For Business Process Professionals

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1 For Business Process Professionals Vendor Snapshot: BP Logix Keeps Projects And Processes On Time And Within Budget BPM Suite Vendor Uses Project Timelines To Drive Process Improvement by Clay Richardson with Connie Moore and Emily Fowler-Cornfeld Executive Summary Let s face it: Certain mission-critical business processes need to run as repeatable, complex project management-oriented processes that cut across different departments and functions. Unfortunately, when companies attempt to tackle these project management-oriented business processes, they tend to go overboard, adopting overly complex methodologies and business process management (BPM) suites that require significant skills development. Alternatively, they re left using project portfolio management tools that deliver limited automation and integration capabilities. Like the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, up-and-coming BPM suite vendor BP Logix delivers just the right balance of sophisticated BPM suite functionality and project-oriented process management to help teams quickly model, automate, and improve processes that blur the lines between BPM and enterprise project management. Key idea: Use BPM To stay on top of complex, repeatable projects Pop quiz: What do business processes and complex projects have in common? At first blush, you might not see the obvious connection. Upon closer inspection, you might notice that processes and projects both contain tasks, dependencies, milestones, and resources like people, systems, and budgets. Unfortunately, most firms still fail to connect these two worlds; if they did, it would provide greater visibility onto complex, long-lived operational projects that are repeated on a regular basis. Instead, most firms continue to use spreadsheets, , and project management solutions that provide limited automation and insight into process oops, I mean project execution. Unfortunately, most BPM suite solutions deliver far more functionality than is necessary to automate and manage these complex projects and require far more ramp-up time than is practical. What s different: bp logix blurs The line between process and project BP Logix, an up-and-coming BPM suite vendor based in San Diego, California, has cracked the code for combining project management with business processes to enable greater visibility onto repeatable projects that are often managed as business processes. Founded in 2008, the firm initially focused its offering on basic workflow functionality. However, over the past three years, the firm has evolved its workflow offering to take on more BPM functionality, including process analytics, improved process modeling, integration capabilities, and predictive alerts and notifications (see Figure 1). In addition to supporting traditional process improvement scenarios, BP Logix s Process Director product empowers business process professionals and project managers to take control of hybrid projectbased processes by: Headquarters Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, USA Tel: Fax:

2 2 Modeling business processes using a familiar project-based paradigm. Learning the dark art of process modeling is often the first hurdle encountered by teams just getting started with BPM. In many cases, this means learning some subset of the business process and model notation (BPMN) specification and developing standards and best practices for modeling business processes. 1 BP Logix minimizes this challenge for business process pros and project managers by providing a Gantt chart modeling paradigm that looks eerily similar to Microsoft Project. The Gantt chart modeling approach allows BPM teams to quickly capture tasks, resources, milestones, and dependencies which also represent the underlying business process, including routing rules, task assignments, and notifications. Delivering the core benefits of BPM without additional overhead. BPM can be a fullcontact sport for teams looking to drive enterprise process transformation. However, for teams looking to reap some of the benefits of process automation, increased process visibility, and responsiveness to new compliance requirements, traditional BPM suites can be overkill. 2 BP Logix delivers a fit-for-purpose BPM suite solution for teams looking to get started with process automation while providing room to grow into some of the more advanced process improvement and monitoring features. Ultimately, this translates into shorter ramp-up times for training and enabling process analysts and developers not to mention faster delivery times. Predicting project slippage and potential blowups. In the most recent version of Process Director, BP Logix introduced sophisticated process intelligence and reporting capabilities that use real-time metrics to predict when deadlines will be missed (see Figure 2). These new features also allow process owners and project managers to simulate potential scenarios in real time i.e., with running process instances to assess the impact of different scenarios for getting business processes and projects back on track. While the features don t automatically trigger process changes based on predictive analytics, they provide process owners with a way to adapt in-flight processes based on real-time information, potentially heading off costly slippages and disruptions to the process timeline.

3 3 Figure 1 The BP Logix Web-Based Modeler Blends Project And Process Source: BP Logix Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

4 4 Figure 2 The BP Logix Predictive Timeline Provides Insight Into Project Slippage Source: BP Logix Source: Forrester Research, Inc. How it s being used: rapid delivery of process and project oversight BP Logix has built a solid following across all verticals, with particular depth in financial services, manufacturing, life sciences, and government. Although most projects are at the departmental level, many customers express optimism for possibly extending the product to support horizontal processes that extend across multiple departments and lines of business. Forrester interviewed several BP Logix customers to understand how they re applying the Process Director offering to specific business challenges. Of the references provided, the most common use cases included: Coordinating project and process handoffs across multiple roles in the cloud. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, with a hotel and resort portfolio that includes more than 1,000 properties, uses Process Director to coordinate the rollout of critical business infrastructure at its hotel and resort properties around the globe. Our global rollouts are sort of like projects, but need to be managed like mission-critical business processes because they touch so many stakeholders and systems, reports Matthew Guglielmetti, senior manager of revenue management systems at Starwood. The upscale hotel operator deployed its first set of business processes using the cloud-based version of BP Logix s BPM suite.

