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White Paper
Ao O o o B Po Maam
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content
ExEcutivE summary 3
BPm: oPtimal, flExiBlE and transParEnt oPErations 4
BusinEss ProcEss managEmEnt in PracticE 5
BPm in rElation to othEr mEthodologiEs 10
imPact of BPm on thE organization 13
BPm roadmaP: think Big, start small, scalE quickly 14
BPm suitEs and suPPliErs 16
atos origins BPm sErvicEs 18
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executive summary
The term business process management (BPM) unites developments in areas such as workow
management, application integration and process redesign, which used to be regarded as sepa-
rate. This uniting and todays technological possibilities or implementing BPM provide organiza-
tions with new opportunities that were not available with the individual orerunners o BPM:
> optimization o business processes;
> exibility when changing business processes;
> improving the transparency o operations.
BPM enables operations to ocus on customers by centralizing business processes indepen-
dently o an organizations existing departmental structure. BPM describes business processes in
models and executes the processes on the basis o these models. This allows the execution o
processes to be measured. Comparing the results with predefned norms reveals how they can be
optimized. As processes are executed automatically and precisely according to the model,
it becomes easier to report on the compliance with a variety o regulations.
BPM orms an ideal combination with a service oriented architecture (SOA), the standardization
and reuse o services and processes creating economies o scale and greater exibility. New
process chains can be easily created by linking and integrating existing processes. The use o
services allows the underlying applications to be decoupled rom the business processes, so that
modifcations to these processes do not necessarily entail changes to the corresponding applica-
tions.
The implementation o BPM has implications or the way an organization conducts businessoperations, as well as or its IT. This means it requires a BPM roadmap specifcally prepared or
the organization and based on company strategy and maturity, incorporating the consequences
or the organization and a change management approach.
Although the market or BPM systems and their suppliers is consolidating, the felds historical
background, which has given rise to a variety o IT platorms, means that two such systems might
not be comparable. Atos Origin is knowledgeable concerning the leading suppliers in all segments
o the market and has ormed a partnership with each o them.
Atos Origin supplies a ull range o BPM services, rom strategy defnition and execution,
to management and operations. It can support organizations with:
> restructuring the business along process lines;> designing, modelling, improving and implementing processes;
> designing, creating and managing an IT landscape oriented towards processes and services.
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Business Process
management in Practice
Gartner defnes BPM as a management practice
that provides or governance o a businesss process
environment toward the goal o improving agility and
operational perormance. But what does this abstract
defnition really mean? This section sets out BPM based
on the BPM approach outlined in the previous section
or overcoming the challenges that complex organiza-
tions ace.
The relationship between the various BPM applications
is clarifed by presenting all the applications in a single
model, based on the splitting out o strategic, tactical
and operational applications.
customEr-cEntric oPErations through
ProcEss oriEntation
With BPM, the services provided to customers and
the business processes or realizing these services
are centralized and placed under the responsibility o
process owners. Each process is separated rom the
activities - computerized and manual alike - o the orga-nizations business units and departments. I a business
process can be implemented in a generic rom, cus-
tomers can use dierent media or communicating with
the organization concerning the process: post, email,
web or phone. To ully digitize the process, the required
inormation is translated as necessary into an electronic
orm. Business services can also be supplied as web
services to the organizations partners in the business
chain.
continuous ProcEss imProvEmEnt
BasEd on hard figurEs
Explicit defnitions and models o business processes,
in a standardized language like BPMN1, are the core o
BPM. The models are executed by the process engine,
a sotware module that invokes IT system services or
requests human intervention or the execution o each
process step. As the management o a process is ully
computerized, the values o various process metrics
can be obtained (business activity monitoring): execu-
tion times o process steps, workload at certain points
in the process, number o error situations, etc.
