Written by Guest Blogger, Ian Hawkins, Editor at PEX Network

Do things happen in your business which escalate and cause problems further up the chain? Do things fall apart because an instruction hasn’t been followed?

The band Van Halen used to have a line in their technical rider, a document that covers the band’s requirements from the number of electrical outlets to the size of the stage and the catering requirements for the crew. Deep in the band’s rider was a line requesting a bowl of M&Ms, but with the stark warning that ‘NO brown M&Ms will be allowed backstage on penalty of forfeiture of the full fee and cancellation of the show.’ What looks, on the face of it, like an example of rock ‘n’ roll excess, the M&M rule is actually a little more crafty than that: the band was on a long tour, and every venue was different. The technical requirements for the show which included lighting, sound, pyrotechnics and stage illusions was more like a phone book than a pamphlet. The band didn’t want to painstakingly check every nut and bolt before every show – but if they saw brown M&Ms in the bowl in their dressing room, they knew at a glance that the rider hadn’t been read and understood.

Whether you’re putting on a spectacular concert or building a widget, when instructions aren’t followed it means a problem is going to spin out of control. Despite tighter margins, small businesses are probably at an advantage when it comes to putting things right quickly – just think of the financial institutions that have been brought down by rogue traders who have steered their bosses into a perfect storm of poor visibility and too much rope. The danger is real, and it takes strong relationships, agility and someone to take responsibility to get through it. Do you hear that noise? That would be me, banging the drum for SMEs (small and medium enterprises).

According to Chris McClellan, CEO at RAM Tracking, the chief advantages of being an SME – ‘adaptability, innovation and strong customer relationships’ – are a significant factor in fuelling revenue growth in 2018. ‘And this optimism doesn’t cease when crossing the pond,’ says Chris, ‘with the recent US National Federation of Independent Business survey reporting one in five SMEs looking to both hire and expand during 2018.’

As I write this, the big bad news story is that restructuring experts at the House of Fraser will probably recommend measures leading to significant job losses.

Legacy retail has been the most obvious casualty of digital transformation, and big changes now may not be enough to save the company from failing to implement smaller changes five years ago. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs and online retail are enjoying a purple patch. So this seems like a great time to be an SME, but what does this mean in the world of PEX?

Viewing the world through my PEX-tinted glasses (or sPEX, if you will), organizations of all sizes can do well to learn from others, and sometimes the lessons from a start up are as useful to the blue chips as they are when the shoe is on the other foot. Consider this: Google has long partnered with new tech companies to get the advantage of good ideas and founder (Appsbroker  for example). Strong customer relationships are more difficult to achieve when your customer is sitting beyond the veil of technology, but with bots and AI, deepening those relationships and serving those customers’ needs is easier than it used to be.

SMEs, then, are in an interesting position, and how they take advantage of it depends on what the business owners want and how ambitious they’re feeling. Process excellence has a part to play in all of this.

If you’re looking to sell your business, or partner with a larger company, having clear processes make you look a lot more attractive: scalability is going to appeal, and although you don’t want to give away your working methods, you don’t want to be a complete ‘black box’ either.

Having a clear process is also helpful if you’re looking for investment, and getting the processes right means a higher return for investors (and a bigger cushion should anything go awry).

Natural leaders tend to be competitive and enjoy making their own decisions; few things are as frustrating as making a decision and not seeing it put into action.

Large organizations have leaders along the chain of command, and each leader has to feel they have some power to affect change. Process Excellence can make these changes easier to make and see working as the entrepreneur finds their expanding business requires more and more delegation.

SMEs are at a huge advantage in that the visibility is much better than it would be for a larger organization. As the boss retreats from the front line, it becomes more difficult to keep tabs on what’s going on. Van Halen were aware of this problem in the 1970s. Identifying the problem is the first step to solving it, and whether your organisation is big or small, simple or complicated, PEX has a part to play. The seeds of failure are often sown early in an enterprise. How do you spot them? For Van Halen, they look like brown M&Ms. What about yours?

Written by Guest Blogger, Paula Bell, CEO at Paula A Bell Consulting.

Last month I spoke on the importance of adding value to your organization. The article was focused on how Business Analysts can add value; however, leaders can help in ensuring all work being completed in your organization is adding value. You want to ensure you are utilizing your resources to their fullest potential the majority of the time. As stated in my previous article I’m a martial artist. When most individuals think of martial arts they first think of fighting, but martial arts is more than just fighting.  It’s leveraging and exercising your mind. It’s understanding energy flows through your entire body and why you should not waste any of the energy. It’s a key point reiterated over, and over, and over again. Make EVERY movement count. You only make movements valuable to your protection. When you think about it, this concept is critical. The situation could be life or death. As stated before, I tend to ask myself, “Are the activities I’m performing adding value to my life, my family and the communities I serve?” “Are the meetings, or work I’m producing, adding value to the organization?” As a leader in an organization it’s also imperative my team is conducting value add work as I maximize and optimize on the strengths, and skills, of the team. Here are some tips I leverage as a leader:

THE LEADERSHIP WAZA (techniques)

