the know how of organizations That is encapsulate explicitly the knowledge inside an organization of how they do things so that this knowledge can be exploited fo
3. usually PCs to receive and display HTML stream and thus access the Web CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture OMG s open vendor independent architecture and infrastructure that computer applications use to work together over networks CRM Customer Relationship Management The processes by which an organization attracts and retains prospective customers leveraging an initial transaction via knowledge of their requirements into a long term ongoing transactional relationship to the financial good of the organization EDM Electronic Document Management The set of technologies for electronically managing documents incorporating Document and Content Capture workflow document repositories COLD ERM and output systems and information retrieval systems Imaging electronic imaging document imaging A system that creates stores retrieves and manipulates electronic images It may include scanning and OCR functions OMG Object Management Group An open membership not for profit consortium that produces and maintains computer industry specifications for interoperable enterprise applications 2003 Strategy Partners WARIA Workflow And Reengineering International Association Chartered to identify and clarify issues that are common to users of workflow and electronic commerce and those who are in the process of reengineering their organizations The association facilitates opportunities for members to discus
4. where the value is in routing information between people so they can coordinate actions and collaborate more effectively Collaborative Production Tech Doc Creation Loan Origination Claims Processing Project based Transaction based Ad Hoc Administrative FYI Reports Expense Reports Review Approve Purchasing Action Items Budgeting User Control Process Figure 2 Workflow applications categorized by level of control and value Applications that fall into these categories include change control mechanisms in production lines the preparation of technical documents and the management of projects In these applications the primary process value Is effective routing they rarely explicitly describe what action is to be carried out at each stage in detail but instead focus on the delivery 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide Other process applications that depend on the routine completion of transactions define exactly which activity is to be carried out at each stage and the result is a decision that routes the process to the next step This is typical of processing invoices in the accounts payable function in large companies or in dealing with pension and employee rights queries within the human resources function It applies to Insurance quotation and claims handling processing new loans in banks administering social security and benefits in the government sector and col
5. few meet the expectation of non accountants Workflow is a key enabler In being able to lower operational risk and ensure repeatable reliable and secure accounts processing that can integrate with purchasing functions to lower overhead and fixed costs Sector Trends and Applications A eGovernment is being embraced with fervor by the governments of North America and Europe to connect their citizens electronically to government information and services Workflow can dramatically lower administration and transaction costs to manage immigration collect taxes and provide services to citizens Business process management systems can provide the awareness to manage the overall effectiveness of new approaches so that the services can be measured monitored and improved A The Financial sector was an early adopter of workflow systems for back office processing leading to major reductions in process time and administrative costs and overheads Itis also leading the way in the next generation of BPM systems manifest in new approaches to Straight Through Processing STP reduction of operational risks and inter company transaction management exploiting the Web 02003 Strategy Partners 9 Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide A The Retail sector uses workflow extensively to manage inventories stock control and movement financial transactions and staff Many processes are embedded within specific retail applications so
6. that consists of one or more workflow engines in order to create manage and execute workflow This links to other IT systems through Application Programming Interfaces APIs that the WfMC has defined A Process definition tools which provide mechanisms to capture describe and design new processes Early approaches involved coding and scripting but modern approaches use simple graphical tools similar to logic diagrams project planning systems and desktop presentation components More advanced systems use graphical simulation and immersive interfaces to Increase visual impact and assimilation A Administration and monitoring tools that provide the operators of the system with mechanisms to ensure the availability performance and operation of the software services provided by the workflow system More advanced approaches integrate the workflow systems with conventional IT systems management practices to provide ways of ensuring security reliability backup and recovery in the event of the services stopping or ceasing to function correctly 6 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide A The workflow client application which interacts with the workflow enactment service requesting facilities and services from it These interactions may request information handle worklists retrieve data or extend or suspend processes A Invoked applications that automate an activity to support a workflow p