1 Business Process Modelling Notation is a standard o theOpen Management Group (www.omg.org).
Figure 2 BPM applications at dierent levels Figure 3 BPM places customer-to-customer processes
centre stage
Strategic
Tactical
Operational
CustomerCustomer
Operational Department Department
+
Department
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Based on this process intelligence, an operations
manager can perorm adjustments to a process by:
> deploying extra resources or the execution o manual
steps in the process; and
> initiating action or exceptional situations that the
process concerned cannot handle. (An example
could be ailing to resolve a customers complaint
within the allotted time.)
Process intelligence is also analysed as a way o as-
sessing the process itsel and identiying possible im-
provements (such as perorming two controls in parallel
and, hence, shortening the execution time o a delivery
process.)
BusinEss ProcEssEs as sourcE
of managEmEnt information
Process intelligence is an excellent source o
standardized management inormation. This no longer
has to be compiled using complex consolidations o
extracts rom databases, but can be derived directly
rom the execution o business processes. Management
not only receives strategic reports based on inormation
that becomes available, but can also defne in advance
the key perormance indicators (KPIs) necessary or
validating and monitoring these processes. Accordingly,
BPM is a mechanism that generates quantitative data
rom business processes. This data is used to esh out
management strategies such as Lean and Six Sigma,
o which continuous process improvement is a key
component.
As well as reports or senior management, process intel-
ligence is a source or the reports required in connection
with the compliance with a rat o regulations. Since the
execution o the business processes has ull computer-
ized support and adheres strictly to the process designmodel, this inormation provides the maximum possible
transparency or business operations.
Tactical
ValidationDesign Analysis
Monitor
Model
Operational
Execution
+
Figure 4 Continuous improvement o processes
KPI
Strategic
Tactical
ReportsKPI
Validation Analysis
Figure 5 Reporting based on process intelligence
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standardization of BusinEss ProcEssEs
I an organization uses BPM to any extent, an analy-
sis o business processes and services will reveal that
some processes and subprocesses can be stan-
dardized, allowing their use in multiple situations. For
example, a process initially specifc to a certain business
partner can be made generic and put at the disposal
o an entire market. Or the invoicing procedures can be
removed rom a number o product-specifc delivery ser-
vices and standardized. Not only does the above pro-
duce economies o scale, and hence cost savings, but
also makes it possible to create new processes based
on existing standardized ones. The standardization and
reuse o processes and services also alls within the
scope o an SOA.
flExiBility of ProcEssEs and it systEms
Another SOA aspect o BPM is the segregation o
business processes rom business logic. As stated
above, the management o processes is provided by
the process engine, whereas processes were oten
previously hardcoded in the algorithms o the business
applications. Application unctions are now in the orm
o standardized services invoked or the execution o
process steps.
This type o architecture provides the required exibility,
because frstly
> the control exercised by the process engine can be
changed without the need or modifcation o the
underlying IT systems (or example, i the sequence
o process steps changes),
and secondly
> the execution o a process step can be optimized
without aecting the output o the process in ques-
tion (or example, i a manually executed process step
is computerized or the implementation o a service is
optimized without the need or changes to the
corresponding service contract).
Operational
+
Figure 7 Process management segregated rom
execution o process steps
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BPm in relation to other
methodologies
BPm: thE convErgEncE of Existing
mEthodologiEs
Although BPM provides revolutionary opportunities,
not everything about it is new. Almost all the advanta-
ges o BPM have been available under another name.
The power o BPM thereore derives mainly rom the
convergence o business and IT disciplines that were
previously approached in isolation rom each other.
These separate disciplines have converged in terms o
the objectives they try to achieve, approach, supporting
technology and management governance.
Figure 9 BPM, the convergence o dierent methodologies.
BPm as thE starting Point
for nEw dEvEloPmEnts
Although BPM has its roots in the past, it provides
opportunities or the application o innovations such
as business rules management or real-time process
simulations and analyses.