• Understand the value your team brings to the table
– it’s imperative as leaders we understand the value through talents, strengths and skills our team members bring to the organization. This will allow us to engage, empower and motivate them. In addition, understanding the value each team member brings will allow you to seek out advice on approaches to position your department more strategically in the organization. Yes, you heard me right, as a leader we should SEEK OUT ADVICE from our team. As leaders we do not know everything, nor should we. Hence, the purpose of our team. Leverage the team and understand what they bring to the table. Leverage their value to only do valuable work in the organization. 
• Actively listen – sometimes you don’t need to talk, but actively listen. Take time to listen to what others are saying. This will help you understand where there is non-value add activities in your organization. Leaders do not know everything. We can’t know everything because if was are truly doing our jobs as leaders we are not doing the day to day. That day to day is what our teams do, it’s what we hired them to do. Therefore, it’s imperative we listen to those who are in the trenches to provide the perspective and guidance on what is occurring in the organization. Your team is there to make your stronger and achieve organizational goals so empower them to do so. DO NOT hire for DIVERSITY but manage to ASSIMILATION.
• Support the team to ensure value is added - ensure when you hear concerns that are valid you support your team member in helping to influence the change. The top down support is needed to encourage some of the change needed in organizations. Even if a team member has a different approach than you do, that does not mean their approach is wrong. Support them and empower them. You will be amazed how much that drives a team member to do great things.
• Influence cultural organizational changes – take the time to help influence the changes that need to occur by modeling the behavior through proof of concepts on how to do work/activities better, as well as supplying clear examples of where value add is not occurring.

Markets are changing constantly. Companies are trying to keep their heads above water and stay on top of their competitors. But how? Through transformation and innovation. Organizations must find ways to innovate and achieve a competitive advantage, while also transforming their business to create efficiencies.

In our latest article, we explore this topic in more detail. We’ll lay out all the facts and the problems companies are facing, and most importantly explain how companies can still win with concepts like transformation and innovation.

Download the article to learn more about:

• Why the most successful companies focus innovation efforts on value, revenue and service models, while transformation efforts should be centered on cost, operation and performance.
• The difference between best practices and leading practices, and why it matters.
• Why knowing where to start is the key to your innovation and transformation initiative.

In today’s every-changing world, almost every organization has some form of innovation or transformation defined in their strategy. This whitepaper provides key insights that will help your organization achieve their business objectives. Download now to get started.

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Have you ever experienced the following? It happens to me quite regularly. We are invited to a barbecue and everyone brings something. There are many delicious salads, dips, cakes, etc. and at some point it happens: “Oh, this is so delicious. How did you do that? I absolutely need the recipe!” And the spark flies right over, now everyone needs the recipe.

Said and done. The recipes are exchanged, and eventually we go to work to cook the treat as well. And all too often it happens, we realize it “tastes different somehow”. But how can that be? The recipe was followed exactly! I think the answer is quite simple: it depends on the cook!  A pinch of salt is just not a pinch of salt, and in each recipe has somehow a certain freedom of interpretation. Not to mention that every oven and stove also has its own characteristics.

Best Practices of Business Processes

The same is true now and then in many companies. You start to implement what is supposed to be something new, but before you even get something up and running, you start to copy from others. But not just anyone; no, it must be a copy of the best. In the case of company processes, this is called best practice processes: a collection (often called a framework or model) of processes that are successful in many other companies. And like the example above with the recipes, companies do exactly the same. They copy them but somehow they do not each get the same results and wonder why.

The Truth: Business Processes are only a Guidepost

The truth is that it simply cannot work. Because like the size of your pinch, or the operation of your oven, every company is different. Everyone has their own strategy, their own goals, their own processes, resources, tools, and above all, employees. These corporate best practices should not be copied verbatim. They should merely serve to provide direction on a course, or simply examples of application. If you use best practices in this way,( i.e. by using them as orientation aids), adjusting them at the appropriate places, then you can successfully design new processes. If you do not, you will be disappointed that your own salad does not seem to taste as good.

Here is another side to consider: Imagine, at your next party all salads taste the same. That would be boring too. In competition, that would mean companies cannot distinguish themselves.

Conclusion: Please do not copy!

Best practice processes can provide clues to shape one’s own processes, but should never be completely copied. When in doubt, your own individual solution is always preferable.

For many years now the terms map and model have been used almost interchangeably in the world of process management. But are they really the same thing? The short answer is NO! Let me explain by way of illustration.

Let’s say you are up for a road trip and want to drive from Austin to Portland. If you are old school and still believe in paper, you pull out your road atlas and begin to plan your journey. You capture your starting point, and carefully plot your course of steps and stops along the way until you reach your destination. You might even capture information about where you are going to stop along the way, and for how long.  However, your map will not capture possible hotels, gas stations, or restaurants on your route. It will not alert you to possible risks like road hazards, accidents, weather, or that your favorite restaurant in Salt Lake City changed its location and hours. It will not identify your efficiency with alerts for average speed or miles per gallon. The map will not tell you who to call if you get a flat tire just outside of Boise. If a road is closed or a new one opens, the map does not auto-magically change. It is a static representation of your path. The same is true of a Process Map. It is a capture of your process as it existed during a point in time. Unfortunately, in today’s ever changing digital world, it is usually only as good as the day (or hour) you captured it.

By comparison, we can plan the same journey on your GPS. We can still plug in our start and end points, and the GPS will plot our course. However, this system is also full of connections to keep you informed and allow you to make adjustments to your course as you go.  When you are driving and need to pause and stretch, your GPS updates to provide new time to destination information. If you get hungry or need gas, it has inputs to tell you what is nearby and their rating, so you know to avoid Joe’s Pet Store and Taco Stand in Farmington. But your favorite restaurant in Salt Lake, it has the new address. If there is a road closure ahead, it can alert you to other possible courses so that you can maintain progress. Where are we going to sleep tonight? Here are hotels nearby. That flat tire, not a problem, click of a button and be connected to roadside assistance. When you arrive, total trip time calculated. Your GPS is your route, modeled. 

