Recent posts about workflow (3)

The best mobile inspection software is easy to use, simple to integrate with systems already in place and accomplishes the bottom line goal of improving process efficiency. Choosing inspection software that can meet these objectives is best done by seeing the product working in real life scenarios.

Process Director is a BPM platform that saves you time and money and speeds up the inspection process. Let’s take a look at each objective, how Process Director accomplishes that goal and the real life examples of how.

Easy-to-Use

• Using Process Director, inspectors are able to complete forms in the field consistently including adding pictures, videos and messages all from their mobile device.
• The forms used in the inspection process are automatically sent to the relevant office personnel for handling, including customizable alerts, autoresponders or other workflow triggers.
• Dashboards are searchable based on desired criteria including location, inspector and more.
• The mobile inspection software also creates an audit trail for better management.

Simple to Integrate

• Mobile inspection software applications integrate with existing software to reduce the need to learn new programs. Automations work seamlessly with current workflows and create streamlined information for searching.
• Customizable templates capture form information from a mobile device, creating consistent tracking and documentation and back up to a centralized database with unique and custom user permissions.

Increase Process Efficiency

• Daily schedules can be given to inspectors to maximize routes, including driving directions by integrating with Google Maps. Real time geo-tracking records all inspections for better management.
• Mobile inspection software offers custom forms to create consistent data entry and can be completed on or offline, including collecting signatures in the field.
• Real time transmission of information streamlines and speeds up the inspection process by not requiring trips to the office to complete repetitious work.

Real World Application of Process Director

The City of West Allis, Wisconsin, was receiving building permits faster than the staff could process them. This was a big problem, because they wanted the business and didn’t have a good way to manage it all. Paperwork was falling through the cracks as multiple departments struggled with staying on top of the inspection process and approvals.

Using Process Director intelligent BPM software, they were able to not just save time and money with the building permit process, but also other monotonous processes.

“Our goal, when business owners apply for new business permits, is for all the information to flow between departments and eliminate as much paper work as possible — making it easier and more efficient for both the business and the city.” - Jim Jandovitz, Director of Information Technology for City of West Allis

After Process Director’s workflow tools were implemented for the inspection process, they discovered they could use the same system for other areas they wanted to streamline. Among the additional uses were code violation processes, billing, creating vendor work orders, and HR including recruiting, onboarding, orientation, ID cards and more. In the future they are looking to implement a mobile solution for dog licensing that connects with the police database.

To learn more about BP Logix’s Process Director as a mobile inspection software and how it can help you, request a demonstration. We will contact you and learn about your goals and requirements so we can tailor the demonstration to meet your specific needs.

The process of creating a document, sending it out for review and approval, for as many times as it takes before publishing it, can be a nightmare. The more eyes on the document, critical the material, and personalities involved, the higher the probability of delays and stalls in your project(s). Many solutions have been created to address this problem, but we think the best approach is through document review process automation.

The Problem

Documents, for the sake of this article, can be anything from internal policies to sales flyers. They can be printed documents, electronic documents or even web pages. The workflow for these documents include a series of steps that happen in sequential order, or concurrently, and they include 5 stages, namely: create, review, approve, update and publish. For example:

Concurrent Review Process: John writes a policy and sends it to Jane in HR, Chris in Operations, and Paul, the GM. The three reviewers make independent edits and send it back to John. He makes the changes and resubmits the document to the three reviewers. They all approve, sending it back to John who then publishes the document.

Sequential Review Process: John writes a policy and sends it to Jane. Jane requests edits, returns it to John. John sends it to Jane who approves it and sends it to Chris. Chris approves it and sends it back to John. From there, John publishes the document.

The sequential document review process can also include external users (clients, vendors, suppliers, etc.) into the workflow. Some examples of processes that includes external users are proposals, contract review and acceptance, and content review and approval.

The problem is when the  review process gets stalled, it becomes inefficient, due to multiple copies of the document being circulated, a lack of collaboration, a lack of timeliness and/or accountability, confusion as to the reviewer’s comments, etc.

The Solution

When it comes to automating a document review process, the most effective approach is to use a cloud based solution that offers a variety of workflow automation capabilities and user notifications.

We suggest Process Director workflow management software. Process Director streamlines the review process by providing:

• The reviewer’s comments to be immediately available to all parties to reduce redundancies
• Searchable tracking of changes, including reviewer name, date of change, etc.
• The ability to apply annotations such as virtual sticky notes, highlighting and free-form drawing tools
• Automatic conversion of source documents into viewable formats
• The ability to set permissions for different users to protect specific documents
• Suggested changes overlaying the documents and stored separately for author to accept or reject the edits without compiling multiple documents or versions
• Notifications and alerts to create accountability and/or trigger the next action to be completed
• The ability to toggle all reviewer comments or only one at a time
• The creation of forms to pre-define how content is submitted
• Scalable workflows that define the task, participants and rules that govern how the process advances
• Archives of the original document, as well as tracked changes for future reference

Overall, Process Director takes the best of both offline and online document review process strategies to allow participants to collaborate more effectively in real time. To learn more, contact one of our process management specialists for a free demonstration of Process Director.

If you saved five minutes on each project, how much money would you save over the course of a year?

For one company who recently implemented workflow software, it amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. They were able to shorten the building permit process, saving them almost 3,000 man hours annually. These man hours are equal to almost two full-time workers, meaning they could take on even more projects, benefit from the cost savings of reduced payroll, or even use the payroll expense for more support or sales staff.

The business we are referring to here is a suburban US city, and the service in this particular case was processing building permits and business applications.

Why A Workflow Software For The Building Permit Process?

The City of West Allis needed to accelerate their application and permit process as the workload was growing faster than they could keep up with process information needed to be streamlined between departments and paperwork couldn’t fall between the cracks. They knew technology could support them, and they needed a solution that would create enough efficiency it would have little impact on their budget. In other words, they needed a workflow solution that would fit their budget, create a fast return on investment, and be implemented quickly.

By using Process Director workflow software by BP Logix for their building inspection processes, the city was able to increase communication, BPM compliance and efficiencies across departments, save time and money during the building permit process, make data-driven decisions in real time and discover and address bottlenecks.

Why Process Director Workflow Software?

The City of West Allis chose Process Director workflow software based on the adaptability of the BPM to support them not just in the building permit process, but others as well. Today, they are able to manage building permit inspections, pipeline inspections, property inspections, building inspections, as well as address city complaints and violations.

With Process Director, the inspectors use their mobile devices to more easily find the inspection location, inspect the property, fill out a form, and attach pictures if needed. This information is then accessible to office staff to process, management to address and more.

