Last week, we posted the first installment of our BetterGov podcast series on the topic of Appian and Amazon Web Services (AWS) receiving an Authority to Operate (ATO) from the U.S. Department of Education.

In part 2 of the podcast, Myles Weber, VP of Product Services at Appian, joins Terry Wise, Director of Business Development for Amazon Web Services and Samir Gulati, Appian’s VP of Marketing, to discuss how the ATO validates the cloud-based process solution as truly innovative both from an effectiveness and cost-efficiency perspective.

Check it out now. Also, see Appian at the “Amazon Web Services Cloud for the Federal Government” event on September 23 in Washington, DC.

Tags: , Amazon Web Services, Appian, BPM in the Cloud, BPM software, Business Process Management, Business Process Management and Government, Cloud Computing, Government 2.0, Process Improvement for Government, software-as-a-service

In case you missed the recent press release and notifications on Appian Forum, Appian  just released a number of major architectural improvement to the Appian BPM platform.  This is an exciting release for customers who want to integrate and persist their data in the enterprise data repository of their choice and build process solutions that scale to massive size.

The latest Appian Tips & Tricks webinar will again feature myself and Brett Shomaker, our Group Technology Program Manager, walking through all the new features and giving a demonstration of the new data management capabilities.  Please register here or on Appian Forum if you would like to attend.

Appian Tips & Tricks webinar will be held on Thursday, September 16th, 12 PM to 1 PM EST.  Live questions will be handled during the call. 

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Big news today for government agencies that are looking into cloud computing. The Dept. of Education has issued an Authority to Operate (ATO) certification for its Appian Anywhere process solution built on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is the first cloud-based business process management solution to be given an ATO by a federal agency. Its significance extends well beyond the Dept. of Education, because it assures other departments and agencies that Appian running on AWS meets the stringent requirements for federal information systems.

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Tags: , Appian, Appian Cloud, BPM, BPM for Government, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, FISMA, SaaS BPM

If you are part of a government agency interested in the benefits of cloud computing, but are holding back due to concerns about security – this news is for you!

Appian has received an Authority to Operate (ATO) certification from the U.S. Department of Education for the Department’s Appian Anywhere application, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Receiving an Authority to Operate (ATO) certification from a federal agency is a big deal for technology vendors selling into the government. The ATO certification is a “stamp of approval” from the government that only comes after a rigorous and comprehensive assessment.

The Appian Anywhere/AWS solution is the first cloud-based process solution to receive an ATO certification from the federal government. The certification was awarded after a stringent assessment of the solution’s management, operational, and technical security controls.

Check out the following podcast – part 1 of a series of 2 – with Terry Wise, Director of Business Development for Amazon Web Services; and Samir Gulati, VP of Marketing, Appian Corporation, on this exciting news.

Tags: , Amazon Web Services, Appian, BPM in the Cloud, BPM software, Business Process Management, Business Process Management and Government, Cloud Computing, Government 2.0, Government and Efficiency, Process Improvement for Government, software-as-a-service

In our last post, we talked about the differences between BPR and BPM. Recognizing that people are integral to the process and not relying solely on technology is one of the main differentiators between the two – and is why BPM has become the preferred approach for process improvement.

The Dept. of Homeland Security certainly learned this lesson. After reading this Nextgov blog, you realize that DHS tried to automate HR without getting the right people (i.e. hiring managers) involved in the process. This further proves that technology alone (the BPR approach) is not the answer.  Process improvement success requires technology plus active participation by the people involved (this is often called “the human-centric approach”).

Many articles have been written around the variety of challenges inherent in Federal HR processes – intensive paperwork, perpetually slow and uncompleted hiring steps, poor status visibility, limited error checking, data not captured properly, and poor communication with unengaged applicants due to manual disjointed processes. These barriers slow down the hiring process, make it difficult for an agency to meet its hiring needs, and ultimately prevent the agency from fulfilling its mission effectively.

Business Process Management (BPM) is helping the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) overcome these hurdles. OCC is using BPM to help accelerate the hiring process, provide a new level of manageability and transparency, and increase efficiency and performance. BPM can help your agency, too. Just remember to think about the technology AND the people, and find a vendor with the right methodology for bringing it all together.

For more information on how BPM can help make your agency’s hiring process more efficient, check out the Federal Hiring Management datasheet found in our Resource Center.

Tags: , Appian, BPM for Human Resource Management, BPM software, Business Process Management, Business Process Management and Government, Business Process Reengineering, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Process Improvement for Government

Forrester Research has just published “The Forrester Wave™: Business Process Management Suites, Q3 2010,” and Appian has been named a Leader. Forrester is strict about the language vendors can use in describing their relative positioning, so I’ll just say we are very pleased with our placement. Take a look at the report and decide for yourself how the top rankings play out.

