Disponibile un nuovo aggiornamento di Blueprint

L'applicazione Lombardi SaaS per il BPM discovery è stata nuovamente aggiornata.

La nuova versione è stata migliorata nelle performance mentre è stata riscritta la parte relativa alla documentazione dei processi permettendone ora una vista più strutturata. 

Vi ricordo che la prova di Blueprint è gratuita e in questa nuova versione la procedura di primo login è stata semplificata al massimo.

Ora in 20-30 secondi si è in condizione di utilizzare il sistema.

VI convegno internazionale BPM a Milano

Si sta svolgendo in questi giorni a Milano presso il Politecnico il 6° International Conference on BPM.

Cliccate qui per accedere al sito.

Chi è impossibilitato ad esserci può leggere una cronaca degli inteventi sul blog di Sandy Kemsley cliccando qui.

Due clienti Lombardi al meeting Gartner

Nel prossimo Gartenr Business Process Management Summit (dal 10 al 12 settembre a Washington DC) due  utenti di Teamworks presenteranno le loro esperienze.

Mr.  Bob Shallow, direttore delle sviluppo alla NACCO Materials Handling Group parlerà sul tema "Gaining  Adoption for Your BPM Initiative"  mentre Mr. Gene Rawls, vice-president  of continous improuvment in Wells Fargo parlerà sul tema "How Wells Fargo Built a Cross-Organizational BPM Capability" .

Bob Shallow sarà anche ospite in un web-seminar dallo stesso titolo il 16 settembre alle 18 ora italiana. Per iscriversi cliccate qui

Nel corso del Summit parlerà anche Toby Cappello, direttore dei professional service in Lombardi con un intervento dal titolo "Breaking Down the Three Major Barriers to BPM Success" mentre Phil Gilbert come   presidente e chairman del comitato "BPM Standards" in OMG (Object Management Group) parlerà sul tema "Governing An Enterprise-Wide BPM Program"

Per vedere il programma completo del meeting cliccate qui

Continua la crescita di Lombardi

Malgrado il periodo di stagnazione dei mercati, Lombardi ha raggiunto nel primo semestre 2008 una crescita di fatturato di più del 50% rispetto allo stesso periodo dell'anno scorso.

I nuovi clienti includono  Ayudhya Allianz C.P. (Thailand), Allianz Hungaria Biztosito Zrt., Charles Schwab, G&D Integrated, Jaguar Land Rover, Maritz Research, Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Merchant Investors Assurance Company Ltd., OAD Groep BV, Savvis, Singapore Refining Company Private Limited, TeliaSonera, Wells Fargo Home and Consumer Finance Group, Wirtualna Polska SA e Yale University.

Riprendo dal comunicato stampa Lombardi il Summary

A summary of Lombardi's results from the six months ended June 30, 2008 include the following:

• Grew overall license revenue by 85 percent and overall revenue by 50 percent as compared to the same period in 2007.
• Achieved dozens of strategic customer wins and existing client deployment expansions, including the receipt of the largest services agreement in the history of the company.
• Delivered significant enhancements through new versions of both Lombardi Blueprint and Teamworks.
• Introduced Lombardi Process Definition packages, a series of process "know how" packages designed to assist companies with evaluation and planning of their BPM-based process improvement projects.
• Increased headcount by 25 percent globally to handle growth, covering all areas of the business, including sales, professional services, development and support and administration.
• Continued to expand the company’s global sales and support ecosystem, including the addition of partners and resellers located in Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Russia, Scandinavia and Thailand.
• Held Driven 2008, Lombardi’s three-day customer-focused user meeting, with more than 200 customers, partners and analysts in attendance.

WEBINAR il 3 settembre

Il 3 settembre alle ore 18 Lombardi Software organizza un webinar dal titolo:
Getting BPM in your 2009 Budget

per iscriversi cliccate qui.

Il CIO del futuro

Riporto un recente (26 agosto) interessante post di Jim Rudden, Vice President of Global Marketing in Lombardi software

For their recent InformationWeek Analytics 2008 Tomorrow’s CIO Survey, the well-known trade publication quizzed 720 corporate managers, including CEOs, CFOs, and COOs, as well as CIOs and VPs of IT-level executives, about the attributes most desirable for future business technology leaders. IW’s John Soat then posted an excellent write-up of the survey’s findings, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. John writes:“Whether they know it or not–and most do–companies need an executive leader well versed in both technology and business processes. The CIO position is tailor made to take that role. . .the question is, which CIOs will step up to it?”