7. the need to integrate applications is important if savings are to be made through Increased awareness of customer buying habits and lowered costs of merchandising A The Utility and Telecommunications sectors are significant users of workflow for customer service and bill payment and collection The increasing number of products offered and large customer bases involved can no longer be controlled cost effectively by paper based methods alone New approaches include using workflow to generate higher quality and more relevant business communications that promote product cross selling and do more than get the billing amount correct A he Transportation sector has deployed very large systems to handle passenger ticket reconciliation and to track the movement of people and goods so that higher levels of service and revenue can be achieved A Just as the Manufacturing industry led the way in automating production from large stand alone machines to integrated MRP and ERP systems they are leading the way towards using workflow and BPM to remove islands of process knowledge and integrate inter company supply chains A Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences use workflow to set up and control the processes of clinical trials change management of production systems preparation and submission of regulatory reports and marketing campaigns These all involve integrating processes from more than one workflow system so many pharmaceutical companies have signific
8. AIIM Process Management and Workflow INESS eee Bus rur FCEEEEEEEETES eo R i 2 2 a A in Dial eat aha D A 7 am LR EE Wi po le ke IT na gt ba E gt b v DAt noan T EEE rr ELEC SEEGEENEEE SESEBZ SBC Dae SERRE TET EEETZNCTSZLIHEZHTET SEETEENSUIE LLELL LLL GL D TE Pitt iis Authored by for International HAIM The Enterprise Content Management Association An AIIM User Guide Authored by Strategy Partners Business Process Management and Workflow This is one in a series of User Guides from AIIM International authored by Strategy Partners They are intended to educate and inform potential purchasers and users of document and content systems at an initial level and position the technologies within a business context They are designed to explain e How document and content technologies work How they are justified in business terms and what difference they make to the bottom line How they are used operationally and what constitutes best practice How they relate to and integrate with other aspects of IT e The roles of operational users the IT function system integrators and other service providers in the document and Web content management space Copyright 2003 by Strategy Partners International Ltd Chappell House The Green Datchet Berks SL3 9EH UK Tel 44 0 1753 592787 Fax 444 0 1753 592789
9. ST Technologies Inc is a comprehensive business process management BPM and customer service solution AWD helps a variety of organizations banking healthcare mortgage brokerage insurance mutual funds investment management and video broadband to e Improve productivity reduce costs by focusing people on value added tasks and automating other activities Provide a 360 degree view of business processes with real time business intelligence and process analysis tools Provide consistent service across all communications channels www awdbpm com 800 dst info FileNet FileNet Corporation NASDAQ FILE helps organizations make better decisions by managing the content and processes that drive their business FileNet s Enterprise Content Management ECM solutions allow customers to build and sustain competitive advantage by managing content throughout their organizations automating and streamlining their business processes and providing the full spectrum of connectivity needed to simplify their critical and everyday decision making FileNet ECM solutions deliver a comprehensive set of capabilities that integrate with existing information systems to provide cost effective solutions that solve real world business problems Since the Company s founding in 1982 more than 3 900 organizations including 80 of the Fortune 100 have taken advantage of FileNet solutions for help in managing their mission critical content and processes
10. Thinking and Enterprise Resource Management Unfortunately the relative rates of adoption in many financial government and administrative functions are low and most have yet to update their approaches or gain many of the benefits Scope of Control Information as Well as Physical Resources Business Process Management and Workflow originally developed to pass images around departments but users and vendors soon realized that the same process logic could manage electronic documents such as Word files extracts from legacy databases and latterly Web content At the same time real world applications needed to integrate physical resources such as people production lines trading systems transportation and any external business resources In reality such systems tend to have process systems already inside them either explicitly or implicitly So as the scope of control has increased the need has emerged to connect processes across multiple systems without Increasing apparent complexity to operators This is often addressed by providing mechanisms to transfer process between systems and a plethora of mechanisms to interconnect systems has emerged XML is a key enabling technology for this but the great thing about XML standards is that there are so many of them Workflow can be categorized by level of control and by value see Figure 2 above For example many processes are controlled by a primary user or group of users
11. agement capabilities In practice their capabilities to build specific systems can be limited and they tend to bring in specialists to carry out the Workflow and Business Process Management application building and operational testing parts Specialist Integrators Solutions Providers These operate in specific applications vertical market areas or geographic regions They seek to deliver whole solutions into their core market Such solutions tend to have Workflow and Business Process Management as an important but not overriding component within the overall solutions offered Examples include customer relationship management systems accounts payable applications and insurance claims processing Specialist Outsourcers and Application Service Providers These exist at three main levels A Specialist Service Businesses These offer specific single functional services such as mailroom services accounting contracting systems development and operations or other function based services They sell on economies of scale and on speed reliability A Managed Services Providers MSP MSPs set out to deliver documents data and process into some part s of a business process As an example they may take incoming mail process it validate it return anything that needs to go back handle some customer interactions and feed the relevant information into their client s business processes Other examples include document hosting and electronic
