Business of BPM

Next St. Louis User Group meeting

Thanks to Howard Webb (formerly with BPMG) who lives in St. Louis.  While I have been busy with a client, he has stepped up to drive the BPM User Group.  The next meeting is September 14th at St. Louis University.   

If you missed our last meeting at A.G. Edwards, we had two excellent presentations from Rich Phillips, COO of Maritz Travel and Jeanette Lynch, Business Process Management Lead at A.G. Edwards.

Location
The meeting will be in Room 253 a & d of the Busch Student Center.  This is right on the corner of Grand and Laclede.  Visitor parking is available in the parking garage on Laclede (there is a charge for parking, so plan accordingly).

Meeting
The meeting is shaping up to be another enjoyable and informative event with speakers from Lombardi and BP3.  One of the topics of interest brought up from our last meeting was metrics.  So, that will be our focus in September.

As usual we will begin at 7:30am and adjourn at approximately 9:00am.  There will be some time before and after to allow for networking and catching up with colleagues.

If you are interested in attending this event, please RSVP to me via email at hwebb@stratisltd.com by September 7th if possible.  Lombardi is providing the refreshments and we would like to have a close count by then.  Please send any questions to may have to the same address.

Agenda

Lean Six Sigma and BPM: The Power of Two
Speaker: Lance Gibb, President & CEO of BP3

Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. www.bp-3.com

Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Business Process Management (BPM) have much to contribute to each other. While Business Process Management and Lean Six Sigma can run successfully as parallel initiatives, companies that successfully connect these two initiatives will realize a competitive advantage. Lance is going to share real world examples of how Lean Six Sigma and Business Process Management can provide organizations with real value in the area of process metrics to better manage and optimize their business processes.

Common pitfalls in integrating Lean Six Sigma and BPM initiatives
How to leverage existing Lean Six Sigma practices and assets in BPM initiatives
How companies that are doing BPM can get started with Lean Six Sigma
How Lean Six Sigma practitioners can get BPM projects started on the right foot.

Business Process Management in Action
Speaker: Brandon Baxter, Senior System Engineer of Lombardi Software

Lombardi is a recognized leader by both Gartner Group and Forrester in the area of Business Process Management.

Brandon is going to follow up with a live demo of a customer implementation were you can see the capabilities of what BPM offers in action with a focus on the metrics of the process as well as the metrics around the people working with the process. You will learn how in using a Business Process Management (BPM) suite you can not only get control of your business processes but also get the visibility into your business process so as to make better business decisions and to be able to more quickly react to business events. Through the demo you will see:

How you can Define a business process
Measure how the business process is performing
Analysis how the business process is performing
Improve the business process
Control the business process

Upcoming Webinar

Although I get a ton of e-mails on BPM webinars, this one caught my eye.  It talks about process optimization which I think is key.  Too many companies are willing to implement a current practice even without re-evaluating it.

Process optimization and process improvement initiatives are becoming integral components of BPM best practices. With this in mind, we would like to invite you to Wednesday's Webinar, titled "Aligning Process Improvement Initiatives with BPM." This Webinar will discuss approaches to BPM and the discipline of process optimization, as well as:

    * Real world techniques for process improvement
    * Advanced software solutions for process optimization
    * The impact on the future of BPM
    * How Lean Six Sigma is used in conjunction with BPM

Featured speakers are Jim Sinur, Chief Strategy Officer of Global 360 and Craig Edmonds, IT Manager of Symetra. Join them this Wednesday to learn effective techniques for process optimization.

To Learn More: http://www.ebizq.net/to/EBWGlobal3600801
   To Register: http://www.ebizq.net/webinars/8268.html?uid=0x1d9e5

You Have to See Sicko

Have you seen Sicko?  I got the management team from a healthcare client of mine to go see it with me last week in Boston.  I thought it was great.  If you know nothing about healthcare, you will think our system is the worse system in the world and be appalled.  If you work in healthcare, you realize Michael found and did a great job of pointing out many of the weaknesses. 

He also did a good job of identifying some interesting facts and showing us how healthcare works abroad.   Without being a spoiler, here are some observations:

• People without health insurance that get hurt face some very tough challenges.  We need some type of care system that supports them.
• Our  processes should not interfere with care.  Dropping people off in hospital gowns  since they can't pay their hospital bills is wrong.
• Drugs are a lot cheaper outside the US.
• The hypothesis that you wait for care outside the US seems to be a myth.
• Running a company based on denial of care versus managing risk through wellness is a problem.  This ties to bigger problems we have with the system design.

Before I go off as a liberal republican (or conservative democrat), my only recommendation is see the movie. 

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Mycroft / Talisen - Merger

I just thought I would post the fact that Talisen (my current employer) has decided to merge with Mycroft.  Mycroft brings a very strong brand in the financial services industry and around identity management.  Here is the official announcement...

