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BPMS Watch: BPMS and Business Rules
From its earliest beginnings back in the 1980s, process automation technology has always emphasized the notion of “rules-based” logic. Meanwhile, in parallel, a completely independent technology evolved for the enforcement and management of business rules, primarily for decision support. While many BPMS vendors have shamelessly promoted their own process models as examples of “business rules,” process engines and business rule engines – and their respective notions of rules – are actually very different.
Case Study: Process Thinking Applied to a Large Merger
The $20 Billion Dow Chemical Company merged with the $6.5 Billion Union Carbide Corporation in 2000. The combined company had to merge thousands of operations worldwide in a short time. Stephen Graham was in charge of the merged supply chains. He analyzed the work processes, sub-processes and associated activities so the merger would work from the first day.
Dow Chemical used the “Most Effective Technology” (MET) concept, with alignment to the business strategy, the metrics, and the organization.
Graham pointed out that over 60% of mergers and acquisitions fail to create value.
Managing Processes for Performance: Applying Performance Management to your Business Processes
Business Process Management (BPM) technology continues to grow and mature. Yet the breadth and complexity of business processes seems to be expanding at an even faster pace.
Driven by massive reductions of transaction costs, a new generation of business redesign possibilities is being exploited by businesses to gain competitive advantage.
The Case for Establishing a BPO
Weak supply chain agility, poor management visibility and control, inefficient productivity and utilization of resources, and inadequate risk management are the results of poor processes. Slow delivery of IT solutions to improve these process problems results in lost...
Is There a Source Rule Repository for *Real* Business Rule Management in your Future?
More and more corporations are realizing the benefits of separating and externalizing their business rules from code, documents and even people’s heads. Fortunately, there are business rule harvesting methods (such as KPI STEP™) and BRE technology that is in place today that assist corporations in documenting, analyzing and implementing business rules in a separate technology. One critical issue to address is where an organization will store the business rules aimed at the business audience. What tools should they use for their source rule repository?
BPM: Think Strategically Yet Buy Tactically
The market for Bus Process Mgt Suite (BPMS) tools is still an early, emerging market with over 150 software vendors vying for leadership. Typical of emerging markets, there will be multiple waves of consolidation over the next 2-5 years, as buyers become savvier and...
Accelerating BPM with Business Rules
Business rules, whether they are stated explicitly or implicitly, contain all of your organization’s business knowledge. Expressing and defining your business rules will allow the most benefit from a BPM initiative.
Barbara von Halle is the founder of Knowledge Partners, a company specializing in business rules services. Her most recent book, “Business Rules Applied” is the first book to contain a systematic approach for delivering business rules systems.
So, What Is A Source Rule Repository Anyway?
Organizations today are constantly reviewing IT projects to focus on those projects that will provide value to the success of the business. In addition, there are external pressures affecting business projects, such as the increasing rate of business change due to mergers and acquisitions, intense global competition, the opportunity and challenges of offshore systems development, and strict regulatory requirements such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the USA PATRIOT Act and HIPAA. These increasing business pressures have led to the growing adoption of a business rules approach across industries.
The Fast Track: From Buried Business Rules to Managed Business Rules (KPI RMM™ Level 0 to 2 in a year)
How does a conservative government organization fast track a paradigm shift? One method that has worked well is to keep the change process so simple that the lure of it is irresistible. This is precisely how it happened at the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS). The paradigm shift is one towards Business Rule Management (BRM). The change process is the User-defined Function Approach (UDFA). The measurement of success was provided by Barbara von Halle, founder of Knowledge Partners, Inc (KPI).