12. and also design and provide products that could be provided from an insurance company The original loan provider would receive commissions from the other companies such as an insurance or pension product for exploiting the knowledge of the customer Technically this would take the form of a process interchange between the loan company and the insurance company so that the customer would see a single process although more than one product provider is involved This requires network connections between users and loan and insurance companies agreed process descriptions and responses and secure transfer of data to meet regulatory requirements Why and Where are Business Process Management and Workflow Important Business Process Management and Workflow are critical in paper or content intensive applications These include such diverse areas as A Customer services and fulfillment Strategy Partners independent market research has shown since 1996 that customer service is the single biggest reason to deploy workflow systems A Regulatory compliance This is becoming an increasingly complex requirement for most companies Workflow and BPM provide cost effective mechanisms to build such compliance into everyday operational systems rather than provide ad hoc reports for compliance after the regulated event has taken place A Accounts processing In spite of the promise of EDI most companies still process accounts externally on paper and
13. ant experience in this area A The Media sector has used workflow to plan and control the production of new campaigns as well as their re use and deployment in multiple formats and markets and in managing the creative process for new advertisements Best Practice in Business Process Management and Workflow Implementing workflow always looks easier beforehand or from the outside Most of the technical problems with workflow as IT services have been solved and new opportunities for deploying workflow are emerging faster than many companies can exploit them as the list above shows Other issues include 10 A The risk in changing the role of people The operational aspects of workflow frequently results in changing roles and responsibilities of the people involved in the process and may require them to attain new skills Resistance to change should be expected and requires effective management A Shortage of experienced product and service companies Operational experience of workflow is not readily available on the supply side of the IT community The simplest analogy is the different skills required to make an airplane as compared to flying one In reality most product and service companies know how workflow works technically but have limited operational experience as their business models promote an approach that focuses on marketing and rewards initial sales As a result many suppliers are not optimized towards helping users get the
14. are emerging in specific markets e g banking and manufacturing where process technologies are key enablers How Do You Buy Business Process Management and Workflow Software vs Solutions vs Process Outsourcing The value of Workflow and Business Process Management lies in the application not the components This means that partners and solution channels take on a particular importance Strategy Partners research indicates that suppliers for Workflow and Business Process Management split into four major types Software Vendors Many Business Process Management and Workflow vendors sell directly to end users as well as through a 12 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide combination of delivery channels see below When selling direct they offer professional services and take responsibility for the final system including associated hardware software and support Users go to vendors directly with complex requirements that are essentially process centric claims processing for insurance and loan application processing for banking are typical examples Generalist Integrators These manage very large project deployments and tend to focus on the high level business restructuring reengineering and change management In general they lead are prime on major government and or international contracts and provide systems integration skill including some Workflow and Business Process Man
15. bill presentment services It works best where there is an opportunity to implement an annuity or pay per click pricing model Their business model is to find replicable services solutions that drive down the cost of service through economies of scale A Business Process Outsourcers BPO The key difference between BPO providers and MSPs is defined by business outcome vs technical or functional output For example sending out an invoice is a functional output Handling the accounts receivable process on behalf of a client is a business outcome The systems approach is largely the same the difference lies in the value of the outcome to the client and in the level of understanding the BPO provider has of its clients business 02003 Strategy Partners 13 Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide Emerging areas for this level of service are to be found in insurance claims management with the provider being compensated on reduced costs of processing rather than numbers of claims processed and mortgage processing where the business metric might be based around cost of processing speed of offer and or levels of default How to Plan for the Future Some key guidelines A Most organizations have a strong understanding of their key processes but it is rarely explicit One reason for this is that staff at all levels need a common vocabulary and well defined expressions so that implicit events and actions can be ex
