BPM-EAI

A lot of time these are used interchangeably, however to me these are different concepts and should be managed differently.

Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) COE is all about formation of COE around the BPMS tool set which organization wants to rollout across organization. Typically BPMS COE has two primary drivers

• Maximize adoption of the tool in the organization to improve automation, tracking and quicker delivery of flexible composite application.
• Lower TCO  for adoption of this toolset

On the other hand Business Process Management (BPM) COE is all about the approach and methods one should use manage business processes better. This should not be mistaken as the method for delivering a business solution, instead it is about helping organization to discover its processes, identify the business metrics for the process, implementing the process where the business metrics can be measured and continuously improved. Typically BPM COE will be working with business team to enable them to identify, document, implement (Automate, Standardize) and measure their processes. BPM COE may sometime provide the required assistance in terms of approach to improve these processes; however the decision making authority exist outside the BPM COE. Typically BPM COE has process improvement & standardization driver in addition to the standard driver identified for BPMS COE

• Process Improvement & Standardization driver is to ensure maximum number of end to end processes is documented, measurements are identified and management reporting is provided for the process KPI. This should also be supported by automation initiatives for processes

Hence under BPM COE the focus changes from managing an all purpose tool, to enabling management of processes through process modeling, KPI modeling, Process information and simulation based continuous improvement and lastly KPI reporting to management.

Business Process Competency Center (BPCC) is all about management of Business Processes to deliver maximum business value. In BPCC the focus is on end to end business process to provide service to its clients, in a manner which will ensure complete customer satisfaction, with optimal usage of resources required by the process, at a lowest cost of execution, with minimal operation overhead. The differentiating concepts of BPCC are

• Formation of competency unit for a business process with business users to do
• Certain specialized activity within the process
• Improve adoption of systems across organization to improve operational efficiency of processes
• And lastly to conduct frequent improvement initiatives around processes (Like Lean Sig Sigma) for improving operational efficiency, reduce execution cost, improve customer satisfaction
• Unlike BPM & BPMS COE, BPCC's focus is not on the tool but on the set of tools that is used to implement the end to end process. Hence BPCC sits above all technology including ERP, Legacy etc.. which is part of end to end process realization
• Unlike BPM COE, BPCC needs to track Business Metrics rather than the process metrics. Hence BPCC inherently needs to define methods and approach for translating Business KPI's to Process KPI's before implementing process performance improvement.
• BPCC should manage process standardization and manage governance around processes across the organization

Sometime in various discussions people do ask me if these three different COE indicates any sort of maturity model.

My personal opinion is no. The reason being BPMS & BPM COE is typically driven by IT whereas BPCC is driven by business. In the case of BPMS COE, BPM COE can be potentially seen as its matured offering but I believe making the transition from a BPMS COE to BPM COE will be difficult if the same organization that had been running the BPMS COE is asked to convert it into BPM COE. However if an organization have multiple BPMS COE then it is important and beneficial for them to form BPM COE from these two BPMS COE.