For many, the worlds of Business Process Management (BPM), and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) are separate and distinct disciplines. While clearly focused on different entities, process and content respectively, the two are so intertwined in my mind, that it is negligent to discuss one without at least mentioning the other, and so I did during our webinar last Friday, in which Dan Keldsen and I introduced the findings from our recent research into BPM. (If you missed the webinar, it has been archived.)
Several hundred people, representing virtually every vertical industry were in attendance - testament to the universal applicability of BPM. The slide presentation is posted here:
The presentation can also be accessed at Slideshare.
Early in the presentation,I presented a simple diagram that illustrates the overlapping nature of ECM and BPM. Sure, when the process is about the creation of content (e.g. SOP authoring, contract creation), most, if not all participants understand that both ECM and BPM are required, the former to manage the revisions of content, the latter to manage the authoring/approval/publishing process. But, ECM should play a role in virtually every process, as processes typically use and/or output content. While a process owner may not feel the need to concern herself specifically with the content inputs and outputs of the process, to do so is reckless. For example, if a process provides access to images of invoices, and no quality control is exercised on the image quality, process participants may find themselves unable to proceed due to illegibility. Fault may lie with those who manage the capture process, but the process (and process manager) will likely find themselves the focus of complaints as well. The BPM initiative fails despite the fact that the fault lies with the ECM system.
As is the case with all of the webinars I conduct, I will be posting the questions asked that went unanswered, with answers. I want to repeat one of the questions I did have time to answer, however, as I believe it illustrates another important intersection between BPM and ECM. The question was "What role, if any do records managers have in BPM?" Ah perfect - I am guessing this question was asked by a records manager who was indeed wondering if they can play a role. My answer was - two potential roles. First, records managers should be involved in the process definition phase. If at any point of the process the content reaches the point in its life cycle that it becomes an official record, then the task of declaration can become automated under the BPM tool. Although perhaps outside the scope of the process itself, incorporating this functionality should be considered a best practice, providing integrity and consistency to the records management sub-process, compliance and a potential increase in productivity. Second, for the process-centric organization, the process definitions themselves may be considered a business record, thus requiring the application of RIM. This may especially e the case for organizations seeking ISO 9000 certification.
Both of these uses of records management within a BPM or workflow implementation would likely be overlooked if ECM and RM specialists are not included in the process engineering and definition.
Stay tuned, as over the next week I will be posting the questions from the webinar that went unanswered, along with answers. In the meantime, if you are interested in obtaining a copy of the Market IQ when it is published in early October, you can reserve a copy now.
