It's been a jammed-packed and engaging conference as the final day of Appian World 2015 comes to a conclusion. For customers and partners alike, the past three days have provided the ultimate forum to network, explore and realize the promise of enterprise applications and what the future holds for BPM.
Appian World 2015 ended with a closing panel, moderated by Neil Ward-Dutton, who is the Co-Founder of MWD Advisory, on the value and process redefinition organizations are experiencing with an application platform approach to IT.
The esteemed panel featured a mix of Appian customers and partners which included Vinay Mummigatti, Senior Technology Executive, Bank of America; Phillip Merrell, Vice President of IS Strategy, AmeriHealth Caritas; Santha Subramoni, Head of BPM Svs & Technology, Tata Consultancy Services; and Brian McCormick, Director, BPM Solutions, ITG
The following is a recap of the Q&A panel session, highlighting some of the biggest trends and discussions regarding an application platform over the past several days of activity:
There are new opportunities to apply a platform like Appian to transform business; it isn't just about improving back-office efficiency. Please share some thoughts about the drivers that brought you to invest in Appian technology.
"The business buy in must be there," said Subramoni of Tata Consultancy. "You have to have the backing of IT, but explaining the value of this platform approach to the business is what allows you to roll out solutions and see the necessary changes."
"Appian gave us the perfect simplicity of technology," said Munnigatti of Bank of America. "When looking at a solutions provider, Appian was the best solution to deliver the time-to-market value the was essential for business."
If you were giving advice to someone just starting out with this technology, what are the three top practical tips you would share?
"When we bring in technology like Appian, we don't want to do the same things as with our other technology in place," said Munnigatti. "We have to implement change in operations. You must be prepared for change and convey that message to the business. A second point is that process must be part of the DNA. We are using Appian to make sure that we don't forget about process and have placed an emphasis on process excellence with each project."
"You can't make this about technology," said Merrell of AmeriHealth Caritas. "Technology for technology will fail. You have to know where your culture and business is at. Secondly, your business should be in front, not the technology. Your business is what will lead to and drive the adoption."
"When we advise our clients on how to implement solutions with Appian, it is important to work with them closely to define what their pain points are," said McCormick of ITG. It is also important to recognize some quick wins for them and define a process road map for future implementations."
Government and commercial organizations are attempting to reinvent the way they procure and develop systems ñ moving to much more agile, iterative, collaborative approaches. Can you talk about what you can do with Appian in that context?
"When you think of government, you don't typically think of agility and speed, but that is what we are pushing to our customers," said McCormick. "Appian is allowing us to bring this to our clients to recognize the speed of applications which I believe we are succeeding at to achieve agility."
"I'm using the Appian technology to present agility to our customers," said Merrell. "At first they would tense up, but more and more they are seeing the value of the approach. AmeriHealth has been more about the agile upfront benefits."
"Our end users love it," said Subramoni. "They get to see implementations that would normally take months go live in weeks. They see we are working. It is important to show progress in to 2-3 week cycles."
How does mobile technology come together with the focus on the customer experience?
"The biggest change is the amount of devices that are now available," said Subramoni. "It changes the expectations when you implement mobile from an outside-in view, where customers have new levels of access to information."
"A separate component of mobile is the mobility of securing your information," said Merrell. "It's about how strong you can make your data regulation so that you are always in compliance."
-Mike Ingrisano, Media Relations Manager
