IBM's Global CIO Study 2011 has credibility. It reports on interviews with some 3,000 CIOs. And it poses some awkward questions for the BPM industry.
The study report has process running as a thread right through it, from beginning to end. CIOs are looking to simplify and streamline process; to eliminate redundant process; to standardize process; and to transform value chains with process innovation.
Most commonly, IT is seen as 'the facilitator of organizational process efficiency'. In leading organizations 99% of CIOs say they would personally lead initiatives to simplify process.
So process is on pretty much every CIO's agenda, and in many cases it's even a personal involvement.
And yet - the study reports [p.23] that CIOs do not see Business Process Management as their highest priority. In fact, BPM has slipped back as a priority - from 64% to 60% - since the last CIO Study in 2009.
Which doesn't seem to stack up - unless you read it as a sign of how canny CIOs can be.
Most CIOs have invested heavily for several years in BPM - most controversially, in teams of enterprise architects and process analysts who have engaged in building elaborate enterprise process models. But CIOs also know how little value this investment has created.
They can see that the business can't understand the IP that has been so expensively created, seeing it as overly technical and systems oriented. They observe that many times the business simply goes its own way, using Word and Visio, and whatever else is to hand, to manage and improve operational processes in a parallel world. And many CIOs find it hard to answer the question: If my expensive BPM resources failed to show up for work for the rest of the year, would anyone outside of IT really notice?
The breakthrough comes when BPM is extended to become an holistic view of the enterprise, not just what's automated. When it connects strategy with operational reality, supporting people in getting real work done and enabling them to contribute to continuous improvement. That's the path that leaders such as Nestlé and Cameron are forging.
Even better, this bigger conception of BPM releases the value already invested. By integrating the business operational view, in Nimbus Control, with the IT perspective, in SAP Solution Manager for instance, the BPM capabilities in the CIO's team come into play. They become connected and hands-on, and IT becomes a valued partner in process improvement and business transformation.
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