There is a lot of talk in the ECM and BPM worlds regarding taking a more holistic stance and approach on how best to implement solutions. It seems that to deliver greater business benefit, solutions either needs to communicate far more than typical integration is possible, or that silos that typically work together are in fact delivered as a single platform.
ECM, CRM and BPM
These three silos are often used together. CRM utilises both ECM (for storing unstructured content found in emails or letters) and BPM for managing particular processes. However, it is argued that because these are three silos, that often the user looses track of certain information, that the systems are rather cobbled together and as such, do not deliver the effectiveness they could if they were one.
One advocate of this is Andrew Smith, the managing director at One Degree Consulting and workFile ltd.
In an interview with eBizq.net, Andrew talks about the importance and benefits of taking a more holistic approach to how businesses work, and the processes they use. You can listen to the podcast here:
http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/2011/01/taking_a_holistic_approach_to.php
At workFile, they are driving towards a singular platform that delivers these three business functions in a particular fashion. They have termed this their @WE concept (Adaptive Working Environment).
A single platform
An @WE is to deliver a single platform for CRM, ECM and BPM while being completely adaptive to the needs of the business and end users. workFile believe this so much so, that they have broken away from their BPM module and re-invested in delivering something they term APG (Adaptive Process Guidance).
If you are looking for a better definition, then you can find one at http://www.workfilesuite.com/what-is-@WE.aspx
APG, Adaptive Process Guidance
This is a new term and essentially is a new way of tackling the same problem that BPM addresses, how to manage processes. APG though is quite different, people are at the centre of APG and as such, most processing rules are not enforced on the user, rather they are suggested (or the user is guided in their work). In addition, processes need not have an end result of a particular goal being reached, rather an objective can be set.
An objective is a process that contains no work as such, rather it uses information required in order to provide information as an when needed to the end user. This is seen as a true guide, or wizard guide, for processes that do not physically require work to be carried out on an object (such as a customer record, content files etc).
You can see workFile’s definition on APG here:
http://www.workfilesuite.com/downloads/The%20APG%20Definition.pdf
Conclusion
Holistic approaches are hot talking points. They make great sense as they are designed to see the bigger picture and therefore help business deliver better service experiences. If thats the case, then a more holistic approach will help organisations retain customer bases and give them a leading edge on their competition…
More reading…
For more reading on the APG debate, visit http://andrewonedegree.wordpress.com/
Thanks for the mention….We are working hard at workFile to implement the @WE concept and APG fully in workFile Vision 2.0…