5 5 Rapid automation of critical oversight processes and checklists. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) received significant funds via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, most of which it distributed in the form of grants. The NIMH used Process Director to oversee the disbursement of these funds. John Harris, NIMH s chief information officer, described Process Director as a product that gave us basic information and automated some of our key oversight processes. Since acquiring Process Director in 2009, the NIMH has used BP Logix to roll out various business processes, including administrative, procurement management, travel, and grant management application processes. Empower small process teams to quickly deliver process improvements. In 2010, Leo Burnett Worldwide, a leader in digital communications and the parent company of Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide, evaluated numerous BPM suites to help improve its core advertising and marketing planning processes. We knew we didn t have a lot of budget or a large staff of technical folks, points out Madhu Kolavennu, who runs Arc Worldwide s business process team. Arc Worldwide settled on Process Director as a good fit that provided core BPM functionality, including process automation, integration, and reporting. Arc Worldwide reported that it required two to four weeks to train people on the BP Logix environment, with the first process being rolled out to production within eight weeks using two dedicated developers. what s next: tighter sharepoint integration and process analytics reporting BP Logix represents a new way of analyzing, managing, and improving business processes, where each process definition is treated as a repeatable project. While other vendors, such as Progress Savvion, also provide project-based modeling, BP Logix is one of the first vendors to push this project-based approach beyond modeling to also encompass execution, monitoring, and analytics based on project tasks and milestones. While BP Logix and similar offerings have begun to extend the reach of BPM to support enterprise project management, the following are still needed: A more configurable and integrated portal experience. Budget-conscious business units looking to quickly automate business processes will find BPM suite solutions like BP Logix attractive. While BP Logix s offering is based on Microsoft s.net platform, many customers still demand tighter integration with Microsoft s SharePoint portal environment. In particular, many customers want these types of BPM suite solutions to provide a higher degree of portal configurability to end users, instead of requiring administrators to force end users into standard out-of-the-box web parts like portlets provided for SharePoint. Access to self-service process intelligence reporting. To truly take advantage of the union of process and project, teams will need to slice and dice process analytics to make real-time decisions for in-flight projects and processes. Currently, many customers using tools like BP Logix turn to more sophisticated business intelligence tools, such as IBM Cognos or SAP

6 6 BusinessObjects, to glean the intelligence needed to drive process decisions. Unfortunately, this approach is overkill for clients looking to use BPM suites to automate complex projects. BP Logix should bundle more self-service process intelligence capabilities that empower end users to generate their own reports using wizards and guided report builders. WHAT IT MEANS consider bpm for managing complex and repeatable enterprise projects Business process professionals and project managers: Wake up and smell the coffee. BPM and project portfolio management (PPM) share similar characteristics including oversight, reporting, and task management. However, to drive cross-functional projects than span multiple teams and require real-time insight into project progress, teams should evaluate tools such as BP Logix that combine sophisticated BPM automation with project-oriented modeling and predictive reporting. While project-oriented processes offer a great entry point the proverbial low-hanging fruit for adopting BPM, firms should also keep their eyes on the ball and develop a plan for driving process improvement to higher levels of maturity. Use Forrester s FastForward BPM Suite Capabilities Best Practices Self-Assessment to build the road map for adopting fit-forpurpose BPM solutions and implementation methodologies and evolving your program to deliver greater value to the enterprise. 3 Endnotes 1 Forrester evaluated 11 leading business process management (BPM) suite vendors against 148 criteria reflecting the requirements of business process professionals running large-scale BPM programs. BP Logix was not a participant. We found that Pegasystems and Appian lead the pack with the best overall combination of modeling, design, and development features for business and technical roles driving process improvement. IBM, Software AG, and Savvion are also Leaders with competitive products that offer industry-leading development environments and improved tools for business stakeholders. Additionally, Lombardi and Metastorm fall into the Leader category, with impressive collaborative process design environments and Web 2.0 features. Oracle, Global 360, HandySoft, and Fujitsu are Strong Performers with compelling products that have their own unique strengths. See the August 24, 2010, The Forrester Wave : Business Process Management Suites, Q report. 2 Companies waste millions of dollars each year on ineffective and inefficient business processes. Many companies attack this waste with process improvement exercises using approaches such as Six Sigma, Lean, Lean Six Sigma, and total quality management (TQM). However, when automating, controlling, and reporting on mission-critical business processes, many of these same firms remain stuck using rigid packaged applications or expensive custom-developed solutions. Process analysis, automation, and transformation through business process management (BPM) suites increase collaboration across business and technical teams while providing the flexibility and adaptability needed to quickly change processes based on new competitive and economic threats and opportunities. Firms can realize a return

7 7 on their investment in BPM suites within three years through impressive gains in business efficiency and worker productivity. This makes BPM suites a good investment in the face of challenging economic conditions and an increasingly competitive business environment. See the August 22, 2011, The ROI Of BPM Suites report. 3 In 2010, the recovering economy provided a shot in the arm for an already accelerating business process management (BPM) suite market. However, even with its rise in popularity and increased business profile, process professionals continue to struggle to create sustainable business process programs that meet the demands of a constantly shifting business environment. How can you make sure your company gets the best return from its BPM suite investment? Forrester developed a BPM framework that includes 89 best practice capabilities organized across four categories: strategy, structure, methodology, and technology. The framework draws upon interviews with 48 companies, an in-depth analysis of 27 products, and discussions with 11 BPM professional services organizations. Use the Forrester best practice framework and our selfassessment tool to improve your current BPM suite implementation or to jump-start new projects. See the March 17, 2011, Forrester s Best Practices Framework For BPM Suites report. Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 28 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Wave, RoleView, Technographics, TechRankings, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Reproduction or sharing of this content in any form without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. To purchase reprints of this document, please clientsupport@forrester.com. For additional reproduction and usage information, see Forrester s Citation Policy located at Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change