A Process Model is more than just a picture of your process, but it is fluid and moving. It is your process GPS. You might even think of it as a very basic representation of what people mean when they speak about the Internet of Things (IoT). A process model is connected to the world around it and shows those relationships. Who owns a the overall process or just a step along the way, how long it should take, what systems they interact with, what risks might they encounter and how will they deal with them?  Why are you performing this process, how does it support your corporate strategy? The model provides reports and dashboards on how your process is performing so you can see if you need to make a change to your route.  Most importantly if there is a change, it is captured in real time, is digital, and accessible to everyone. 

If you are currently involved in a Digital Transformation project (and who isn’t right now), you need to consider Process Modelling to show you how and where your Business and IT connect. If you are trying to define and understand your Customer Journey and Experience, you need Process Modeling to identify the connection points between your internal and external facing processes, where your customers interact, what data you collect, what systems they use, the groups / departments involved, and are they happy. 

A few years ago we put together an infographic to help clarify this and we are pleased to provide you with an updated version here. If you would like more information on how iGrafx can help you on your road to Digital Transformation click here.

 
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Last week I saw the news from Austin-based, BP3, announcing the premier sponsors of their 2018 Driven conference, and I was surprised. In a good way. 

If you know much about the ever complex and evolving ecosystem of software and solutions in what used to be called the “BPM space,” you know there are a myriad of providers with partially overlapping solutions claiming they’ve got exactly what you need to “transform your business.”  You’ve got your Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) offering holistic business process automation, your next-gen robotic process automation (RPA) options, your low-code/no code approaches, and all manner of entry points (eg. process mining) and tangents (eg. governance, risk & compliance). And don’t get me started on whether you need to sprinkle Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning on top to truly achieve digital transformation nirvana.

It’s not easy being an enterprise practitioner or decision maker these days… Should I map, model and simulate before I start automating?  How do I prioritize automation projects and prove ROI?  Will the work break any of the compliance efforts I’ve spent so much time and money pursuing?  What other risks and controls should I be concerned about?

And to be honest, with so many vaguely competing solutions in this new wild west quest of digital transformation, it’s not particularly easy being a vendor.

That’s why I was pleased to see that BP3 is taking a leadership role and bringing together a strong sampling of these vendors as sponsors and contributors at their annual thought leadership event in August. Automation Anywhere, Bizagi, Camunda and Pega, to be exact. If all goes as planned, this should be a great – real life – example of that old cliché’d business term, “coopetition,” and attendees should receive a solid complement of insights and perspectives around process automation.

Add in the keynotes from Rob Koplowitz and Andrew Bartels from Forrester, and the BP3 Driven Conference for Innovation in Digital Business should definitely live up to its name.

iGrafx is proud to be a BP3 partner, and we’re looking forward to our participation at the event.  I hope to see you there!

Risk is a part of all our daily lives. Every day we face challenges and risk that may impede our progress toward our daily goals. For example; what if I oversleep, the car doesn’t start, the kids are sick, or the bakery was out of my favorite pastry? We even instinctively define methods for dealing with those risks. We may set an alarm, have a copy of the train schedule, be able to work from home, or reason “I have been meaning to lose a few pounds and didn’t need that pastry anyway”.  Thus, we know that some treatments or controls for these risks may require action or cost to mitigate the impact. Some risks may require no action or cost, but simply an acknowledgement of their existence. However, if we failed to plan, our entire day can be thrown into chaos before it even begins. But, when we overcome these challenges, the reward of accomplishing our task seems even richer. That is why sayings like “no pain no gain” and “no risk no reward” even exist.

For many organizations, their current risk management frameworks do not tell the whole story. It is not a part of their core business and operational excellence program and it is also disconnected from their strategic planning.

When it comes to Operational Excellence, a proper view of Risk Management can provide control over your core processes, which leads to fewer deviations, errors, or loss of production. It can even drive strategy by leading to more focused business decisions, and providing the ability to clearly see which activities need our attention. This in turn can provide improved efficiency, higher quality, and even better service.

Risk Management should also be consistent across a company and ensure what is classified as a risk is not based solely on an individual’s perception. And, it should address the effectiveness with which a company addresses risk. Effectiveness should not be defined by how many new policies or procedures are implemented, but rather on achieving actual risk reduction. Risk Management with Operational Excellence will help companies achieve this by optimizing processes and resources. Unfortunately, many organizations do not view Risk Management this way. It is seen merely as a necessity for compliance.  To address this need, iGrafx has developed ROPE (Risk & Opportunity Process Excellence). With ROPE, organizations can:

• Ensure Risks are consistently reported, reviewed, and approved across the organization
• Provide a continuous cycle of improvement for identified risks
• Ensure standards and requirements are properly captured for audit compliance
• Identify possible compliance issues with reporting on process and risk gaps, impacts, costs, etc.
• Make Risk Management a part of the culture with transparency of where risks exist along with clearly identified ownership

When we really understand what we are good at and effectively manage risk, we enable our organization to clearly define strategy and achieve operational excellence. If you would like to see iGrafx ROPE in action, please view the following recorded webinar.

In the world of martial-arts you must strategize. It’s not an option. You are constantly thinking of ways to protect yourself as different scenarios arise.

