Forrester analyst Craig Le Clair has published an excellent report called “Stuck In Cement: When Packaged Apps Create Barriers To Innovation.” In his related blog post, he frets that “concrete” is the more apt, but less poetic analogy. Based on the research findings, I suggest “Packaged Apps Are the Concrete Shoes Pulling Business Down.” That’s how dire a picture Craig paints, but he offers a ray of hope by positing that BPM Software is the answer.

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Tags: , application development, BPM software, Enterprise Resource Planning, Forrester, mobile BPM, Social, Social BPM

Discussions around customer service strategies have shifted from “customer management” to “customer engagement.” A recent piece in InformationWeek on  “Seven Ways IT Can Improve Customer Service” highlights this shift. The article, by Forrester Research senior analyst Kate Leggett, pays a lot of attention to process improvement and process consistency. Kate is a leading expert on customer service strategies, and a member of Forrester’s Business Process team, so this comes as no surprise. What is a little surprising is that she didn’t call out Mobile BPM and Social BPM more directly in her analysis. These components of Appian’s BPM software are playing a huge roll in the strategies our customers are rolling out to engage with their customers.

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Tags: , Business Process Management, customer experience, Forrester, Informationweek, mobile BPM, Social, Social BPM

It’s always great to see Appian software being used to support a great cause.  The latest implementation of Appian in this direction will be at the National Council for Family Affairs in Jordan to support a case management solution for tracking domestic violence cases in Jordan.  This is a important initiative for the Queen of Jordan to ensure a better life for the families of Jordan.

A few days ago, His Majesty King Abdullah II and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah personally met with the Board of Trustees of the National Council for Family Affairs regarding the initiative and to review a presentation of the Appian software prepared by Mohammad Abusinnah (Appian’s Program Manager for the Middle East) and software engineers from SSS Process, a subsidiary of SSS IT, Appian’s strategic business partner in KSA and Jordan.  The image below is of His and Her Majesty at the review meeting.

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BPTrends has just published a great thought-piece from Macedon Consulting, Inc. founder Austin Rosenfeld. Austin examines BPM Software in the context of the continuum of structured to unstructured processes that we see in real-world business. For example, manufacturing processes focus on high repeatability in order to produce millions of identical widgets. These processes are highly structured, with every step – including possible exceptions – mapped out in a BPMN process diagram. At the other end of the spectrum, Austin describes the process scenario for a hotel concierge. This tends to be a very loosely structured stream of independent requests across a relatively unconstrained domain of content, and requiring a high – but unpredictable – level of consultative knowledge work.

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Tags: , Business Process Management, Case Management, Social, Social BPM, unstrucutred processes

Several of Forrester Research’s leading thinkers on BPM, BPM software, application development and the customer experience participated in a roundtable discussion on empowering customers through business process transformation. Connie Moore has posted an excerpt of the discussion on her Forrester blog. It is a thought-provoking read that talks about the future of enterprise applications, the demand for more flexible and process-centric solutions, and the mobile, cloud and social “game-changers.” You can also get a free copy of Forrester’s “Empower Customers By Transforming Business Processes” report via a link on Connie’s post.

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Tags: , BPM in the Cloud, customer experience, Forrester, mobile BPM, Social, Social BPM

The reason there’s so much discussion of mobile BPM on this blog is because Appian is the only vendor delivering full-function, native mobile BPM applications for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, RIM Blackberry and Google Android devices. Our focus on enterprise mobility, and our ability to bring it to market more quickly than anyone else, is further proof of our innovation leadership in the industry.

And guess what? Our mobile BPM just got even better.

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Tags: , Appian 6, Business Process Management, mobile BPM

Last year, I blogged about our customer Pinnacle People, and how they are using Appian for BPM-based case management to help unemployed people in the U.K. get back to work. Pinnacle People will be presenting their case study as part of the IRM Business Process Management Conference Europe 2011, June 9-10 in London.

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Tags: , Appian, Army Knowledge Online, BPM for Case Management, Business Process Management, Case Management

Appian is hosting the “BPM Just Got Better” webinar on February 22 at 11:00am Eastern Time. In less than one hour, you will learn how to leverage BPM, cloud technology, social collaboration and mobility to drive market success.

Forrester Research Vice President Connie Moore will outline the new technology imperatives for process improvement, and how industry leaders are using them to drive value. She will also pay special attention to the emerging model of available on-demand.

Ben Farrell, Director, Corporate Communications

Tags: , Appian, Appian 6, BPM, BPM for Case Management, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, Case Management, Cloud Computing, Forrester, mobile BPM, SaaS BPM, software-as-a-service

Chris Dorobek of Federal News Radio recently interviewed Appian VP of Marketing Samir Gulati about the increased use of business process management software in federal agencies, and the financial and operational benefits of using BPM in a cloud environment.

In the past, federal agencies have created “point-solution” BPM applications for proof of concept, Gulati said. Now, these organizations are using the technology as a broader platform agency-wide for process and case management. The FDA is implementing BPM for everything from CIO-level reporting to tracking new medicines and food additives. Another example, recently discussed in this blog and in Washington Technology, is the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which has multiple mission-critical BPM projects in place.

BPM in the cloud is also taking off in government circles, Gulati added. The Department of Education recently granted Appian an Authority to Operate a hosted BPM application delivered through Amazon Web Services. Cloud benefits include a greatly reduced total cost of ownership, and faster time to value, he said. Agencies don’t have to install equipment on premises, software is readily hosted and accessed through the cloud, there is no need to deploy servers or maintain applications, and upgrades are received free without the need for involvement from agency personnel.

 When using BPM in the federal sector, Gulati added, agencies have to iterate and constantly improve processes in response to the changing regulatory landscape. Rules and regulations must be built into processes to comply with changing compliance requirements in the federal marketplace.

 “Great processes are evolved, not invented,” Gulati noted.

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

Research firm IDC has published a very interesting case study on how solution vendor psHEALTH is using BPM in the cloud to drive rapid development of custom solutions for healthcare providers in the UK. There is increasing awareness of how organizations are using BPM to speed internal application development – particularly via the cloud. IDC’s paper is particularly interesting because it highlights a new and growing trend of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) leveraging a BPM Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for accelerated solution deployment to their customers. More »

Tags: , Appian, Appian Cloud, application development, BPM, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, Case Management, IDC, OEM, psHealth, SaaS BPM