SMEs and Process Management (BPM)

There is always a lot of discussion amongst BPM analysts as to reasons why many SMEs (around 50-300 strong in employees) don’t use BPM solutions? There are many factors highlighted once you start looking around the web, including:

• Unaware of BPM
• Lack of drive for change
• Lack of funds and or time
• Scale of the organisations

There is a great post here from Andrew Smith on this subject, looking at the factors above in a little more detail. http://andrewonedegree.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/why-do-so-many-200-300man-sized-organisations-not-have-bpm/

However, in a recent discussion on Twitter and LinkedIN, it seems the root factor is an organisations size. The scale of their processes have a relevant impact on the factors mentioned already, so smaller organisations have a lack of drive for change (regarding BPM) because they really don’t feel they need to improve efficiency. Because of this they may well be unaware of BPM or what BPM type solutions can deliver. So the main factor for process improvement not being addressed in small organisations (SMEs) appears to be one of scale.

If we regard BPM as a discipline, used to improve business processes, then the issue of scale will for sure highlight inefficiencies in business processes. Scale in this case though isn’t just about the size of a process, or the number of collaborators that make up that process, but also the number of items that move through the process.

 

Let’s make do

With smaller businesses the option to “make do” is a compelling one. When you need to correct processes, or deal with issues, small businesses just make do and get on with it. It’s far easier to deal with a small number of issues than thousands, because of this, small businesses are quite happy to operate with inefficient processes in place. To put it bluntly, they get the job done eventually…

But, making do also applies to IT investment, not just processes. For a small business, do they really need to invest heavily in technology, or can they make do with MS Office in the cloud? Can they make do with small off the shelf IT solutions? Can they even make do with not employing a dedicated IT member of staff? The answer is, yes, they can make do.

If SMEs can make do in so many areas of their IT and Business, then they will make do without typical BPM disciplines and software. We have to remember that for small businesses, investment is not only in terms of hard cash, but also in terms of employee’s time. With smaller companies, an individual’s time becomes a high valued commodity, one which often cannot be spent on areas outside the core business, such as helping design more efficient processes or administering software solutions. This in effect has a big impact on the “drive for change”, effectively suffocating drive for change that may arise.

Planning ahead

While making do works to some extent, there are many limitations. The main side effect of making do, is trying to grow a business. If your business starts to grow but your infrastructure (IT and processes) cannot cope or highly inefficient (which may only start to show itself once you have more items in a process, more work to complete or more collaborators), then your back office is really going to start to struggle. All of a sudden process inefficiencies become a real issue and can threaten the whole success of the business.

Making do also won’t help you get ahead of your competition. We have to remember that process efficiencies feed into better services, including customer facing services, which ultimately lead to happier customers, better customer retention and a greater turnover.

The question is then, how can SMEs take advantage of the same BPM type software that larger organisations are able to do? How can they find the investment in time and money terms to enable them to drive change within the organisation for the better?

One answer is to take the plunge, invest heavily and hope that you grow your business to warrant that investment. This is a little risky, but many a business plan has worked in this way. But is there another way?

 

Could SaaS be the answer?

Software as a Service (SaaS) potentially provides SMEs with a way of accessing the same technologies as larger organisations do (in this post we are thinking of process improvement solutions). There are many benefits of cloud computing and SaaS, however, small businesses have to be aware of their industry governance and just how a cloud based solution can work for them. That aside, SaaS could potentially unlock the door to many IT based solutions that typically would not be available to SMEs.

With this in mind though, we must ask ourselves, even with BPM in the cloud, will SMEs need or want traditional BPM?

 

Do SMEs need BPM software

If we mean traditional BPM software (BPMS) then the answer will be no.

The issue with BPM implementations is not only one of accessibility, monetary investment, but also investment in terms of time and how you want to operate your business. Traditional BPM implementations are highly structured and quite bureaucratic in their nature; they require a lot of time and effort from management, key stake holders and end users.