MYCROFT AND TALISEN MERGE TO FORM PREMIER PROVIDER OF IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT, IT SECURITY SERVICES

SAN FRANCISCO

, June 27, 2007 – Mycroft Inc., a recognized leader in identity and access management (IAM), and Talisen Technologies, a top provider of IT and business process management solutions and managed infrastructure services, have combined to form Mycroft Talisen.   Mycroft Talisen immediately becomes a premier provider of IAM and related IT security services, leveraging a variety of established and emerging vendor relationships. The company offers an integrated, comprehensive services suite, from Mycroft’s expertise in assessment, architecture, development and implementation, spanning through Talisen’s capability in maintenance, management and support. The combined experience of the merging companies represents hundreds of successful implementations...  MORE

Webinar: Extending SAP w/ BPM

One of the typical questions clients have is why they would do BPM given their historical investments in ERP systems such as SAP.

Hasbro, a large SAP user, chose to use Lombardi’s Business Process Management (BPM) Suite to extend SAP and address some of the processes that function outside that environment.

On June 20th at 12:00 Eastern, Hasbro will talk about their decision process and their results in a webinar that we are co-sponsoring with Lombardi.

REGISTER TODAY

Join us for a one hour Webinar and hear why Hasbro chose BPM to extend SAP.

David Adams, Business Integration Manager at Hasbro and Marc Smith, Director of Technical Marketing at Lombardi, will discuss:
* The benefits Hasbro received by implementing Vendor Order Management processes using BPM, including an 80% straight through processing rate for vendor inquiries and a significant increase in workforce productivity, both achieved without adding additional resources.
* The challenges and the benefits of extending SAP by using a BPM Suite like Teamwork’s.
* Characteristics of processes that are ideal candidates for management in BPM instead of SAP.

Register today at http://www.eseminarslive.com/article2/0,2144,2142626,00.asp?partnerref=CL062007tal.

Jun 20, 2007 12:00 p.m. Eastern / 9:00 a.m. Pacific (45 minutes)

Next St. Louis BPM User Group Meeting

AG Edwards has agreed to host our next BPM User Group meeting which will also be the official start of the first BPM Group user group in the United States.  The event will be June 29th from 7:30-9:00 and will include speakers from Maritz (Rich Phillips) and AG Edwards (Jeanette Lynch) talking about their experiences. 

If interested in attending, let me know. 

Writing an RFP for BPMS

Tomorrow we will be hosting a webinar where I will layout different things to consider when evaluating a BPMS platform.  If you are looking at technology or considering technology, I think you will find this helpful.  After my section, one of our partners (Appian) will talk about their technology and how they fit some of the criteria I discuss. 

You can register here. 

Upcoming Webinar

Speakers:

John Lojek
Director of Marketing &
Solution Strategy
Appian

George Van Antwerp
Vice President
Talisen Technologies

Webinar: "Technology Considerations in Business Process Management (BPM)"

May 3rd from 10-11 Central

Register Now

Today, we define business process management as technology-enabled, continuous improvement.

In other words, what separates today’s business process management (BPM) initiatives from yesteryear’s business process re-engineering is largely advanced technology – leveraged through BPM software platforms such as Appian, Lombardi, webMethods, and others. This technology helps companies grow without adding staff.

Our next e-seminar gives you a closer look at the latest developments in BPM software, which comprises workflow, process modeling, a user portal and reporting dashboard. Widely deployed in manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and other industries, these software platforms do much, much more than diagram processes. Perhaps the biggest benefit: BPM software enables business managers to view, simulate and even automate some process improvements themselves. No more log jam in IT, waiting for resources.

Whether or not you are familiar with the latest BPM technology tools, there’s much to glean from this presentation. We will address key considerations in evaluating vendors and take a closer look at Appian’s BPM solution.

Local User Group Mtg II

Last Friday, we had our second local BPM user group meeting.  I think it went well.  We had a little over 20 people show up from lots of different companies.

At the meeting, we heard AG Edwards present on building a process centric organization.  Ron talked about creating a communication plan, building DTL (desktop learning), bringing in outside speakers, and other things they have done to get people ready for BPM. 

We also heard Enterprise Rent-A-Car present on how they are using BPM technology and share some of their lessons learned around BPM.  I think one of the most interesting ones was to plan to throw away some of your initial models because you will learn so much through iteration.  It reiterated one of the key points that I try to make with clients which is jump in.  Stop planning and start modeling and building. 

Our next meeting with be June 15th where we will hopefully have two local presenters give the presentations they have given at national conferences.  More to come on this. 

Audio from webinar

Rather than wait to figure out the optimal way to share this audio, I am posting the file from our webinar last Friday right here.  I think after numerous attempts that the link below should work to take you to a zip file that contains the MP3 file of the webinar.  It is large so if you would prefer it as an audio disk, I can burn a CD for you.  (Note: The first 30 seconds are music then the audio kicks in.)

Download bpm_webinar.zip

The slides are still available at www.talisentech.com/eseminar. 

On the file, you will hear Howard Webb from the BPM Group and myself talk about the process oriented mindset and how to approach BPM projects from strategy through implementation.