Because it easily communicates with existing software and programs and allows for rapid application development, Process Director makes integration simple. There is also no need to learn new programs, which keeps employees from facing long, tiresome learning curves.

Today, the city reports they are experiencing better communication within the departments, with the clients they serve and are saving several thousands of dollars each month from the improved efficiencies.

Is Process Director right for you? Contact us today for a free demo from a BP Logix business process management expert to learn how to speed up the building permit process with BPM software.

Order Processing, Quality Assurance, Change Control, and Compliance are Improved with BPM Software

Our work with our manufacturing customers is not ‘just’ about implementing technology for manufacturing process automation. For Process Director BPM software to be most effective to our manufacturing customers we needed to understand their business, how they work with their own customers, and what makes them unique. The manufacturing sector provides a particularly outstanding business environment for process-minded individuals – and teams.

The complexity of building and delivering goods and services in the global economy is probably felt most profoundly by manufacturing companies. With software or services, input and communication renders location essentially unimportant, but those in the business of building hard goods need to ensure they have materials to do their work, and the ability to deliver finished products irrespective of geography. Because of the increasingly detailed nature of accomplishing ‘work’, there is a greater need for these kinds of businesses to have manufacturing process automation solutions that adopt and adhere to their business processes.

Why Manufacturing Process Automation Is Important

Order processing, quality assurance, engineering change control, government and industry compliance represent areas for manufacturing process automation. When those processes are automated they enable near real-time decision-making and auditability. With the IT ecosystem needing to be more dynamic, rigid and form- fit processes must be replaced to ensure that the company can adapt (and respond!) to changing market conditions.

Process Director BPM Software

While repeatability is desirable in any manufacturing process, so too is the ability to be flexible. We understand that companies need to adapt processes real-time. It would be costly and ineffective to halt all manufacturing while a process change request slowly travels through the IT queue. That is one of the reasons that manufacturing process automation with Process Director BPM software requires no programming skills to make changes to running processes.

Manufacturing is also a highly-regulated industry. Audits from the government and agencies are performed to ensure compliance with financial laws and industry guidelines. We built Process Director to implement the rules and procedures that demonstrate and ensure business process governance.

Being beholden to governance, risk and compliance usually means a higher likelihood of audits. For compliant organizations, the need to back-track, research, identify and review previous actions, decisions and requests is part of the audit scenario. BPM software facilitates that by allowing access to information that can be displayed, reviewed and approved for all decisions and actions.

When a manufacturing organization implement manufacturing process automation solutions with BPM software they operate according to well-defined actions and operations, gaining an advantage in terms of both repeatability and accountability. The organizations that rely on processes to handle the ‘heavy lifting’ are then able to focus on quality which, in turn, creates loyalty and competitive advantage.

Schedule A Demo

Schedule a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital challenges.

What is Workflow Management?

Workflow is defined as a process or set of processes that take a work task from start to finish. The workflow management, then, is the organizing of all the business processes along with the management of all interactions and tasks to complete that workflow. Workflow management software, however, helps automate these processes. It can comprise several complicated business processes- everything from workflow approvals and procurement to manufacturing lines, to vendor management and customer service.

6 Workflow Management Software Features To Consider

Overall, a workflow management software, such as Process Director, helps to streamline business processes by creating predefined business rules for execution. Trigger events cause specific actions, such as an email alert, automatically rather than relying on human memory or redundancy in tasks.

A business process that can be automated, even if just in part, can reduce error, allow for better tracking, create consistency and reduce costs. It works with an end goal in mind, and enterprise workflow automation builds in accountability to meet that goal. Overall, Process Director is a BPM platform that supports the following 6 critical workflow management software features:

Business Process Automation

Enterprise Application Integration

Track and Monitor Documents

Process Director's document workflow management system that allows you to search quickly and find important information, export results, trigger an action or set of processes, or even produce charts based on real-time data.

Compliance Regulations

Enhanced data security, audit, and access control features, this enterprise workflow automation software enables these highly regulated businesses compliance automation to automate and improve their business processes while avoiding compliance landmines. With Process Director workflow management software organizations can flourish even in the face of ever-changing regulatory compliance conditions.

Electronic Forms Management

With electronic forms management, you can create consistent data entry to use throughout the organization in for your employees, vendors or customers. Maintain these forms for tracking, reporting or more. With Process Director's rapid application development software they require no coding skills to create whether simple or complex.

Business Scalability and Agility

Managing business processes allows you to see the impact of scaling as well as allow you to adjust in real-time. Agile BPM, especially in meeting the needs and wants of customers, is the difference between a thriving business and a dying one. Know if a project is expected to not meet a deadline, or if a customer interacts with your brand on social media because an alert will be sent allowing for immediate intervention.

Request A Free Demonstration

Request a free demonstration of Process Director BPM platform and discover for yourself how this unique business process management software platform empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM and digital transformation solutions have helped our customers conquer their digital business challenges.

Is the Approval Process Slowing Your Organization Down?

Business workflow processes that require the approval of another employee or employees before it can be completed is considered an approval workflow.

An example could be an ad manager signing approval on a piece of advertising copy, or a management approval on an employee expense or even a timecard punch or purchase order. Approval workflow software can help automate the approval process to improve process efficiency, streamline the approvals or even issue automatic approvals under specific criteria.

How Does Process Director Work?

It creates a consistent pattern of trackable tasks, which is important for legal, regulatory and/or compliance reasons. It eliminates the need for human memory, by creating timelines and processes that automatically trigger alerts for needed tasks, and creates accountability to procedures, improving efficiency.

Other advantages of Process Director approval workflow software include:
• Workflow automation with consistent adherence to workflow processes
• Simplifies the manual approval process by automating repetitious, laborious or otherwise cumbersome activities into efficient ones
• Stores electronic forms for easy retrieval and eliminates lost paperwork, ideal for audits and BPM compliance purposes
• Alerts to prevent missed deadlines and even alerts to notify of potential down time

An Example Of Process Director In Action

Leo Burnett, an enterprise marketing agency, needed a formalized, cloud-based solution to create a better sales and customer process, namely to manage client approvals on estimates. They were looking for a scalable solution that allowed clients to review and approve estimates provided by the agency, as well as a process that allowed for updates along the way. This interchanges and back and forth process needed to be streamlined to eliminate potential clients falling through the cracks.

The agency implemented the approval workflow software, Process Director. Now, specific users create estimates, and the predefined criteria allow each estimate to go through the specific and appropriate approval routes required by each project type. Approvers receive email notifications that allow them to open, review and approve estimates without leaving the system, streamlining it to the next triggered task.

