IBM Impact 2014: Incremental Transformation & Innovation

There is a noted change, here at Impact, in the Process and Decision areas in 2014. There are less technical architecture charts and more business focused case studies. What's more important is that some of the case studies were headed towards transformation and others were just plain innovative. While I miss some of the architecture charts and I wanted to see use typical uses cases with products linked to them, I still prefer the customer stories.

Transformation:

While there were a goodly number of point process case studies that delivered high amounts of business benefits, there were several examples of incremental transformation. In fact KPMG had an architecture and tools that enabled IBM BPM shops to rapidly delver multiple process projects aimed towards incremental transformation. That aside, several firms had long running process programs that are changing the way todays business works. Organizations that are on this path are Nationwide, GE Capital, Lutron and Supervielle Bank. This was encouraging and I expect to see more large scale examples emerge from the IBM customer base over time. Read more about incremental transformation:

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/07/incremental-transformation-is-here-today.html


Innovation:

Both IBM & some of it's customer base are showing innovation. Criiel life science has designed a genomic data ecosystem that offers storage of genomic data, expert interpretation an a process driven interchange framework that delivers clinically-relevant genomic interpretation at the point of care. Watson is a main piece of the technology base that delivers a prescription regiment modeling tool for physicians.

Watson itself will be changing the man-machine relationship in new ways. Watson can take knowledge fragments from many data sources and deliver statistical hypothesis that can be improves over time as the knowledge base expands and refines. It is wicked fast and wicked cool. It also keeps knowledge based personas on all the participants (human or not) and links them in near real time. This is amazing stuff !!!!

Net; Net:

IBM and it's client base is delivering transformational result with innovation. IBM is being innovative as it is using rapid mobile development, & cloud as Trojan horses to drag in BPM, Advanced ODM and Cognitive Computing. I can't wait until next year to see what clients do with IBM's offerings

See http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2014/04/ibm-impact-2014-ibm-flexes-its-process.html 

IBM Impact 2014: IBM Flexes It's Process and Decisioning Muscles

The size and scale of Impact is mind boggling, but finding good content was pretty easy for process management and decision management. While both are contributors to IBM key themes of mobile and cloud, it is clear to me that IBM is delivering on their 2013 Impact promises by delivering solid case studies from their customers. While I have not heard a transformational case study yet, it is clear IBM wants to partner with organizations that want incremental transformation. I am satisfied that IBM is gaining momentum in the process and decision management arenas. Add the power of Watson under the emerging cognitive computing theme and IBMs future is so bright, it might have to wear shades.

See http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/04/ibm-impact-2013-ibm-commits-to-smarter.html

Besides the wonderful panel on the future of process, decision management, cloud and the internet of things, there were a couple nice case studies for day one of Impact that caught my attention.

Tangerine Financial:

The combination of mobile and process management allowed the bank to win new customers.

Square:

The combination of mobile payments and process allowed for better roaming checkouts and revenue lift.

Delta:

Implementing a set of very complex rule combinations allowed Delta to make sure their pilot assignments were appropriate and legal. This was done with a fixed target date.

Fidelity:

Was able to deliver compliance documents in an effective manner for their partnering employers to keep them in the Fidelity fold.

While none of these were transformation focused, you could see the seeds for incremental transformation with successful first implementations for some mainstay IBM clients. I can't wait to see what day 2 of Impact delivers :)

The New Technology Society is Emerging

A new technology driven society is just around the corner. The building blocks of the this remake are here today and the moves organizations make will determine their outcome as a winner or a loser. The organizations are in a demanding race to be the best digital organization in their respective or adjoining sectors. Please see the link to a short video below to learn more about the new technical society.

Please enjoy the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSHlcrJ_UCM&feature=em-upload_owner


Please read about one of the key building blocks:  Smart Agent Oriented Processes

http://www.amazon.com/Business-Process-Management-Next-Wave/dp/0929652223/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=A16IAGG0Q8TTTG

Free PEX Business Process Webinar on Wagile Methods

The Process Excellence Network (PEX) is offering a free webinar on reducing the risk of process project failure and increasing your chances for delivering better business results with processes.
It is being presented by Dan Morris and myself. I have found that the combination of agile methods and traditional waterfall approaches lead to a "best of breed" method that delivers. This combination enables the delivery of innovative and dynamic processes for superior business performance  See
http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2014/03/successful-digital-organizations-slay.html

Please join us for a session on Wagile for BPM by signing up on the link below:

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/business-process-management-bpm/webinars/reduce-the-risk-of-bpm-project-failure-with-a-new/&utm_source=processexcellencenetwork.com&utm_medium=IQ&utm_campaign=IQHomeListing&utm_term=webinar&mac=SSIQ_WBNR_Featured_2010

The Digital Organization is Fully Dynamic

Dynamic digital organizations have the ability to adapt to what ever faces them in a manner that outperforms expectations. This is much easier said than done. It requires the ability to embrace better practices, influence behavior, and attain process outcomes in the mist of shifting business conditions. This requires organizations to master change,  incremental transformation and emerging technologies.