Business Process Management
1Process Centric
Organization
4Enterprise Application
Integration
3Corporate
PerormanceManagement
2Continuous
ProcessImprovement
5Work Flow
Management
6Enterprise
ContentManagement
1. Making business operations process or customer
centric, sometimes a spino rom business process
reengineering (BPR).
2. Process quality management methodologies such
as Lean and Six Sigma or continuous process
improvement.
3. Corporate perormance management as a way o
monitoring a companys strategy.
4. Enterprise application integration (EAI): computeriza-
tion o the message streams between the applications
that carry out the various parts o a business process.
5. Workow management (WFM): the computerizedsupport o operating processes, oten in the orm o
document ows with staging posts at the people who
carry out the process steps.
6. Enterprise content management (ECM): the digitiza-
tion o business inormation and the management o
electronic olders.
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2 Service Oriented Architecture beyond the hype - Atos Origin vision on SOA (white paper), Huub Bakker et al., version 1.0, 20-11-2007.
3 I an SOA is subsequently implemented as a result o defning a service or each process step, this will not produce a unctional
decoupling. Services are not the same as process steps!
how BPm and soa rEinforcE Each othEr
On page 8, SOA was mentioned in connection with
certain eatures o BPM (standardization and reuse o
processes, and the segregation o processes rom
applications).
To understand how SOA and BPM reinorce each other,
a proper understanding is needed o their dierences
and the realization o the objectives they are intended to
support.
> SOA is essentially a style o architecture, a method or
building and implementing organizational and techni-
cal systems, characterized by design principles such
as modularity, loose coupling and standardization.
The principle idea behind SOA is the management o
system complexity to raise the level o exibility and
adaptability2. In this context, BPM solutions seam-
lessly ft an SOA environment (see textbox below).
> As explained in the previous section, BPM is a
management approach or discipline ocusing on the
improvement o business processes (as regards their
design, implementation and execution).
The BPM approach has a bias towards business
objectives that are more tangible, such as shorter
lead times, compliance with statutory requirements,
improvements in the quality o business processes,
and reductions in downtime.
SOA reinorces BPM as regards the realization o ex-
ibility. Without services as the uture-proo elements o
the business and IT landscapes, the exibility o BPM
can reach no urther than changes in the control logic o
business processes. Changes in the defnitions o pro-
cess steps by themselves lead immediately to changes
in IT systems, because computerized process steps
are linked directly to applications, technically as well
as unctionally3. In the absence o standardization and
reuse o services and processes, BPM can lead to local
suboptimization.
BPM reinorces SOA through its ocus on tangible busi-
ness solutions. Two benefts o this are the prevention
o SOA projects remaining IT exercises and the acilita-
tion o business involvement in the defning o corporate
services and the making o agreements on terminology.
Figure 10 Benefts o a BPM-SOA combination
SOA
No SOA
> well-dened demarcation o processes by
means o services;
> enterprise architecture approach or
broad-based governance
> standardization on a single environment or
process management, service management
and integration;
> risk o ocus on short-term success in specic
business processes;
> very limited fexibility
> without an enterprise architecture oundation,
BPM is just another process silo;
> dicult to interest the business;
> risk o too much ocus on technology;
> ew short-term business benets;
... and BPM and no BPM
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Figure 11 Processes both use and output services
BPm, convErgEntiE van vErschillEndE
BEstaandE ondErwErPEn
Hoewel BPM revolutionaire mogelijkheden biedt, is niet
alles nieuw. Vrijwel alle onderdelen van BPM zijn eerder
onder andere namen naar voren gebracht. De kracht
van BPM komt dan ook vooral uit de convergentie van
bedrijskundige- en IT-disciplines die in het verleden
gescheiden werden benaderd. Deze onderwerpen
zijn naar elkaar toegegroeid in termen van te bereiken
doelstellingen, aan pak, ondersteunende technologie en
besturing door het management.
1. Proces o klant georinteerd inrichten van de bed-
rijsvoering, soms als resultaat van Business Process
Reengineering (BPR) activiteiten.
