Business Process Management Solutions

Business processes automated by a BPMS require human interaction at points in the process, like exception handling and knowledge working. In this post I want to share my opinions on how these human steps could benefit from the new generation of online wordprocessing and spreadsheet tools by embedding them directly into the user’s processing application. Tools like Google Spreadsheet, Zoho Writer and Office Suite represent the available capabilities. The ITRedux blog provides a good listing of online office tools.Use desktop tools for collaborative processesIn scenarios like this, collaboration enables a set of users to work together using the tools that are most convenient to them. Typically they will produce documents using MS Office products, research tools and business specific application. The users record their working and final decisions as text documents and spreadsheets, stored within a specific collaborative workplace. Due to the lengthy and varied work that the users are performing this is probably the best approach to improving their effectiveness.Knowledge workers and other human interaction More commonly occurring than full collaborative requirements are the steps in a business process that require input from a single knowledge worker, to process a case and make decisions based on information presented to them. An example is an insurance new business process, where at certain steps an underwriter is required to assess policy terms. The underwriter is delivered the work, being presented the customer details and full application form to assist in the assessment. At this point, typical systems will leave the user to utilize external workbench tools to make their decisions. More often than not this requires that the underwriter rekey information from the original application form into a spreadsheet that enables him to determine risk and policy value. At the end of his manual processing he saves any documents that assisted in the decision to his desktop and attaches them manually to the customer case file or a shared file system.