What is “BPaaS” BPM Adoption Model for BPM Processes deployment?

As commented in one of ours recent posts, by "BPM Adoption" we understand the way that some organizations have undertaken to relieve, optimize, automate and outsource part of their business processes, with the ultimate aim of achieving and maintaining the Operational Excellence that ensure them a sustainable competitive advantage.

To simplify our analysis, we have grouped the various strategies of BPM Adoption usually followed by organizations in four archetypal models, which we have called "Process Team", "Cloud", "Consulting" and "BPaaS".

Each model is characterized by the decision organizations have made in terms of the Mode of Development of the automation solutions, differentiating whether they do or plan to do by internal or external means; and the Mode of Operation of such automation solutions, differentiating if they do or plan to do either on internal systems (on-premises) or external (on Cloud or on an external Data Centre).

Under the “BPaaS” model, the last of the four BPM Adoption Models analyzed in this series of posts, both the development of automation solutions and their exploitation, are external, thus combining the features of the "Consulting" model and the "Cloud" models as it is shown in the next figure:

Under this model complete and integrated services are provide, but with two substantial differences with other models:

• The automation solution, even is available as a more or less standard and packaged solution, although it requires some customization for each client (at least for the initial configuration and integration with corporate applications Client); or, the solution, that was initially developed for a first client, becomes standard, and then can be used in the future for third party customers with similar needs, again with the required customization for each new client.
• Other services called BPO (Business Process Operation and Business Process Outsourcing) can be incorporated into the value proposition of the service provider to provide them in the form of personal services that go beyond pure computer service applications.

In this case then, the main and only external actor, is the so called BPaaS Services Operator Services, who integrates various products and services, and builds a packaged offering, including the development, customization and integration of applications and, in some cases, physical operation of certain tasks in the business process in behalf of the Customer; thus acting as prime contractor in front of the customer, for the various products and services including personal ones, required to automate and operate the corresponding business process.

Under this model, the BPMS Platform used loses most of its relevance (except giving prestige to the Operator and then security and confidence to the Client), since what matters is that the solution is the best suited to the client's needs with effortlessly development and customization with maximum flexibility, and that the operator can meet the SLA (Service Level Agreement) committed to the Customer.

Under this scheme, many other tools appear on stage (OCR, ICR, ECM, DMS, BRMS, DB, ESB, SSO, ...) to build the technological ecosystem required for an automated, safe and efficient operation of the deployed business processes.

The Cloud used in this model can be Public, in which case, the security of Client data and documents are the responsibility of the Operator and this delegates it to the data center providing IaaS and PaaS services.

However, many customers prefer their data and documents remain on their own servers, whether they installed internal (on-premises) or external (Private Cloud), thus the need to operate models Hybrid Cloud appears as a mixture of the Public Cloud certain characteristics of on-premises.

In our opinion, the standardization that allows the reuse of process automation solutions for all business customers requiring this type of solution, is the key for this model being sustainable and so successful, achieving significantly reduction of  both CAPEX (CAPital EXpenses) and OPEX (OPerating EXpenses) regarding to others BPM Adoption Models.

 

What is “Consulting” BPM Adoption Model for BPM Processes deployment?

As commented in one of ours recent posts, by "BPM Adoption" we understand the way that some organizations have undertaken to relieve, optimize, automate and outsource part of their business processes, with the ultimate aim of achieving and maintaining the Operational Excellence that ensure them a sustainable competitive advantage.

To simplify our analysis, we have grouped the various strategies of BPM Adoption usually followed by organizations in four archetypal models, which we have called "Process Team", "Cloud", "Consulting" and "BPaaS".

Each model is characterized by the decision organizations have made in terms of the Mode of Development of the automation solutions, differentiating whether they do or plan to do by internal or external means; and the Mode of Operation of such automation solutions, differentiating if they do or plan to do either on internal systems (on-premises) or external (on Cloud or on an external Data Centre).

The “Consulting” model we analyze in this post is similar to the “Process Team”BPM Adoption Model already analyzed in a previous publication, but characterized by customers transferring the responsibility of development to an external actor, the Consulting Company.

Then, we categorize under this “Consulting” model to these organizations that choose the External Development Mode, by delegating this responsibility to an external actor having a Business Consultancy, Implementer and/or Integrator profile; and that applies the Internal Exploitation Mode of the developed applications operating them on internal infrastructure and platform resources, just as in the model "Process Team" mentioned above. This model is described in the next figure:

In this “Consulting” model, the main external actor o actors are the Consultant, Implementer and/or Integrator companies contracted by the Client for the execution of the project and, the main project vectors are the business knowledge and the technology skills that have one or more of such companies.

Often the project scope is split between more than one external companies, each of them having specific profiles of the three methodology/technology specialties required: business consultancy, Implementation of automation solutions on BPMS Platforms and integration of these solutions with the corporate applications.

Risk and responsibility for the development of the project are on the external company (ies) side, although the Client follows the project very closely with its own business and IT people.

Some BPMS vendors tread this ground to their distributors (these ones usually called "partners"), making this development work and implementation directly to their end customers, especially when it comes to large companies or corporations or the BPMS vendors are small-mid size in the first stage of their product/business development.

As consultancy companies and, especially, implementers and integrators chosen by the customer to perform the BPM project cannot master all the 400+ BPMS technologies available, the market supplying BPM business consulting and technology services is fragmented by BPMS Platforms.

