Public CIO - December 2008/January 2009 - (Page 39)

How to Slice $31 Million From a Process Using BPM Additionally CIOs should select an appropriate BPMS based on their scope of process needs. In choosing a BPMS, CIOs should understand what BPM “essentials” are needed in a BPM solution versus more advanced BPM features. First and foremost, a BPMS must address the human-centric and system-based processes critical to an agency. A BPMS should be able to: • design and model a process in a graphical format that the process owner can own, maintain and easily publish for process execution; • separate business rules, forms and roles from process flow for easier maintenance; • create online forms that will flow through a process — helping eliminate paper; and • monitor process activity, obtain instant visibility into process content and status, and generate reports to facilitate process improvement. The next step is to document the requirements and weigh priorities. After CIOs understand the BPM essentials and the advanced BPM features available in a BPM suite, they should note what’s most important and outline a focused requirements document to drive the evaluation process. Include functional and company performance requirements in a document to ensure they look not only at the product, but also at the vendor that will be supporting the agency. They must also outline what’s unimportant. This will remind the evaluation team not to get distracted by “cool” but unnecessary product features and extensive sales pitches. Stay focused during the evaluation. Finally CIOs must identify a shortlist of vendors. BPM solutions from large infrastructure companies may depend heavily on installing that vendor’s other applications, which could limit your ability to connect to other applications — so tread carefully. Small, niche BPM providers might not offer interfaces to your existing applications and data sets, making integration difficult. So it’s important to find a provider that supports open architectures and standards, provides many prebuilt interfaces to enterprise resource planning and document management systems, and has a proven track record in handling government-specific BPM challenges. After selecting and implementing a BPMS, the CIO should evaluate the project’s success and determine its estimated return on investment. If the project was successful, then educational workshops should be held in other departments to educate personnel on BPM’s value. This will help them identify processes that would be potential candidates for the technology. One can even establish a panel of key agency representatives and IT people who assess One example of how a government agency has achieved organization success with BPM is the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Federal Detention Trustee (OFDT). With an average daily population in excess of 55,000 detainees across 94 federal judicial districts and an annual federal detention budget exceeding $1 billion, the OFDT uses technology to manage its many functions that interact with other agencies. To help reduce detention costs, the OFDT decided to automate the administrative prisoner designation process that involves the U.S. Federal Courts, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). To meet this challenge, the OFDT developed a new and innovative electronic paper flow system called eDesignate. The eDesignate system collects all documents in the designation process by connecting to the OFDT’s district databases and synchronizing them. BPM software presents one complete designation package to the BOP at a single point in time — which is a radical departure from past practices. In addition, the eDesignate system establishes metrics, tracks progress and provides an audit trail for the designation process. The system can pass the necessary data back to the respective agencies to allow for more effective scheduling of prisoners’ ground and air transportation to designated facilities. In addition, eDesignate provides feedback mechanisms across agencies for faster case resolution. The eDesignate system has generated about $31 million in savings by reducing the number of detainment days. This system represents the first time that the detention processes from several agencies have been consolidated and refined, saving the government time and money, while eliminating overlapping functions and duplicated efforts by the participating organizations. processes, aid business case development and oversee BPM projects to ensure they succeed. This panel can then use the ROI/benefits model to justify investment in the services, hardware and additional software that are needed for each new project. The Bottom Line Public CIOs must adopt technology that streamlines systems, improves processes and increases visibility and collaboration. Without these improvements, mission-critical government objectives will not be met. Choose a proven, enterprise-level BPM platform that will enable you to better manage people, process, policies, data and existing systems, and quickly achieve measurable results. ¨ www.public-cio.com [39] http://www.public-cio.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public CIO - December 2008/January 2009

Public CIO - December 2008/January 2009 Contents Contributors Introduction Tense Times Insider Threat Twenty and Counting Labor of Love Putting Process Into Play Crossover Appeal FastGov CIO Central Security Adviser CIOs Pluck BlackBerry Phones From the Field Straight Talk

Public CIO - December 2008/January 2009

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