So traditional BPM is still a no go for SMEs, but process improvement is still a requirement. So what other options are there for SMEs regarding process efficiency?

Well the best option appears to be one that is less structured than BPM, a solution that allows processes to be detected, then analysed, reviewed and refined to drive process efficiency. This means SMEs are far more suited to Case Management type solutions and APG (Adaptive Process Guidance) based implementations. (Many will argue that these are BPM solutions, but they do operate differently to the typical BPM software or BPM the discipline, which you can find defined here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_management)

Such solutions are far more flexible and will allow many more processes to be incorporated, without a massive investment in terms of process design and other areas associated with typical BPM.

Case Management gives SMEs a step into process management and requires far less investment in terms of process design time than typical BPMS implementations. However, Case Management can fall short on structured processes. This is where APG can step in. APG is supposed to deal with unstructured and structured processes, providing organisations with the capabilities to manage highly structured, high volume processes (typical BPM territory) and highly unstructured, flexible working processes (typical Case management territory). APG is quite an exciting term and could well be the best route for SMEs to manage their processes if and when it starts to take hold in the BPM marketplace.

 

Conclusion

SMEs can benefit greatly from process management; however, traditional BPM will not be what SMEs are looking for (majority of), because of two main reasons:

1)      There is a big overhead in terms of investment in time, effort and money

2)      Traditional BPM is too rigid for many processes within the organisation

The second point is illustrated far more within smaller organisations. If SMEs are to invest in processes and software, then the software they choose needs to be able to adapt and be flexible to all their process needs, not just those that are highly structured with highly repeatable tasks.

These two points identify that Case Management and APG (Adaptive Process Guidance) are far better options for SMEs when trying to take control of their processes, plan ahead for the future and get a jump on their competition.

With the option of “cloud computing” and more importantly SaaS (Software as a Service), the “second barrier to entry”, if you like, is almost removed. All of a sudden, SMEs have the option to invest in APG or Case Management and take hold of business processes, something that only the larger organisations have been able to do in the past.

So will we see more SMEs turning to process management solutions in the future? The answer has to be a Yes.

Is the cloud better suited to individuals?

Cloud Computing receives a lot of press, and a lot is said through social media networks such as Twitter, mainly aimed at organisations. It is true that there are many benefits to companies, especially SMEs. But in the business world we have to remember such things as data protection, data compliance and above all security. It does seem that these are often overlooked by the big players on line, especially Google, but for businesses is this really a solution that offers that much to them? Sure there are instances when the cloud will save an SME money, but it does beg the question, “who are the real winners of cloud computing?”

Compliance

A business has to know a few things to be compliant in today’s digital way of doing business. Here are some basic reminders:

1. You need to know where your data is actually stored
2. You need to know who has access to it at all times (the physical units that store the data)
3. You need to know that data is secure and made as secure as possible (hackers)
4.  You need to be able to prove data has not been tampered with
5. You need access to it and or backups within 21 days of a request

Other things a business will need to think of include:

1. How can we integrate systems with data / other systems in the cloud
2. What are the costs of using the cloud, and is the saving enough to move certain solutions from our own servers to the cloud, especially if we have to maintain our own servers in any case
3. Is our web connection fast enough and reliable enough
4. Will we be tied into a few big cloud players? Where is competition really coming from in this marketplace
5. Where do we turn too for support, and will that support actually work for us? We cant be waiting all day for emails to be our way of communicating with support

These lists aren’t finite, but are simply some pointers and reminders as to what a business has to take into consideration. So with cloud computing, can a business be sure it meets these points? The answer is no to many of them, which means for a business, the use of the cloud is already somewhat limiting. This doesn’t mean the cloud is a no go for them, rather a business has to be more selective as to what it stores and uses in the cloud…

