What they say about HIM
Process-based technology that understands the needs
of people and supports the inherent "spontaneity" of the human mind is the next
logical step, and we might be tempted to name this potential paradigm shift
"Knowledge Intensive Business Processes."
KIBPM falls into two main categories, which will probably merge over time, and
the vendor that recognizes that potential will steal a march on the others. At
the simplest level we have case management, and secondly, we have Human
Interaction Management. I doubt there are many BPM products on the market today
which will be able to meet this seismic shift in requirements - certainly those
that rely on BPEL and SOA won't; what's more, any that have been in the market
for longer than five years will need radical surgery to meet the coming
challenge.
"Why
Workflow Sucks", Jon Pyke, Chair of the Workflow Management Coalition
A new generation of people-centric collaborative
information management tools is set to produce the first fundamental advances in
personal productivity since the arrival of the spreadsheet.
Riding the fourth wave, Information Age
RFG believes the "human element," frequently
discounted, disparaged, and maligned by many traditional technologists, is in
fact the foundation of the next generation of BPM, IPLM, SOA, and other
IT-empowered enterprise solutions. IT and business decision-makers should look
closely at how human behaviors influence decisions related to BPM, IPLM, SOA,
and other strategic initiatives, and look for ways to integrate BKM policies and
processes into these efforts.
"Business
Knowledge Management: The Missing Link for BPM, IPLM, and SOAs?", Robert
Frances Group, January 2007
Many real networks, such
as hastily formed networks, do not have a well-defined set of workflows and can
benefit only marginally from a workflow approach.
"Infoglut",
Peter J. Denning, Communications of the ACM, July 2006
In today's developed
economies, the significant nuances in employment concern interactions: the
searching, monitoring, and coordinating required to manage the exchange of goods
and services. Since 1997, extensive McKinsey research on jobs in many industries
has revealed that globalization, specialization, and new technologies are making
interactions far more pervasive in developed economies. Currently, jobs that
involve participating in interactions rather than extracting raw materials or
making finished goods account for more than 80 percent of all employment in the
United States. And jobs involving the most complex type of interactions-those
requiring employees to analyze information, grapple with ambiguity, and solve
problems-make up the fastest-growing segment.
This shift toward more complex interactions has dramatic implications for how
companies organize and operate.
...
The article that follows, "The next revolution in interactions," shows that the
shift from transactional to tacit interactions requires companies to think
differently about how to improve performance-and about their technology
investments. Moreover, the rise of tacit occupations opens up the possibility
that companies can again create capabilities and advantages that rivals can't
easily duplicate.
"The
next revolution in interactions", The McKinsey Quarterly
Most businesses find it
increasingly difficult to perform well in all of the areas that historically
defined their business. And if you can’t perform a task with market
differentiating quality, then it may be better to look at entering into
collaborative arrangements with others who can. This results in a kind of
restructuring of the value chain and a rethink of the roles that organizations
perform. ... Agility in this sense implies the ability to move business
processes or parts of business processes around different locations either
within existing corporate boundaries or across them in collaborations with
business partners.
SOA Comes of
Age, Jim Boyd, European Head of Financial Services Product Strategy at CSC
And, speaking of business
processes, when humans are involved, it makes very little sense to have a
centralized, computer-based system coordinating business processes on behalf of
humans ...
The Human in
the Machine, ZapThink
Falling
communications costs, globalization, and the increasing specialization of
knowledge-based work are making collaboration within and among organizations
increasingly important.
Yet few companies understand or know how to manage the intracompany networks in
which collaboration typically occurs.
A few leading companies are beginning to map their networks of relationships, to
analyze the economic costs and benefits that key interactions create, and to
identify value-creating interventions.
Successful interventions help companies to reduce complexity, redefine roles,
and allocate financial, physical, and human resources more efficiently.
Mapping the value of employee collaboration, McKinsey Quarterly, 11 October
2006
... coming soon is
software that could solve some of the most nagging challenges to the systematic
organization of the workforce. As personal and handheld computers reach a
critical mass in the workplace, workforce-management software will probably
become ubiquitous.
The McKinsey Quarterly