BPM in Action

Microsoft Corp. announced that it had won the first new customer for its Azyxxi health care management software since Microsoft acquired the company behind that software last year. New York Presbyterian Hospital will use the software, developed by actual doctors working with software developers, to gather administrative, clinical, and financial data from systems at five major health-care centers in the New York metropolitan area.

Hmm. Software developed with input from practitioners of specific, particular processes, "business" and otherwise? Deployed in ways that span multiple locations and platforms to deliver actionable information to various "enterprise" role-players? Sounds a lot like human-centric BPM, or, if you like (and I do), "business knowledge management" (BKM) to me.

This is also coincident with how Microsoft is integrating Microsoft Office and its Dynamics business applications with back-end systems such as those from SAP AG. This type of integration, combined with capture of information about the use of "front-end" Office and Dynamics applications, also leads inexorably toward BPM, BKM, and their ilk. (Yes, they have ilk. Lots of ilk. See almost all previous posts in this space, or e-mail me, and we'll talk.)

So what's the downside? Well, Microsoft's ultimate BPM/BKM strategy is still more confusing than clear, at least to me and others with whom I've discussed such things. Microsoft Office applications make logical front ends to BPM and BKM initiatives, but how best to integrate them with which BPM/BKM applications? Microsoft has formed a Business Process Alliance, and announced plans to support the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), but will that support actually mean fully seamless interoperability with other vendors' solutions? Microsoft Dynamics applications may also make good front ends to BPM/BKM applications as well, but similar questions apply.

And now there's Microsoft going after specific verticals with acquired applications. How will that play out? Which markets will it pursue with such solutions, and which will it target in other ways? Will there be versions of Office tailored for specific verticals, perhaps via templates and/or customized menus?

Lots of questions, few answers. And Microsoft hasn't yet articulated a strategy that is either sufficiently comprehensive or obviously interoperable with other solutions or open standards to reassure me. What about you? Do let me know. Meanwhile, I'll see if I can't pry some more useful information out of "the Colossus of Redmond," perhaps with help from your comments and questions.

Posted by mdortch in BPM • Microsoft  |  Permalink  | Comments (0)  | TrackBacks (0)

As covered here previously, Microsoft has forged a new association of partners focused on business process management. The company has also unveiled at least some of a road map for support of the increasingly popular Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).

Separately, Microsoft has begun distributing to partners an early version of a forthcoming new release of its CRM software. Code-named "Titan," this forthcoming release will, according to published reports, include three options for users. They can buy the software and host it internally, as they always have. They can purchase Microsoft CRM as a service hosted by Microsoft partners. Or they can purchase Microsoft CRM as a service hosted by Microsoft itself. (The company has been building data centers aggressively in advance of the roll-out of this option.)

Now, as is discussed almost constantly across the blogosphere and elsewhere, Microsoft has a challenge to overcome that does not burden perceived software-as-a-service (SaaS) competitors such as Salesforce.com. Microsoft has a hefty ecosystem of partners who have made pretty good livings supporting and working with Microsoft's traditional hosted software. When those partners have to compete with partners who offer CRM SaaS, including Microsoft itself, not all of them are expected to thrive, or even survive.

Further, Microsoft is working with BPM/CRM/ERP applications giant SAP AG, on something called "Duet." Duet is software the two companies jointly developed and sell, intended to integrate Microsoft Office front-end applications with SAP back-end solutions. But as Microsoft's Dynamics CRM and ERP solutions increasingly gain SaaS features, Microsoft will be increasingly challenged to help customers and partners to understand exactly what Microsoft offerings they should be obtaining, and from whom.

(If you don't think this is a serious problem for Microsoft, you haven't been following the confusion the company has created with its Live and Office Live offerings. Basically, few people inside or outside Microsoft seem able to understand or clearly articulate the company's overall vision for online services, including SaaS options. It's not clear at all that clarifying the boundaries separating partner-hosted, Microsoft-hosted, and user-hosted Microsoft solutions for BPM, CRM, and ERP is going to go any more smoothly.)

What to do? Well, if your company uses or is considering Microsoft Dynamics solutions, you should be meeting with your primary Microsoft partners now. You should be grilling them extensively about their awareness of what Microsoft is doing, and plans to evolve in response. If your company uses SAP solutions, you might want to keep an eye on Duet, and on competing offerings and services from Microsoft and its partners. (If you're a Salesforce.com user or partner, you probably have little to worry about, at lest for the next 12 to 18 months, which is probably how long it will take for Microsoft and its partners to work out revised business models and strategies.)