16. can enable the development and enactment of business strategies For operational staff BPM includes workflow systems and less formal ad hoc systems such as email and newswires that involve processes implicitly Major applications and uses The killer application for workflow has been the processing of customer transactions in the financial services industry whereby clerks can gain access to Global Resource Between Companies electronic databases and electronic images Object of paper correspondence and forms They Enterprise Internet Wide Shared Systems are thus empowered with all relevant Data customer product and process information so that accurate fulfillment decisions can be made quickly This leads to enhanced customer service which is a key market differentiator in insurance and banking Paper Cuenca ADDACaUOUS e g Claims Processing products Depart mental Image Boolean similar structured applications such as loan processing in banks pension plans bill Linear i Non Linear payment for utilities companies and social benefits and immigration control systems for Figure 1 Business Process Management and governments can equally well be Workflow Categorized automated producing gains in efficiency and effectiveness Processes in business reflect the nature of the business and have fundamentally different parameters As illustrated in Figure 1 above processes can b
17. d A Systems that connect across entire enterprises so that underwriters in New York can provide the decision data for insurance claims processing carried out in Ireland or India round the clock services providing outcomes in hours that previously took three days Note that these systems also connect different functions such as front office call centers and field sales staff with back office administrators across a single process A Systems between companies and across industries that allow international stock markets foreign exchanges and multinational businesses to exploit Workflow and Business Process Management systems to leverage their multi country manufacturing and financial services capabilities They connect events in one country e g a company acquisition to trigger decisions in another organization e g a stock trader to buy or sell with yet another e g pension provider to increase annuity A he same sort of global processes can result in a change on the exchange rate triggering an Increase in the value of a car so that a factory in Korea increases production and a component 4 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide maker in Japan hires more staff In terms of uptake and maturity numerous management school studies have shown how the manufacturing industry in the post war period has developed and implemented and gained significantly from approaches such as Kanban Lean
18. e categorized in the following ways Complexity of Process Processes can only be described measured and optimized if we can understand them Although the processes that underpin relatively routine business functions such as accounts payable loan applications and claims processing are relatively well established in paper they can benefit greatly from the application of electronic workflow Some processes like the impact of business confidence upon stock markets future 2003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide of the exchange rates changes in local weather and the behavior of children are known but are not predictable or linear in the mathematical sense In practice workflow and BPM tools address the following A Boolean Logic approaches which underpin most products in the market today These provide a mechanism for breaking down most linear business processes into a set of systematic steps and decisions that use simple Yes No Stop Go If Then logic statements These can be expressed graphically by a flow chart They are good at bridging between the world of administration and IT and include real world events and people A Linear approaches which extend from the Boolean logic approaches extend the scope of decisions For example if an event happens in a market such as the price of gold rises a linear approach system would trigger a message to a broker in New York to sell oil stoc
19. e process but do not provide a mechanism to manage processes A Process management and project planning systems from the financial chemical and manufacturing sectors which can describe and control processes or physical resources but are not applicable to generic business processes As a result workflow tools have been developed with the automation of different types of structured informal and on linear processes in mind In practice the large majority of systems that currently populate the workflow market are used to describe and automate structured linear predictable and repetitive 2 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide processes described using Boolean logic Academic research continues into describing businesses as a series of non linear processes but few mathematical models so resulting have produced commercially significant solutions Business Process Management is defined for the purposes of this guide as a business function that provides management with a portfolio of information about its key end to end business processes so that they can determine the future tactics and strategies of the organization Management and economic issues rather than technological ones primarily drive it Clearly the scope and value of business process management differs significantly between users For executive management BPM is a term for a new set of components solutions and services that
20. eir own but increase the overall risks This often applies to administrative tasks which do not always need to be obliterated and completely automated but can be introduced in phases to give users time to experience new ways of working and test processes without risking the entire operation A Metrics Measure before you start not after you have changed the process It seems obvious but few implementers do so Without knowing how well a previous approach was working how can a new approach ever be judged a success Return on Investment Total Cost of Ownership The Value of Business Process Management and Workflow Any evaluation of the return on investment for Workflow and Business Process Management systems revolves around the following benefits A Quantifiable cost savings such as saving the cost of physical resources e g staff as a result of carrying out operations more efficiently and effectively The savings gained by replacing traditional paper processing with workflow and document management based administration systems are typically 30 40 A Indirect savings by increasing the speed of the business cycle or business velocity e g giving customer service staff access to customer correspondence on call center screens so that requests can be handled in minutes while the customer is on the telephone The value in terms of customer satisfaction resulting market share and client loyalty depend on the applications but far e
