Figure 8 Business Process Management (BPM) Until the mid 1990s, most businesses machine-controlled processes on a division basis only. Phone calls, paper-based messages and emails were generally used to request the next step if communication with another area of the business was required. On occasion however, wherever the need was great and the development cost could be justified, an organization would-be go the extra mile and extend the automation across departments. They achieved this by including Point-to-Point and/or Message-based connections as delineated earlier. What are the deficiencies with Point-to-Point and Message-based solutions? Point-to-Point and Message-based techniques are adequate wherever the work flow involved is straightforward. However, as a process becomes more complex, it becomes progressively more difficult to create and maintain the logic of the workflow. Because the process logic is scattered throughout the applications themselves, there is a real need to maintain elaborate documentation for these processes. However computer programmers are not celebrated for their documentation skills so this important task is seldom completed or unbroken up to date. It then becomes difficult to support track of the process’s overall progress and pinpoint errors as they occur. Enter Business Process Management or "BPM". With Business Process Management, the decision devising and navigation requirements of a process are defined individually and removed from the software system applications. This allows easier definition, maintenance and documentation of processes. BPM acts as a strong reference point for observation business processes and pinpointing errors and inefficiencies across the system. How makes BPM work? Let’s return to our advertising example in Figure 8. The process of fiscal data for a new ad includes client credit checking and the production of account transs records as per the earlier electronic messaging example. This time however, a separate business process called “New Advert” has been defined. The “New Advert” process runs inside a "Business Process Manager". Process Steps: 1. The Advertising application publishes a “New Advert” message. ... ... ... |
About the author
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Russell O’Brien is a veteran of the information age with over 25 years experience in the computer industry. He began his working life in Sydney, punching program cards and loading magnetic disks. From these humble beginnings, he rose through the IT ranks and is now CEO of Bluescribe, the world’s leading authority on Integration Blueprinting. Russell is a more sought-after technical adviser to the newspaper and media industries. He is besides a frequent speaker at events hosted by media industry groups about the world, including IFRA, the world's leading association for newspaper and media publishing, and the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association (PANPA). As CEO of Bluescribe, Russell has proprietary
a unique Integration Blueprinting process that has been used by clients to minimize their business price and importantly
reduce the risks normally associated with large scale integration projects. In addition, he has recently been appointed to the position of caller
for the International Association for Integration Blueprinting. |