2. Proces kwaliteit management aanpakken zoals Lean
en Six Sigma voor continue procesverbeteringen.
3. Corporate Perormance Management als aanpak om
de strategie van een onderneming te monitoren.
4. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI); automatiser-
ing van de stroming van berichten tussen applicaties die
stukken van het bedrijsproces uitvoeren.
5. Workow Management (WFM); de geautomatiseerde
ondersteuning van operationele processen, vaak in de
vorm van de stroming van documenten langs mensen
die stappen in het proces uitvoeren.
6. Enterprise Content Management (ECM); het digital-
iseren van bedrijsinormatie en het beheren van digitale
dossiers.
BPm solutions sEamlEssly fit an soa EnvironmEnt
The architecture o a BPM solution is characterized by the explicit segregation o the control logic o business
processes rom the execution o their individual process steps.
The controll o business processes is carried out by a BPMS, based on the process models. Services are invoked
or the execution o process steps, meaning that a process uses a service.
The completion o a business process also represents the provision o a service, since it can be described in terms o
the inputs and triggers to initiate the process and the outcome o the process. Hence, a business process also realizesa service.
This occurs at various detailed levels o the architecture. Services defne the exterior o the system, processes
the interior.
The fgure below shows services and processes at a number o detailed levels. BPM operates at the highest level,
where processes and process steps are meaningul to the business. SOA is also involved at the business level,
not with a ocus on processes, but on business services.
At the service orchestration level, the purpose o the processing algorithm is to combine the services output rom
dierent sotware modules into a service meaningul to the business. Service orchestration is mainly a technical
integration issue, outside the scope o BPM and SOA.
TechnicalIntegration
SOA
SOAProcess Service
Business Process
Service Orchestration
Process Step
Step Step
Basic Service
SotwareComponent
SotwareComponent
SotwareComponent
Basic Service
Process StepBPM
Core Business Service Core Business Service
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imPact of BPm
on the organization
oPErating ProcEssEs
Because BPM brings changes to operating processes
in its wake, some jobs will disappear, some will change
and new ones will be created. For example, the person
who delivers mail internally will give way to an automat-
ed stream o documents, and the duties o an opera-
tions manager concerning the directing and controlling
o processes will be taken over by the process engine.
As a result, the role o an operations manager will be-
come more interesting in that it will move to the tactical
level (HR-management, quality control, etc.). Employees
might ear that the introduction o BPM will mean the
loss o jobs and more supervision o their work, given
that BPM allows deeper insight into all kinds o process
inormation. It is important to prepare or this ear and
the resulting resistance when introducing BPM into an
organization.
Fortunately, BPM is ideal or implementing changes to
processes and organizations iteratively. This represents
a undamental dierence between BPM and BPR, a
management methodology popular in the 1990s involv-ing an almost revolutionary approach to changing out-
o-the-box processes. By opting or BPM, an organiza-
tion puts a lot more emphasis on gradual change.
As indicated above, BPM entails a shit o manage-
ments attention rom the day-to-day control o operat-
ing processes to matters with a higher tactical content:
> resolving situations that prove to be outside the
scope o standard processes;
> giving consideration to process improvements based
on process intelligence that BPM presents. Apart
rom managers, employees have an important part toplay here o course.
The impact o BPM on an organization depends largely
on how it is implemented.
alignmEnt of BusinEss and it
The combination o BPM and a services-based architec-
ture creates the opportunity or simpliying the alignment
o business and IT4 . Until very recently, there was a wide
gap between the requirements business wanted satisfed
and the systems that IT departments delivered. The only
way to bridge this gap was by the time-consuming and
error-prone documentation o the business needs, ol-
lowed by their translation into concepts that made sense
to an IT department.
BPM and SOA provide business and IT with a common
language and coding system, so that alignment becomes
simpler and more precise. The services with their stan-
dardized semantics (actual meanings) are the words and
the architecture is the grammar o that language. BPM
gives the business control over the use o services in its
business processes, allowing the IT unction to concen-
trate on the application sotware and technology or the
implementation o the computerized services. Accordingly,
discussions about harmonization need only concern the
defnition o services.