The word strategy means, “a plan of action or policy/designed to achieve a major or overall aim.” From childhood I was always told, “you need to have a plan!” Having a plan is important, but communicating and executing the plan is the key. I have found myself at various times in my career, working in environments where there is no clear strategy, no defined roles and responsibilities, no clear expectations clearly communicated, and lack of accountability. However, I was still expected to drive change and execute on initiatives. What I could not understand in those environments were:

1. Was I making a difference?
2. Should I be focused on the work at hand?
3. How does the work align with the company strategy? 
4. Why would no one define these items clearly?

Last month we talked about “Value Add”. It’s really hard to feel you are ADDING VALUE, or ARE VALUED, in this type of environment. I recall the quote by Antoine de Saint-Expéry, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” As well as the quote by Benjamin Franklin, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  I am never surprised to find failed initiatives, and burned out individuals, in organizations that do not clearly articulate their strategy and ensure the work being done aligns with their strategic goals. I am by no means saying building a strategy is easy, but if you don’t, you will have to endure the pain of failed initiatives and loss of potential profits. I have found even when a strategy is created, the communication of the strategy throughout the organization can be very weak. There have been organizations I have been a part of that have created strategies that fit into one of four categories:

1. Too general to really understand the vision and plan
2. Too complicated to understand where you fit in the strategy
3. Hidden so you didn’t know it existed, but maybe kept hearing it existed
4. Very well defined, and communicated, everyone could grab onto the goals and plan (this one, unfortunately, has been rare in my career).

I have also been afforded the opportunity to create strategies in my career for many different initiatives. This is what I have found to be effective in creating, and executing the strategy.  You must:

• Understand the current state of the organization.
• Understand where you want the organization to go in the future.
• Define your mission and vision statements (if not already created and you are enhancing your strategy to align with these statements).
• Define your strategic objectives/goals.
• Define your plan of execution (these are your tactics).
• Communicate your plan throughout ALL levels of the organization, and ensure your leaders understand and support the strategy. This includes holding individuals accountable.
• Define success metrics and monitor the performance of those success metrics.

The key to strategy execution is to ensure it is communicated, accepted and supported by the executive team, as well as individuals are held accountable. You can write a strategy all day long, but if it’s not effectively supported and executed, all you have are words.

So how can we as business analysts, leaders and entrepreneurs ensure we help in the execution of the strategy to achieve business objectives and goals? So glad you asked.  My next article will discuss just that. 

By guest blogger Bernd Ruffing, Management Consultant & Process Painter.

In the February issue of Markt und Mittelstand I discovered an interesting article. The article “Desire for More Free Time” explains how entrepreneurs yearn for more time for family and private life, but in reality rarely manage to implement it.

What the Entrepreneurs Do

The report identifies three measures that entrepreneurs use to balance their work and private lives:

1. Only 20% think that having private goals also provide more time for themselves.
2. 55% try sports and physical fitness. It is well established that this is a great way to provide the mind and body with the necessary energy. After exercise, many find themselves to be more productive, which I can personally attest. But does this really provide more time for family.  I would assume the opposite, since the sports share usually comes from the private-time account and not from the working hours.
3. While 59% try to delegate tasks.

The Delegation of Tasks

This is the point that gets my attention. It is at this point that I would really like to know how respondents do that. Simply telling someone what to do can have many different consequences, including some that are less than desirable. For example:

• They come back with questions because they do not know something. In this case, delegating may actually mean more work than doing the job yourself.
• The task is done, without questions, but the result is not really what you have imagined. The means rework, which costs time and energy.
• The task is delegated but not the authority.  Therefore the entrepreneur himself is required to control the execution of the tasks.
• The employees change, so you must delegate the task again.

Process Management Can Help

Process management aims to precisely define and document who does what when and how. Responsibilities can be clearly defined by the underlying strategy, always considering the framework conditions and interactions. This can be called “permanent delegation.”  Once defined, you do not have to redistribute the tasks each time. Through appropriate classifications of processes, the entrepreneur can also identify which processes are well suited for delegation. Additionally, the one responsible for performing always has a fitting description of the work and tasks to be completed. A win-win for entrepreneurs and employees.

Conclusion: More Free Time through Process Management

Process management offers entrepreneurs opportunities to more effectively manage their own time. The permanent delegation of tasks and responsibilities by organizing the processes is just one example. Another wish of the entrepreneurs, which is mentioned in this article, can also be met: “... take complexity and extra workload out of the job.” Yes, I will say it again. Process management is an all-purpose weapon.

Process automation platforms and RPA systems are becoming more widely adopted and – when properly deployed – are helping drive significant operational effectiveness and efficiency, along with enabling digital business transformation and better customer experience.  How are you identifying, assessing and ranking your project opportunities?  Pain points and project lists of functional leaders are great starting points.  Could you do better with an enterprise or LOB wide approach?  Could you do better with specific analysis methods on the front end?  We think so.  You’ll be hearing more about automation and RPA project identification, assessment and prioritization methods from Travis Buhler, Senior Program Manager at USAA, and myself at BP3’s Driven conference in Austin next week.

The annual “Driven - Innovation in Digital Operations” event takes place 8/8-8/9, and you can sign up here with the iGrafx partner code to receive $250 off the registration price (code is iGrafx250).  In addition to what you’ll hear from Travis and me on how to prepare for automation, you’ll have the opportunity to network with BP3, Automation Anywhere, Pega, Camunda and Bizagi, and catch up on everything you need to know to discover, automate, measure, manage and transform your business.

I hope to see you next week!

