| | March 2015 19CIOReviewAn advanced class of technology titled Business Pro-cess Management Suite (BPMS) has helped organizations to achieve most of such operational objects if designed and implemented properly. The diagram in the previous page pro-vides a graphical depiction of conceptual reference architec-ture for implementation of BPMS platforms to achieve such business and operational objectives.Upholding the importance of all listed operational ob-jectives, the case management and the predictive process-ing are currently the latest and the hottest operational topics which are discussed and examined within many organizations across different industries in order for the entities to maintain their competitive edge and operational niche. Effective case management has gained focus due to customers' impatience in receiving their desired products and services in today's marketplace. Design and implementation of effective case management structure within an organization often requires end-to-end view and optimization of the currently-disjointed business processes by the way of eliminating process gaps and redundancies in a holistic view. Achieving such objective cer-tainly involves operational improvements in advance of any process automation.Predictive processing has gained focus not only due to the customers' impatience in receiving their desired products and services, also due to the increasing importance of doing it right the first time. Predictive processing applies to the operational scenarios when certain quantitative and/or qualitative process-ing parameters are unknown at the time, but if the parameters were known or could be predicted, advanced start of additional process events could shorten the end-to-end cycle time nota-bly.As it is evident from the above explanations, implemen-tation of BPMS platform is an element of a bigger picture commonly referred to as business operations transformation. There are a number of important strategic and operational activities which must take place prior to implementation of BPMS platforms.Depicted above is the sequence of required activities to ensure successful implementation of BPMS plat-forms at a high level, as a best practice.Definition of a forward-looking business strategy and operational model is the starting point for all operational and technological transformations in an organization. It is through this deliberate and cross-functionally-collabora-tive strategy formulation that the alignment of all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of its clients occurs. Consequently, organizational strategies these days include an important part referred to as digital strat-egy. Effective formulation and implementation of digital strategy shall include three important parts: integration, insight, and interaction.IntegrationAs organizations are rapidly expanding the scope of their business processes to include their customers, partners, and suppliers alike, business-process-based integration across the backend systems to access information from different organi-zational data sources, as well as access to different partner/vendor information are essential. Customers and suppliers, be-ing external to the organization, do not have access to the or-ganization's backend systems. However, in order for them to participate in the processes effectively, they will need to view relevant data and be able to submit required information to conduct their process activities. Advanced BPMS technologies provide the required means for such integrations in comple-ment of the existing integration and service layers, while en-forcing strict security and access control.InsightData driven analytics is vital part of predictive processing. Such analytics relies heavily on historical process data and the "big data" accumulated internally and/or received from exter-nal services. Today's advanced BPMS technologies use such analytics and statistical predictions to make proactive process decisions on selection of suited alternative paths to complete process instances in shorter cycle time.InteractionThe demand for variety in modes of access and communica-tion with organizations is not limited to customers. Organiza-tions' employees, partners, and vendors too require such ac-cess flexibility. The advanced BPMS technologies nowadays are featured with cloud, mobile, and social capabilities to sat-isfy such needs of their internal and external users.Lastly, in order for the organizations to keep all of their operating areas functioning in sync, efficiently, and effectively over time, it is essential for the entities to implement a cross-functional BPM CoE structure at their enterprise level. A BPM CoE through its members must be aimed to achieve the highest levels of operational excellence through continuous improve-ment both intra-functionally and cross-functionally.
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