This chart (also below) based on the survey’s findings isn’t surprising if you’ve been looking at things from a process point of view as long as we have, but it’s not trivial that respondents noted “Need to manage or optimize business process” as the #1 priority as the CIO continues to strive to become more of a business leader.

Jon also writes:

“A similar question, with a similar response, was this: ‘What do you see as the main opportunities before CIOs today?’ The No. 1 answer by both CIOs and corporate managers is ‘improve and/or innovate new business processes’. . . the CIO’s overview of corporate-wide systems and applications gives the CIO as deep and encompassing an understanding of the organization’s business processes as any executive, on par with that of the CEO and CFO. It makes sense that the CIO would seek–and be called on–to leverage that process expertise.”

Let’s go a little further though, because insofar as process excellence is top-of-mind, what exactly is driving this focus on business-side leadership?

The evolving role of the CIO (and by extension the IT organization itself), of course. The fact of the matter is that any true executive leader will be fluent in both technology and business principle – and the processes that govern the cross-functional nature of today’s leading companies.

As always, technology leadership remains important – the ability to look into the future and understand which technologies will have strategic value and ongoing impact is a necessary skill. But today, business-side savvy is equally important, a fact that Harvey Koeppel, executive director of the Center for CIO Leadership, echos in the article, explaining that for CIO’s, “speaking the language of the C-suite, development of one-to-one relationships, and driving the agenda” are paramount, because “[CIO’s are] at the center of the most important trends in business today.”

And InformationWeek isn’t the only place where this trend is being put front and center. In April, IT Week (UK) wrote a great piece summarizing Gartner’s 2008 worldwide survey, which likewise determined that BPM has become CIO’s top priority.

We at Lombardi are proud of our leadership position in BPM, in no small part because we have been aggressively talking about business-focused technology and cross-functional roles since the very beginning. We haven’t shied away from explaining why BPM will become the focus of solution engineering at enterprises large and small.

As technology continues to underwrite the business in an ever-more fundamental sense, we’ll continue to see process take center stage. The question I have for our readers though is – although the trend isn’t exactly anything new, has BPM indeed gone mainstream? Are you approaching the same tipping point at your company?

Buone Vacanze

Buone vacanze a tutti i lettori. Ci rivedremo dopo ferragosto.

BPM, basterà a banche e imprese italiane per recuperare terreno?

Questo è l'interrogativo che si pone ComputerWordl Italia nell' articolo che potete leggere qui.

Nell'articolo viene citato uno studio di R&S Mediobanca su come sono cresciuti i guadagni per impiegato nel mondo bancario dal 1998 al 2006.

Ecco i dati che reputo sicuramente allarmanti anche se, per chi opera nel mercato italiano, non sono certo una novità.

Spagna: + 53,5 %
Germania: + 56,2 %
G. Bretagna + 71,3 %
Europa + 43,2 %
USA + 30,0 %
Italia + 6,1 %

Strategie ORACLE/BEA sul BPM

Si è svolta ieri l'annunciata conferenza Oracle con la presentazione della loro visione /strategia dopo l'acquisizione di BEA.

Sul sito Oracle si potrà a breve vedere tutta la conferenza cliccando qui.

Naturalmente alcuni analisti hanno hanno già commentato il tutto sul loro blog.
Qui il commento di Sandy Kemsley e qui quello di Bruce Silver.

Dal blog di Silver una citazione:

"Finally, Oracle intends to follow IBM’s lead and continue to offer a separate special-purpose BPM product for content-centric workflow, including imaging and document capture, rather than orchestrate those content services using the “real” BPMS (either one of them). I don’t think this strategy works for IBM and I don’t think it’s ideal for Oracle, either"

Le "Carte" di Phil

Phil Gilbert, president di Lombardi Software, come promesso durante il Driven 2008, ha iniziato a pubblicare una serie di post (7) sulla governance di progetti BPM. Phil le definisce le "carte dei diritti e dei doveri" .

In inglese Charter significa: "a document incorporating an institution and specifying its rights; includes the articles of incorporation and the certificate of incorporation"

Le carte che verrano pubblicate saranno:

• Charter for BPM democracy (access, visibility, dialog)
• Charter for BPM budget transparency: top down, bottom up, peer review - ex ante, ex post
• Charter for BPM “conflict situations” (BPM and SOA, interface definition)
• Charter for BPM investment (maintaining the infrastructure, upgrading, maintenance)

Per accedere ai post di Phil cliccate qui

Per accedere al primo post (On BPM Governance) cliccate qui

Per accedere al secondo post (The five charters of BPM Governance) cliccate   qui

Lesson learned...

