PegaWORLD 2011 - Focus on Customer Centricity
Guest Post by Kapil Nanchahal, Associate Practice Engagement Manager with the Infosys BPM EAI practice. He has over 11 years of experience in consulting and implementation of package software, specifically middleware products. His focus areas include setup of CoEs, solution space definition, creating strategy and roadmaps and engagement management for middleware implementations specifically dealing with BPM.
We are at the end of day 1 of PegaWORLD 2011 now. As expected, Customer Centricity was at the core of the messages being delivered across all Pega sessions. Hence, it was not surprising that Alan Trefler opened the keynote address identifying Customer Service and Loyalty as the most important goal for Pega solutions.
The keynote sessions were interspersed with the regular highlights of fast growth, leadership positioning by Gartner and Forrester, a 1600 strong attendee list making it the largest BPM-focused event. But that’s not what makes Pegaworld or Pega stand out from other players in the BPM space. To me the differentiator for Pega is the thought leadership they bring to the space. Let me point to a few instances from the keynote sessions:
The approach of ‘Tying together’ rules and process elements of BPM seems to be more prudent rather than ‘gluing’ together varied and sometimes incoherent components. A scenario well illustrated with an image of Frankenstein representing a ‘gluing of dead companies’.
Innovation is an intersection of Invention — the ability to ideate and the ability to deliver or execute the idea pragmatically
The concept of Customer Oriented Architecture (COA - we never seem to fall short of new acronymns, do we?!) with its three pillars of Cross Channel interaction, Cross-silo processes and the focus on immediacy
Case Management shouldn’t be seen as file labeling alone, that is, collation of related attributes into a single file; it should focus on ‘Case Automation’ in order to achieve its true objective
The focus of workflow should actually be ‘work do’ rather than just routing the work
On the other hand one could have expected a more stand-out theme, a new statement that is strikingly different from the messages Pega has propagated in the past. That is something I found missing and would certainly hope that it is accommodated by the time we are in Dallas for Pegaworld 2012. But that’s still some way to go.
On the product front there were some key announcements about PRPC 6.2 like removal of dependency on Visio for modelling, reusable UI controls, dynamic user experience screens, enhancements to case management, incorporation of business events and predictive analytics into the suite. While some of them like reusable controls sound very ‘2001-ish’ it is refreshing to see events and predictive analytics making it to the product. While most mature products boast of similar feature set, it is the combination of these with the existing rules and process capabilities that Pega can look to use as a differentiator. It was also good to hear from Allen that Chordiant is not just integrated but ‘unified’ with the rest of the package. While the year to come will validate the extent of this unification, that I am sure ranks high on Pega’s priority, else they themselves stand the risk of being labelled as a company that glues disparate BPM components!
The afternoon had a well articulated session from Christine Gendron and Julie Aldrich of MassMutual that talked about the Customer Experience program at MassMutual, and how the ‘Build for Change’ platform was used for an agile BPM implementation. The Business Technology participation that we often yearn for in IT projects was very much at display here and so was the team’s passion for agile development methodology. Change management, being a core component of agile implementations, was highlighted quite well in the session. Particularly interesting was the way of articulating how the flow from Strategy -> Direction -> Definition was correspondingly accomplished by Program Leadership -> Vision Framework Team -> Tech Governance Team -> Feature Development Team.
Another session that caught the audience’s attention was from Clarisa Stollenwerck of Carnival Cruise Lines. For one, it was good to see a non-insurance and banking client talk about early success, something that I anticipated in my blog yesterday. The highlight of the Pega solution here was the way ‘a customer case is shipped’ onboard, when the ship is ashore, just like the rest of the baggage. Pega team and Clarisa explained how the relevant case data is transferred to the ship, so that the Pega application onboard can provide the same customer experience that a ground inquiry would receive, without going through a satellite link. I can certainly see application of this architecture in field services and mobile applications that remain disconnected for a long time.
The Infosys participation at the event has been good overall. There was a fruitful meeting with Alan Trefler and team, discussing about areas of partnership and enablement.
I am keen to see if day 2 has any strikingly different messages. I don’t suspect it would, at this point. But the schedule is certainly packed with some very interesting sessions and meetings. I am hoping to post my take on the sessions, before we end the day. Until then, I look forward to your comments, queries online or in our booth, if you happen to be there.