The review and approval process is now uniform and consistent. Process Director routes and manages the approval process while the appropriate parties review and approve all the estimates. Ready to discover Process Director’s capabilities for yourself? The BP Logix approval workflow software is designed to meet the demands of your business needs. Process Director can simplify even the most complex systems to make them more effective and efficient. Contact us to learn more or schedule a free demonstration today.

There are a lot of workflow tools out there. Call us biased but we think Process Director is the ultimate workflow tool for businesses. Why? Because it’s all encompassing. If you have a used workflow tool and thought, “Gee, I wish it could do this,” or “Why does it do that?!?!” You can trust that so have we.

Process Director workflow management software was born out of a need for something that worked exactly the way we needed it to in the workplace. Over the years, we’ve continued to innovate and create workflow solutions for workflow challenges, both yours and ours. The result is an all-encompassing workflow tool we are proud of.

What Process Director Can Do for You

Put simply, Process Director is a workflow management software with workflow tools that powers workflow and connects all of your organization’s systems and processes. Because it is uniquely intuitive, web-based, and robust, it can automate your processes, predict potential delays, eliminate programming, and integrate easily into existing applications.

Companies in advertising, education, financial services, government, health care, manufacturing, and more rely on Process Director workflow management software to:

● Drive growth
● Increase efficiency
● Boost visibility
● Reduce expenses
● Mitigate compliance risk
● Minimize redundancies

Process Director’s workflow automation software allows you to work smarter and faster by automating all of your organization’s critical processes and allowing you to continuously evaluate and improve them over time.

How is Process Director Different Than Other Workflow Management Software?

Unlike other BPM softwre, Process Director isn’t just for the IT department. It was built for not-as-tech-savvy employees, managers, and business owners in mind. You get automated smartforms, workflow management, document management, application integration, reports, and more, all without the hassle of:

● Coding
● Complex flowcharts
● Surprises or excuses

Unlike any other workflow tool, Process Director workflow management software tools are intuitive and dynamic, so you can count on:

● Total accountability. Every action taken by process participants is recorded.
● Greater efficiency. Process Director workflow management software directs you to the activities within your process that are consuming the most time. This allows you to focus your process improvement efforts where they will have the most impact.
● A bird’s-eye view of all of your processes. Review information about any activity, past or present, and see how different actors have performed within a given task.
● Real time analytics. Reset analytics at any time to understand what’s happening right now.

What you get is faster time-to-value, greater flexibility, and deeper insight into your business than any other BPM software.

Process Timeline

We developed an advanced BPMN modeling and business process automation software technology behind Process Timeline to work exactly how we wanted a workflow tool to work, but we didn’t stop there.

We have continued to add features to Process Timeline that enhance the user experience and allow you to manage your workflow more efficiently or more enjoyable all the time. Here are some of our favorite workflow tools integrated (and sometimes optional) into Process Timeline:

● Email notifications. Receive custom notifications that keep everyone up to date and on task in real time.
● Due date management. Process Director will alert you when a task is nearly due, overdue, and even when it’s predicted to be late. No other workflow tool can offer you this innovative, patented technology.
● Sub-workflows and business process segments. Manage more complex workflows by easily creating sub-workflows.
● Workflow management task lists. Create customizable task lists for groups and individuals.

Try it for Yourself – Request a free workflow software demo now.

Understanding Your BPM and Workflow Needs

It is important to assess the needs of your organization to determine whether or not business process management software (BPM software) is applicable to what you are doing. The process of analyzing your workflow efficiency needs will provide a deeper recognition of what your company needs to be more successful. Having a solid grasp of that will enable you to give more thoughtful consideration to both the BPM tools and solutions that work for you — and will help you avoid the trap that a BPM solution in and of itself can make you faster, better organized and more profitable. (Since we all are occasionally all too eager to map our needs to what others tell us they can provide)

Coming to the issue of value, which is a very personal one, to really ‘get value’ for what you buy, you have to be discerning. Product marketing teams know that there is a ‘sweet spot’ within which most customer problems exist. Around that sweet spot the key marketing messages for a product are designed.

The BP Logix marketing group partners closely with our sales and product teams to understand what our customers need. That is the foundation of the way we do business. To that end, we have helped all manner of companies and organizations derive great value from business process management — not just as a tool but, also, as a way of doing business. Some of that comes from market analysis, research and observing BPM trends — the rest of it comes from understanding and putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes. We understand the value of BPM and go to great lengths to help our customers implement BPM software solutions in a way that is applicable to their needs.

Improve Workflow Efficiency With BPM Software

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Our infographic, The Value of BPM, illustrates some of the key BPM elements that an organization needs to consider— and the degree to which some of our customers have benefited from using them. Everyone likes to see big numbers, and as you will see in the infographic, we certainly like to highlight where companies have seen an increase in workflow efficiency and reduction in cost or the elimination of redundancy. You will also recognize that the BPM examples we use in The Value of BPM point to specific BPM use cases. These are clearly specific to these individual companies, yet they demonstrate a sense for what BPM delivers towards workflow efficiency.

Working with a process-focused direction will undoubtedly deliver specific and measurable results when there is a well-articulated mapping of business needs with the BPM implementation process.

The BP Logix team is interested in why a prospect considers exploring BPM software in the first place— so we dive into that prospect’s business (with him, her or them) to understand how it is currently conducted. We look at the five key BPM elements:

• Workflow Efficiency: Does the organization experience a duplication of efforts, manual interactions, and/or delays in approvals?
• Productivity: Is an inordinate amount of time spent on singular tasks— and does lack of insight into the business limit their ability to provide direction?
• Process Change: As business needs and requirements change, does the organization adapt and, if so, how well does it adapt?
• Automation: Is the organization spending a lot of time on repetitive tasks, or trying to fit its needs into solutions that are not flexible?
• Knowledge: Does the organization recognize and act with regard to best practices and guidelines?

We could certainly tell you that your company will be faster, smarter, better and richer as a result of implementing Process Director BPM software — and leave it at that.

Please make no mistake. We think those are worthy and attainable goals. Where we see results and progress towards workflow efficiency, however, is when the goals focus on fixing workflow processes, not just on profitability. The value of BPM comes from the changes that occur on the way to becoming a better run company! That is the value we seek to provide.

Request a Demonstration

Process Director is your intelligent BPM software solution. Request a demonstration and discover for yourself how this unique enterprise business process management software empowers you to innovate, respond to market demands, and delight your customers. Or, contact us to learn more about how our BPM solutions have helped our customers conquer their workflow efficiency challenges.

