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.