Written by Guest Blogger, Ian Hawkins, Editor at PEX Network

Process improvement and change go hand in hand. But disruption? Disruption is a word loaded with negative connotations. For everyone who embraces the idea of digital disruption there will be hundreds who dread it.

But dread is precisely the wrong response: digital disruption isn’t the future, it’s the present, and if you think the ice isn’t breaking up under your feet, it’s just because you’re standing on a deceptively large sheet of the stuff. Be warned, the thaw is here.

It’s an irony that we are much more happy with digital disruption in our personal lives than we are at work. Possibly because we understand the process of our daily lives much better. We all know it’s a pain to find a parking space and feed the right change into the meter, so we don’t mind an app that tells us where the spaces are, and gives us a frictionless platform for payment.

Knowledge of the process, then, gives us the courage not only to weather change but to embrace it with enthusiasm. As Ivan Seselj says in this article, ‘Teams that clearly understand a process can spot problems and improvements more easily.’ We clearly understand and can spot problems in our personal lives, but the processes that go on around us at work may be more of a mystery. Evolved over time, their complexity is part of their charm. When disruptive technology comes along, some of us panic.

Digital disruption is more seismic to an industry than an individual organisation tweaking their processes, but like a major earthquake, it has been waiting to happen for some time. We’ve long been able to generate data, and have only been waiting for computers to get up to speed in sorting the signal from the noise. It isn’t just that there is valuable information to be crunched out of the numbers we have, it’s that the processing has crossed a threshold of affordability. Data plus analysis can now deliver real value to businesses and offer a return on investment that is giving early adopters a sudden and massive advantage over their competitors. Digital disruption is not killing businesses; late adoption of technology is killing businesses.

The inertia is understandable, even if it’s undesirable. Jeff Cole puts it well: ‘Whenever you roll out a process change of any significance that impacts people – be it positively or negatively – they need time to absorb the change and become acclimated to the new way… Getting them involved early on in the design allows them to become acclimated much faster once the rollout period hits.’

Disruption favours the agile, because only the truly agile are able to take advantage of the new opportunities opened up by disruption. Start ups have less fear because they have less to lose, but the big beasts should take a leaf out of their younger competitors’ playbook.

Going forward, we will be getting better data, and more intelligent analysis. We can’t change (or necessarily predict) what that will mean for our businesses, but as new possibilities unfold, we can certainly choose our response.

iGrafx has a long, rich history in Japan, and has been supporting its customers there for more than 20 years.  Today, 800 publicly traded companies (out of 3,600) use iGrafx. Additionally, iGrafx has an overwhelming share in the financial institutions.  At one point, almost 50% of the banks in Japan were iGrafx users.  With some M&As, currently 61 of 143 banks in operation are iGrafx customers.  We are well recognized in Japan for creating partnerships with the customers focused on excellence in compliance, governance and quality. 

Traditionally, iGrafx’s expert level of diagramming and analysis capabilities have been accepted by many different areas of businesses/industries, from manufacturing to transactional and relational services. With its wholistic process management capabilities, iGrafx is accepted by the Japanese SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) community.  iGrafx is the leading software for supporting the JSOX initiatives and activities not only domestically, but also including many of the group companies located worldwide.

iGrafx supports enterprises in achieving Compliance, Governance, and Operational Excellence. It is one of the most recognized solutions for creating and maintaining environment for the standard operational procedures (SOP) because it places “process” in the middle.  iGrafx allows the businesses to visualize the processes, use process as the common language to allow different silos within the organization to see the business cross functionally.  The SOP environment created by iGrafx can also be leveraged for risk management and management of internal control.  The platform links all associated documents within and out of the iGrafx environment and provides a virtual SOP environment.  With the virtual SOP, process owners, approved processes, associated legal, procedural, and reference documents can be kept up-to-date, and the organization with iGrafx can be ready for audit.  The time spent to prepare for audit can be shortened and distributed to value added work time.  One of the common comments iGrafx receives from the businesses that have implemented the iGrafx solution is, “the experienced resources can allocate time on key business steps rather than busy work such as tracking some data/information, preparing for audit, or re-work/correction on problems created by new resources.”  We recently released a case study (you can download it here) that explains this type of implementation and partnership created between iGrafx and business users.

iGrafx is also making an impact in the business community working with HACCP (Food Safety System) requirements, and it is the leading solution for assisting businesses prepare for the certification.

Similarly, iGrafx supports businesses with ISO certification requirements, as well as quality management initiative and risk management requirements, in Japan.

In today’s business climate, talents in change management is one of the key differentiators. For the organization’s sustainability, for its existence as a business entity, for its customers, shareholders and community, becoming more agile in executing changes will allow stability and undisrupted business continuation.  In order for the agile business transformation to occur naturally, businesses must have the processes documented, visualized, and all the aspects of business to be modeled in order to see the true impact of the changes.  iGrafx is recognized as the expert guide for the business transformation journey. We work together with the businesses to create proper goals, timelines, and ways to ensure the path for the digital business transformation.

In Japan, due to the serious decline in the labor/employee population, the entire country is tasked with facing transformation of the work environment, structure, process, roles and responsibilities. It is essential to first completely understand, share and collaborate cross functionally even before the transformation strategy can be established. This will include the information outside of the company – external vendors, suppliers, customers, etc.  Also, each employee needs to be able to contribute and eventually create a culture to collaborate among all functions within the company.  iGrafx enables the business to embrace such an environment and encourages everyone to step up and make a difference.