Meanwhile, I'd be passionately interested in your opinions about Microsoft's potential as a supplier of market-leading BPM, CRM, and/or ERP solutions, directly and/or through its partners. So please do share, while I continue to mull all of this over. If I come up with anything else worth sharing, I will of course let you know…

Posted by mdortch in BPM • Microsoft  |  Permalink  | Comments (1)  | TrackBacks (0)

As discussed here last time out, Microsoft Corp. made some interesting BPM-related announcements on Feb. 26, as covered by ebizQ. Aside from its Business Process Alliance (BPA), Microsoft also announced plans to support to the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) in the Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation (WF).

What Microsoft Announced: BPEL Support...Sort of...

Specifically, Microsoft plans to deliver "soon" a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of WF enhanced with support for BPEL version 1.1. "The final release of the next WF version, expected this calendar year, will include full support for both the BPEL 1.1 standard and the BPEL 2.0 specification. Support for the BPEL 2.0 standard will enable the import and export of BPEL directly into Windows Workflow Foundation," Microsoft said.

Microsoft also plans further integration between WF and the R2 release of its BizTalk Server 2006 software, which the company said will be generally available in the third quarter of this year. In addition, Microsoft said that "new platform capabilities in the 2007 Microsoft Office system" and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 will "enable customers to realize the People-Ready value from business processes."

Hmm.

BPEL support is important – but only if it delivers interoperability and integration benefits with a minimum of pain and suffering. So IT decision-makers have to start by figuring out if BPEL support is meaningful for their enterprises' specific business needs. (Yes, most likely, for easy interoperability with and migration from or to multiple vendors' platforms, if not for specific meaningful features or functions.) Those decision-makers must then figure out whether incumbent or leading candidate solutions even support BPEL, and if so, whether its version 1.1 or version 2.0, and whether or not that matters. (The earlier version's more mature, but the later version's more functional, at least potentially.) (By the way, you can find a lot of information and discussion of BPEL and its implications by typing "BPEL" into the "Search" box at ebizQ.)

Then, the core question – will Microsoft's support for BPEL be sufficient to deliver the business benefits enterprises need and expect? Microsoft Office, an important component of Microsoft's BPM strategy, offers some clues, but not much hope. What Microsoft has done regarding its Open XML Format for files created by Microsoft Office 2007 offers some interoperability, but not the kind of playing-field-leveling parity at least some supporters of truly open industry standards likely expect or desire. And Microsoft so far only talking about BPEL support as a mechanism for importing and exporting information into and out of Windows WF raises at least as many questions as it answers.

And what about those BPM and BPM-related solutions important to particular enterprises, but not offered by members of Microsoft's BPA? IT and business decision-makers may find themselves passionately interested in various vendors' plans to join or support the BPA, or even lobbying particular vendors to join. But what will that mean to those vendors and offerings looking beyond Microsoft and Windows? Will Microsoft try to persuade BPA members to focus on Windows technologies to the exclusions of others, such as open source environments?

We don't yet know enough to answer these questions definitively here. But decision-makers at enterprises large and small had better start asking these and related questions, and insisting on actionable, meaningful answers, from incumbent and candidate vendors, Microsoft, and relevant Microsoft channel partners. And speaking of Microsoft partners,…well, more on them next time out…

Posted by mdortch in BPM • Microsoft  |  Permalink  | Comments (1)  | TrackBacks (0)

On February 26, Microsoft Corp. announced formation of a Business Process Alliance (BPA), and enhancements to workflow support elements of its .NET architecture.

Separately, Microsoft made some announcements about hosted services that have significant implications for Microsoft channel partners, and the companies that do business with them.

I'm going to spend several postings here musing over what all of this means. Comments and thoughts welcome, of course, here and/or via e-mail to bpminactionblog@ebizq.net.

What Microsoft Announced: The BPA

As ebizQ reported on the day of the announcement, Feb. 26, Microsoft announced formation of the BPA, as well as 10 initial members, listed below.
• AmberPoint ("run-time governance" of service-oriented architectures or SOAs)
• Ascentn (a BPM/SOA solution that integrates tightly with Microsoft technologies)
• Fair Isaac (products and services for business intelligence (BI) and performance management)
• Global 360 (BPM suite and related functionality)
• IDS Scheer (consulting, services, and software intended to enable "business process excellence)
• InRule (solutions for authoring, managing, and verification of rules and decision logic driving .NET environments)
• Metastorm (BPM software and best practices intended to foster life cycle BPM and "transformation")
• PNMsoft (Web-based workflow and BPM applications)
• RuleBurst (solutions for business rules, compliance, governance, and risk management)
• SourceCode Technology Holding Inc. (K2.net workflow solutions)

The BPA is intended to provide Microsoft customers a broad range of BPM choices, and the confidence that those choices will interoperate effectively with key Microsoft technologies (and, one assumes hopefully, with one another). The ultimate goal is to give enterprises small and large the tools and choices they need to create, deploy, and manage the processes best suited to their specific business needs and designated technologies.