Individuals

So with this in mind, us individuals could be the real winners of cloud computing. We are not restricted to what we store up in the cloud (though we probably won’t’ decide to store important documents up there, credit card details etc) so its use is basically un-restricted for us. Take a look at the latest Windows Mobile 7 phones, you will see that they have the big idea that we won’t decide to keep all our pictures, videos and music on a device, rather have it up on the cloud and access it as and when we want. This makes real sense, and is something we looked at many years ago here at One Degree Consulting. As an individual we can gain access from multiple devices, we can share content in an easy fashion and we don’t have to worry about backups. However, lets not get carried away, we still need the options to have that content local on our device, think of times when we don’t have a web connection, or connection speed is slow or expensive (it is really expensive if you are at sea on a ship for example), or more importantly, you just want it to be private.

So with the cloud and its capabilities, are marketing companies missing a trick? Are they too focused on selling the benefits to organisations when really they should be selling the concept to us the general public…Makes you think…

Doing business with RIAs

Businesses have seen their use of IT change and the way that IT is implemented within their businesses, just as much as hardware and software has moved on. However, have we changed that much in the terms of how we choose to access and process content and data? Well, we have, and we haven’t…..

At first there was the mainframe, basically a central machine, and users accessed applications and data via “dumb” remote terminals. This has a number of draw backs, which meant implementations moved to having applications, and a lot of data at times, sitting on our PCs. This too had draw backs, and we moved to the client server model, where client PCs accessed data from the central server…..There are number of “flavours” of this too, utilising virtual servers, citrix type implementations etc etc. However, with the invention of the internet, many businesses started to have applications delivered to users via the web. This could be seen as the birth of internet applications….

Early web based applications were, well clunky. However things have moved on a lot, utilising technologies such as .NET, AJAX and Web Services. Organisations have started to use more web based applications (though delivered through intranets), simply because a lot of administration is removed from the IT department. However, this is a step back towards the “mainframe” model in many ways, with applications not actually being installed on the PC and most of the processing (if not all) being done by the server…..

Cloud computing and SaaS (Software as a Service)

On top of this client server, intranet and web application type environment, we now have cloud computing. Cloud computing is basically utilising an outsourced company’s hardware and underlying software components as your server. SaaS (Software as a Service) allows applications and software to be paid for and used, based on the amount of usage it gets. This is possible, as the application is basically a website or, a RIA….Think Hotmail for example…..

RIAs

RIAs are basically website applications that are rich in their functionality and in some cases, usability. Many will give examples that use video, however, at heart it’s simply websites that do / carry out actual functions…

RIAs have a number of benefits, if implemented internally via an intranet or in a cloud computing based environment. They deliver many of the benefits of the mainframe model, however, they are therefore exposed to the same problems as the mainframe model was. That is ofcourse, if you think of RIA as applications that run in the web browser…But this is where things can get a little complicated…

HTML and the web architecture

The web architecture is basically that content is stored on the server, it is then delivered to the end user for display via a web browser. All the processing and content delivery is down to the server. This means it has many of the problems associated with the mainframe (though Google and Apple will claim it doesn’t….)….

The future for RIAs?

Just like IT moved away from the mainframe model, RIAs will move away from the traditional architecture of the web and HTML, even once HTML 5 is available. The reason being is simple, we need to be able to utilise data, applications and processing power of the actual PC, removing the load from the server. In addition, we need to be able to provide users with an end user experience that is just as good as what a user has come to expect from desktop based applications (websites just don’t compete).

So in today’s web architecture, how is this possible…Well by utilising a “plug-in” such as Flash or Silverlight, the application is effectively running as a desktop type application on the client PC. It has almost all the same benefits associated with a “thick client” application (especially if you are utilising Silverlight and its out of browser web capabilities) and all the benefits of the web architecture (reduced administration at the client PC level, ease of application updates etc).

HTML 5 alas will utilise some processing power of the client PC, however it will be very limited and the processing will be carried out by the actual browser itself. This means there could be any number of issues with cross platform and cross browser behaviour, especially since different browsers still interpret HTML 4 differently (providing different results to end users)….