21. escribed abstractly and then bound to a concrete network protocol and message format to define an endpoint XML eXtensible Mark up Language An established standard based on the Standard Generalized Mark up Language designed to facilitate document construction from standard data items Now being used as a generic data exchange mechanism 15 Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide About AIIM International The Enterprise Content Management Association AIIM International is the global authority on Enterprise Content Management ECM The technologies tools and methods used to capture manage store preserve and deliver information to support business processes AIIM promotes the understanding adoption and use of ECM technologies through education networking marketing research standards and advocacy programs As a neutral and unbiased source of information AIIM is non profit association dedicated to growing the Enterprise Content Management Industry through its Market Education Expand the global market for ECM solutions Provide educational programs and information services that help users make informed and effective technology decisions and help suppliers better understand user needs and requirements Networking Through chapters programs and the Web create opportunities that expand the global base of users seeking ECM solutions and allow our user supplier and channel members to engage and c
22. industry vendor wars of the 1980s and 1990s e g mainframes vs personal computing NT vs Unix Netscape vs Microsoft browsers etc The results are yet to appear but early signs include new ways of describing processes see WSDL in Appendix A Simulation systems enable users to experiment and evaluate processes without having to implement fully so that the costs risks bottlenecks and resources required can be evaluated fully Increases in computer processor power and advanced visualization techniques can create the business equivalents of flight simulators so that managers can plan for success and avoid the operational equivalent of crash landings A Process Extraction systems sit above current operational and decision support systems and analyze existing processes Using advanced mathematical techniques they study the behavior of current systems and derive a model to predict behavior so that future systems can be exploited in new ways These techniques are in their infancy but show promise 4 Boardroom components are a new sort of process system designed for the senior executives of companies to describe and implement top down processes Unlike the first generation of workflow systems that focused on automating clerical processes rather than management Boardroom components can combine relevant information on events resources and markets and generate triggers that set the course for the company at a macro level Early approaches
23. ks and a manufacturer in Germany to increase production of watches The route of the information depends on the value of the information for which the answer could be None 42 or Three Weeks From Thursday We can predict the outcome but it is not necessarily Boolean in logic and the process cannot always be explicitly written down in detail before the event This is a key area of expansion for workflow and the reason why the market for Business Process Management has emerged A Non linear approaches are geared towards processes that quite simply are so complex or subject to such changes in strength and direction that we cannot describe model measure or reactto them Solving global warming and world poverty can sometimes seem simpler than predicting stock markets so few workflow and business process management systems today attempt either explicitly The key point here is to set expectations and not over sell linear systems Interestingly new approaches to provide process monitoring systems to handle processes previously considered too complex such as Straight Through Processing STP in banks or the Human Genome in medicine are emerging and the boundaries are being re drawn every month Scope of Users and Business Organization Early workflow systems were aimed at replacing paper with electronic images and using electronic networks to connect people within a single function or department Approaches that evolved throughout the 1990s include
24. lecting bill payments in the telecoms and utilities sectors Here the challenge is to provide consistently higher levels of service and fulfillment as well as lower operational risks and fixed overhead costs Enabling Technologies Key Features of Workflow Systems Workflow systems can be simplified into components as follows 4 A workflow system including a state change engine i e a mechanism to describe a process and control it in both the current state and stage of a process and in potential future states A A list of IT related and non IT resources that the process controls In administrative systems that may be images of paper documents existing formal and informal procedures customer files polices etc Non IT resource could include transportation systems document production systems code generators and other forms of external triggers A An organizational model that describes the roles of the staff deputies and assistants as well as delegation rules so that processes can interface with the human players and their status and responsibilities Note that in some systems the organizational model deployed can be unique to the system or extended or duplicated from existing organizational models such as IT security and access systems email address hierarchies human resources systems etc The technical components of a workflow system see Figure 3 below are comprised of A A workflow enactment service which is a software service
