There is a new focus on the relationship between information management practice and business process management as organisations seek improved business outcomes through automation, writes Jenepher Surbey .

In a world of unquantifiable information and data one of the largest challenges for organisations today is to create order from the chaos. But simply ordering the information for retrieval when an audit is due is no longer enough for organisations seeking to flourish in a web 3.0 world. 

Current business reality demands an ability to leverage the vital knowledge that flows in, out and through the organisation irrespective of the format and inclusive of the skills and capabilities of an organisation’s staff”.

In this new era of automation business thought and modelling to achieve market differentiation through automation is much more complex than in times gone by. Rather than the original hard coded workflow systems based only on the business process ‘new era automation’ leans heavily on document data to assess and drive workflow engines. 

To achieve this new reality business thought and modelling is lifted beyond BPM analysis to that of business architecture which defines and models content capabilities and process at a high level to ensure a holistic view.

Generally, it remains the case that automation needs can still be categorised according to: organisations with repeatable processes and organisations where the majority of processes can be characterised as ad hoc where exception processing is the norm.

Efficiency in industries with strongly repeatable processes is measured by the ability to reduce exception handling. In those industries where exception is the norm efficiency is measured by the speed of processing while maintaining quality outcomes in an environment of variables. Both activities either repeatable or what is termed ad hoc or exception based now rely more on understanding content metadata and keywords than business process analysis by itself.

New era automation and the systems that support it are bringing these two environments closer together. Organisations with highly repeatable processes are now better able to manage what has always been considered too hard, that is the exception to the rule. Organisations with necessarily variable processes are better able to standardise their processes without losing the quality outcomes they need.

Irrespective of what type of organisation you are, seeking to handle exception based activities in a structured manner will become the new norm. New automation technologies especially case management systems deliver the capabilities to flexibly manage complex content driven processes.

In fact with new era automation, content is king as it drives the activities of the business from risk and compliance management; complaints handling and improved customer service through to predictive data management. Most importantly it delivers the metadata from which business rules can be determined and built into these new systems.

Some simple principles can be applied to BPM projects in this new era.

The technologies available should not be constrained by traditional notions of either business process modelling or information/content management. In fact to get the most out of these systems the BPM team and content team must work hand in hand.

Processes should be reviewed end to end but also in terms of activities that sit outside the traditional end-to end process but provide content to enable the process to be completed effectively. It is most often the intersection of the process with these activities that slow the process and drive down the quality of outcomes. Most often these input activities are finance, HR or organisational capability development, knowledge management, audit and legal processes. Inclusion of these activities within the notion of the process and the process model supports case management exception handling but also provides an important record of the decision making processes should a compliance issue or customer complaint arise. I refer to these activities as inevitable ‘fracture points’ in an organisation and best supported by a flexible process combined with a collaborative technologies to support effective information flow, knowledge management and case management.

The organisation needs an enterprise level business architecture to ensure that consistency can be delivered as each business process is reviewed with a view to enhanced automation. The business architecture ensures that there is a defined relationship between content classification across the organisation at function and activity level and that this is in turn can be related to the business processes.
People with knowledge and skills are integral to handling of exception and complex cases. Social enterprise and networking requirements and potential technologies need to be valued as part of the end to end process analysis and the ultimate solution build.

A high level review of an organisation can be applied to even the largest and most complex businesses if an appropriate approach is taken.

In one large ASX listed organisation I work with, the key to defining the business architecture was defining the organisation at the highest level according to function and activity. Content created within each function and activity could be appropriately managed according retention and records schedules.
The approach could also show a direct relationship with the organisation’s value chain. For the organisation’s business process teams this functional analysis allowed these teams to relate process activities to content.

It also enabled the teams to immediately see the same process activities irrespective of where they occurred in the end to end process which in turn drove standardisation and reduced rework as the processes across the business were defined.

The high level architecture provided a confident stepping off point for a number of projects in the process area.

Jenepher Surbey of Knowledge & Information Management Maturity Consultancy Services is a specialist in Knowledge Management Strategy development encompassing business architecture. jenepher.surbey@gmail.com