Dal Driven 2008, Toby Cappello ha voluto condividere le 10 lezioni apprese sul BPM nei suoi anni di attività come responsabile del professional service in Lombardi :

1. Remember metrics - think about them early - don’t undervalue reports
2. Don’t underestimate integrations and what it will take to do them
3. Phase is not a four letter word - “one and done” is not okay
4. Requirements documents are not process analysis - leverage process analysis skills early
5. A project longer than 90 days is not a failure - some processes are too complex for just 90 days
6. Java (.NET) developers are not ALL you need
7. Self-sufficiency requires dedication and commitment
8. Fund to Value - funding should reflect that the long term goal is to go from projects to programs to culture
9. Collaboration between business & IT is vital - playbacks, playbacks, playbacks
10. Ownership - Processes are business-owned

Per leggere un riassunto della presentazione cliccate qui oppure qui per la cronaca di Sandy Kemsley.

Posizionamento Teamworks e Blueprint

Dalle parole del "papà" di Teamworks e Blueprint, Phil Gilbert durante la sua presentazione al Driven 2008 a Austin::

Teamworks is positioned as a platform for BPM execution:

• Multiple authors working together on dozens of simultaneous process applications
• A new paradigm for source control and deployment
• Built for the implications of massive asset re-use

Blueprint is positioned as a platform for BPM communication:

• Creating a culture of process information
• Rich analysis and diagramming for experts
• Rich documentation for authors and readers alike  

Webinar il 25 giugno

Il 25 giugno prossimo Lombardi terrà un webinar dal titolo:

"COME SPIEGARE IL BPM AI VOSTRI COLLEGHI IN 15 MINUTI"

Il Webinar si propone di rispondere alle 3 domande base:

Typical Problems – What are some common challenges companies typically face that can be solved by BPM?

What BPM Is and Is Not – It's not just modeling. It's more than just workflow. It's not just another IT data integration technology. It's a new way of operating your business.

Value of BPM - What key capabilities are you missing today that BPM will deliver?

Per partecipare cliccate qui.

Dal DRIVEN 2008

Rod Favaron, presidente di Lombardi Software, all'apertura del meeting annuale ha presentato i "numeri" di Lombardi, eccoli:

• Lombardi now has 225 Teamworks customers
• There are now over 3,000 Blueprint accounts
• Lombardi has a corporate presence in 24 countries
• Blueprint is now being used in more than 95 countries
• And Lombardi now has over 50 partners worldwide

Per vedere anche alcune foto visitate il blog Lombardi qui.

WELLS FARGO riceve un premio per BPM

Wells Fargo è stata premiata tra le aziende che hanno creato nuovo business attraverso l'innovazione e la tecnologia.

Il premio è organizzato annualmente dalla rivista CIO ed è denominato " 2008 CIO100 Awards"

La motivazione è la seguente.

""Wells Fargo Financial used Business Process Management (utilizzando Teamworks di Lombardi)  along with agile software development to reduce the time required to redesign its new-dealer setup process and redeploy it back into production from more than a year to less than one month. The process-focused, iterative development approach reduced the amount of code Wells Fargo  needed to develop and maintain it also provides a better framework to ensure that business users and IT are on the same page. Increasing the role of the business analyst in the development process was a crucial aspect of WFF's success""

Per scaricare il case study di Wells Fargo, appena pubblicato da Finalcial-i,  cliccate qui.

Nel case study l'intervistato (Gene Rawls, CEO di Wells Fargo Financial) dice:

"Suddenly we have all this performance data out of using the software.
Even though it’s still paper, it’s all tracked through the BPM and we
know workload and work volumes"

Per seguire in diretta il DRIVEN 2008

Sandy Kemsley è al Lombardi Driven 2008 e pubblica la cronaca del meeting in diretta.

Per seguire il meeting cliccare qui.

