Skip to main content

Drive Rapid, Successful Case Management with Modern Business Process Management (BPM)

Cindy Cheng, ​Sr. Director of Marketing Communications, EMEA, Appian
September 13, 2013

Delivering excellent products and services requires a combination of operational efficiency and remarkable customer experience. Without efficiency, customers would end up with defective products or delayed services, resulting in frustrations and complaints. Without a positive experience, customers would have little emotional connection and loyalty to the brand. Consequently, they are more likely to switch to another company to fulfill the same need at a lower cost.

According to Neil Ward-Dutton, Founder and Research Director at MWD Advisors, corporations and organizations should aspire to deliver a better customer experience to avoid a "race to the bottom", where their products and services become commodities through cost-cutting efforts. While work consolidation, standardization, and automation are important to improve efficiency, transparency, and responsibility, people are not machines. There are variations and unpredictability in individual performance, team dynamics, and customer interactions.

While it is important to have standard processes, business rules, procedures and protocols for customer-facing transactions, allowing for variability and flexibility is key. Traditionally, business process management (BPM) software is excellent for automating transactional processes, where the outputs are predictable. For example, credit card transactions either get approved or denied.

Case management evolved from a need where professionals who manage legal cases, complaints, claims, projects, service delivery deal with people dynamics, delays, and other factors that are not always straightforward. Case management software applications "provides a support environment for the optimal performance of knowledge work cases in line with state goals, together with management tools that enable analysis-based improvement of work effectiveness," according to Ward-Dutton. Some of these management tools include automated rules and processes, collaborative and content management environment, task allocation and prioritization, and supporting systems.

According to Ward-Dutton, here are the key attributes to look for in a BPM technology platform that can provide case management capabilities:

- Independent data and content management layer

- Dynamic creation and structuring of tasks and information

- Collaborative task selection and execution

- Dynamic association of information types, processes, and tasks

- Monitoring and auditing capabilities around cases, as well as processes and tasks

If you missed the webinar on how to "Drive Rapid, Successful Case Management with Modern BPM,"register now to watch the replay. Learn about the fascinating evolution of work from Neil Ward-Dutton and hear from Malcolm Ross, VP of Product Marketing at Appian, how Appian BPM software provides dynamic case management capabilities for the modern workplace.

Cindy Cheng

Director of Product Marketing

Cindy Cheng