BPM vs Workflow. There can be some confusion about the differences between BPM and workflow, partly because they are used interchangeably by some professionals. The confusion is understandable. Early business process management (BPM) solutions focused on the coordination of processes--they were focused on workflow. Today, workflow is a component of a good BPM, but they are not the same.

What Is Workflow?

Simply put, workflow helps organizations to see an overview of a process to monitor results, reduce inefficiencies and incorporate automation. At its best, it serves to align the processes with the business goals and systematize how documents and tasks are completed and executed for quality and/or compliance.

Workflow software is a tool for automating the process. It can provide support for steps in the business process and can trigger alerts for the appropriate users to take action. It is a single process within a more complex system.

As an analogy, it would be the steps for making the crème in a Twinkie, but not the entire creation, assembly or packaging of such.

What Is BPM?

BPM is a larger system of processes that incorporates multiple workflows, automation tools and human capital to optimize them all. It is a system that gets all the cogs working together in harmony to create an ideal end result.

All companies use business processes to produce the end result, and BPM software streamlines those processes to create a more agile and efficient business.

“BPM has been defined as a method of efficiently aligning an organization with the wants and needs of its customers, both internally and externally.” --Jay O’Brien, CTO BP Logix, Inc.

[embed]https://youtu.be/HduhwGtEMKI[/embed]

How Does BPM Software Work?

BPM software looks at the current state of the business and its processes and works with the management team’s goals to identify future objectives. In the most ideal situations, this team would create an ever evolving feedback loop and a continuously improving process that grows with the business. Automating workflow to make it faster, more efficient, and more consistent creates a measurable result on the company’s bottom line, while at the same time improving the organization’s compliance capabilities.

The structure of BPM incorporates policies, procedures, methods, metrics, human tasks, software tasks and IT to manage and optimize all levels of business functions.

Overall, BPM monitors, evaluates and even activates processes for better management. This allows businesses to serve more customers, have a better workforce and profit margin, just to name a few of the benefits.

BPM vs Workflow Bottom Line

The need for streamlining and automatization tools come from the increasingly competitive nature of business. Eliminating wasteful practices and procedures to achieve optimal performance allows businesses to control quality and costs and can be the difference between success or failure. So instead of thinking it as BPM vs workflow, think of it as BPM and workflow operating together to improve efficiencies. However, BPM takes it a step further by allowing multiple workflow scenarios, across multiple channels, to run in peak way. Simply put, BPM improves at the organizational level.

To learn more about BP Logix BPM tools and how they can help you, request a demonstration. Before the demo, we will contact you to learn about your goals and requirements so we can tailor the demonstration to meet your specific needs.

Process Timeline Workflow Engine

BP Logix is the only company to offer a BPM software solution (Process Director) with Process Timeline technology-- a workflow engine that incorporates the dimension of time all the way from model to execution. Traditionally, BPM software has been driven by two key factors:

1. Better outcomes from higher efficiency processes.
2. The need for appropriate controls.

However, many BPM solutions have neglected the element of time. Time allows businesses to obtain additional control over processes by allowing for prediction elements, or business process intelligence, to determine timeliness.

Imagine if your BPM software included an automated solution that could alert you when the timeline for a specific task wasn’t met, or if future tasks are at a risk of not being met? How could that change efficiency for your organization?

The Critical Element of Time and the iBPM

The element of time management is crucial to planning and oversight. Intelligent Business Process Management (iBPMS) allows for human intervention when a workflow process gets off track, or can trigger a different event in the process. Traditional BPM focuses on quality and business process governance, but adding a workflow engine with business process automation capabilities along with the predictive element of time gives the user the ability to see how later process stages will be affected by the previous ones. This adds huge value to the managed process by allowing the earliest possible notification of potential delays to allow intervention before timeline problems arise.

In workflow processes, there is a review and approval step in place, but it doesn’t answer the questions:

“When will this task complete?”

“When will this entire process complete?”

These questions are of great importance in management, because while it may be great to know you are on track to hit a specific goal, it is still important to know what is currently happening. It is similar to comparing the act of looking at a transactions in a register to discover errors, rather than simply looking at a monthly profit and loss statement.

Flowchart Model Failures

Time efficiency is achieved often through business process automation, with cost savings as the most obvious goal.

Example of Process Timeline Workflow Engine with Predicted Timelines

Outside of automation, these savings come about by removing process redundancies  and streamlining business processes, usually through the support of BPM software. More efficient use of time, less paper consumption, and business process automation can certainly tighten processes and reduce expenses, creating a higher ROI. Reduced risks and lowered costs of non-compliance issues also effect the bottom line.

A flowchart will say, “What happens next,” while Process Timeline's workflow engine will more importantly ask, “What must be completed before this step begin and how long will it take?”

The two benefits of BPM software, process efficiency and process governance, are now improved on by incorporating the critical element of a time-focused process technique, found only in BP Logix Process Director. Process Director BPM platform includes Process Timeline workflow engine, which results in even greater benefits.

Benefits of a BPM Software With A Business Process Automation Solution

1. Simple models allow businesses to go from discovery to full automation faster. Each activity is listed with its duration estimate, to create fast workflow processes. Activities can run at the same time, without complicated coding to configure parallel behavior.
2. The status of the entire process, as well as sub-processes can be determined at a glance, allowing for proactive response and the earliest notification of potential delays to allow for quick intervention.
3. Predictive nature “sees” future problems and can trigger actions to the changing circumstance so obstacles can be overcome before deadlines are missed or production halts. Process Timeline records predicted execution versus actual time, every time the process runs and adjusts the time estimates for even better management.
4. Process Director stores every aspect of the process for audits, internally or externally, for improved compliance.

BP Logix developed Process Director BPM software and the workflow engine, Process Timeline, in order to address the critical element of time in business process management. Process Timeline equips businesses to build robust process models without the need to develop code, making it a preferred BPM software solution. And because flowchart workflow automation is appropriate for some processes, Process Director has integrated both models, allowing traditional and intelligent processes to work together to create complex and manageable processes for optimal effectiveness, quality, and compliance needs. Contact us to learn more and schedule a free demonstration of Process Director today.

There are a lot of perceptions about how productivity and business goals are handled by organizations. Most view attempts to gain efficiency as the domain of IT but it turns out it is not solely the result of implementing technology. Efficiency is also attributable to how all groups in the company collaborate to achieve  growth.

While this kind of thinking makes a neat delineation between the business and technology sides of an organization, it is short-sighted in failing to recognize that technology does not operate in a vacuum. Rather, it is the CIO and the IT department that are driving business growth through technology solutions and, most importantly, business process management.