25. most benefit This in one area that Strategy Partners believes will change significantly in the coming year 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide A Lack of IT department experience Many IT groups face similar challenges as their core competence changes from cutting code to assessing business risks of new technologies A Impact of change Users do not always know what their key processes are and may have little experience in defining business metrics Examining such fundamental issues requires people skills and asking How do we do things and Why do we do them like this is not for the faint hearted It can open old wounds and create tensions not normally encountered in routine backoffice data processing So good practice ensures that suitable resources are made available and not presumed or considered lightly A Mergers and acquisitions Many businesses merge or acquire and promise shareholders significant savings which rely on integrating businesses and removing costs Exploiting workflow can help accomplish these goals either by providing new ways to design and build new systems or by saving the cost of replacing everything and disrupting ongoing operations by integrating systems together A Project creep Users implementing workflow should be careful to scope the project and manage expectation One pitfall is to allow the project to include additional aspects that have merits on th
26. n unstructured documents whether it is handled at a central site or at offices throughout the world Kofax can help you capture it all through the Operating System of Capture an open platform that transforms your documents and forms into retrievable content www kofax com 949 727 1733 AIIM International wishes to thank the following sponsors for their support Business Process Management and Workflow CORRIDOR CONSULTING Business Process Management Is a new term that covers a portfolio of functions and approaches that includes techniques to integrate the processes within multiple on documentum applications across companies and between companies Workflow as defined by the Workflow Management Coalition WfMC is the automation of a business process in whole or in part during which document information or tasks are DST A E passed from one participant to another for action according to a set of procedural rules This Guide sets out to explain in straightforward terms how Business Process Management and Workflow works where and how it delivers real benefit to organizations FILENET and the key current and emerging applications and technologies that make it an investment for the future as well as for the present by HANDYSOFT BIZFLOW _ iQ OnBase Document Imagining IT As AN na The Enterprise Content Management Association AIIM International Head
27. nd Sweden the UK New York and California Strategy Partners International Ltd Chappell House The Green Datchet Berks SL3 9EH UK Tel 44 0 1753 592787 Fax 44 0 1753 592789 Web www strategy partners com Email mailbox strategy partners com 16 2003 Strategy Partners About the Sponsors Corridor Consulting Corridor Consulting provides strategic consulting implementation and post implementation support services to help organizations manage and share critical information and fundamentally improve their business www corridorconsulting com 781 229 9933 Documentum With more than 1600 large global customers Documentum is the leading provider of enterprise content management ECM software solutions bringing intelligence and automation to the creation management personalization and distribution of vast quantities and types of content documents Web pages XML files rich media in one common content platform and repository The Documentum ECM platform makes it possible for companies to distribute content globally across all internal and external systems applications and user communities while maintaining brand and user experience Documentum s customers accelerate time to market increase customer satisfaction enhance supply chain efficiencies and reduce operating costs improving their overall competitive advantage www documentum com 800 607 9546 DST Technologies Inc AWD Automated Work Distributor from D
28. onnect with one another Industry Advocacy Through our own efforts and strategic partnerships become the global voice of the ECM industry in key standards organizations with the media and with government decision makers The AIIM community has a variety of opportunities for you at our Web site at www alim org To become part of the AIIM community by becoming a Professional Member visit www alim org join About Strategy Partners Strategy Partners is an established professional retainer and project based IT advice business We deliver independent advice and original market analysis in the key areas of Content Management Electronic Document Management EDM Customer Relationship Management CRM Application Integration Enterprise Resource Planning ERP Outsourcing and Knowledge Management KM As users make investments we empower them against the vendors to make the technologies safe to buy We measure analyze and understand the purchasing process and know how to speed it up not slow it down In addition Strategy Partners delivers expert advice to help vendors in formulating and improving their marketing strategies For the investment community Strategy Partners provides market diligence and acts for organizations seeking Venture Capital We also work for buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions by providing market knowledge and a process to assist in the valuation of businesses Offices in France Germany Switzerla
29. or the future as well as for the present Business Process Management and Workflow What is it Origins The origin of describing processes so that they can be automated stems from industrial manufacturing engineering techniques described by Taylor in the 1940s and later developed as simultaneous or concurrent engineering Frederic W Taylor Principles of Scientific Management Harper and Row 02003 Strategy Partners 1 Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide Workflow as a term and its manifestation in document systems stems from products developed by FileNet Inc in California in the 1980s It was one of the early pioneers of using imaging technology for commercial purposes Its WorkFlo product was developed to describe and control the way information could be distributed and controlled once the technical problems of scanning images and displaying storing and routing them around networks were solved A workflow management system is defined as a system that defines manages and executes workflow through the execution of software whose order of execution is driven by a computer representation of the workflow logic For the purposes of this guide this is interpreted as the software and services related to the types of workflow listed below which is narrower than the definition above in the sense that business application systems that include workflow logic but are not offered as generic workflow tools are e
