Business process fragments
January 18, 2010 by Paul M.. Filed under Interoperation, Process.
One of the most general manifestations of business friction relates to an organisation’s business processes. The science of business processes comprises a vast field of study, practice and solutions, with a long history and rich collection of exemplars and case studies.
For a business (or government agency, etc.) that makes or manages anything in volume (producing and marketing widgets, processing forms and cases, etc.), processes form the operational core of a business. They dictate what happens when and by whom, and are often integrated deeply with capital equipment and/or major software systems. Good processes allow the organisation to hum along like a well-oiled machine. Poor processes can become a millstone around the neck, weighing down the business and preventing it from providing the best customer service and responding quickly to threats and opportunities in its market.
For those who work in the business process world, this is simple, obvious and old-hat. The business process management (BPM) techniques and business process management software (BPMS) markets are extremely crowded with vendors and consultants eager to help companies through these decisions (note that BPM is quite different to BPMS; look to the writings and references of BPTrends and Paul Harmon, its founder, for more depth on this).
At NICTA, one of our perspectives in the field of business processes is to look at them in light of web 2.0 technologies and business models. Consider business processes (or their parts) that are important to your business, but not necessarily core – activities that might be appropriately outsourced to someone else if they could do the job better and/or cheaper than you. Or alternatively, what about process activities you do better and cheaper than anyone else in your industry (whether or not those processes are core to your business) – could it make sense to offer yourself as a provider of that process as a service to others in your industry? Then imagine breaking up every aspect of your business, or in fact your whole industry, into a collection of processes or process fragments. Imagine the power of being able to chop and change process fragments relating to your business activity at a whim, to uncover new efficiencies or to explore completely different and new ways of working and delivering value within your ecosystem. The well-oiled machine metaphor then takes on a completely new meaning…
This is the vision of ‘business process mash-ups’, an active area of research within our group at NICTA. Our researchers are exploring the ways and means for organisations to decouple process fragments from their existing infrastructure and increase their power and flexibility. They are also using the inherent architecture of the web as a platform for implementing prototype solutions, with the lending and conveyancing industries providing some of the use-inspiration for the work. As usual, we’d like to hear from others who recognise the challenges and benefits of approaches like these, as well as any solution experience you might have that addresses and/or debunks some or all of our vision in this space!
Tags: business process, Interoperation, mash-up, NICTA
Follow @gofrictionless:
Add a comment