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Tags: , Appian, Appian 6, Appian Cloud, BPM, BPM in the Cloud, BPM Methodology, Business Process Management, Forrester, SaaS BPM

In the early 1990s, Business Process Reengineering (BPR) emerged on the scene promising “Radical change, fast.” BPR, the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises, was first mentioned in a Harvard Business Review article written by MIT professor, Michael Hammer. He advocated a “forklift” approach when he said, “Most work done doesn’t add any value for customers,” and should thus be removed to maximize customer value and minimize consumption of resources. Following that article’s publication, BPR was picked up by large corporations and government agencies eager to renew their competitiveness. However, BPR’s shortcomings soon started showing and interest waned.

Many people often confuse BPR with BPM technology, when the two couldn’t be more dissimilar in their approach. You might be thinking, “I remember when my agency deployed BPR. It was a terrible experience, so why should I consider BPM?” Let’s pause for a minute and take a look at an overview of their differences:

BPR strove to create the perfect process from scratch by replacing manual labor with processes that were embedded in applications that made it difficult to observe them and understand their impact on others. BPR’s forklift approach proved to be time consuming and costly, and overall a risky investment for agencies. Its radical change, fast approach translated into ineffectiveness and ultimately failure.

On the other hand, BPM gives users a platform for continuous improvement. It provides long term value by helping users understand the interactions and dependencies among people, the systems they rely on, and the information they need to effectively complete tasks. Enabled by Web 2.0 and social technologies, BPM allows agencies to improve what they already have by creating visibility into process bottlenecks, identifying areas where increased automation can enhance human-centric activities, and providing real-time data to help people make better decisions in their jobs.

In summary, BPM and BPR have the same goal of optimizing organizational effectiveness and efficiency.  But, unlike BPR, BPM solutions help organizations achieve success in a dynamic world without dehumanizing the work place.

Tags: , Business Process Management, Business Process Management and Government, Business Process Reengineering, Process Improvement for Government, Process Management

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently sent a shockwave through the defense world by announcing significant cuts to the current defense budget. 

One of the biggest cuts is the proposed elimination of the Department of Defense’s Business Transformation Agency (BTA), an office created in 2006 for streamlining the military’s business operations.      

While completely shutting down a critical office such as the BTA could certainly cause the DoD to experience an “effectiveness de-evolution,” there is a cost-effective solution for meeting the same efficiency and effectiveness goals with Business Process Management (BPM).

Drastic cuts alone, such as the DoD is making, are not enough to ensure long-term health. Innovation matters – perhaps more than ever in the face of tight economic conditions – and innovation requires re-examining and improving how mission-critical processes are executed. With BPM, government agencies can increase efficiency and effectiveness with minimal investment by streamlining their business processes.

We are still a nation fighting two wars and the Department of Defense is one of the most critical elements of our government.  It is not the right time to cut programs that make DoD more efficient and effective. With BPM, they won’t have to.

Tags: , Business Process Management, Business Process Management and Government, Department of Defense, Government and Efficiency, Process Improvement for Government

Most revolutions are fought in the name of freedom from political systems and powers that keep nations and people from reaching their full potential. This is certainly true with the American Revolutionary War, which laid the foundation for the freedom of our great nation.

We have been talking about the “effectiveness revolution” and Business Process Management (BPM) for sometime now on the BetterGov blog. Our goal is to highlight how this revolution allows government agencies to be more productive and innovative while busting bureaucracies and decimating red tape.

While this movement is not on the grand scale of the American Revolution, it is ushering in a new era of government that makes federal processes more seamless and transparent. This ultimately will make government the productive engine it should be.

A real-life example of BPM in action for government is the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) use of Appian’s Government Acquisition Management module to significantly improve efficiency and drive automation in its procurement processes. DISA received an end-to-end solution that connects procurement operations, systems, and DISA personnel in a collaborative, process-driven procurement framework. This solution significantly improved productivity and work quality at DISA by automating complex agency processes and providing real-time access to critical government information and applications.

In addition to streamlining procurement and acquisition processes, BPM is transforming many government functions that, for far too long, have been tied down in red tape and cumbersome processes. These areas include:

• Case Management
• Grants Management
• Project Management
• Micro-Purchasing
• Human Resources

These are merely some of the key functions BPM revolutionizes for government. As the effectiveness revolution continues to gain momentum, we will see BPM being used in virtually every facet of government life that involves processes – which is pretty much everything.

So, for all government executives who truly want to be productive, the revolution is happening as we speak and freedom is at your finger tips.

Tags: , Appian, Business Process Management and Government, effectiveness revolution

It’s great to see all the discussion on Case Management.  As Craig Le Clair and Connie Moore from Forrester put it last December, this truly is an Old Idea that is Catching New Fire.  Not many people would have predicted that “Case Management” would have received this much discussion 2 years ago, but the rapid convergence of social “un-structured” work with business process management has forced many people to consider new flexible solutions.

The latest post on this topic is from psHealth, a company with real experience applying Case Management solutions to the Healthcare industry.  The topic centers around “Case Management System Design Challenges”, which is a great follow-on to some previous posts on “The Technical Case for Case Management“.

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Tags: , BPM, Case Management, Forrester, psHealth