The BPMS Platform on which to implement automation solutions, is either selected by the customer and from this derive the Consultant / Implanter chosen (either the same BPMS Vendor or one partner belonging to the BPMS Vendor ecosystem) or customer selects the Consultant/Implanter and from this derives the BPMS Platform, among the ones Consultant/Implanter is capable to support (usually no more than two or three).

Under this BPM Adoption Model project costs are very high and often extra-costs appears, either by insufficient prior definition of the project, either by the difficulty of configuring these tools or their functional weaknesses and, in large part, by changes on the initial customer’s thoughts or new process improvement ideas that arise as a consequence of the process optimization exercise done during the course of the project.

Therefore, this “Consulting” model has similar or even higher CAPEX (CAPital EXpenses) and the same OPEX (OPerational EXpenses) than the “Process Team”BPM Adoption Model.

In this regard, we believe that standardization and reusability of BPM automation solutions will be critical issues in the future so that implantation and integration companies could to be more competitive in their BPM projects.

4 different BPM Adoption Models followed by organizations for the deployment of BPM Processes

By "BPM Adoption" we understand the way that some organizations have undertaken to relieve, optimize, automate and outsource part of their business processes with the ultimate aim of achieving and maintaining the Operational Excellence that ensure them a sustainable competitive advantage.

Our view is that, to go this way, organizations must rely on two master columns:

1.     OPEX (Operational Excellence), BPM and Change Management methodologies, and

2.   A set of technologies that, combined together and integrated with corporate legacy applications, provide efficient solutions to automate its business processes.

For a few years (not more than a decade), organizations have implemented various strategies to make progress towards the adoption of BPM, strategies that we call "BPM Adoption Model" and discussed in this post.

To simplify our analysis, we have grouped the various strategies BPM Adoption Models usually followed by organizations in four archetypal models, which we have called "Process Team", "Cloud", "Consulting" and "BPaaS".

We have based the allocation of an organization to a specific BPM Adoption Model depending on its position in terms of two characteristics that have considered the most essential in relation to this positioning:

1.     As to the mode of development of the automation solutions, differentiating whether they do or plan to do by internal or external means; and

2.     As to the mode of exploitation of such automation solutions, differentiating if they do or plan to do either on internal systems (on-premises) or external (on Cloud or on an external Data Centre).

This dual classification allows us to define the following BPM Adoption Model quadrant:

Obviously, it could happen that a determined organization has applied or going to apply a strategy that, in fact, is a combination of several of the above listed  archetypal models.

Nevertheless, the simplification achieved by segmented the BPM Adoption Model analysis into the four models mentioned in previous paragraphs, will help us better understanding the scenario and to make a qualitative attempt and quantitative description of the situation of organizations in BPM Adoption Model and foreseeable future developments.

We have to keep in mind the fact that many organizations have evolved their initially established BPM Adoption Model depending on the results that they have been progressively obtained and the successive brakes and barriers they have been found along their BPM Processes implementation journey.

proceedit methodologies and technologies are the clue for full, efficient and resilient BPM Process co-development, standardization & reutilization and then permitting to eliminate the existing barriers for the massive BPM adoption

With the traditional IT approach (tailor made projects for each customer) and the usual way to use BPMS technologies (almost all the configuration of the process is made on the platform) by BPM technologists,  the analysis, development, integration, testing and implementation of a BPM Process Class of average complexity (around 20 tasks) supposes and average effort of around 1.000 man-hours*, including in this figure the efforts on the customer side to define requirements, testing and training users and administrators of the BPM Process Class. 

In addition to that, the evolutionary maintenance of each BPM Process Class consumes on a recursive many highly skilled business and technology human resources and then leading to hidden but high and frequently recurrent process operating costs that reduces the savings obtained by the implementation of the BPM Process Class.

Taken in account that an average sized organization has a list of around 200 business process to be automated in a first wave, this cumulated effort of around 200.000 man-hours per organization is the main real barrier that has avoided till now the massive adoption of BPM, especially in mid and small size organizations. 

proceedit considers that the clue to overcome this tremendous barrier goes through a drastic change of paradigm in the BPM Industry. In our opinion, as we show in the following figure, the value chain Co-development > Standardization > Reutilization > Low Cost is the only way to achieve a massive, affordable and sustainable BPM Process adoption, especially when we are talking about mid and small size organizations. 

In fact, the unique Business Model and methodological and technological approaches applied by the Multinational Technology Cluster proceedit when building and customizing BPM Process Classes, were created and had been successfully implemented specifically to implement the above value chain on an efficient self-sustainable way.

This is reflected in the following figure were we show how our dyPAS (dynamic Process Application Server) technology brings proceedit and its Cluster Members the capability to co-develop and standardize BPM Process Classes, and this permits the reutilization of these BPM Process Class among many customers, and this drives to drastic reduction of the process implementation/use costs which, in turn, makes this BPM Process Class affordable and sustainable, even for mid and small size organizations,  and then this fact feedback this virtuous circle by incrementing the reutilization of the Process Class and again reduces cost and … in a never-end very powerful fedback booster of massive BPM adoption.

* Data obtained from the results of our BPMS, BPM & BPaaS Market Survey 2014. You can contribute to this survey at the following link: https://es.surveymonkey.com/s/LHKY2FL

If you are interested, you can see partial preliminary results of our BPM Survey at the following link: https://es.surveymonkey.net/results/SM-87TRMB6/