Nuova versione di Blueprint

Riprendo dal blog di Lombardi l'annuncio della nuova versione di Blueprint (vi ricordo che si può iniziare ad utilizzare gratis Blueprint registrandosi qui):

""Today I’m proud to announce the availability of the Summer ‘08 release of Blueprint! In the Spring ‘08 release, we delivered what we feel is the best process diagramming tool on the market, online or off. Over the last two months we’ve focused on improving the “other half” of process documentation — the standards and procedures, narratives, and data that make up the details that live behind the picture of the process. Let’s take a look at the improvements in depth:

• Rich Wiki Editing Of Process Documentation: Blueprint now provides a rich, wiki-style experience for filling out the details of your process. You can link to external documents, embed images, and format your documentation any way you please. Already have something written up in Microsoft Word? No problem. Just paste it in and we’ll leverage what you’ve already done.

• Printable Documentation View: Once you’ve gotten all of your standard procedures entered into Blueprint, you need to be able to effectively leverage them. You can now generate an attractive printed version of your documentation with a click of the “print” button.

• Improved Process Details: We’ve take the process details pop up windows and completely revamped them to improve their usability. We think you’ll find them much easier to both edit and use to present your content. And they look great too!

• Process Data Export to Excel: Once you’ve entered your data into Blueprint, it’s important to be able to leverage it in any way you see fit. Now you can export your process data in a tabular format to Excel so you can slice and dice it, create PivotTables, or just share it with your friends in the finance department.

• Improved Diagram Layout: In the past, we wasted countless hours in Visio making sure our boxes and lines were all straight on our process diagrams. With Blueprint all of that tedious layout work is handled for us automatically. In this release, we’ve made some tweaks here and there to make your diagrams look better than ever.

We’re constantly working to improve Blueprint. Try out the new release and send us some feedback. Your input helps us shape our future releases and enables us to build the best tool possible for your needs. And if you don’t already have an account, make sure you sign up today!""

Virtual conference on BPM

Il 18 giugno è organizzata da eBiz una Virtual Conference sul BPM.
Qui i dettagli su come fare per partecipare.

Webinar on-demand

Sul sito di Lombardi  sono disponibili una bella serie di webinar che possono essere seguiti a proprio piacimento.

Ecco l'indice (cliccabile)

• How to Analyze A Process for Improvement
• Blueprint Spring '08 Release: Diagram in Half the Time
• 5 Tips for Managing Change on Your BPM Project
• Webinar: How Insurers Are Using BPM Today
• A Scalable Approach to Discovering Your Enterprise Processes
• CIO Best-Practices for Process Improvement - The Lance Armstrong Foundation Case Study.
• Improving Development and Integration Agility
• Getting Your Workflow/BPM Project Budgeted in 2008
• Building A Business Process Management Roadmap
• Driving SOA From the Top Down Using BPM
• Are You Ready for On-Demand BPM?
• Starting BPM the Right Way – Blueprint Product Launch
• BPM and Microsoft Office - Bringing Process to the People
• Integrating BPM and Lean Six Sigma
• My BPM Success Story: Boundless Network
• My BPM Success Story: Sprint Billing Disputes and Adjustments
• My BPM Success Story: Hasbro Extending SAP with BPM
• My BPM Success Story: Pulte Managing Better Through Visibility

BPM news n.4

E' in spedizione il n.4 del bollettino BPM News. Lo potete vedere nella barra sinistra.
Ed ecco i contenuti dei numeri pubblicati ad oggi.

Grossi cambiamenti in BEA

Dal blog The Register:

"BEA Systems' AquaLogic service oriented architecture (SOA) business, assembled through a multi-million dollar M&A splurge, is being dismantled it seems"

Si cominciano a vedere gli effetti dell'acquisizione da parte di Oracle.

Leggete qui il post originale da e qui i commenti di Sandy Kemsley

Cambiamenti in BEA

Come indicato nel post di Bruce Silver il direttore marketing del BPM in BEA ha lasciato la sua posizione. Ecco le  parole Di Jesper Joergensen dal suo blog:

NEXT STEP: LIFE AFTER BEA

Oracle completed its acquisition of BEA in the beginning of May and I decided to take the opportunity to move on and look for something new after 5 1/2 good years at BEA.

I am Director of Product Marketing for BEA's Business Process Management products. I have been with BEA since 2003 and have covered product marketing for many of BEA's WebLogic products over the years."

Sul futuro di BPM in BEA/Oracle

Interessante post di Bruce Silver sul futuro della suite BPM dopo l'acquisizione di BEA da parte di Oracle.

