Do you remember the first time you rode your bike without gripping the handlebar? “Hey—look—no hands!” you probably exclaimed with excitement. If you’re lucky, you ended the trip on your bike, bearing a bright smile rather than a skinned knee.

Planning for a business process management (BPM) and workflow implementation bears some resemblance to riding hands free, only on a larger scale. Whether or not you stay on course isn’t just a matter of luck. You need to know where your business is headed; understand what you are striving to achieve; streamline your processes to ensure efficient routing; anticipate the unexpected; keep a sharp eye out for change; and make changes on the fly so you remain steady till the end.

Presuming you’ve read the first two articles in this series (Developing an Enterprise Vision for Business Process Automation and Indexing for the Enterprise: Retrieve Your Documents 100% of the Time), you already learned the importance of establishing a clear organizational vision. You also know ECM is data driven, and you learned tips for effective indexing so information can be found when it’s needed and leveraged enterprise-wide. BPM and workflow build on these successes.

Whether your processes revolve around documents, represent a series of events, or both, your data is a launching pad to drive work and decision making efficiently across your organization. If you understand the unseen as well as the obvious benefits of automation, you will visualize more clearly the long-term value across the enterprise. Knowing what questions to answer before you start helps you approach your project confidently.

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The Forum Corporation blog
offers some excellent content on such topics as learning, leadership,
collaboration, enhancing customer experiences, and accelerating strategic
execution. It is a collaborative effort by a number of the Forum team members.
The Forum Corporation began in 1971 and it “helps senior leaders
execute innovative, people-driven solutions that accelerate business growth,
corporate change and overall performance.”
I have known and respected Forum for some time as I competed against them in
the 1980s when I was with Spectrum. See my post, Useful Guidelines and Metrics for Speeding Up Your Organization, for a review of their recent book, Strategic Speed: Mobilize People, Accelerate
Execution.

Recent posts include,
Why is it so hard to create a great customer experience? by Jane Marham
Weinstein that makes a great organization structure point.  Customer experiences, whether viral or
physical, generally require an end-to-end process that involves multiple
departments. If the organization is structured around these different
departments (e.g. marketing, customer service, order fulfillment) it can be
like the blind men and the elephant with each department having a different, and
incomplete perception or the customer. However, if the organization is
structured around the customer experience, it can have a more accurate picture
of the customer and provide a better and more coordinated customer experience.

The VUCA Future – Are You
Ready? by Steve Barry describes the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous
business environment. I have heard of complex adaptive systems for some time
but this was a new term for me. Forum interviewed futurist Bob
Johansen for his thoughts on VUCA and what lies ahead for business. Bob said
that the term VUCA was coined at the US Army War College that is the graduate
school for future generals. In a VUCA world the best leaders have vision,
understanding, clarity, and agility.  Clarity and agility were two of the leadership
characteristics promoted in Forum’s new book, Strategic Speed: Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution. The world is
changing and leadership skills need to transition to adapt. The complete
interview provides many useful insights.

In the post, New Motivation Theory in Business: n Lrn?, Jocelyn
Davis builds on David McClelland (need for achievement, need for affiliation, and need for power) to offer a fourth
motivation, need for learning. People moved by this trait “would have a
strong need to collect and synthesize new information, to reflect on their
experiences, and to master new skills.” I would certainly fall into this
category so it makes sense to me.  Jocelyn goes on to compare these n Lrns (to use McClelland’s
notational style) with those primarily motivated by the three original
traits. 

For example, someone with the power motivation (n
Pow) would be motivated to teach for the ability to influence while a n Lrn person
would be motivated by what they could learn from the experience.  In contrast, someone with the affiliation
need would be motivated to teach by the possible relationships they could
establish. Of course, there can be more than one of these traits within an
individual but one or two are often dominant.  While Jocelyn notes that there does not seem to be
experimental evidence for this trait, it makes intuitive sense.  If you have employees with the n Lrn
trait, then you need to make sure they are properly motivated in their work.

This is just a sampling. There is much more by
additional authors. I would encourage you to explore if you are interested in
the learning, leadership, organizational development, collaboration, and other
related fields. 