4 This also applies to the harmonization and collaboration between business departments or business partners.
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BPm roadmaP: think Big,
start small, scale quickly
BPM is not something you buy or build. It is a manage-
ment discipline that an organization has to adopt. The
introduction and use o BPM is not a one-o project
thereore, but a process requiring a roadmap or its
complete, phased and planned implementation. BPM
is not a universal solution, but rather an approach to
be applied in a variety o areas at strategic, tactical and
operational levels, as described in the previous section.
The BPM roadmap lays out the priorities and op-
tions concerning the application that is suitable or the
organization in question. Accordingly, it is specifc to an
organization.
An organizations BPM roadmap cannot exist in isola-
tion, but needs to be integrated into the standard plan-
ning cycle o the business, or the simple reason that
BPM is not an end in itsel.
PlatEau Planning By thE clovErlEaf mEthod
The BPM roadmap is based on plateau planning, an
approach that allows adjustments to the implementation
process because o changes in the ocus and priorities
o the organization or experience with plateaus already
established. For plateau planning, Atos Origin uses its
proven cloverlea method, which is oriented towards
creating a comprehensive plan or each plateau. The
method considers the our leaves -
> management and organization,
> processes and services,
> IT systems and inrastructure
> people and culture
in combination. This balanced method is ideal or BPM,
because this has a broad sweep that takes in organiza-
tional, process-related and technological aspects.
Figure 12 Cloverlea method or plateau planning
PerormanceProcesses & Services
People & Culture
Management &Organization
IT systems &
IT Inrastructure
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Each plateau comprises several projects managed us-
ing a programme structure. The projects might concern
the application o BPM to a specifc business process or
the implementation o BPM itsel, such as the selection
o a BPM tool, training o management and employees,
putting the governance o processes in place, or em-
bedding BPM in the employee participation structure.
A complete business case is also drawn up or each
plateau.
BPm roadmaP assEssmEnt study
Atos Origin develops the BPM roadmap or an organiza-
tion as part o an assessment study in which:
> the business and IT visions and strategies are
included;
> the existing situation as regards processes, manage-
ment, governance and IT systems is documented;
> an outline is produced o the long-term business and
IT architectures;
> a BPM vision and implementation strategy is devel-
oped, taking into account the organizations changestyle and capacity;
> an outline plateau plan is made, including an evalua-
tion o whether the BPM roadmap can or should be
integrated with other business and/or IT programmes,
such as those or the adoption o an SOA;
> the frst plateau is defned and planned in detail, and
> a sound business case is prepared or the frst plateau.
Maturity models are used during the assessment study
as tools or analysing the maturity o the organization
rom dierent standpoints, mainly, though, to perorm a
reality check on the defnition o the frst plateau. These
models do not provide the guiding principles or prepar-
ing a BPM roadmap, only the limiting conditions.
diffErEnt imPlEmEntation stratEgiEs
As stated, BPM implementation strategies dier rom
case to case. BPM is sometimes implemented using
an architecture-driven approach, in combination with
an SOA or example. In other situations, BPM is the
vehicle or implementing Six Sigma quality enhancement
programmes. And in yet others, BPM is introduced as
an extension to the implementation o workow and
document management.
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BPm suites and suPPliers
Although BPM is not itsel an IT application, the use o a
computer system or BPM (BPMS) is essential. A com-
prehensive BPMS includes the ollowing components:
> the process designer which a business analyst uses
to model and simulate processes (employing BPMN
or example)
> the process engine which executes process ows
(written in BPEL or BPML or example), with manual
tasks being delivered to the intrays o employees and
calls being issued to services in the case o comput-
erized steps.