Ecco cosa ne pensa Bruce Silver

Nuova Release Teamworks: 6.1

E' stata rilasciata  la nuova 6.1Teamworks.

Eccone le novità:

Reports: la nuova release permette di generare reports ad-hoc e condividerli direttamente dal portale utenti, non è più indispensabile creare il report dall’Authoring Environment.

Express Installer: la nuova express installer permette di installare Teamworks più velocemente e non richiede requisiti software specifici. Non è la versione da utilizzare “in produzione” e installa JBoss e Microsoft SQLServer Express.

Web Services Connector: nuovi “connettori” in aggiunta a quelli esistenti nelle precedenti versioni. Lombardi continua a collezionare e testare nuovi WSDLs non appena sono disponibili e li mette a disposizione degli utenti per assicurarsi che questi siano in grado di utilizzare i web-service standard presenti in Teamworks.

Coach Document Attachments: la nuova release permette di gestire più facilmente gli allegati, sia in fase di disegno (drag & drop) sia in fase di utilizzo e condivisione dal portale.

Coach Layout Controls: più flessibilità e semplicità nella creazione delle coach, nell’assegnazione delle variabili, possibilità di allineare i pulsanti, inserire la lunghezza massima dei testi etc..

Process Monitor: la funzionalità di process monitor permette, agli utenti abilitati, di stoppare il processo, sia in fase di sviluppo che di produzione, quando si verifichi un errore nel processo.

Route to List of Users: molti clienti hanno processi che indirizzano In Teamworks 6.1 un processo può essere assegnato ad una lista di utenti appartenenti ad un gruppo I task verso gruppi di utenti mutevoli. Qualche cliente non è in grado di gestire gli attributi degli utenti per definire i gruppi di lavoro..

SQL Connector: è più semplice di prima la modellazione di un processo che si connette a un database, i services sono comprensivi di database interaction, incluso il supporto per la parametrizzazione delle query. Questi services possono automaticamente mappare i risultati di una query.

Error Handling: maggiori e più dettagliate informazioni evidenziate nel debug per gestire e rimediare a errori di modellazione.

Support for WebSphere XD: per i client che gestiscono le ultime potenzialità J2EE di IBM, Teamworks supporta IBM WebSphere Extended Deployement Operations Optimization Version 6.1.0 Fix Pack 1.

Nuovo utente Teamworks: TeliaSonera

Telia Sonera la compagnia telefonica finlandese è un nuovo utente Teamworks.

Leggete qui

Sempre dal Finalcial Times

Altro articolo su Finalcial Times: Teamworks di Lombardi utile per applicazioni CEP (Complex Event Processing).

CEP, business activity monitoring and business process management are spreading well beyond the financial services industries, however. Phil Gilbert, president of Lombardi, a specialist USbased BPM software group, says the company has been working with Dell Computer for several years.
"With Fedex and UPS we are co-ordinating Dell's global computer shipments," he says. "We receive real-time feeds from third-party logistics carriers for the status of every single shipment.
"The moment any of those goes into a 'distressed' state, the software fires off a dispatch in real time to people in the call centre based on who the customer is and in what geography. Humans can then deal with the exception and ensure the computer is delivered. Over the course of the past four or five years, this has saved Dell hundreds of millions of dollars."

Process management: making complex business simpler

Questo è il titolo di un lungo articolo apparso sul Financial Times del 14 maggio.
Per leggere l'articolo cliccate qui.

Nell'articolo si fa riferimento a Teamworks e vengono anche citate esperienze di nostri utenti.

Considerazioni sui recenti annunci IBM e SAP

Leggete qui un interessante post (di Jim Rudden, Lombardi Software) con commenti e considerazioni sui recenti annunci fatti da IBM e SAP.
Qui i commenti di Bruce Silver sullo stesso argomento.

Citazione

‘Give business-people a reason to care about SOA; give them BPM’ (Joe McKendrick)

Sul BPM di SAP

Alla User conference della settimana scorsa SAP ha presentato lo status di Galaxy, che rappresenterà la futura offerta SAP per il BPM.  Benchè Galaxy non sia ancora disponibile SAP lo sta spingendo con l'obiettivo di congelare la scelta da parte dei propri clienti in attesa del rilascio.

Dalle varie presentazioni si ha l'impressione che la soluzione sia molto sap-oriented e che saranno necessarie varie nuove release prima che diventi un prodotto valido anche in ambienti non solo SAP.

