Social software and BPM

Many organizations have used social software tools; emails, video conference, online chat, forum, etc. Newer applications of social software associated with web 2.0 such as wiki, blog, social bookmarking and tagging are also have been used in organizations. Most of the tools were used as a knowledge management tool for knowledge building, knowledge sharing, knowledge networking, information dissemination, etc. Some research conducted case studies of social software usage in companies to support business process. The results are varied, some gain success and some get failure. It is said that most success comes that the use of social software are intended as solution to answer business process’s needs.

The key of social software is in the “social” thing. Participation and involvement of the users, which is bottom up approach make these tools “survive” in the context of organization. Without users’ participation, I think social software will have no use. People in organization, of course need to communicate and collaborate each other, which makes sense if it is said that social software can be used in all business processes, but to what extend? If I think that social software means emails, it is reasonable. But if I see from the newer application related to web 2.0, sometimes it is still quite difficult to imagine that all those processes need blog, wiki, social bookmarking or tagging.

However, I try to create a metrics between social software tools (blog, wiki, forum, social bookmarking, tagging, social network service, and instant messaging) and business process classification (core and support processes). I also believe that the use of the tools are not the same in nature, and the needs of business processes are not the same. So, I conclude that different business process needs different tools to support it. The result is that all the processes can make use at least one of the tool I’ve mentioned above. The organization can adopt the social tools to support its business process, but once again, the adoption needs plan and work. It is easy just to install the tools. But what is important is that the tool can accomodate the needs of the users and business process itself.

One thing that is more interesting is the adoption of social software tools in one organization is not the same with other organizations, so I think social software adoption will be very various and quite dynamic in nature. Some factors that need to be checked in adopting these tools are organization’s culture, change management, user’s behaviour and management support. The adoption is not about technical thing, the management part is as much as important as the technical part. In fact, it could be more to be a concern.

The driver of social software, I think is the users. Use, participate and enjoy. When the users feel that, I think the adoption would be just fine.

How can we make social software adoption to support business process in organization to be a success? – check business process need. - fact that business process need social software tool. – analyze business process need and tool to be adopted. – prepare change management in adopting new technology (management) and the tools to be implemented (technical). – monitor the implementation. – evaluate the implementation.

How do we know that the use of social software enhance business process? – reduce working time. – increase the work that is processed. – save costs. - yield greater production.

How can we measure that the use of social software can increase production and quality? – increase sales. – reduce complains.

How do we find out that the use of social software can support decision making? – real time and more feedbacks from customers. – more information and knowledge exchange can be performed.

BPM puzzles

Last time I already summarized about BPM’s meanings, etc. Continuing to the benefits, well, I thought it wouldn’t be that difficult, but it was quite hard for me to see the ‘real thing’. But, I read in some papers and agree that they mentioning about efficiency, effectiveness and agility. Please search in the net, and you’ll find lots of it =’] I don’t wanna talk much about it now, coz I still think I haven’t seen the whole picture and the real thing that I can figure out one of it at my workplace long time ago. =p

I’m thinking, even though an organization does not claim that it performs BPM, actually, being realized or not, all organizations in nature will manage all business processes to achieve their objectives.

And now I’m wondering to classify business processes. At first, I thought that an organization will have lots of business processes. Second, not all business processes are the core ones. Third, regarding the social software tools, not all business processes can be supported by those tools. So, I have to find out business process and tools characteristics so they can match and perform in maximum way to benefit the organization.

And yesterday, I met my advisor. She successfully made me confuse with “process improvement” now =’] Seeing BPR vs BPM, I was sure that BPM is a lot broader than BPR, that now, I can think that BPR can be a part of BPM. Actually, I’ve checked in “System Analysis and Design with UML version 2.0″ book, it discussed about BPA (Automation), BPI (Improvement), and BPR (Reengineering). But I think the scope of that book is limited to the technology part. BPA means changing manual process into automation process, means faster process, more efficient (have to make financial analysis) and more effective (have to measure, example by comparing before and after comparison). BPA projects are usually short term projects since it doesn’t change process. The process flow is still the same, it’s just being delivered to computerized applications. BPI means improving the as is system (whether or not it’s still manual or already computerized), maybe cut or add some process in the to be system to make the process more efficient, or add process’ validation that the to be process can be more effective in performing the processes. BPR, as discussed in the book also, is focusing on the to be system that it is said that its goal is to create a “new” process that analyst only spend little time on seeing the as is process. The to be process is supposed to be different from the old one. BPR projects take more time to finish and more risks, more costs, but also can give significant benefit among the 3 approaches. It’s very technical.

That I think, BPM is not only about technology, even manual process can be improved through BPM practice. So, BPM refers to broader scope.

And, what is process improvement? In broad term, it can be any process –> software process improvement and business process improvement. But, if process improvement can refer to any of those, it means that it’s quite the same with BPM? I mean, BPM can be manual, but it is getting closer to IT. BPM sees business as processes, and one of its goal is to optimize those processes. Process improvement’s goal is also to improve process of course. BPM’s other goal is to be able to adapt to the changes happen in business environment, and it is also one of other goal of business improvement. So, what’s the difference between those two?? =’| I consider about BPM lifecycle which is a continuous cycle. I don’t know much about process improvement, does it have a method or something in applying it? Process improvement will not happen in only one time. It’s like a never ending story, and so does BPM. waaa… ok, this will be my homework, huhu..

BPM and KM. They relate to each other, they support one another. It’s like mutual relationship, but I don’t know is there any paper that discuss about this relationship. Does poor BPM can lead to poor KM? Does it apply on the reverse also? Is there any research about this before? How would they prove it? KM practice is more like intangible, hard to measure the benefit I guess. But, anyway, I still wanna find their relation.

Ok, I think there’s a lot :’] Lotsa work to do now!.. Ganbatte ne!  

BPM Software

I just found this video talking about EPC (Enterprise Process Center), one of BPM software in modeling business process. It’s quite nice to look though.

reference: BPM: Improve business process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq4JVkkCzKY

BPM

What is business process management?

There is a lot of definitions of BPM, but, the point is a method to optimize business processes (means perform business processes more effective and efficient). It is also involves managing business processes to be able to adapt to the dynamic business environment.

The key of BPM lies in its lifecycle, which is a continuous cycle that allow companies to iterate the cycles, improve its business processes, change business procesess to cope with the changing of company’s business objective and business environment.

Why does company need to implement BPM?

First, company needs to manage its business processes. To be able to manage, you have to have the knowledge of your business processes. Then, when business processes are managed, you will want to make those processes more effective and efficient. The more effective and efficient process you carry, the more you can gain benefit and give value to your customers and stakeholders. Then you will think of to be more and more effective and efficient, which is called optimizing your business processes.

But this business process management is not as easy and fast as you think. Business process can be complex and large that involves many resources. To apply BPM, there’s BPM system as software system that is driven by process design to manage business process, which is usually presented graphically. Some might call BPM suite or BPM tools. BPM system acts as a tool for you to model your business processes (like a workflow).  

What is the benefit of implementing BPM?

Of course there’s a lot of benefit you can get. I’ll answer and continue this later

Do all companies perform BPM? How about small companies? Do they need it too? Does BPM carry on strategic or tactical level in organization? huaaa…