Recently I have been reading blogs and threads about why BPM or BPMS is not being taken seriously by companies. The responses are numerous and all either offer criticism or hope. I think BPM has missed the boat.
BPM does not adequately address the one thing that companies do already, even manually - they manage business context. They would like to do it better I am told on the streets and in local coffee shops, but they don't really see any products out there that help, at least not help a lot.
It reminds me of the attitude 20 years ago when so many of us were trying to get people excited about "workflow" and "process automation". Many executives and employees alike believed that email was all the process they needed. They would stick files on a shared drive or directory then email the next person on the list or in the "workflow" and VIOLA!, process automation.
Looking back on it I realize now what they were saying to us vendors - we don't just manage documents, or processes, we manage business context. We want to have everything a person needs to get their job done at their finger tips. But so as long as the only thing we provide them are electronic documents, what's the big fuss all about? Attach the file to an email or shove it onto a shared drive and you have access, control, and collaboration. Do we need more, sure we do! But all you offer are disjointed tools for Business intelligence, rules, mapping, so why bother?
I think Business Context is very important, and to manage it means you are doing something bigger and better than just document management or process automation. At Ingenuus we are rolling out a series of Business Context solutions targeted to address particular opportunities. Our first will be Legal Document Management. I am excited, and I think its about time we changed things up a bit.
