Business process

Budget saver: Ramping up process automation with free automation tools

Recently, I’ve been talking to CIOs at midsized organizations about whether the recession is over and the recovery has begun. In some industries at least, the cost-cutting isn’t over and the need to do more with less continues as a mandate. Some organizations are now cutting maintenance contracts, as Linda Tucci wrote this week. Others are turning to business process automation through scripting or the use of automation tools to automate parts of IT like help desk requests — sometimes for free. Continued »

Don’t be like GM: How a BPM strategy can help you avoid bankruptcy

Midmarket CIOs who think of a business process management (BPM) strategy in its basic form as a tool for putting processes around purchase orders, claims or employee onboarding and offboarding should re-consider the role it plays in business sustainability during a recession, according to one analyst.

“You look at all the businesses that didn’t survive the recession – some of them were in a bad market segment, OK, but some of them just couldn’t scale down fast enough,” said Clay Richardson, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. “Look at GM, for example. That’s really the GM issue — they couldn’t scale down fast enough.”

Although a BPM strategy and scalability might seem like minor factors among the financial obstacles GM is facing, the expansive company has been unable to respond quickly enough to decreases in demand — GM has lost about $88 billion since 2005 — and as a result, was forced to file for bankruptcy protection.

As more and more businesses suffer the same fate (Chrysler, Circuit City, Linens ’n Things) how helpful can a BPM strategy be for companies in a rocky economic climate? Continued »