Digital Business Transformation does not replace human interaction. Rather, it promotes human interaction and collaboration.  Automation completes the story associated with Digital Business Transformation, but in order for Automation to work, significant and meaningful collaboration should take place in order to create the baseline for the transformation. iGrafx offers such an environment.

Essentially, iGrafx environment + human interaction = optimal base for the digital business transformation. 

iGrafx, in Japan, believes that the digital business transformation is no longer an option.  It is something every organization will need to consider implementing and iGrafx is there to provide leadership, guidance and support.  We look forward to continuing building partnerships with the Japanese business community.

To learn more, download our latest case study to see how we helped on one of our Japanese customers improve risk management, operational efficiency and employee satisfaction.

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Well, maybe compared to an even broader “Business Transformation” or especially a full-scale “Business Innovation.”

But let’s step back for a second and kill the buzz of this super-buzzy buzzword.  “Transformation” means “change.” It’s that simple.  Granted, a transformation typically implies a more radical change than the color of a logo or the location of a manufacturing facility, but it’s a change, nonetheless.

And in the context of businesses, the goal is to change or transform to a state that is in some way better than the current. For example: more revenue, lower costs, increased speed/productivity/quality, more satisfied customers or happier employees. In even more ambitious scenarios, businesses may be trying to create new categories or disrupt an industry (or avoid being disrupted by their competition).

Like it or not, transformation is big business. IDC recently estimated that 40 percent of all technology spending will go toward digital transformations, with enterprises shelling out in excess of $2 trillion by 2019. IDC also calculates that worldwide, digital transformation could be worth $18.8 trillion in additional business value. That a 9X ROI in case you didn’t notice.

All this spending is for good reason. Couchbase just completed a CIO survey and determined “a business that can’t keep up with digital innovations in its industry will survive for less than five years before going out of business or being absorbed by a competitor.” And even without the fear of being disrupted, achieving digital transformation makes dollars & sense. According to Harvard Business School, leading digital adopters posted a three-year average gross margin of 55% vs. just 37% for digital laggards.

The challenge is that most digital transformations fail to take root and produce ongoing fruit.  A recent report by the Everest Group found that 78% of enterprises fail to scale and sustain their digital transformation initiatives. They surveyed 328 enterprises and determined that a misalignment of business operating models and digital strategy is to blame. And it’s no surprise, because most people don’t even know what digital transformation is… Illustrating this, Salesforce interviewed 562 enterprise employees and found that even in companies that had prioritized digital transformation, more than 2/3 of employees “wouldn’t be confident explaining the concept to somebody else!”

Disruption happens. Think Uber vs. Yellow Cab, Airbnb vs. Marriott, Netflix vs. Blockbuster, HBO vs. the Networks, TV vs. Radio, Cars vs. Horses, Electric Light vs. Candles. You get the picture.  Between 1955, the year the Fortune 500 was first identified, and 2017, 88% of the original companies had changed. That means that 440 of the companies are either out of business, acquired or supplanted by their competition. Don’t let this happen to you! Capture your operational models, collaborate on them, simulate potential improvements and monitor (and mitigate) risks.  Or be the innovative disruptor.

Transformation happens, too. Think IBM shifting from mainframes to PCs and now to software and professional services. Or Amazon, from a pretty stellar ecommerce provider to a pretty stellar ecommerce provider with an amazing, hyperscale cloud hosting side hustle (Amazon Web Services). Or Apple, who transformed from a computer company, to a computer plus MP3 music player company and then phone + tablet + watch + TV business, and is now generating more of its revenue from services (iTunes Music and the App Store) than hardware!

So what about the “digital” flavor of transformation? Despite being arguably the most “buzzy” of the words, digital transformation also describes the most narrow range of change. At the simplistic end of the continuum, it could simply be converting analog to digital; paper files to electronic files, brick & mortar to ecommerce, call center to chat. But it can go much further, potentially replacing employees with bots, analysts with artificial intelligence, and miscellaneous customer interactions with carefully charted customer journeys.  In fact, some will say that digital transformation is solely about finding new/improved ways to engage with customers. That it’s only about carefully mapping customer journeys and tweaking them methodically, often using digital systems, platforms and networks. But others won’t.

I know many of these words have subjective interpretations, so let me know if you think I’ve miscategorized anything. I’d love to discuss. I’d also love to help. iGrafx is a digital transformation engine. The most scalable, enterprise-grade engine available. It’s all we do.

Happy transformation.

Last week I had the unique opportunity to attend BP3’s “Driven – Innovation in Digital Business Operations” conference right here in Austin.  My opportunity wasn’t unique because I was the only guy there, in fact, there were a couple of hundred attendees.  It was unique for me because I had just started in my new position with iGrafx a month prior, so I was seeing the event through a brand new lens.

Before iGrafx, I worked for a company you’ve likely heard of, IBM, where I was worldwide sales manager and SME for the entire process documentation and discovery SaaS portfolio.  My time at IBM taught me quite a bit about the breadth of the BPM space.  I learned about the value of simple, easy to use software, and I learned to navigate a monstrously large, multi-tentacled organization to get stuff done.  I also learned that it’s difficult (impossible) for a company to really be “everything to everyone” and do a very good job.

At BP3’s Driven event I had the chance to see smaller, point solution providers acknowledging that they weren’t trying to be everything to everyone, but instead committing to being the best at what they focus on.  Whether it was RPA from Automation Anywhere, BPM suites from Pega, or low code/no code automation from Bizagi, it was clear that these vendors were all-in on what they do best.  It was refreshing.

