As you may already be aware, there's a Webinar coming up at ebizQ on June 20, on the subject of "The Role of BI in BPM and SOA." (It's part of the upcoming "BI in Action" Virtual Conference.) Whether you were aware of it or not, you should definitely register and plan on attending. It will be a panel discussion hosted by my ebizQ colleague Beth Gold-Bernstein, which would be reason enough to attend. However, there are other good reasons as well.
There should be little remaining doubt that business process management (BPM) and business intelligence (BI) are and will remain for some time principal applications, if not outright "killer apps," driving SOA adoption. Of course, a company can and should have good BPM and BI without an SOA. But for an SOA to deliver maximum immediate and sustained business benefit, a company must equip and support that SOA with strong, coherent, and integrated BPM – which almost by necessity and definition these days must include BI as well.
As I see it, BI and BPM drive and support one another. BI is essential to make the best possible decisions about business process creation, orchestration, prioritization, refinement, and structure. Effective BPM, meanwhile, is essential to achieve and derive maximum business benefit from BI. Together, they form the foundation for what I've referred to repeatedly here as human-centric business knowledge management (BKM).
Now, for BI, BKM, and BPM to be of any real business value, they must pervade the entire enterprise – every element of the business and IT architectures and infrastructures. They must also be invisible to users doing their primary jobs. Which means the sensible place to park the features and resources that enable BI, BKM, and BPM is within an SOA, where an SOA exists. (Where an SOA does not exist, I think the most sensible place is within the applications and services those users use to do those primary jobs, but that's not the subject of this outing. It is the subject of previous rants in this space, however, in case you have way too much free time…)
You can read all about BI, BPM, and SOA justifications, obstacles, and strategies right here at ebizQ, and about BKM, BI, and related issues, among other subjects, in the RFG section of the ebizQ Analyst Corner. But make no mistake – at many enterprises, including quite possibly yours or your client's or clients', BI, BKM, and BPM are going to be critical drivers and justifications for SOA efforts, today and for the foreseeable future. I expect the Webinar on June 20 will echo and delve deeply into these subjects, and urge you to register and participate. Meanwhile, you can expect to read more about how all of this stuff comes together – or not – here (as well as at my BI blog)…especially if you care to contribute any of your own experiences, opinions, and thoughts…
The concept of "human-centric business knowledge management" is a good one, and it does require your alphabet soup of BPM, BI, and SOA. Soon, however, "BI" should be renamed to clearly signal that it refers to software tools (maybe call it “BIST”) because what is needed most is Business Intelligence Information (“BII”), both Company Business Intelligence (“CBI” for an internal view or Corporate Dashboard) and Industry Business Intelligence (“IBI” for an external view). In addition to the hearty alphabet soup, it’s probably best to focus on the main meal, a hearty steak of industry information, for the proper context for all BI - a global industry framework for business intelligence.
Michael Dortch has been an analyst, 'information entrepreneur,' speaker, and writer about IT and 'the real world" for the past 30 years. After almost 10 years at the Robert Frances Group (RFG), Michael begins a new position with Aberdeen Group in September.
Dennis Byron is an analyst with ebizQ, focusing on Open Source Software as well as Business Process Management technologies.