Ecco alcuni commenti da parte di esperti del settore (Ray Wang, Sandy Kemsley, Dennis Howlett, Madan Sheina)  :

1)   "It will probably take a couple of iterations to get to the point where they're happy with it and the customers are happy with it," said Ray Wang, an analyst with Forrester Research. While the embedded nature of SAP's BPM tools presents certain benefits, the benefits may be diminished for customers with highly heterogenous environments, Wang said: "If your world revolves around SAP, this is a great tool. If you've got other kinds of stuff you want to support, you might try something else.    "http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?newsID=101436&pagtype=all

2)   Sandy Kemsley: My immediate impression is that in the near term, they’re creating a BPM platform that’s fairly loosely coupled (via web services) with core SAP applications, which doesn’t appear to provide any advantage over using a third-party BPMS with SAP applications; in fact, more mature BPM suites are likely to provide greater functionality.
http://www.column2.com/2008/05/sapphire-bpm-in-sap-netweaver/

3)   Dennis Howlett (Irregular Enterprise): I was less than impressed, given that unless customers are ‘green field’ sites, then there is limited value to be derived from this offering compared to what is already on the table from SAP or from competitors Lombardi and others.    http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=386

4)   Madan Sheina (Ovum): The basic functionality provided in the first release of NetWeaver BPM also raises an important question - what advantage does it provide over using best of breed BPM products like Lombardi in conjunction with SAP applications. While NetWeaver BPM provides reasonable level of out-of-the-box functionality that will satisfy its existing customer base the more mature BPM suites on the market still provide richer capabilities.
http://www.ovum.com/news/euronews.asp?id=6947

Siete nuovi al BPM?

Se siete nuovi nel mondo BPM qui potrete trovare tutta una serie di documenti e materiali vari che  vi permetterà di saperne di più e che vi farà venir voglia di partire con una sperimentazione.

Trovate qui anche una bella introduzione al BPM: " An introduction to  Business Process Management" preso dalla risvista CIO.

Questo è l'indice (cliccabile) dell'articolo:

• What is BPM?
• Can I see a quick example?
• What does BPM provide that other enterprise applications do not?
• How does BPM fit in with legacy, ERP and other enterprise systems?
• What kinds of processes are typically the best candidates for BPM?
• It seems like everyone is selling BPM—what does the BPM vendor landscape look like?
• How is BPM related to service-oriented architecture (SOA)?
• Are there any standards being developed for BPM?
• What does BPM cost? What are the hidden costs?
• What is involved in implementing BPM?
• How do companies organize their BPM projects? Who should own a BPM initiative, business or IT?
• How do I build a business case for BPM?
• How do I measure and actually get ROI from a BPM project?

Sul BPM di IBM

Avete un progetto che sembra buono per un'applicazione BPM. Siete un'installazione IBM. Perchè no usare il BPM di IBM per il vostro progetto?  Sembra la scelta più logica. Leggendo il materiale marketing IBM sembra che IBM sia una soluzione leader tra i software BPM.

Il problema è che, a livello marketing, tutte le soluzioni BPM sembrano uguali, perchè tutti i produttori usano le stesse parole per spiegare i benefici di un BPM.

La realtà è che le differenze significative sono nel come i vari prodotti funzionano e qualio sono i tempi e i costi di realizzazione dei progetti.

Per vedere queste differenze bisogna andare oltre le informazioni commerciali: bisogna usare il prodotto.

 

A questo proposito Lombardi Software ha preparato un documento che presenta 5 semplici test da eseguire per scegliere il prodotto giusto.

Potete scaricare il documento completo qui

Eccone la tabella finale

I blog più letti

Facendo una ricerca com Google (stringa: blog BPMS) il mio blog appare al sesto posto (su 87.000 trovati). Incredibile!!!! 

BPM e SOA: un matrimonio che s'ha da fare

Secondo Gartner i due approcci hanno obiettivi comuni, ossia agilità e controllo, e possono aiutarsi a vicenda per avere effettivamente successo in azienda.

"La SOA è un'architettura applicativa in cui i dati e le logiche di business sono 'servizi' modulari. Le applicazioni assemblano servizi e, quindi, si fanno più agili. Il BPM è invece un insieme di discipline di gestione che accelera un miglioramento efficace dei processi di business, riunendo metodi incrementali e di trasformazione"

Leggete l'articolo completo su CWI cliccando qui.

