According to Gartner, “By 2014, Business Process Management will clearly deliver benefits to those who have the competencies, and deny a peaceful sleep to those who do not". This may be a little apocalyptic but it may have implications for smaller organisations than the typical enterprise level targets of these big beast systems. Full scale major BPM is often a significant investment which can transform working practices & MI. However, the price barriers can be daunting and many businesses may look at a BPM solution as being for the corporates only.
Where Invu comes in is a pragmatic solution using automation and integration rather than a monolithic software implementation. Invu doesn’t pretend to be a BPM solution – we don’t deliver full MI for example. However, some of the same issues solved by a true BPM implementation are increasingly covered off by Invu’s solutions for mid-sized organisations
For the business faced with a partial solution (typically an ERP solution) there are often untouched processes which require management and automation. Paper invoices is a good example, proofs of delivery another. A wholesale major investment using a full BPM proposition may be the answer but this may be an expensive, disruptive play and it’s certainly not to be undertaken lightly. In many cases this may involve implementation of an EDI solution (electronic data interchange) so it’s worth asking the question – would your suppliers be affected too? If so, does this mean implementation of co-operating systems there too and will they be willing to play ball to optimise the offering between both parties?
Sometimes a low impact solution may be best – deal with the hand you’ve got and optimise it. Scanning, intelligent data extraction, workflows and integration with existing ERP systems may fundamentally streamline the way you work. It’s a classic case of the Pareto principle (i.e. the 80:20 rule). Sure, you won’t have the shiniest option available but it breaks down many of the significant practical day-to-day problems at a fraction of the cost and short term operational upheaval. Gartner is right – transforming the way you work to optimise efficiency is an essential route to growth, if not survival in some cases. We’d just say that for the non-corporate you can knock over some of the key problems more simply.
