Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies - September 2008 - (Page 43)

Lees notes. This enables alignment between the business operation and IT. “At present, there is little communication between these two areas,” says Lees. “What typically happens is the business group will specify what it needs in some sort of requirements document that it throws over the wall to IT. IT will go and build an application and at some point, may 18 to 24 months down the line, the business will get a solution back that may or may not hit its requirements—and, actually, the requirements probably have changed in that time anyway.” BPM gets around this by providing an environment where the business side defines the model in the same environment that IT uses to integrate to applications and build user interfaces, he says. “That is quite a key part of the BPM value proposition because it eliminates miscommunication. IT completely understands the context of what the business requires because they are working from the same model.” Intalio, an open-source BPMS vendor based in Palo Alto, Calif., has simplified this step “with something unique in the industry,” says Jonathan Crow, director of marketing. He explains that Intalio automatically translates Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), the language used to graphically notate processes in a work flow, into Business Process Execution Language(BPEL), the language for specifying business process behavior. “We translate BPMN to BPEL in a couple of clicks so users can take a process diagram and deploy it automatically, without having to recode,” he says. Process Monitoring The final element in a BPM suite is monitoring, measuring and feeding back performance information to enable continuous improvement. This subset of BPM typically is called Business Activity Monitoring (BAM). “As soon as a process starts executing, the BAM component begins collecting the metrics that the user has specified to measure against the process,” says Lees. This can include things like process cycle time, step cycle time, whether a particular step is happening out of order, and the value of transactions flowing through the process. These are collected in real time and presented in graphical user interfaces. Work rules can be written to trigger alerts when any of these measurements indicate a problem. “Real-time monitoring of processes is a key part of BPM,” says Alexander Lotterer, senior manager of BPM consulting at IDS Scheer, Saarbrucken, German. He notes, for example, that a company implementing Six Sigma quality processes follows the DMAIC cycle: define, measure, analyze, improve and control. “It is the measurement and analysis phase that takes lot of time because they have to go and get all the data,” Lotterer says. “BAM gives them a very efficient way to use IT to get the information they need in real time.” IDS Scheer offers Process Performance Manager (PPM) as part of its ARIS BPM suite of tools. PPM continuously monitors and optimizes internal and external workflows, Lotterer says. It also enables businesses to monitor service level agreements relating to core processes, such as order processing, procurement, and transportation and logistics. ARIS supports the entire BPM life cycle of design, implementation and control, says Allen Johnson, director-alliances at IDS GLOBAL LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES 43 http://www.greensboroeda.com http://www.greensboroeda.com

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Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies - August 2008 Contents Editorial GL&SCS Exclusive Fast Forward Up Front Cover Story: Free The Enterprise: Busting Silos in the Supply Chain Business Process Management Merits New Look fromCorporate Strategists Ships and Ports Explore Many Ways to Go Green The Right Information Should Help Avoid Any Kind of Risk Industry Voices

Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies - September 2008

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