BUSINESS TARGETS:

Embrace Better Practices:

Organizations seek best practices by nature. This allows organizations to create stability and excellence. In the past era of stability, there was no need to get in front of this. We live in a different era, so just focusing on best practices will not be good enough. Dynamic organizations seek emerging better practices and are committed to anticipate and find these better practices and combine them with tried and true best practices in an ideal mixture. See the following post for more details.

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2014/01/is-better-best-or-is-best-better.html

Influence Behavior:

In organizations that are seeking better relationships and practices, there is generally a need to change the way that people behave. It might be the traditional approach to giving your employees and contractors new goals for different results, but in today's world there is more to do. If you play in a value/supply chain you will need to shift policies and constraints to influence behavior for better outcomes. If you need more revenue you will have to influence prospects and customers by anticipating their needs.

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/09/dont-stop-believing-in-change.html


Seek Process Outcomes:

Organizations that are dynamic are always looking to change and optimize their processes. This means that decisions that are in and around the processes need to be sharpened as well. Processes often recognize new patterns that need to be addressed by the business. This is particularly true of goal seeking, case based or unstructured processes. Through continually seeking new insights and acting on them with optimized processes, organizations will attain better outcomes.

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2014/04/ptiney-bowes-canada-delivers-better.html


SKILLS MASTERY:

Master Change:

If organizations want better outcomes, they need to become great at change. This requires leaders behaving in specific way by applying balanced levels of leadership, sensitivity, communication, patience and intelligence. Smart organizations usually embrace a change method. The most popular and adaptable method is ADKAR. The best organizations at change constantly practice and audit change projects.

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-ying-yang-of-change.html

Master Incremental Transformation:

Organizations have legacy behaviors, processes and systems and turn key behaviors are rare, so most organizations embrace incremental transformation practices. It's really hard to throw out system investments, so surrounding them with business differentiating processes leveraging new interfaces, flexibility features and intelligent technology. This allows organizations to learn new methods, tools and techniques while leveraging past investment in systems.

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/11/launching-process-transformation-effort.html
http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/12/telstra-is-aiming-at-wow-factor-by.html

Master Emerging Technologies:

Quite often organizations can be attracted to brand new and shiny technologies, but sharp organizations figure out profitable combinations of technologies. This makes more sense when you see examples of combinations. Example 1: Combine decisions modeling, big data, poly-analytics and in memory data to deliver better decisions. Example 2 Combine complex events, inline optimization, predictive analytics and resource orchestration to deliver better processes. Example 3: Combine mobile,  internet of things, intelligent agents and real time infrastructure for instant customer relationship management. There are many combinations that have delivered innovative and dynamic business results, so the world is your oyster.

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/07/smart-farm-operations-processes.html
http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2013/05/smart-medical-process-rated-on-cpiq.html


Net; Net: 

We are living some very exciting times for applying better methods, real time behavior and new technologies for creating more dynamic organizations. This creates opportunities for creating intelligent business operations enabled by processes. Fasten your seat belts.

For Those Who Celebrate Easter

Peace be to all. If you don't celebrate Good Friday and Easter, please pass by this one. For those who do, this is the celebration of our freedom and peace. Happy Easter !!!!

Notice the contrast of the skies for my Good Friday painting and my Ascension painting. The flower represents mankind humbled before the cross and freed from judgement and working ones way to heaven. The flying cross represents mankind's free journey to heaven via the cross.

The Digital Organization is Multi-Goal Driven

There is a management saying that goes like this  "You Get What You Measure". I would suggest that you should measure what you are targeting and that's why goals are so important. Those organizations that model their goals and can shift the weightings of these goals as needed will become the best digital organizations. Most organizations want static best practices, but the reality of today demands something else. In a simple world the only measures that count are revenue, expense and economic value. While tactically this is necessary, but there are many contributing goals that help these basic measures. Contributing and leading goals should be mapped and analyzed.

Pick Your Goals:

There are traditional contributing goals that organizations need to deal with to deliver financial results now, but there are other goals and appropriate measures to select that have either a leading or a high influence effect over time on the financial results. Here are a dozen other goals to consider to measure:

Innovation
Value/Supply Chain Excellence
Enterprise Excellence
Risk
Opportunity
Stability
Customer Rage
Service Excellence
Corporate Citizen Ship
Human Capital
Culture
Corporate Wellness


Model Your Goals:

If you don't model your goals and their relative relationship to each other, you are doomed to be react mode and let financial results slip over time. Knowing what the best balance of all the contributing goals is essential to reach great outcomes in a complex world.

Model the Scenarios for Goal Changes:

There may be situations where you need to change the relationship of contributing goals or the emphasis (weighting). At a minimum one should know the likely outcomes of weighting and relationship changes. Technologies can contribute here with goal visualization, animation and simulation.

Net; Net:

The kind of complexity that organizations have to deal with will necessitate leveraging visual and dynamic goal models. The more complex the business and the business environment. the more need for goal modeling