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 BPM, unstrucutred processes

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

We have talked quite a lot about Dynamic Case Management (DCM) in this blog. But I want to take a brief step back from the academic and technical discussions, because I have been struck by how often “case” actually means “person.” It means patients in medical and healthcare; students and teachers in education; plaintiffs and defendants in legal; voter constituents in government; and the list goes on.

I don’t want to get too “touchy-feely,” but it does seem that in this context, DCM technologies offer something more intrinsically valuable than other enterprise IT. In these sorts of scenarios, case management is fundamentally about how well an individual is treated, cared for or supported during what can be very important – and very trying – personal experiences.

A fantastic example of this is how Pinnacle People is using BPM-based case management to help unemployed people in the U.K. get back to work. More »

Tags: , Appian, Appian 6, BPM, Business Process Management, Case Management, MWD Advisors, Pinnacle People

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

As the leader in “BPM for Government,” Appian has a bird’s eye view of that market’s accelerated growth. The latest example is this morning’s announcement of a significant Appian contract win with the Dept. of Treasury/Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). It is a multi-million dollar award for a Case Management application for Security Processing.

The federal government is increasingly looking to BPM to solve process issues, like Security Processing, that are of broad applicability across agencies and departments.

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Tags: , Appian, Appian 6, Appian Cloud, BPM, BPM for Government, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, Case Management, SaaS BPM

The demand for BPM-based Dynamic Case Management solutions in the healthcare industry continues to grow. The fact is, using BPM software raises the level of patient care and supports better health outcomes. It does this by enabling more efficient patient on-boarding and administrative management, faster and more effective diagnosis, increased collaboration between treatment professionals, and improved processing of the back-office/financial aspects of the healthcare business.

We’ve seen these positive impacts through cutting-edge Appian case management deployments with customers like the Benenden Healthcare Society, the U.S. Army’s Wounded Warrior application, and many others. We are now very excited to announce a new development: Appian partner psHEALTH is leveraging our Appian Anywhere SaaS BPM platform to rapidly develop and deliver new case management solutions for its healthcare clients.

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

The age-old expression “fortune favors the bold” means that Fortuna, the Goddess of Luck, is more likely to help those who take risks or action. And, to further reinforce this, it is the motto of the U.S. 3rd Marine Regiment. To us, this particular quote resonates very well in the world of Business Process Management (BPM) and government. Why? Because BPM is all about action. And we have a story about “BPM in Action” that would certainly apply with any government sector.

For many years, it was common knowledge that our Armed Forces, and the Intelligence Community for that matter, grappled with internal information sharing and collaboration issues. The U.S. Army essentially lacked a central hub for information dissemination, knowledge sharing, and collaboration to support among the more than 2.4 million active soldiers, reserve members and civil employees. In addition, geographically dispersed and disconnected computer systems severely limited its collaboration capabilities.

Here’s where BPM comes into play. The U.S. Army created Army Knowledge Online (AKO), which was based on Appian’s leading-edge BPM solution technology that enables the streamlining of enterprise collaboration and facilitation of knowledge management. Launched after only three-and-a-half months and on budget, the AKO — the largest intranet in the world with more than two million users — provides a unique community-oriented approach to building structured professional forums, driving successful enterprise knowledge management. In addition, check out this Congressional Report that highlights how AKO saves the U.S Army more than $500 million annually.

On top of that, the U.S. Army extended its use of Appian’s enterprise portal technology, business process management solutions and underlying process-based services to develop of Defense Knowledge Online (DKO), which is a single enterprise service portal, serving as the entry point for all U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Clearly Fortuna is shining her light on the U.S. Army. Its use of BPM is ripe case study for action translating into fortune. And, the fortune that the Army reaped is in the form of being more effective through better collaboration.

Tags: , Army Knowledge Online, BPM and Human Capital, BPM for Federal Acquisitions, Case Management, Process Improvement for Government