Peter Hambling, CIO of Lloyd’s of London, the venerable insurer, has made Facebook a priority for customer communications that required board approval. But more on that later. First, some background . . .

It's the nature of things. Some people look for ways to do things better — and that includes your employees. Some of your employees are questing for a better way to get things done. If there's a better way out there, they'll find it. That's a good thing because the thing they're trying to do better is their job. Serve your customers. Solve your business problems. Improve your operations.

It's always been true: Incremental innovation and process improvements have always come from those closest to the problem. It's the basis of kaizen, a system where employees continually improve manufacturing processes. It's also a founding principle of Six Sigma — tap employees' relentless, incremental quality improvements.

The same is true today in the way employees are harnessing consumer technologies — social, mobile, video, and cloud. They are improving how they do their jobs and solving your customer and business problems. And it's not just a few employees. In fact, it's a critical mass of employees. In a survey of more than 4,000 US information workers, we found that 37% are using do-it-yourself technologies without IT’s permission. LinkedIn, Google Docs, Smartsheet.com, Facebook, iPads, YouTube, Dropbox, Flipboard — the list is endless and growing. Many of these scenarios are complete do-it-yourself projects. Here are four small examples:

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At LEGO they have taken web analytics a step further than most organisations by aligning it with the business objectives. This was the message I received, when talking to Gbemi Petersen, Manager of the Process & Online Intelligence team at LEGO in Billund in Denmark. Her team has worked actively on spreading the insights they collect to the entire organisation. The ambition is to work smarter and to allow the business units to make more informed decisions.

Where most organisations find limited use of their numbers e.g. to encourage editors or to justify the costs of their work to managers, LEGO wants to make web analytics a key part of business development. To accomplish this, Gbemi and her team of 3 strive to get involved with new projects as early as possible in order to help set KPIs to clear business goals, and provide useful data on a regular basis.

The Online Intelligence team at LEGO still holds the responsibility of gathering and distributing traffic data, but in order to get more time for the business development efforts, self-service is encouraged.  The site owners and the key account managers are offered training in the analytics system at workshops facilitated by the vendor. In addition Gbemi’s team is going to setup a hotline, where support will be offered at specific times. This will free up time to focus on the more value adding tasks like setting measurable KPIs linked to business goals and providing actionable insights to the businesses when a KPI is met or not met.

According to Gbemi, the key to get web analytics this far is a strong buy-in at management level. The senior managers simply need to acknowledge the value of online analytics. Consequently the Process & Online Intelligence team meets with senior management to ensure that the things they measure support the overall business strategy.

In addition, Gbemi argues that you need a dedicated team responsible for gathering online intelligence. Even with a dedicated team it can be hard to work strategically if you don’t distribute the tasks to the online stakeholders and allow them to help themselves through training and support.

What is your organisation doing about analytics? Simply using it to justify the online team’s existence – or using the detailed results strategically? Share your experiences below…

I have been covering the
Cisco I-Prize for several years and continue to be impressed with this
initiative.  I spoke with Sharon
Wong, the Director of Business Development for Cisco’s Emerging Technology
group to discuss the conclusion of the second I-Prize. She said that the first
one validated the desire for teams to work together on innovation on the global
scale and they learned how much people really like to collaborate (see Cisco Announces I-Prize Winner and Results of Their
Global Collaboration). 
So this time they provided greater collaboration support through Cisco
tools including the following four.

Enterprise-wide projects require clear vision and effective leadership. This is especially true if your company engages in business process management (BPM) with the goal of maximizing efficiency gains enterprise wide. Since your everyday processes are built around your mission-critical content, a thorough understanding of your data, routine processes, and the interrelationship of one business area to the next is crucial.

Establishing a grand vision isn’t necessary for a successful enterprise content management (ECM) and BPM implementation. Developing and communicating a clear vision based on an understanding of your company’s long-range goals, prioritization of needs, and knowledge of constraints, however, is.

