Exciting BPM Workflow Discovery Workshop

If you have a Business Process Management (BPM) workflow project coming up soon, don’t miss the Nexus 2011 conference in Bellevue, Washington on November 3^rd and 4^th.  One of our teams is conducting a BPM workflow discovery workshop that is built entirely on audience participation.  It’s the Business Process Management – Discovery & Problem Resolution Strategy Workshop scheduled for Friday morning (4^th).  It’s a two session workshop and we’re going to take audience members (PM’s, SE’s and BA’s) to form a project team.  We’ll provide them with a business case scenario with BPM workflow requirements and then facilitate them working through the discovery process.  We’ll make sure that they run into lots of the common challenges we see on BPM workflow projects and then watch to see how they sort it out.  It’s a serious subject and we will share best practices approaches to solving these common problems, but we intend to have as much fun as we can in the process!  We look forward to seeing you there and having you participating as part of our workshop project team.  Don’t miss it!

Gene Eckhart
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc

What Type of Search is Right for You?

For many functions in the organization the full text “Google” like search capability found in most document management systems may be useful.  For others, it’s not sufficient in providing the business value.  Here’s some situations that may help determine what is right for you.

A business professor once said “There are three core functions to any process… 1. Procurement of Materials 2. Conversion of Materials and 3. Distribution of those Materials.  All other functions only support these three”.  In translation, these three things can map to any function found in business for any department (Sales, HR, Information Technology etc.)  It seems that when analyzing any business process, this old adage always comes back and discussing search in the enterprise is no exception.

When looking at search it’s helpful to see both sides of these functions for document management.  Documents either “drive the process” as a core function, or documents are ”driven by the process” as in a supporting role.  The differences are not all that hard to see.  Document that drive the process are directly related to the three functions above 1. Procurement 2. Conversion and 3. Distribution.  Documents that are driven by the process may be everything else.

Vouchers, Invoices and Checks are all documents that drive Purchasing.  Service Orders and Proof of Delivery are documents that drive Operations.  Purchase Orders and Service Contracts drive sales. 

On the other side, Marketing Literature  is driven by Marketing.  Brochures are driven by Sales.  The company Calendar is driven by HR and Inventory Reports are driven by Operations.  These documents support the functions of their departments.

A less technical way to look at this dichotomy is ”gotta have that document now” and “gee, this looks like what I’m looking for”.  When designing a search architecture, this is one of the basic questions you can ask yourself.

Documents that drive the business process tend to require a discrete index field search.  This is because the user is typically looking for the one document they need, and they need it quick.  A Sales Order for a customer service representative or an Invoice for a purchasing manager.  These documents also typically already have a structured meta-data component already designed for them before the document management system is in place.  A Sales Order Number field is always generated for Sales Orders and an Invoice Number Field always has an Invoice number.  This is true before or after a document management system exists.

Documents that are driven by the process are less structured in nature.  Marketing Literature, Progress Reports and the Employee Vacation schedule to name a few.  The user is typically looking for some information that could be in one, or many of these documents.  Could an employee figure out if Memorial Day is a company holiday by finding the wrong documents to their search?  Like last years vacation schedule?  Probably so.  If this is the case, a full text content search may prove successful.

Documents that “drive the process” answer questions to a search that only that one document can satisfy.  What items were billed for Invoice # 123456?  What date was Employee #78910 hired?  Who signed for Proof of Delivery #34567?  In these cases, a discrete index field search is required.

 

John Moffitt

Systems Engineer

ImageSource, Inc.

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www.imagesourceinc.com

www.ilinxcapture.com 

  

The Two Faces of Change Management

Enterprise Content Management implementation projects frequently require the formation of plans for, and execution of “Change Management” as a major part of the project components.  But what is Change Management?  In ECM Projects, participants have been known to describe Change Management using two very different definitions:

[1]  “Change Management (People)”- ECM projects sometimes include significant business process changes that require the user community to change the way they work.  This is especially true of solutions that involve transactional processes.  Process change situations can challenge the success of the project if the users are not involved and informed.  If major business process are major or widespread, the support of executive and middle management is crucial and needs to be effectively communicated to those users involved with the changes.

[2]  “Change Management (ITSM)”- Most ECM Projects, no matter how well planned and documented, will usually have situations arise where plan details should change.  Changes to the plan can be requested by the implementation team, the project sponsor, or a key organizational department.  The Project Manager(s) responsible for the success of the project must have a formal process to receive Change Requests, process, and then respond to them in light of their impact on the design, cost, and schedule of the project.

Neil W. Lindsey
ImageSource, Inc.