An ongoing challenge in promoting business process management (BPM) is positioning the different types of processes in an organisation that must be handled, and then highlighting the fact that enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools such as SAP R/3 are not necessarily best at managing all of them.
It has become necessary to encourage a SAP versus "outside SAP" mentality that embraces the myriad processes and applications best handled outside of large ERP solutions.
Sadly, there is a general misconception that ERP solutions are all-encompassing; that there is no need for BPM systems because SAP is embedded with process capabilities sufficient for organisational needs.
The attraction of one monolithic application that handles all the process requirements is strong. After all, companies prefer to use software from one vendor and pay for one maintenance and support contract. It is cheaper to train employees on one application.
However, in reality, one giant application cannot handle all processes. This is best appreciated by understanding hierarchy.
The road to BPM
Take the transport ecosystem, for example. Its basic function is to carry people and goods from one point to another. It is easy to imagine one type of transport system being able to handle all transport needs, but reality requires a hierarchy of different systems to accomplish the desired results.
Sadly, there is a general misconception that ERP solutions are all-encompassing.
Trevor van Rensburg, heads up the products business in DVT
At the top of the hierarchy there are airplanes, trains and ships capable of moving large numbers of people from one point to another. However, these large systems are not flexible in terms of destination and are expensive to buy, use and maintain.
In the middle of the transport hierarchy are trucks and buses, followed by cars and vans, and finally motorbikes, forklifts and bicycles. As one goes down the hierarchy, the flexibility of destinations increase and operating, use and maintenance cost go down. However, so does the carrying capacity.
Each of these systems is dependent on the others in the ecosystem; they cannot function in isolation. People can travel long distances at high speeds in a modern aircraft, but when they reach a particular point, they still need a car to take them to their final destination.
Value in hierarchy
Hierarchy is invaluable for reasons of economics and utility. One type of system cannot be used economically to handle all possible requirements. Neither can one system provide the utility needed for all uses. Each system in the hierarchy depends on others to sustain it.
Business processes are much like the transport system. Their hierarchy must be understood to ensure each process is optimised, no matter how large or small a process might be. While a massive ERP tool might provide the capabilities to address all business areas to some degree, without multiple business process systems to handle the various types of processes in an organisation it would effectively be like catching a plane and then having to walk the remainder of the journey.
Modern service-oriented architecture methodologies enable the creation of interdependent process ecosystems in which "inside SAP", "outside SAP" and ad hoc processes can co-exist and support each other. This is the approach that must be followed. It is the only one that will enable a traveller to fly to one point and then use a car to complete the trip.
In the next Industry Insight, I will examine the hierarchy of the business process in more detail.
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