Assemble the right team

Establishing a vision for BPM requires a strong team comprised of executive-level and IT leadership, line-of-business managers, and a dedicated project leader. Since a detailed understanding of your company’s content (data) and how it is used daily is vital, ground-level knowledge workers must also be represented on the team. Their involvement in day-to-day information gathering and processing brings critical knowledge and valuable insights into how your business operates, as well as potential improvements. As your team defines long- and short-term goals, understanding your current processes is as important as defining long-term business needs, technology capabilities, and budget constraints.

BPM requires that you view your business as a series of intertwined processes driven by people, data, and events. The data that feeds and drives your processes may be found in legacy systems, line-of-business software applications, paper, voice mails, and other media. Wherever it resides, it must be accessed, controlled, and manipulated intelligently so you can leverage it wherever it’s needed to drive efficiency. Understanding the sources and function of data within your organization is vital.

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Humans have hunted from the earliest times. Maybe that’s why we often accept the burdensome quest for information. We’re accustomed to the chase—even fooled into thinking we’re doing something valuable. Yet time lost in pointless pursuit means something is sacrificed. In the case of college enrollment, a drawn-out chase can mean losing top candidates to other institutions and ending up with a mediocre catch.

During peak season, enrollment office employees frenetically pursue information and answers, compiling scattered documentation in the hope of making quick, prudent decisions. Admissions, student aid, registrar, scholarship committees and other areas each have separate forms requiring distinctive information.

Yet as each department collects what it needs, useful information that could be shared is often requested again…and again. Information that could move decisions forward sits idle, garnering little or no attention.

Regrettably, as processes are deferred, institutions risk losing top candidates to other institutions.

Make informed decisions, quickly

Whether we’re considering undergraduate or graduate admissions, student financial aid, scholarship applications, or faculty search, the overriding goal is to garner and retain top people. Even though roles and responsibilities differ among departments, most draw vital information from transcripts, applications, test scores, essays, and references. Often, specific data found on forms is valuable in multiple places. Unfortunately, departmental software systems that store this precious information create data silos, resulting in information that is unknowingly collected multiple times for varying purposes.

Gathering information several times—even if it’s done efficiently—wastes resources, results in redundancy, generates errors, and causes delays.

Why not re-use your information to satisfy current needs and anticipate what lies ahead? Enterprise content management (ECM) and business process management (BPM) software, integrated meaningfully with your business systems, redefine efficiency. By centralizing and securing access to content, then pushing and pulling information wherever it’s needed according to your pre-set business rules, ECM and BPM free your staff to work efficiently and focus on the services for which they were hired.

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According to a new Forrester report, The
Next Wave of Office
Productivity
by Sheri McLeish with Matthew Brown and Joseph Dang, Microsoft Office
continues to dominate both in the enterprise and at home to no surprise.
However, changes are affecting enterprise productivity strategies, such as Web
2.0, enterprise 2.0, and the consumerization of IT. Many enterprise workers use
products like the iPhone and YouTube at home and they have expectations at work
for similar functionality either through these tools or enterprise versions. As
a loyal Mac. iTunes, and iPhone user who is still attached to Office, I was
interested in where all these tools are going and appreciated getting a review
copy of the report.

The report indicated that though most
enterprises have long-term plans to continue using Office, alternative
productivity tools will remain in the mix by leveraging the tools employees
access for do-it-yourself technologies, such as those through mobile devices and
the cloud. These evolving productivity tools will help enterprises transform to
a fit-to-purpose approach to productivity, establishing the foundation for the
next wave of productivity that's focused on aligning tools with employee needs.
In the words of the report, “The next wave of productivity will see
today’s innovations dissolve into expected features, creating integrated touch points
for content-related activities tailored to fit a business purpose or workforce
segment.”

They pointed out that the
recent recession has driven interest in free or low-cost alternatives to
Microsoft Office and has slowed upgrade plans. In the past year OpenOffice.org
has seen a modest uptake by enterprises and is now supported by nearly 10% of
the organizations Forrester surveyed. Similarly,
cloud-based email from providers like Google is finding traction as a
lower-cost alternative to Exchange. I covered the email wars
recently (see: Email Wars Heat
Up in the Cloud). Google’e move caused Microsoft to drop its prices.