But there are two other obvious goals of this particular enterprise. One is to broaden and deepen the penetration of Microsoft technologies in enterprises of all sizes seeking to succeed with BPM. Another is to position Microsoft technologies, such as BizTalk Server, the .NET Framework, and Windows Workflow Foundation, as enablers of comprehensive, integrated, multi-vendor BPM solutions. (You can see more about these technologies and how Microsoft sees them supporting BPM at www.microsoft.com/bpm.)

According to Microsoft, the BPA will initially focus four key areas, listed below.
• Business process modeling and analysis (as delivered by integration between IDS Scheer and BizTalk Server)
• Business rules management (via integration with Fair Isaac, RuleBurst, and InRule solutions)
• "Human-centric" workflow and process simulation/optimization (via integration with multiple BPM solutions)
• SOA life cycle management (via integration with AmberPoint)

So far, the announcement maps and tracks quite closely to many of the critical BPM challenges facing enterprises large and small. Microsoft said yet another goal of the BPA is to remove barriers to BPM facing smaller enterprises, notably cost and complexity. This can be nothing but good for business and technology decision-makers at enterprises reliant upon Microsoft technologies.

It may also provide a model for how Microsoft will work with partners in the future to tread the difficult-to-navigate line between promoting Microsoft-only and Microsoft-centric technologies and being a good corporate citizen and supplier. The BPA presents a strong opportunity for Microsoft to cash the check its mouth has been writing about its ability and willingness to support interoperability with other vendors' solutions to help customers succeed. Which leads naturally into discussion of Microsoft's announced plans for support of a key emerging BPM standard, the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). More on that next time.

Posted by mdortch in BPM • Microsoft  |  Permalink  | Comments (0)  | TrackBacks (0)

Another "first mile" stumbling block in the path towards effective, human-centric BPM (and/or business knowledge management or BKM) is capture of information in ways that are easily usable by IT systems, yet easily used by humans. In this context, the printed form, filled out "by hand" with a pen or even at a computer, is at or near the top of everyone's list of very-favorite IT challenges.

So, let's say you've at least got online forms, created and stored as, say, Adobe Systems Inc. PDF documents, and you're also using IBM Corp.'s Lotus Notes and/or Domino solutions. Let's say you've also got the great idea that the ability to capture information from and about those forms into Notes/Domino databases would be a nifty enhancement to your BPM/BKM efforts. But how to capture that PDF information into those databases painlessly?

Why, with a tool built atop Microsoft Corp.'s .NET, and delivered via software as a service (SaaS), of course. And no, you don't have to build said tool. The heavy lifting's already been done, in the form, so to speak, of FormRouter.NET from FormRouter, Inc.

It's a hosted service that charges annual subscription fees to its cadre of corporate customers. What they get in exchange is easy, painless transmogrification of PDF forms – or Flash, HTML, or InfoPath documents, or Microsoft .NET Active Server Pages or Word or Excel files, or OpenOffice.org spreadsheets – into Notes/Domino databases. File attachments, form data only, or complete forms, with all digital signatures intact, if users so choose. No programming. No servers to deploy or maintain.

And the FormRouter solution works with other databases, too. Microsoft Access, for example (and perhaps not surprisingly). There's a great success story at the FormRouter Web site about a company that used the company's solution to cut down on spam. The company stopped posting e-mail addresses on its Web site, and replaced them an online inquiry form. The form routes inquiries to the right people, and captures form information in an Access database for follow-on marketing efforts. Spam down, productivity, sales, and satisfaction up.

I met with the CTO of FormRouter, Jim Healy, and took a tour of the company's Notes/Domino integration during IBM's Lotusphere event in Orlando last week. The company is working with partners ranging from IBM to Intel Corp. With FormRouter, for example, field forces can use online forms based on the Mobile Forms Technology (MFT) FormRouter developed in partnership with Intel, then have those forms easily sucked up by Salesforce.com databases. FormRouter was the first service provider granted the right by Adobe to add extensions to the free Adobe Reader software, Jim said.