IT is no longer the invisible place where requests are sent and solutions magically delivered. Rather, IT is firmly ensconced in what goes on within the business— and IT leaders are integrated into business planning so they can deliver better, more purposeful solutions.

Some enterprise applications can markedly reduce the time employees need to spend on specific tasks. Taking less time and using fewer resources to achieve desired results creates the kind of efficiency that all companies seek to achieve. To achieve those results requires an IT leader who can identify the solution that can do the job, encourage collaboration, integrate successfully with existing applications (and the company’s security infrastructure) and be acceptable to stakeholders. After all, with the right mix of applications and tools, an IT department's actions can contribute to reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Most companies enable IT managers to make the changes necessary to enable the organization to become incrementally more successful. But organizations that seek excellence and want to grow more dramatically have come to rely on a different kind of IT manager: one that knows both the technology AND business requirements needed to achieve revenue growth. One of the ways this happens is through building a business process-based foundation, on top of which tasks and activities move fluidly towards business goals.

Progressive IT managers recognize that irrespective of how work is inputted, transacted and delivered, processes and workflow are always key to their work. Understanding how workflow software and BPM software impact business goals demands that these IT managers first understand the various parts of the business and their goals. With that knowledge, they can lead the effort to make changes rather than just respond to what C-level execs demand of them. A deep understanding of the organization, how all the pieces work together and their goals enables IT to create BPM solutions that will actually be used. This is an important distinction because without new tools and strategies, no advantage can be gained.

BP Logix customers are building solutions that address a variety of business issues —and Process Director is at the heart of how they address them. The product is a tool for business users as it is inherently capable of mapping specific business requirements to actual outcomes without having to invoke the skills of a developer or architect. It is also embraced by IT as it lightens the load of IT, enabling them to address other applications and requirements, while still satisfying the needs of the business.

Process Director is also able to operate beyond company walls so events and actions that benefit customers, partners or other third-parties can become part of processes and workflow. The feedback we receive repeatedly is that Process Director provides the flexibility and comprehensiveness that a single application simply cannot touch.

When IT departments deploy Process Director, they emphasize both business and technology goals equally. The act of establishing business processes instills a sense of what is possible because it breaks down any walls that might exist between the tech and business sides of the enterprise. Interestingly, BPM then becomes a rallying point for business growth. IT leaders can evangelize the notion that the company is prepared for anything because the business foundation is built on a tool that is optimized for business growth. That becomes a powerful weapon for the organization.

Business processes (BPM) takes the best of your enterprise applications and makes them both measurable and sustainable.

Many years ago Peter Drucker, the great management thinker, predicted the rise of what he called the "knowledge worker". As evidenced over time, Drucker was truly a thought leader. Today, we can acknowledge that we have arrived at “the place” Drucker envisioned: a place where almost all jobs require some element of knowledge work. Yet it is not true that everyone with a computer on his or her desk or a smartphone in his or her pocket qualifies as a knowledge worker.

The rise of the knowledge worker has also led to an impetus for business process management (BPM). BPM enables people to access more data. That, in turn, can facilitate new insights for knowledge workers who might not ‘normally’ have access to that same data.

Most enterprise applications run better and more efficiently when used by those who have what we call a ‘process mindset’. Of course, there are a variety of ways to use BPM to gain that process mindset and the insights that are derived from greater access to more kinds of data.

Case management software is a prime example. When case management software is paired with BPM software, business users can build, modify and manage sophisticated digital applications in a human-directed way. Case magnifies the effects of BPM because it is an agile way of integrating data from disparate sources and managing how it is used. As a result of detailed analytics, case management provides information that can be used to derive additional insights.

The true impact of BPM case management is best understood in the context of workflow. The market has a lot of BPM-only tools that rely on the "if, then" concept. They have been developed to manage sequential, time-driven events and operations. Yet many processes are more complex in what they deliver, who they touch and how they handle obstacles and changing conditions.

This is an important differentiator for case management because it is framed around processes that are not necessarily beholden to a timeline or a sequence— but are more often about the logic and actions taken within the process. A well-constructed adaptive case management solution can take into account things like business data (through the integration of information from different sources), business logic, deadlines, and insights derived from the data.

It is important to think about case management not as a "thing" like a project or a folder. Rather, it is the accumulation of all the elements that comprise the activity, all formed around the varying aspects of an issue, or case. The beauty of case management is that the goal is known, the premise understood, yet there is flexibility to pull in the necessary information so as to make better decisions based on deeper insights into the issues one is trying to solve.

Consider, for example, how a decision is made using a simple "T-Chart". We have all, at one time or another, sat down to weigh pros and cons of a T-Chart. To do that, we have to frame the outcome and provide details based on what we know. If it is buying a car, well, we know what we care about most that will sway us in making a decision. If gas mileage, air conditioning and color are critical, we would put them on the list. Maybe we do not care about cruise control and seat warmers, so we can exclude them. If cruise control contributed to gas mileage, and if better gas mileage could give you a better rebate, would that be a factor in your decision? All features have to be assessed and factored in at times independently, and at other times, collectively. A T-Chart (and most human brains), is incapable of calculating so many interconnected variables. Case management, however, is designed to do just that, and by doing so, provides users with an advantage in terms of perspective and understanding.

Peter Drucker also said, “The basic economic resource - the means of production - is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge.” If you apply that to today’s enterprise, you will recognize the difference between data and, as Drucker says, “Knowledge.” Knowledge brings understanding, and understanding leads to a better decisions.

Case management is a methodology that can help organizations better address and use the information it collects. In so doing, BPM case management solutions enables companies to optimize their most prized asset.

The exciting news is that I’ve been given approval to implement workflow and business process management across our entire organization and find a vendor to partner with. After a lot of internal evangelizing, I have executive support to make it happen! I have accumulated a lot of great insights from colleagues about the functionality we need, and now have that most critical piece...budget!

I feel like I have already spent a ton of time on this, and we haven’t even started looking at products. So, for this next phase, I'm evaluating all manner of tools and applications, seeking the right solution for my company, and taking into consideration products (and their viability), appropriateness for our company, price, time-to-deploy, and the ‘fit’ with the vendor. Our goal is to ensure that we can get more work done faster, with improved communication and better results. We will certainly do our due diligence, but there are a lot of moving parts.