Another factor is the growing interest
business process integration and automation, another topic I have discussed
here (see for example: Building Enterprise 2.0 into the Product Development Process).
As enterprises increasingly use collaboration platforms like SharePoint and the
best of breed players, they will (or should) increasingly seek to integrate business
content and processes in an effort to move from simple content storage to
content workflows. I see this as what needs to be done to really make use of
the enterprise 2.0 approach and tools. In a similar way, the only successful KM
efforts were aligned to work processes.

There is much more in
the report and I found it very useful. 
For example, the majority of people surveyed as a background for the
report viewed alternatives to Microsoft Office as complementary, rather than
replacements. In this light, many tools, including Microsoft Office 2010, are
adding social computing capabilities. Other tools such as those from Google, IBM,
and Novell are moving in the same direction. 

The combination of a weak economy – causing many to streamline operations to keep afloat – and increasing regulatory demands made business challenging for many in 2009. Those that emerged from the rubble of crumbling profits, hoping to resurrect their bottom line and succeed in this decade are working harder than ever, often with fewer resources. Although the economy will eventually improve, the regulatory scene is becoming more demanding, placing greater burdens on business. Only those that make wise use of limited resources will survive.

Despite recent unpredictability in government, business, and the economy, one thing is unchanged: compliance, security, and cost-efficient management remain the focus of many businesses. Named in multiple industries as the top three drivers for enterprise content management (ECM), they are more closely intertwined than ever:

• Cost efficiency is only possible in today’s litigious economy with an integrated, efficient compliance management program that mitigates risk and avoids costly penalties. In a paper or mixed media environment, it’s nearly impossible to achieve.
• Compliance is only achievable with stringent internal controls and an overseeing force to manage document security, governing access to information and how it is used. Entrusting oversight to fallible humans alone means there will always be mistakes. Zero tolerance is on the rise; penalties for non-compliance can be financially devastating.
• Security is only manageable in information-intensive businesses when you have the tools to pull all of your information together so it can be controlled, centrally and consistently. Even with a full complement of employees, it’s challenging. In a paper-based environment, it’s impossible.

The solution? ECM.

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I recently received a review copy of a useful new
Forrester report, Four Giants Compete For Your Cloud Email
Business
by Ted Schadler, that has a cost breakdown of cloud-based email services from
the four leading vendors- Google, Microsoft, IBM and Cisco – and indicates that
Google and Microsoft are in the lead for customers. Here is a good overview in
Ted’s words from the executive summary.

“Google jumped into
the enterprise email market in 2007 with a $50 annual subscription to its cloud
email service and turned the market upside down. Microsoft quickly re-evaluated
and repriced its Exchange Online offering to $5 per user per month; IBM
launched LotusLive Notes and iNotes for $5 and $3, respectively; and Cisco
purchased PostPath and opened its WebEx Mail offering with a 5 GB mailbox for
$5 per user per month. Each of these big four collaboration vendors has since
beefed up and clarified its road map for cloud email and collaboration services.
Their email offerings are rapidly approaching feature and price parity — at
least on the checklist items.”

Since I became an enterprise of one in 2004, I
missed these most recent corporate email wars. My last employer moved from
Notes to Outlook but Google had not yet turned the market upside down. Now both
Google and Microsoft have bundled in their Web productivity apps, something
that IBM and Cisco do not. Cisco allows you to use Outlook.

Over
the next five years, Ted writes, enterprises will be re-evaluating their email
strategy and partner. For vendors, it will be a tough five years as companies
pick a messaging and collaboration partner for the next decade. Ted gives a
nice way to estimate your total email costs that appear to be significantly
cheaper in the cloud. However, there are migration costs to get there.

Forrester also expects
that email will improve it gains features that improve usability and
functionality such as: “analytics to perform triage on messages; collaboration
features to make it easier to act on a message; in-message widgets to pull
information relevant to the message; pushbutton publishing to a team wiki;
messages, activities, feeds, tweets, etc., in a single inbox; and so on.”  This is good news and another alignment
with the enterprise concept that suggests it is becoming standard. Many of the
collaboration platforms already allow you to use them within an email client so
this is going in the other direction but likely focused on the tools offered by
the email provider.