No matter what collaboration environment you're running, if you're dealing with forms, and looking for a way to deal with them more effectively, you should check out FormRouter. And whether you are or are not dealing with forms, you should still check out FormRouter, for clues about how the combination of forms capture and analysis can help you build and refine business processes more effectively. After all, in a lot of ways, forms, how they're filled out, and what happens after they are represent critical first steps in many business processes. So they might be a good starting point for your own BPM/BKM efforts. Or not. Either way, I'm sure you'll let me know…

Posted by mdortch in BPM • Collaboration • IBM • Microsoft • Software as a Service  |  Permalink  | Comments (0)  | TrackBacks (0)

OK, let's review. One way to make traditional BPM "disappear" is for BPM-enabled applications and services to appear and proliferate. This means vendors need to help to enable the easy construction, deployment, management, and revision of such applications, by independent software vendors (ISVs) and by enterprise developers (and users, where appropriate). Provision of this help via interoperable, open, standards-based technologies would also…well, help.

Salesforce.com, Inc.'s latest offerings and updates are poised to deliver such help atop its vaunted software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. And yesterday and today, IBM Corp.'s been unveiling multiple phases of its strategy to support similar features, in ways that integrate with incumbent applications and solutions, from IBM and other vendors. And IBM's latest announcements are built atop broadly adopted, open, standards-based Eclipse technologies. This means those announcements, as and when they become products, will "reach out and touch" multiple technology platforms with equal ease and functionality. This should appeal to corporate developers in heterogeneous environments (that is to say, all of them), and commercial developers seeking the broadest possible markets.

And what of Microsoft Corp., arguably the company with the offerings used by more enterprise users than those of any other vendor? Well, according to today's news reports, Microsoft chose the week of IBM's Lotusphere event to announce new tools and templates, intended to ease the travails of those seeking to migrate from Lotus Notes and/or Domino to Microsoft technologies. At least one of those same news reports indicates that Microsoft has outfitted a bus with demonstrations of and information about Windows Vista and its latest collaboration solutions. That bus is in Orlando, where Lotusphere is, this week, the report adds.

In other words, the very same week IBM announces a brave new world of openness and opportunity for its users and developers – a world that even embraces those committed to Microsoft technologies – Microsoft once again decides it's time to "help" Notes/Domino users to lock themselves into the Microsoft fold. To be sure, Microsoft is touting its alliances, partnerships, and standards support. But the argument just ain't as compelling as IBM's. Moreover, the timing and nature of Microsoft's announcements and reported actions risk making the company seem slightly less welcoming and confident in its abilities to compete on merits than, say, IBM.

Oh, come on, Microsoft. Creative marketing is creative marketing, but there's sometimes a thin line between "creative" and "spiteful-looking."

It would be very, very difficult for me to recommend that any IT or business decision-maker NOT look at the alternative approaches to BPM-enabled applications and services or unified communications and collaboration from both companies. And for those in environments already dominated by Microsoft technologies, there are likely strong arguments in favor of continuing and extending those investments. However, given that the imminent appearance of major new releases of just about every significant product Microsoft sells to corporations, "a change is gonna come" anyway. Given that, it should by no means be assumed that Microsoft's solutions and strategies are necessarily the best choice, even in currently Microsoft-dominated environments. After all, IBM brings a lot to the party, too, especially in terms of experience and proven best practices helping translate heterogeneous technologies into business-boosting solutions.

Besides, I don't care much for Microsoft's apparent attitude in this case. If it were my company, I'd much rather build BPM into my business applications using templates and technologies from a company "walking the talk" about interoperability, openness, and standards. At least as of right now, IBM and Salesforce.com each looks a lot like such a company – but the Colossus of Redmond does not. And the sad part is, it could, it really could. It just doesn't seem very predisposed to do so any time soon.

At least, that's what I think. What about you?

technorati tags: lotusphere2007, ibm

Posted by mdortch in BPM • Collaboration • IBM • Microsoft  |  Permalink  | Comments (0)  | TrackBacks (0)

So Microsoft Corp. and Nortel Networks announced some slightly more specific offerings and plans regarding their Innovative Communications Alliance, a shared vision of unified enterprise communications. Of course, it will be at least 2008 before we see any actual products that matter to most of us. On the positive side, this gives both companies some time to try to make reality match their vision – or, perhaps, the real collaboration and communications needs of enterprise customers. Meanwhile…

Anyone else out there old enough to remember the term "last mile problem?" In telecommunications, the tricky bit isn't delivering fancy, powerful services to the local telephone switching centers, with their powerful computers and high-capacity data and voice networks. No, the hard bit is cramming any of those services down the single pair of twisted copper wires that still connect most people to that fancy, powerful networked world. In other words, the last mile problem. Hold onto the concept; a quasi-relevant analogy approaches…

Almost everyone at most enterprises uses e-mail. Almost everyone at most enterprises also uses some form of IT-enabled collaboration tools beyond e-mail. Examples range for voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony to instant messaging (IM) to portals and online "workspaces."