What does this mean for Business?

It means business has another model in which to move to. With RIAs being developed in Silverlight, organisations can have applications and IT that combines all the benefits of the internet architecture, with all the benefits of the traditional client server architecture…Effectively the best of both worlds…

It seems that businesses are already engaging with RIAs and turning to Silverlight and Flash to deliver these next generation RIAs. The number of businesses implementing RIAs rose to 34% in 2009, up from 26% in 2008. This way of implementing IT will only grow, be it internally via intranet based solutions, or via cloud computing and SaaS….

So if you are looking at new applications and software for your organisation, then think RIAs, does the vendor provide RIAs? If not, then perhaps you should be looking elsewhere….

SaaS ECM Solutions. Worth considering…

Document management, EDMS, Image Management, call it what you like, all these names come under that grand umbrella that is ECM (Enterprise Content Management). ECM provides organisations with the capabilities to take control of any form of content, be it a document, a scanned image, a video, a presentation, an audio stream, it doesn’t matter, ECM can help you manage it. With this capability comes a wealth of potential efficiency gains, service improvements, compliance, security etc etc. However, ECM is still rather niche in the IT market place and that is because it is typically only utilised by larger organisations or organisations that have the infrastructure that can support such systems.

But, can ECM software really be utilised by SMEs, or at a departmental level without all the added baggage of internal administration? Only a few years ago, vendors would be saying yes, but in practice this would be hard to prove. However, enter the cloud, and enter SaaS (Software as a Service).

Cloud Services and SaaS

With the business concept of cloud computing comes the concept of SaaS (Software as a Service). This basically means that your software, its administration, backups etc etc all happens in the cloud and you need only pay for what you essentially use. In terms of ECM, that can mean you pay a license based on the amount of storage space you require for content, and also for the amount of use the system gets.

So what are the benefits to small organisations, or for organisations that don’t have the IT staff, or maybe just simply don’t have the time to embark on an ECM solution implementation in-house. Well, these are pretty clear cut.

1. No big initial cost (additional hardware servers, installation, on-site configuration)
2. No internal maintenance cost (IT administration and backup strategies)
3. No need for administration training
4. Quick turnaround from agreeing a solution to implementation
5. Departmental approach is very easy
6. No need to try and align with in house technologies and platforms

These are just the main reasons why ECM SaaS can work. However, don’t take this article as one that says we should all use ECM as SaaS. That would not be a great idea – as there are other things to consider, such as the type of cloud solution being used, location of files for compliance, application and system integration with other LOBs etc.

Who should ECM SaaS be for?

Well SaaS ECM solutions are perfect for departments or SMEs. They provide organisations or a department that normally wouldn’t be able to leverage ECM with a complete ECM environment over the web. Implementation costs are at a minimum and there are no overheads / hidden costs in terms of maintenance, backups etc. Also if you opt for a more traditional “Cloud Approach”, one where the vendor can tell you exactly where you’re content is being stored, then a number of compliance issues are negated immediately. It is also worth thinking about a potential “exit strategy” when utilising any cloud based solutions. Why? Well there maybe a time when it becomes logically better to have the system in-house. This could be in terms of new integration requirements, or the fact the organisation in general has now invested heavily in ECM. Who knows. In addition, there does come a time when Cloud Services can prove to be more costly than having the system in-house, so in both cases, it is worth having an exit strategy and knowing that you can export your content from the SaaS provider…

Quick Conclusion…

ECM SaaS is a great option for departments and organisations that typically couldn’t access ECM and the many benefits ECM provides. However, there are some “bewares”….

Always ensure you know your actual requirements in as much detail as possible. SaaS is a great option and has a number of benefits, however it does have its limitations and don’t choose SaaS at the expense of functionality and the actual requirement. In addition, always remember there maybe a time when you need to move away from your SaaS provider, so have an exit strategy and choose a platform that makes this as easy as possible….