Moving IT services to the cloud has entered the mainstream and become the preferred platform for many forward-thinking organisations – but you probably already knew that?

However, did you know that, according to Gartner, 40% of organisations with BPM software initiatives used cloud computing last year to support at least 10% of their processes?

Perhaps now is the perfect time for organisations to review BPM activity and consider the move to a cloud-based platform. So much is written about business process management and the cloud, especially the latter in its capacity as the latest technology buzzword, that their actual definitions have become somewhat cloudy!

Let’s take a closer look. Firstly, what is BPM?

An organisational methodology

BPM is often considered just a more contemporary way of saying “Workflow” and much of the time this is exactly what the orator means when they use the term. 

However, its true intention is to be a methodology with which to run an organisation, a methodology whereby traditional hierarchies of staff and departments are de-focused in favour of structuring an organisation and its planning around the business processes essential to its operation.  Therefore the individual processes become the focus, not the organisation itself. 

This doesn’t just mean the step-by-step planning and mapping of a process to resources, although this is often the main part, but also the inputs, outputs and measurements of this process in action.  This helps provide immediate wins such as increased efficiency, quicker completion of processes and improved visibility with longer-term benefits through continual process improvement too.

The pragmatist’s view

Now that is great; BPM offers the most if you have the time and resources to implement BPM as an organisational methodology rather than as a reaction to a business need.  However, many of the people we speak to on a daily basis are forced to take a more pragmatic approach as they need to resolve an existing process weakness or optimise a forthcoming development within their department or area of responsibility. 

In these cases, BPM does often just mean “Workflow” with bells and whistles for things like reporting, compliance, document management and auditing.  The aim in these cases is to map out a single (or few) processes and deploy them as quickly as possible within an automated IT infrastructure that improves accessibility, notifications, traceability, data integration and robustness.

Both of these uses of BPM can be worthwhile and rewarding. The planned, structured approach for long term benefits, or the need for instant workflow deployment to meet real-life demands.

So that is two equally relevant interpretations of BPM but what about the cloud?

The cloud

We probably don’t need to explain this in too much detail other than to say it is moving your software and services into someone else’s data centre, so you can still get all the benefits without having to worry about their actual physical location or resources.  The only IT infrastructure you still need to worry about is ensuring a suitable internet connection; everything else is handled by your cloud provider.

One of the main benefits is the pricing flexibility; generally, for software, there are four purchasing plans commonly offered: the first two are the traditional purchase of a software license to install and operate on-premise, in either per-user or per-CPU models. The other two are the cloud options; either a hybrid whereby you purchase a dedicated server license but have it cloud-hosted and managed or the true cloud plan of paying per user, per month with little or no initial capital outlay.

Which you choose depends on your organisation, processes, users, budgets and plans for the future. It may be that the simplicity of buying a license, having some training and managing your entire platform thereafter will offer the best value in the long term. However, for many organisations, the priorities are cost, speed-of-deployment and ongoing flexibility, in which case the cloud is a very persuasive option.

In the next section, we’ll consider why the cloud and BPM work well together.

The table below shows how your corporate objectives for implementing a BPM solution marry with the features of a cloud-based approach.

As you can see, the features inherent of a Cloud platform cover many of the benefits sought out by implementing a BPM solution.

So, if implementing a new BPM methodology or a simple automated workflow, the cloud might make an ideal partner.

In this section, we highlight some of the potential pitfalls of cloud hosted BPM.

Compliance with data protection laws

Say the word compliance to most people and you’ll provoke a groan but one piece of legislation all UK organisations have to adhere to is the EU Data Protection Directive.

Fortunately, most IT systems now provide encryption and security features more than adequate to meet these requirements. Physical access to a server is harder to guarantee though and whilst any server located within the EU will be protected by the hosts own compliance to the Data Protection Directive, if the server is hosted outside the EU, it almost certainly won’t.

The United States Patriot Act, for example, directly contravenes the EU Data Protection Directive by allowing law enforcement agencies to access data without having to notify the affected parties.

Unless there is a reciprocal data protection agreement between the EU and the foreign government concerned, you must ensure all personal data resides physically within the EU!

Poor planning

For the best chance of successfully applying BPM, you also need a really good grasp of the people, data and processes you are trying to optimise. With business processes, there is always a human element involved and this can lead to a level of non-conformity without BPM – often backed-up and given credence by an established track record of doing things in a particular way.

Small loopholes and adjustments are often made to accommodate changes or real-life challenges that crop up and these first need to be found, understood and either incorporated as part of the process or removed altogether.

If only one of these “what-ifs” is missed at the modelling stage, it can prevent a whole workflow from completing once live! And once the processes have been mapped out, knowing the best way to interact with users, capture relevant data, and integrate with other systems requires careful planning and skill. Whether done internally by a skilled Business Analyst or outsourced, don’t underestimate the detail and skills required to get this stage right.

Licensing/vendor lock-in

Finally, another area for consideration is one of the cloud’s greatest benefits; licensing flexibility.

Whilst cloud licensing allows you to pay for just the users you need, when you need them, this does mean that you never have the stability of owning a perpetual license to use the software, committing you to maintain the subscription over the long term.

The cloud provides a lower cost for entry to BPM but when considering the license costs alone over a period of years, it can lead to higher costs, although this extra cost has to be balanced against your savings in infrastructure resourcing too.

Conclusion

While careful consideration and research need to be done first, moving to the cloud is a great solution in many circumstances and certainly offers the most cost-effective way of implementing a BPM approach within your organisation.

If you want to find out more about our cloud hosted BPM or wish to book a Process Director demo, please call 03300 100 000 or submit an enquiry.