What IT-empowered tools are best to use for collecting information about who's using what when, where, why, and how? Well, as every industry analyst tries to answer almost every question, “that depends.”
If you've already got IT infrastructure monitoring and/or management tools in place, explore them carefully for their abilities to generate useful workflow-mapping information. Remember, the goal is to gather information without intruding on those workflows, or coming across like “Big Brother” on electronic steroids. (This is why process is more important that tools in this endeavor.)
Also note that numerous vendors are starting to focus more and more on features that specifically enable capture and mapping of user-driven workflows. Altiris, now owned by Symantec Corp., has made several moves in this direction, and made a lot of noise about workflow just after the acquisition closed in April. Expect more such noise later this year and beyond, especially at the company's ManageFusion event in Las Vegas in October (where I plan to be speaking, by the way).
Beyond client-side management, vendors of solutions for monitoring and screening of e-mail, instant messaging (IM), and other forms of collaboration and sharing of enterprise intellectual property (IP) can also be used to identify and map what users are doing with what. Some such solutions, such as those from companies such as FaceTime Communications, Inc., Orchestria Corp., and Workshare Inc., offer both useful workflow-mapping information and immediate security benefits. This combination may make them strong candidates at enterprises considering deploying software for such functions.
And of course, there are tools dedicated specifically to the capture and mapping of business workflows and processes, including my current favorite, GemWorX FlowModeler, mentioned here previously. Whether or not such purpose-specific tools can be cost-justified depends on a variety of factors. However, it's critical to note that the lack of such tools should not be seen as making such capture and mapping efforts impossible. Perhaps more cumbersome, but still doable, and worth doing.
Ultimately, the goal is to combine good processes with effective tools, to capture and map as accurately, easily, and unobtrusively as possible what users are doing, and with what they're doing what they're doing. Such information is absolutely essential to development, deployment, and management of effective business processes. It's also essential to IT's continuing efforts to provide maximum beneficial support to all key business tasks and processes.
If you've got comments about specific tools you like and/or don't like in this context, or relevant questions, post'em below and/or e-mail'em to me. Meanwhile, I'll start thinking about what happens next, after you know more about who's doing what with what for whom at your enterprise...
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.