30. pressed within a process framework The trick is to use existing approaches and industry terms from the major standards organizations see Appendix rather than invent new ones A Many users expect too much of workflow systems because real world events are rarely as predictable as the best designed systems and no single process component product Is ideal at everything Realists should expect users to adopt different tools for specific business processes and avoid wallpapering their companies with a single one size fits all approach A Most successful implementations rarely describe and implement processes in detail in the first phase but develop overall models and drill down into sub processes as costs justify and experience dictates Projects that create flowcharts for everything that moves rarely move anything and are always playing catch up with the real world A Expect Workflow and Business Process Management to become widespread across companies and between companies in the next three years as the Internet makes systems more accessible and new products emerge So expect systems and processes to change and expect to update processes routinely not by exception Summary Business Process Management and Workflow are a critical set of technologies that A Bring your eBusiness and conventional business processes into alignment A Provide the catalyst for improved customer service and exploitation of knowledge bases A Deliver explici
31. publishing OnBase is used by thousands of organizations commercial and government alike to streamline operations reduce costs and share information with employees partners and customers www onbase com 440 788 5000 ISIS Papyrus America Inc ISIS Papyrus provides integrated and distributed software solutions for enterprise level mission critical business document applications for more than 1900 customers worldwide The ISIS Papyrus technology enables large scale document applications that support fundamental business processes such as customer care customer relationship management bank statement applications insurance documents telecom bill applications airline miles statements credit card processing and customer correspondence The Web client server systems and mainframe environments all are merged into a single information technology infrastructure The ISIS Group was founded in 1988 and manages today 12 subsidiaries in nine countries and has a distribution network for its software products in 42 countries WWNW isis papyrus com 017 416 2345 Kofax At Kofax we focus on one critical business need accelerating your business processes by capturing valuable information from throughout your organization and speeding it into your content and document management systems Kofax is the world s leading provider of information capture solutions Whether your content is on paper or in electronic files whether Itis in forms or i
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33. r new applications and transferred to be re used elsewhere While data and document systems are particularly capable of describing content they are useless without specific processes to update store deliver and exploit them Business Process Management is a new term that covers a portfolio of functions and approaches that includes techniques to integrate the processes within multiple applications across companies and between companies It includes Boardroom components that assist executives in managing the business workflow and process enactment systems and ad hoc approaches Workflow as defined by the Workflow Management Coalition WfMC is the automation of a business process in whole or in part during which documents information or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action according to a set of procedural rules Workflow as component software may be said to have come of age The core technologies are mature and the understanding as to how to deploy them effectively is well developed Such systems have developed a strong reputation for delivering pragmatic return on investment as well as for equipping the organization to face the vision that is the eBusiness age This Guide sets out to explain in straightforward terms how Business Process Management and Workflow works where and how it delivers real benefit to organizations and the key current and emerging applications and technologies that make it an investment f
34. rocess They carry out a task separate from the workflow service but under its control and present the results back for the workflow service to manage In a loan processing application a typical invoked service might be a credit check which is performed separately from the loan workflow service and reports the result back to the service Interface 4 Invoked Applications Figure 3 The Workflow Reference Model Source Workflow Management Coalition A Other workflow engines which can be connected to the workflow service through an API that enables process information to be exchanged and the processes engaged and managed In previous systems such interfaces were proprietary and specific to each system Recent approaches including those developed and promoted by the WfMC contain standard definitions of process interchange so that ERP systems can communicate with personnel stock control and accountancy systems for example 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide Workflow and Business Process Management can be seen to have developed across three organizational boundaries The first started in the 1980s was process efficiency bounded in the back office of single departments in large organizations Processing loans in a bank is a good example of that In technical terms this involved replacing paper with electronic imaging systems and integrating these with loan administration sy
35. s and share their experiences freely Established in 1992 WARIAS mission is to make sense of what s happening at the intersection of Business Process Management Workflow Knowledge Management and Electronic Commerce and reach clarity through sharing experiences product evaluations networking between users and vendors education and training Web Services In its generic sense an IT industry initiative aimed at enabling users to integrate services and applications across the Web Specifically it is an initiative called WS l org formed by major vendors to bring together profiles of sets of standards to achieve that goal See www ws i org WIMC Workflow Management Coalition A non profit international organization of workflow vendors users analysts and university research groups founded in August 1993 The Coalition s mission is to promote and develop the use of workflow through the establishment of standards for software terminology interoperability and connectivity between workflow products The WfMC has pioneered the development of workflow and has strongly influenced many of the other emerging standards groups WSDL Web Services Description Language A draft standard issued as a preliminary note by the W3C for discussion WSDL is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document oriented or procedure oriented information The operations and messages are d