It is not hard to find software applications that are labeled as "BPM" or "workflow". There are lots out there. Since I’ve spent considerable time learning about the needs of different groups within our company, I have a specific set of requirements based on those BPM and workflow needs. First and foremost, the product must meet our standards and desired goals: 1) Increase efficiency in our operations, 2) Streamline how work is accomplished, 3) Improve collaboration, and 4) Expand our (collective) business insights. More than anything else, of course, it needs to address our business issues— but has to do that without creating extra layers of work. In other words, this workflow solution should help us get the right people involved, give them the ability to make decisions based on better information, process the results of those decisions, trigger each step in the process, and provide a track record of what transpired. Whew!

In evaluating vendors, one thing that stands out is how many say they provide BPM and workflow tools, but on deeper inspection, it looks like that's not actually the case. Instead of offering a unique workflow solution, many of these companies have what appears to be a workflow-based engine that was intended to work specifically with some other application; maybe ERP, CRM or SFA. That’s not what we are looking for— and I can spot an inadequate solution within two minutes into a demo.

Part of my evaluation is based on WHAT the product does, but also WHO the company is. This is not a pair of shoes that we are buying. I need to know that I can trust the people behind the product, that they take pride in what they do, and that they are easy to work with. After all, we are betting a major part of the foundation of our business on this.

I have taken part in a few demos and it is striking how most begin with a PowerPoint and 45 minutes of talking (a vendor monologue…) What I am looking for is a team who listens and wants to know my story. I want them to be honest and forthcoming, and to understand how they can help me and my company, given our unique characteristics.

The right vendor will be able to give me an accurate portrayal of what life will be like with its solution, and can address these questions:

• Can the product they provide address processes both across all internal groups and externally to third-parties? How is integration and collaboration handled?
• Does the product they provide improve workflow as a result of HOW it will be accessed?
• Can the product they provide effectively facilitate workflow and processes through mobile, social and other types of digital interaction?
• How much functionality does the company offer relative to electronic forms? Do they have the ability to accurately be called "smart forms"?
• What is the ease of building apps and forms? Can non-developers and business users participate in creating and modifying processes?
• Will I be able to take advantage of predictive capabilities with the product they provide?
• Are there data and analytics capabilities that I can use to better understand how my processes are performing?

The answers to these questions will determine how we move forward and which vendor we choose. We want to start with a conversation and a dialogue, though, not sit through a one-size-fits-all presentation. My hope is to find a vendor who is interested in more than my purchase order. I am looking for a partner that is invested in me achieving the results we need. If I can find that company, then I know I will be closer to project success.

Summer has finally arrived and with it come opportunities to catch a wave, dig your toes into the sand, grab a cold one, and decompress. If a nearby beach is calling your name, we'd like to send you off with that long-standing tradition of loading up on workflow-related material for your beach reads. While the beaches are filled with teens frolicking to summer grooves and kids kicking sand into your guacamole, you'll be content and ready to re-charge, as you ‘entertain’ yourself by flipping through some of the finest thinking on how BPM software and workflow software are changing the way the world works….

In all seriousness, it's true that we usually don't take time to ‘learn’ because we're so heads-down in "doing." It becomes easy to stick with what we know, but summertime gives us a reminder that slowing down and looking around usually presents some interesting opportunities.

We think about BPM and workflow all the time, and our website is loaded with best practices, knowledge and BPM resources to help you become smarter about BPM solutions and methods that can impact your business. For the purposes of convenience (and not to overwhelm you), we've chosen a few key pieces to help you better understand how BPM and workflow actually work, how to prepare your organization for using them, and what you can expect to gain. So here is the essential list of BPM and workflow beach reads (and your cue to grab that cold one):

1. The Project: Process Pat and the Journey to Process Improvement
This blog series follows Process Pat as he embarks on a path to improve his company's decision-making and outcomes by using BPM and workflow. Part 1 shows how Pat introduces the project to colleagues, then follows with how he gets executive approval in Part 2. In Part 3, Pat uncovers some important truths about how things get done within his company. This impacts how he proceeds with his project.

2. BPM Means Business. So Does Workflow.
This blog provides an understanding of the differences and similarities between BPM and workflow, and how different types of organizations benefit from them.

3. Business and the Clock: Workflow and Time
Time can be both the greatest asset and, potentially, biggest enemy, of any business. Failing to meet a schedule or not delivering on expectations can be disastrous. This blog explains the importance of having the element of time included in your BPM and workflow solution.

4. Business Process Outcomes: What an Enterprise Should Expect for Its BPM Investment
The blog outlines seven key outcomes that an organization should expect after implementing BPM. It provides a roadmap for ensuring success and driving towards important business-process improvement.

At this point, you should be well-versed in the language, trends and key elements of BPM software and workflow software. Feel free to grab another cold one, catch a wave, and start a process. Cowabunga!

I have been in “learning mode” in recent months. Over the course of numerous meetings and strategy sessions, I have spoken with team leaders and executives across my company to secure approvals and obtain executive buy-in. Those were important steps in moving forward with implementing our BPM and workflow solution. Those conversations have enlightened me about critical changes that need to take place in order to make our company more efficient— and I feel validated that many of these issues can be solved by deploying workflows and applying best practices.

An important takeaway from all of this work has been to help me build requirements for the kind of solution we need. At our size (we are currently at 4,400 employees, but growing monthly), with our geographic distribution (we have offices in five countries, and do business through partners in 16 different countries), and based on our organizational structure, I realize that we have to be specific in the solution we choose. It needs to address issues that are particular to our company.

Now, I realize that every group in the company thinks its concerns and priorities are special. Some can trot out pages of requirements, while others think along the lines of, "Just give me something to speed up the approval process." Irrespective of what they need, I was struck by how well they could all articulate their needs. Clearly, some things have been missing and a solution is sorely needed.

My exploratory phase was based on a parallel line of questioning to business owners within my company. I needed specific information such as: 1) What process elements do you need to be more successful in your job right now, and 2) If technology could change how you do your job, what would that technology look like? The answers were surprisingly consistent across different groups in the organization, and everyone I talked to was focused on outcomes. It was obvious that my colleagues are wanting to see improvements occur as soon as possible, but they are also willing to be patient while they build a foundation that delivers success longer-term.

As a result of feedback from colleagues, I will be looking at a solution based on process automation and workflow, but one that also addresses some of the more intricate elements of "getting stuff done." I expected to review piles of whitepapers and watch endless hours of product pitches before arriving at even a few potential solutions. I was surprised, however, to learn that most BPM and workflow solutions do only a limited number of things. They say they do them really well —but they don’t appear to have a lot of flexibility in their capabilities. So, I have a couple sales calls lined up with interesting vendors, and these are the things I am going to press them on. I know that once I find a solution that can address those specific things I will have what my organization wants and will get on board with:

A tool for businesspeople
We have a fantastic group of developers in our IT organization, and I am impressed with the work they do. But they are busy, their request queue is far too long, and many of the items on their list require way too much communication with the business owners. I would rather have our IT team focused on addressing business-critical issues anyway, rather than making changes, for example, to drop-down menus on internal forms.