Also refreshing was listening to Rob Koplowitz from Forrester deliver his keynote presentation and hearing him explain that customer journey mapping is far and away the biggest driver in process improvement initiatives.  This year it drove 57% of projects and is expected to grow moving into 2019.  This resonated with me, because it proves that enterprises are looking putting their money where their mouth is with digital transformation. 

Ultimately, I moved from Big Blue to significantly smaller iGrafx because I saw the writing on the wall.  I truly believe that the wave of “real” digital transformation is starting to grow, and I wanted to be at a place that is dedicated to delivering it.  It felt amazing to be part of the group of laser focused vendors at the Driven event, knowing that I have 400 years of process mapping, modeling, simulation, compliance and automation experience backing me up, and that we truly enable digital transformation better than anyone else in the industry.

I’d love the opportunity to talk more with you about the Driven event, or why I moved to iGrafx, so feel free to comment or connect!

I just ran across a really interesting infographic produced by Wells Fargo, titled: “What Keeps Tech CEOs and CFOs Up at Night?” It’s interesting to me, not just because I’m part of the C-suite at a tech company, or because Wells Fargo is one of our valued customers, but because so much of what they suggest is born out in what I see every day.

First and foremost, I was first struck that the infographic suggests that what keeps CEOs up at night ultimately falls into two main buckets:

1. Mitigate and minimize risk (from cyber threats, from regulatory/compliance obligations and from competition)
2. Maximize opportunities (to improve brand reputation, to leverage emerging tech and to execute on strategy)

I suppose this adheres to the old maxim that CEOs are only interested in two things: “making or saving money,” but this infographic does a nice job parsing out the pain/opportunity points.

• 93% of tech CEOs are worried about product relevancy in three years
• 33% say regulatory risk is a top concern
• 69% assessed cyber risk in their organizations over the previous 12 months, and 53% updated 3rd party risk policies
• 90% are up at night thinking about the possible effects of global economic forces
• 88% aren’t sure about how millennials will impact the business
• Etc.

It’s clearly not an easy time to be a business leader. With GDPR going into effect on May 25th of this year, and then California announcing a “GDPR 2.0” shorty thereafter, and now signs that the FTC will develop broader GDPR-like laws in the U.S., regulatory compliance is on everyone’s mind. Then add data privacy to existing regulations like SOX, PCI, HIPAA (if you touch healthcare PII), ISO (if you’re in manufacturing), et al, and it’s a party you likely wish you hadn’t been invited to attend.

Then there’s the daily worry about cyber security with updates about Russian hackers and bots, and news about the data security breach du jour. Leaders at the Democratic Party, Equifax, Target, Uber, JP Morgan Chase, Sony, VeriSign, eBay, Yahoo and countless others have had to deal with the financial and reputational aftermath of security breaches over the last decade.  And as we march steadily into “the 4th industrial revolution,” with the intersection of physical and digital business (think AI, Automation, Cognitive Computing, IoT), the risks are going to increase exponentially.  Heck, even the Girl Scouts are now offering a merit badge for cyber security!

Finally, there’s the constant discussion about digital transformation: AKA “avoiding digital disruption.” Ensuring that your product will be relevant in three years and that you’ve mapped the journeys of your current customers as well as the millennials who will (if you don’t screw it up), replace them over time.

All in all, it’s no small feat. And it’s exactly why iGrafx created a Digital Transformation Engine that has been adopted by 2/3 of the Fortune 100 and 5 of the top 10 US banks (like our friends at Wells Fargo). Please reach out so we can help you sleep better at night.

Written by Guest Blogger, Paula Bell, CEO at Paula A Bell Consulting.

In my last article, we talked about how the key to strategy execution is to ensure the strategy is communicated, accepted and supported by executive team.  In addition, we discussed how you must ensure individuals are held accountable to the strategy. This month I would like to focus on how, as a Business Analyst, you can help in the execution of the strategy.

1. Understand the strategy in your organization – if you do not know the strategy of your organization then ask for it. Your leader in the organization should know what the strategy is. If you cannot find it on your internal websites, nor can your leader articulate the strategy, then you have red flags. You are playing in a field of ambiguity, with lack of accountability, lack of clear vision, and goals. If you can influence defining the strategy, I highly encourage you to do so. Again, “A goal without a plan is just a wish”. Organizations are in the business of making profits by servicing customers.  I can guarantee they would prefer to not achieve their goals on a wish.
2. Understand how the work you are doing links to the strategy of the organization – if your organization has a clear strategy ensure you understand how the work you are doing aligns with that strategy. This will provide you with empowerment and engagement, despite any challenges that may come your way. You are helping with the execution of the strategy.  You are making a difference and you are achieving company goals and objectives.
3. Understand your role and expectations – it’s important to understand expectations. I have been in a few roles in my career where expectations were not clearly set, and it caused enormous amounts of confusion.  It also slowed down execution.  If you don’t understand your role, or that of others involved in the initiative, I would highly recommend you leverage your skill of influence to communicate the importance of defined roles, responsibilities and expectations.
4. Hold people accountable – this not only applies internally but also with business partners.  Unfortunately, there are many experiences where, instead of holding him/her/them accountable, someone else takes on their work. This sets a precedence that will not help in execution in the long run. It is imperative people are held accountable in the organization. This may take some influence on your end, but this is where the leadership of the project manager, sponsor and other leaders in the organization needs to ensure individuals are held accountable to complete their piece of the execution.