> the business rules engine which holds the defni-
tions o business rules, including the conditions
governing their application;
> a process analysis unction also reerred to as
business activity monitoring (BAM) that provides
continuous eedback on the status o processes;
> composite applications commonly known as busi-
ness services the module that provides computer-
ized unctions in the orm o services that can be
invoked by business processes;
> knowledge management which allows employ-
ees to share tasks, content and documents among
groups and teams;
> document management that enables electronic
documents, images and other fles to be stored in
olders and managed;
> tools that acilitate cross-departmental collaboration
such as orums and bulletin boards;
> a business analysis unction that provides reports
and dashboards rom which managers can identiy
issues, trends and opportunities;
> a portal that unctions as a communal, personalized
user environment giving access to the above tools.
Figure 13 Components o a BPMS. Source: Gartner
Portal
Knowledg
e
Conte
nt CollaborationBusin
ess
CompositeProcessApplications
Rulesengine
Processengine
managem
ent m
anage
ment
ana
lytics
Processanalyticus
Process
Designer
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As stated on page 13, BPM arose rom the merger o
various methodologies, including WFM, ECM and EAI.
As suppliers o BPMS products oten have a back-
ground in one o the original areas, the stronger unc-
tions o their products reect this. Thanks to ongoing
development, as well as mergers and acquisitions in
this market, the scope o BPMS suites has expanded
urther. In practical terms, however, the integration o
dierent components united in a suite under a single
logo is not always optimal.
With the backgrounds as a ramework, Forrester divides
the market or BPMS products into three segments:
human centric, document centric and integration
centric. Atos Origin is knowledgeable concerning the
leading suppliers in all three segments and has ormed
a partnership with each o them.
Figure 14 Atos Origins partnerships with BPMS suppliers
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atos origins BPm services
Under its Consult-Build-Operate concept, Atos Origin
provides services or all parts o the BPM lie cycle, rom
strategy defnition and transormation, to the leverag-
ing o BPM solutions. The BPM services relate to the
business structuring provided by Atos Consulting and
to the technology required or BPM. The diagram below
shows the BPM portolio o Atos Origin.
Atos Origins BPM services stand on a oundation built
rom generic enterprise architecture, IT governance and
change management services. They comprise:
> BPM strategy services or developing a BPM
strategy and roadmap that cover the entire range o
business and IT operations, including the support-
ing business case, creation o acceptance within the
organization, etc.;
> Process centric organization services that ocus
on making an organization process-centric and
customer-centric, and on the change management,
enterprise architecture and other resources needed to
eect this;
> Business process provisioning execution o busi-
ness processes by Atos Origin, such as in the orm o
payment services that Atos Worldline provides;
> Process modelling & design the design, modelling,
simulation and validation o processes;
> Process monitoring & analysis set up and execution
o monitoring and analysis, based on KPIs, manage-
ment reports, etc.;
> IT landscape process enabling & integration - trans-
ormation o the IT landscape, or example, to a
service-centric architecture, including integration o
the IT systems and the business processes;
> Process support & IT execution - provision o IT sup-
port or business processes, including management
and maintenance o IT systems.
Figure 15 Atos Origins BPM services portolio
Consult Build
Process centric organization
BPMs
trategy
Architecture&Gover
nance
Information
Technology
Information
Services
Business
Business ProcessProvisioning
Process modeling & design Process monitoring & analysis
IT landscape process enabling& integration
Process support & IT execution
Operate
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aBout atos origin
Atos Origin is an international inormation technology services company. Its business is turning
client vision into results through the application o consulting, systems integration and managed
operations. The companys annual revenues are EUR 5.8 billion and it employs 50,000 people in
40 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Inormation Technology Partner or the Olympic Games
and has a client base o international blue-chip companies across all sectors. Atos Origin is quot-
ed on the Paris Eurolist Market and trades as Atos Origin, Atos Worldline and Atos Consulting.
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2008AtosOrigin.
Atos Origin
Corporate Village
Da Vincilaan 5
B-1930 Zaventem
Belgium