My experience tells me that if we, as business owners, could change and update our forms and processes ourselves, our company could save a significant amount of time (and money!). In fact, it seems that as processes get further away from users, the quality and capabilities of the solution are often less-than-exemplary. We want to avoid outdated hierarchies of responsibility. The reality is that our business should not have to wait for IT to fix our processes. For one thing, this creates a huge game of organizational "telephone" where requirements are created and a team organized. Unfortunately by the time the developers start working on a solution, the original needs are often misunderstood. Even if requirements are met to the letter, there's a nuance to knowing what you want, and the business owners are the ones best equipped to spell that out.

We are seeking a users’ tool so that we can demonstrate greater time-to-value from our processes and business operations.

The ability to see beyond a "to do" list
Especially in today's fast-paced business environment, time is a critical element to an organization's processes. The ability to anticipate activities and deliverables provides a unique and competitive advantage. This means changing from a "wait and see" environment to one where predicted outcomes can result in better planning and more realistic expectations.

The best way to make educated predictions as to what will become of our resources, processes and activities is through intelligence derived from our very own processes. Probably the best intellectual property in our organization is contained within the data and decisions that form the basis for the business processes we operate very day. Analysis of that data can help keep projects moving forward, as well as to suggest when adjustments need to be made due to timelines and milestones not being met. A tool that delivers this will help us be more nimble and adaptable.

Timeframes to keep the organization on-task
Our business goals change from quarter to quarter, and we need to complete projects and deliver results based on these timeframes. I have been surprised to learn that many business process tools emphasize the process as if it existed in a vacuum. Those of us on the front lines know all too well that the results of these processes are what allow us to be successful— or show that we have failed.

The processes we operate need time-based goals and milestones that can be tracked and managed. Irrespective of how long something takes our feeling is, that at some point, deadlines, timelines and accomplishments rule the day (more than the processes themselves.) The work that people do needs to be understood in terms of how long it will take; a timeframe can be used to set expectations. Just ask anyone who's had to deliver something by the end of the quarter and they'll gladly validate the fact that, as Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Time is money.”

I have planned calls this week with different vendors. I expect to get the hard sell from at least one of them, and that’s alright. They have a product to sell, and I have a need. But I will be looking for a vendor who will listen to my needs, seek to understand my situation, and help me identify a solution that enables me to create a solid foundation on which I can grow my business.

All organizations operate according to a certain level of “group think“. That's not necessarily a bad thing because we all want employees focused on the same goals and adhering to similar work styles. As much as we don't want to admit to any amount of “Orwellianism” in our companies, while all of our employees at my company are equal, some are more equal than others. Those who are not equal are who we call ‘the executives.’

I do not mean to suggest that there is any unfairness. On the contrary, my company is a very democratic place. Irrespective of where ideas come from, they are valued and evaluated based on merit, not on the pay grade of the person who suggested them. And it is because I work in such an egalitarian place that I have a shot at getting my workflow project approved. I’ve done my due diligence, a ton of research, and already started to look at some vendors. My project proposal will, I believe, be rewarded with a green light to move forward.

We all know, however, that there can be a lot of yellow and red lights after receiving the initial approval. Issues are bound to arise, we may need more resources or encounter unforeseen hurdles; any number of potential challenges may rear their ugly heads. To help pave the way, I need an executive who will champion our cause and intervene when needed. Perhaps even knock down doors when my voice is not being heard. Executive buy-in and support is critical to my workflow project being successful.

I have learned that it is critical to find one or two executives who see the merit in my project and recognize the long term benefits. I also understand that they don’t need to be workflow experts; they don’t even need to know me all that well. What is most important is to align with the execs who have a vision for our company and who value innovation.

The first thing I had to do was to realize that although my business card says, "Director of IT", I'm also a salesman— and I have to evangelize my plan in order to get executive backing. So, I organized my plan into the requisite sales tools: a PowerPoint that highlights my goals and plans for achieving them, a spreadsheet that shows cost savings, and flowcharts that show before and after scenarios. I'm trying to paint a picture of what our organization will look like after the workflows are implemented. But I am also demonstrating that our entire organization could be different. And not just different — better!

There are many execs here who are enlightened and progressive and ultimately champion projects that will bring about change. At the same time, these are busy people with lots of demands on them, so if I waste their time, I may not get a second shot to plead my case.

In a way, I am proposing a partnership. Clearly I will have to do all the work. But knowing that I will have an executive champion to see this workflow implementation project all the way through is invaluable.

I am taking these messages to the executives I think can support and advocate for my workflow project:

1. Value: Implementing workflows will result in an improved and more efficient way of handling our business processes. I know it because I live in a world consisting of both written and ad hoc ways of doing our ‘business’. I recognize that having workflow will provide a framework for improving our decision-making, managing our assets, and providing the collaboration we need to become even more successful. Workflow will even help us anticipate when and where we can expect to see shifts in our business so we can plan accordingly. This provides insights (I call it value) across the entire organization — and I can make a very profound case for how we can do this.
2. Savings: With greater efficiency comes a reduction in resources we have to apply. Workflow will enable us to include documents needed for validation and/or approval which means less time spent retrieving assets (later) to make decisions. We can target stakeholders more closely and with greater accuracy, eliminating wasted time and reducing roadblocks. The workflow solution I'm evaluating even integrates with social media so I can incorporate different types of communication to ‘meet’ stakeholders however and wherever they operate.
3. Growth: Ultimately, all companies want whatever is implemented to be sustainable. Certainly my executive champion will want that to be the case. (This is where I have already felt enthusiasm among the C-level execs with whom I have been talking.) They have the foresight to see how an investments made now can pay off in the future. In their minds, standardizing operations and creating a solid foundation on which to build for future growth trumps the (sometimes cultural) changes that may need to be made to get us there.

With my proof-points in hand, I have already set up meetings and will start to do my internal "road show". My hope is to identify one or two executives who have the vision and political capital to help us move forward, and act as my consigliere throughout the course of the project.

Business is going really well at our company. We have seven consecutive quarters of significant growth, dramatic improvement in margins, we are hiring good people, and morale is great. In the midst of this, the last thing anyone wants to do is kill the momentum. Which is why, if I don't nail the project I'm planning, I could easily become the guy who ruined all the fun.