As business analysts, you will need to leverage a lot of influence, collaboration, relationship building, communication and teamwork to execute the strategy.  And as business analysts, you have the skill set necessary to drive and execute on the strategy.

My next article will discuss how leaders and entrepreneurs can help to execute strategy as well.  As stated we need ALL parties to help in execution of strategy.

The healthcare industry is a tough one. According to World Health Organization, while in the hospital 1 in every 10 patients is harmed.  But there is hope - they also have found that investments in reducing patient safety incidents can lead to both better patient outcomes and significant financial savings. In fact, in the US alone, focused safety improvements led to an estimated $28 billion in savings between 2010 and 2015. Therefore hospitals are constantly working to improve medical care and patient safety. And one of the best ways to do this is through the standardization of processes and operations.

In our latest case study, we take a look at the story of iGrafx customer, Kitasato University Hospital. They were opening a new hospital and needed to understand their current operations and create news ones based on learnings. The hospital and their staff did not have experience in visualizing operations and needed help.

Download the case study to understand: 

• How the hospital built a common communication infrastructure
• Gained a clear understanding of potential risks and how to avoid them
• Increased visibility of the hospital’s operations for all employees
• Avoided the inefficiencies that had plagued the hospital in the past

The crucial step of understanding their current processes and operations allowed the new hospital to avoid many problems down the road and led to a smooth transfer of operations. Download now to understand exactly how the organization did it, and how iGrafx helped.

Download Now

While some companies talk about their “open door” and “transparency” with their customers, at iGrafx, those are part of our core values.  A large percentage of updates and enhancements you have seen to our platform over the years have come directly from you.  Our latest 17.4 release is no exception. 

In addition to updated and enhanced web modelling capabilities, the latest release of iGrafx 17.4 provides greater capabilities for managing platform objects and increased audit capabilities requested by many of our customers.

Who can create?

In the past, the creation of platform objects was restricted to only those with Architect access.  In 17.4 this capability has been extended, so that those who are responsible for diagramming can now propose new objects into the process landscape.

These Designers can also propose the location and RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) relationship information, thus expediting the creation of our modeling and process landscape. 

Once created, Architects can review, correct, and accept any new proposals.

Improved Audit Capabilities

It has been requested on numerous occasions that the cycle management capabilities of documents and diagrams be extended to all objects within the platform.  In the latest 17.4 release, this is now possible.  All objects can now be submitted for OR have a defined scheduled review cycle.

All updates to the object are also tracked so that auditors may see when items were last modified, reviewed, approved, and by who.

In addition, you will now be able to submit multiple objects for review or approval at the same time.  This will greatly increase the efficiency of those that need to schedule multiple files or even entire directories for approval at the same time.

In some instances, while the document may be approved, the actual effective date of the new policy or process may be in the future. 

Having this ability provides the option of revising and getting the documents approved prior to the updates going live.  This effective date on documentation is also a requirement in some Health Care, Pharmaceutical, and Manufacturing audits.

Your cycle management settings can be reported on so that you can quickly view not just current, but upcoming cycles. 

This will provide greater visibility into who is accessing the platform and how it is being used.

Would you like to see these updates in action?  Check out this video highlighting the changes and get a complete list 17.4 updates and enhancements in our release notes.

Watch Now

The power of the iGrafx platform has always rested on two main pillars:  Sophisticated BPMN diagramming and the corresponding repository of objects that represent different components of your business.  Together these allow for elegant and robust process diagrams which can be augmented with additional data in the form of repository objects. While these two pieces form a powerful combo, there has historically been some friction in the process of connecting them.

What we have found from listening to our customers is that those who create diagrams (modelers) and those who manage repositories (architects) are rarely the same people.  As repositories can contain a wealth of important and sensitive data, those tasked with creating diagrams are usually not given access to repository objects.  Therefore, object creation is usually left to architects.  This often results in confusion on the part of the modeler, as they usually won’t know which pieces of the diagram are represented by already existing objects, which should be represented by new objects, and which should not.  It also results in an unfortunate duplication of effort for the architect, as the modeler has basically already done the work of conceptualizing the process landscape.

What can we do to remove this source of friction?  We came up with a solution that we love and that we know you’ll love too.  New in iGrafx 17.4, we’ve rolled out a way to create Proposed Objects from within a diagram. Essentially, if a modeler thinks that a diagram element should describe some object, they can propose that a new object should be created with the title set to the diagram element’s text.  This new object can later be assessed, edited and ultimately approved by an architect.  The object is then created automatically either on check-in of the diagram or when it becomes the current approved version (depending on your repository settings).

The new tool allows the modeler to fully customize the new proposed object’s properties and relationships.  It will even suggest a location for it based on the diagram element hierarchy.

Knowing that reviewing and accepting every single proposed object in a diagram individually is a potentially tedious and unnecessary process, we also created a way to allow architects to accept all proposals at once, creating a whole new process landscape instantly. 

We’re always trying to provide our customers with new tools that make process modeling and management simpler and more streamlined.  Proposed objects were created because web diagram modeling and repository object creation should be as frictionless as possible.  We think we’ve succeeded and look forward to your feedback!

This year’s BP-3 Driven conference was a fantastic experience with meeting practitioners and vendors all over the BPM space, who are in agreement about the imperative to automate in support of great customer experience.  So much attention is given to getting to the execution so quickly, that proper planning can be overlooked.  This upfront planning is key to long term success, and it’s the Origins of iGrafx.