Frankly, IT-enabled collaboration represents a significant "first mile problem" for those attempting to bring effective BPM to their organizations. That's because the collaborations among colleagues are the beginnings of the definitions of the processes that drive the business. Those collaborations also provide clues and signposts about how people actually do work, which means they can be essential to any efforts at business knowledge management (BKM) or human interaction management.

So how best to link collaboration to BPM and its follow-ons? Well, anything that helps to capture and analyze information about how people use collaboration tools and enterprise intellectual property (IP) can help a lot. (Of course, the privacy-minded among us should take care to ensure that only information about collaborations is captured and analyzed, and not the communications themselves. That's a separate, far sticker set of issues and challenges.)

Information about how documents are shared and routed, and to whom, can also speak volumes about incumbent workflows and processes. When combined with user input, solicited and collected via interviews and surveys, such information can speed a department or company toward better, smarter BPM, BKM, and human interaction management. (I'm resisting the obvious acronym "HIM," because the temptation is too great to make up a companion concept that has an acronym of "HER.")

Anyway, some things for you think about while I'm in transit. I'm on my way to IBM Corp.'s Lotusphere confab/revival meeting. I'll probably have more to say about BPM/BKM-aware, IT-powered collaboration after poking around at that event. Stay tuned, and drop a line with any relevant thoughts or suggestions.

Posted by mdortch in BPM • Collaboration • Microsoft  |  Permalink  | Comments (0)  | TrackBacks (0)

The "State of the Union Address" I'D Like to See

In light of upcoming events…

Announcer: "Ladies and gentlemen, the leader of the free world's most influential software company, Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation. Mr. Gates?"

Bill:

"Thank you. fellow citizens of the world, I come to you today to tell you that the state of Microsoft is strong and growing, but that we, our customers, and our partners face significant challenges. However, I am confident that together, we have both the strengths and the will necessary to face these challenges and to overcome them, to the benefit of us all.

"Key among these challenges is transforming Microsoft from a seller of bits on disks to a provider of dynamic, exciting, and profitable products and services, primarily online. I tell you now that Microsoft will make this transition successfully, in full partnership with its customers and business allies, and even in cooperation with our respected competitors, current and future.

"We are going to be joiners, not dividers. That means we are going to work earnestly and seriously with our respected industry colleagues to make and keep the OpenXML Formats standard truly open and compatible with other standards and products – including those that compete with us. We will not compete by exclusion, but will compete on our strengths – the ability to innovate based on three decades of learning about the user experience.

"The user experience is what will ultimately drive user satisfaction with and the business value of every IT investment. Microsoft likely knows more about this user experience than any other company on earth, and will use that knowledge to create and deliver great new applications and services. In addition, Microsoft will share this knowledge and experience with its partners, and through industry alliances and standards support, even with competitors. Specifically, Microsoft will begin immediately to incorporate into its enterprise offerings open, accessible features to enable and support user-centric, process-driven workflows and information sharing. We will basically 'BPM-enable' every document created with a Microsoft application, and ease and speed integration of incumbent BPM solutions with Microsoft applications and services."

"Similarly, we will strive to ensure that no user – nor device, nor operating environment – is 'left behind.' Instead, we will adopt and broaden what might be considered a two-tiered system of ubiquitous access. Microsoft online services will be fully functional and available to anyone who can get online, not just users of Windows or Internet Explorer. In addition, users of Microsoft Windows environments will have 'VIP' access to features and services to make the user experience consistent and seamless, even as users move from place to place or device to device.

Again, we will compete on our strengths, and deliver features and services that delight users, in ways that we and our business partners can translate into significant and sustained revenues. We believe that everything comes together online, and that we can leverage our historical strengths to create bridges between the past and the future. The "Windows in the cloud" metaphor popularized by my colleague and friend Ray Ozzie is, in this context, only the beginning.

Microsoft understands the burdens and responsibilities that come with its leadership position in the world of software, and the seriousness of the challenges facing us, our customers, and our partners. Whatever you may have thought of us in the past, rest assured, Microsoft faces the future eagerly, both excited and humbled by recent events and imminent opportunities. We invite and encourage everyone to work with us, to make us a better company, and to make the world a better, more connected and collegial place in which to work, play, and live. Thank you, and good night."

It's good to dream…your thoughts welcome, as always...

Posted by mdortch in BPM • Microsoft  |  Permalink  | Comments (0)  | TrackBacks (0)