36. stems The second boundary that was crossed in the 1990s was across enterprises whereby workflow became business middleware that connected systems together to produce additional benefits In the example of loan processing this enabled customers of one banking product a loan to be sold additional products a credit card and allowed sales staff and call centers to be involved in the processing of customer correspondence not just the back office loan clerks In technical terms this involved integrating loan processing systems with credit card call center and CRM systems creating the need to standardize ways of defining what workflow is and how it can be integrated as described in Figure 4 below Top Management Strategies Applications and Processes Internal Users Virtual Customers Suppliers Departments Figure 4 Key features of Business Process Management Systems The third boundary to be crossed is between organizations so that current and new eBusiness can be conducted at a faster pace and lower cost than previous approaches that involved disconnected communications such as paper or email The role of the Web as an infrastructure to support this and technical standards such as XML are crucial enablers In the loan processing example this could take the 8 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide form of integrating the information known about a customer to sell loans
37. t measurable bottom line benefits in a wide variety of business cases Business Process Management and Workflow are not just about moving documents around faster Today the technologies and the business environment have reached the point where Workflow and Business Process Management can play a real role in front line mission critical business processes Precisely how users source implementation and fulfillment services depends on their position and organizational culture The kind of solutions provider depends on the level of the application being addressed the level of outsourced service depends on whether the requirement is for a document a reliable service or a business outcome 14 02003 Strategy Partners Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide Glossary of Terms B2B B2C G2C Business to Business Business to Consumer Government to Citizen segments of Internet inspired markets BPMI org The Business Process Management Initiative A non profit corporation that empowers companies of all sizes across all industries to develop and operate business processes that span multiple applications and business partners behind the firewall and over the Internet The Initiative s mission is to promote and develop the use of Business Process Management BPM through the establishment of standards for process design deployment execution maintenance and optimization Browser A program that allows display devices
38. xceed the direct cost savings A Business survival particularly in the areas of compliance and customer service For example providing timely evidence concerning safety certificates tickets used financial assets transferred and other mission critical documentation can make the difference between continuing in business being shut down by the regulator or as some are finding out spending time in the penitentiary 02003 Strategy Partners 11 Business Process Management amp Workflow An AIIM User Guide What is Changing Now and Over the Next 12 24 Months The key aspects of Business Process Management and Workflow today are documented above Major trends in the coming two years include A Business Process Management and Workflow as part of Application Integration Many users have realized that the riskiest part of IT is in integrating applications together and many vendors have resisted providing capabilities to make this simpler and cheaper In the past they have Increased revenue by forcing users to extend current systems rather than buy from other vendors Workflow and business process management are playing a key role in enabling the costs and risks to be reduced A Web Services is an example of new approaches that promote the integration of applications across the Web Formed by a consortium of key vendors in 1999 Web Services is an initiative aimed at linking systems from disparate vendors and hopefully avoiding the sort of IT
39. xcluded Workflow system types included in the definition are A Case handling workflow systems that deliver the documents process support and other information to case managers involved in similar but not repetitive high volume work A Transaction oriented workflow engines which define automate and deliver workflow instructions In systems based on a model or database that provides Boolean and linear models typically optimized for high volume repetitive processes A Mail based systems that employ an email backbone to carry out the routing of the process A Business process modeling systems used to define and describe high level business processes Most of these do not automatically control the processes they describe but link to a transaction oriented system execution engine A Electronic forms based products that use the paper forms paradigm to create and control the process In the context of document and content management systems workflow as a software component does not include A Mail and groupware systems such as Lotus Notes Domino Microsoft Mail and Microsoft Exchange A Relational and other structured database systems such as Oracle Informix and Sybase A Personal scheduling and planning systems such as Lotus Organizer and Microsoft Project A Enterprise Software applications such as CRM and ERP e g SAP Oracle Financials and PeopleSoft A Application development systems which sometimes describ
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