bpmNEXT 2018 Demonstrates Next Gen Processes

bpmNEXT aims to the definitive showcase of next generation processes (BPM) and it certainly did that this year. There were some interesting and intense demos of how process would change over time. We all saw process linking with decision management, customer journeys, IoT, process mining, advanced analytics, AI, RPA, Robots, Blockchain, voice and image recognition. There were many dimensions of process evolution practically demonstrated in 30 minute segments.

It was clear that process will be involved with significant innovation in the evolving digital world and that transformation is doable in increments. While most of the participants were vendors, there were notable visionary end users like Quicken Loans (the designers of customer journey called "Rocket Mortgage"). The hot topics were around decision management with DMN, linking with emerging technologies and automation of various kinds including AI, RPA, Mining and Robots. While one would expect a collegial environment surrounding the love of process, there was significant controversy with the powerful audience that bpmNEXT attracts. One was around DMN versus AI around transparency. Another was around Digital Business Platforms DBP being a market versus an architectural construct. I will take the blame for the later and will be creating a post for both controversies down the line.

The Digital Business Platform is a Destination for Digital Transformation:

Highlights:

The highlight demonstrations, for me, were the demos that showed the promise of voice and video based digital assistants tied to BPM. The best one in this category was given by Francois Bonnet of ITESOFT where he demonstrated the interaction of a Robot, BPM, Voice and Video Recognition working together somewhat seamlessly.

Another significant highlight came from Denis Gagne, from Trisotech, who not only demonstrated Decision Model and Notation (DMN) in modeling mode, but showed decisions in action with their associated test beds. This demo showed the full range of DMN in action. For a free webinar on Decision Management and DMN on May 11th, click here

The last, but not least, of my top three demos came from Pieter Van Schalkwyk of XMPRO where Pieter showed us process at work at the edge of an IoT network in place today. The demo focused on finding that important event or pattern at the edge with a critical part of a critical piece of safety equipment. The piece of equipment was crying out that it was at the end of it's life and needed an intervention. This involved looking through tremendous volume of events, most noise events, to find the key action trigger.

Bottom Line:

If you want to see the latest and greatest that process has to offer as it plays a key role as a digital choreographer, bpmNEXT is the place. bpmNEXT is not for beginners, but maybe it should open it's offer to show process as the true collaborator for digital transformation.