Intervista a Rachel Aukes, di Wells Fargo, sul BPM

Intervista effettuata da Wayne Snell, Senior Director of Marketing in Lombardi software (ripresa dal blog di Lombardi Software)

Recently we sat down with Rachel Aukes, a member of the Wells Fargo Financial Information Systems Continuous Improvement Team. Rachel, who plays an active role in the use of BPM at Wells Fargo, shared how Wells Fargo got started with BPM. In February, Wells Fargo received the Global Award for Excellence in BPM and workflow.

Process People: Describe in as much detail as possible the problem or need on a project level that first made you consider BPM and/or Lombardi as a viable solution.

Rachel Aukes:

Our BPM program came about as a solution to organizational level needs - in fact we selected our BPM solution (Teamworks) and began to implement it before deciding on a specific project. We were challenged with increasingly complex, paper-intensive processes that had a large number of manual steps and handoffs. That was obviously inefficient and meant there was room for errors (such as bad typing, misplaced files, etc.). The idea of what BPM offers became prevalent in 2006 when most of our development staff was focused on maintaining our legacy systems while building our future systems of record. This effort was strategically important to our company; however, the business had immediate tactical needs that must continue to be met. We asked ourselves what we should do to best support our business partners, and we determined that BPM was a good solution for this. We haven’t looked back.

Process People: Where did the BPM program originate - IT or the business? Who leads it today?

Rachel Aukes: Our BPM program originated within IT and has over time evolved towards the business. Through the experience we’ve gained through delivering process solutions using BPM, we determined that the business people are excellent at determining where the BPM program should focus - that is what helps us to get the best value. When we started, IT “cherry-picked” projects that looked like a good fit for BPM, because they offered us sizeable savings in terms of money, effort, etc. After several projects, we realized that even though we were achieving good results, cherry picking is not always the best approach to remain aligned with the long-term business vision. We are now putting the Business behind the steering wheel for the directional planning, project prioritization, and solution review efforts related to our BPM program.

Process People: What were some of the surprises along the way? What was the most unexpected thing that happened during your first project?

Rachel Aukes: We have learned a lot as we went through our BPM projects, and the first one was full of surprises! The most unexpected event was midway through the project. We had told our business partners we’d be back in one week ready for them to begin testing - this was about three weeks into the project. When we showed up, they were stunned to see us back so soon, saying they thought we were joking. From that we learned we must set (and continuously reset) expectations throughout the project. A second lesson that we learned from our first project came from a predictable event. Using Teamworks gave us an iterative approach towards our projects, which drastically cuts development and testing time, but we quickly learned that iterative development also leads to infinite scope. Because changes can be made so easily in the BPMS, we found that our business partners continuously wanted to add “just one more thing.” From that point on, we began to plan for interventions in each of our projects - a break in the project for IT and business management to reset expectations and scope.

Process People: Describe the reactions during the first process playback.

Rachel Aukes: Simply stated, there was love in the air. When we conducted our first playback it began with skepticism - how could we have something to show them already without having all the requirements? As the playback progressed, our business partners began to understand how they really do get to have a hand in designing their solution; no, they get to drive the design. By the end of the playback, they couldn’t wait for the next one so they could watch their process evolve seemingly before their eyes. Needless to say, playbacks have become the special niche for our BPM team.

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Come analizzare un processo per migliorarlo ?

Molti clienti ci chiedono qual'è il miglior modo di partire per analizzare un processo aziendale.

• Partire dalla situazione "as-is" o iniziare sub ito dalla "to-be" ?
• Che livelli di dettaglio sono necessari ?
• Chi deve partecipare all'analisi ?
• Come non rischiare di finire in un impasse ?

A tutte queste domande vuole rispondere un Webinar organizzato da Lombardi  il 14 maggio p.v. alle ore 17.00.

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Una interessante analisi su Lombardi

Macehiter Ward-Dutton, una azienda inglese specializzata su tutto quanto ha che fare con "IT-Business alignment" ha pubblicato un VCA (Vendor Capability Assessment) sulle soluzioni Lombardi.

Per accedere al report cliccate qui  (bisogna registrarsi ma è gratis) oppure inviatemi una mail e ve ne invio una copia.

Filmato del webinar su Blueprint

E' in linea sul sito Lombardi (per accedere clicca qui ) il filmato del webinar tenutosi il 29 aprile su "Blueprint Spring release".

Durante il webinar sono state presentate le nuove funzionalità appena rilasciate.