The truth is, I think we have the potential to improve. Even with all this success, I see areas that would benefit from business process improvement— in areas like how we manage tasks, how we communicate, and how we make decisions. I see this from the perspective of an employee whose work depends on business processes and workflows. Yet, as Director of IT, I also know that with the right solution, the right internal buy-in, and collaboration, we can improve on how our company achieves its goals. If I can get agreement and support to drive a project that identifies and implements a business process improvement solution, I have no doubt that every department within the company will get on board.

It is interesting how success can sometimes breed complacency. Some might attribute it to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" syndrome. In other words, since business is going so well, why introduce something that will require ‘change’ and modify our business operations? My vantage point tells me that this is precisely the right time to make a change. We are already running efficiently and have a focus on our goals. Some could translate that as we're already where we want to be. Yet, I’m sure we can do better.

So the challenge is for me to sell it. I need to get senior management to approve and support the project. In fact, I even need them to champion it. The first step, however, is to get my CIO and other executives to recognize that this is not the time to sit on our hands. I need them to see that with action, we can prepare our company for a future where we can replicate the things we are doing well right now— and even do them more effectively.

In order to get their approval and for me to then be able to move forward, I have to explain it in their terms. I need to inform and persuade our executives by focusing on outcomes. I want them to see the critical improvements that our company will realize with the implementation of this kind of thinking (yes, I need to talk to them about business process management), and I also need to assuage any concerns they have. My approach will be a mixture of salesmanship and exploration. I recognize that in the course of doing this, I will also learn more about the issues they think are important, and ultimately, I may bake those into our solution.

These are the issues I will address in order to get executive approval:

ROI: As they say, accentuate the positives. Our executives need to answer to their Board and investors; their performance is based on how well they manage costs and increase revenue. I am doing a fairly rudimentary cost/benefit analysis that demonstrates significant cost savings from deploying a robust BPM solution. It includes estimates of reductions in the number of hours employees spend on time- consuming tasks, the impact of faster and more collaborative decision-making. And because I am looking at a BPM solution that doesn’t require coding to create processes, my ROI shows significant savings that will come from avoiding the IT application queue (plus having the ability to create, modify and manage their own processes.)

Empowerment: Executives love it when people can do more. A BPM software solution, especially one that does not require IT to build and manage processes, empowers employees to improve their workload by creating more efficient ways to accomplish tasks. I know they will love to learn that we can reduce the IT burden and give staff the ability to build, implement and manage processes. That means there will be cost savings and change management all in one.

Risk mitigation: There are always concerns, with any new BPM or workflow software, around allowing access to company and customer data. I completely understand that! If our data falls victim to a hack or security breach, it could have a major impact on our brand; if customers cannot trust us, they will not remain customers for very long. I have already built in tight security controls for our network and our environment. To ensure that our BPM system will be secure, I have developed specific guidelines for usage and access, and, with the solution I'm proposing, I will be able to monitor usage trends and behavior.

Automation benefits: Most of our business activities consist of repeatable processes. The issue is finding time to actually codify them as processes and commit them to how people work. In my company, even the C-level execs are frustrated with the length of time it takes to accomplish certain tasks. I am going to demonstrate what a BPM solution with workflow automation capabilities can do to automate certain tasks, thereby reducing red tape and increasing efficiencies across the organization.

My work is cut out for me. Our execs, like all execs, are a demanding bunch— but that is why I like being here. I want them to really poke at my project because it will ultimately help me create a better plan.

I will be back shortly...and I will let you know if I got the green light. Wish me luck!

Continue The Journey

The Project, Step 2: Process Pat Seeks Executive Champions

When people first look for a solution like Process Director, they use search terms like, "BPM software" or "workflow solution". They are correct in thinking that way, and those search results will serve as a starting point for who we are. At BP Logix, however, we are a BPM company that thinks of what we do as using BPM and workflow to help organizations become more efficient —and ultimately create more value.

Our goal is to help you make your company a better version of itself. The toolset we offer delivers business process automation, workflow management software, process timelines and a host of other capabilities. Some see these as being different types of solutions, as if BPM was independent of workflow. Some companies may choose to implement solutions in that way— however we know that, irrespective of what a solution is called, it must address the organizational and automation needs of its customer. For BP Logix, BPM, workflow, and automation are all intertwined to create a platform that facilitates business growth.

To be candid, there are differences between BPM and workflow. BPM is more comprehensive; it considers dependencies and the entirety of the business and can do more than simply manage those things. It can also analyze them, anticipate their outcomes, and encourage thinking as to how to do things better. Workflow is more tactical. With workflow, you can ensure that the processes you want are acted upon and your business goals are achieved. At the end of the day, however, BPM is most effective when its purpose is tightly integrated into the functionality that workflow provides.

Process Director was developed to offer a complete BPM solution that combines BPM and workflow, with the goal of simplifying and codifying how business gets done. Working together, BPM and workflow strive toward simplification as the goal. To achieve that goal, however, the foundation of a robust and reliable BPM and workflow solution must be an attempt to create an optimal future. That foundation must be able to deal with different strategies— agile, waterfall, checklist.

Irrespective of how it is done, there comes a point where the differences between BPM and workflow are irrelevant. The reality is that, for every possible business outcome and consequence you have not considered, this foundation will enable you to simplify and manage it to meet your business goal.

We encourage customers to be very specific about their goals for BPM and workflow— but to also be flexible in how they use Process Director to achieve them. Consider these as guiding principles:

Who is participating: Who are the main stakeholders — what do they NEED and what will they REQUEST? Those are different, and you need to be judicious in what you agree to deliver. Part of your job will be to get them to understand the macro nature of your project, not just the part they plan within it.

Identify potential risks: In a linear and interconnected way, think through where you anticipate pain points —and contemplate how to avoid them. Consider if these are likely to restrict the business or put it at risk, or if they are just roadblocks. BPM and workflow can overcome roadblocks. Major risks will be dealt with by your legal team.

Keep purpose in mind: You (may) have to get stakeholders to step back and remember the ultimate goal. And you and the project team must remember to ask yourselves repeatedly, "Is this action leading me towards our goal?” If you do not ask that, you may end up moving the project in directions you never intended to….

Integrate business and IT goals: There is a need to align business and IT goals. Reaching a successful outcome for those two functional areas may involve different skill sets and requirements. That is perfectly normal and expected, as there is a symbiotic relationship between IT and business. Ultimately they are both trying to achieve results that are complementary. Make sure, however, there is an effort to articulate goals (and acceptable practices for achieving them) from the start.

BPM. Workflow. Working together, and with a definitive purpose within an organization, the right solution will have a dramatic, positive business impact.