Welcome to BPM Unplugged

I hope this blog will be a forum for discussing thoughts, ideas, trends and revelations in business process management – not from a technology perspective but from a “how do we structure our organizations around the customer?” perspective.

As customers become more informed, they have become elusive, demanding and unfaithful. Yet, as organizations scramble harder to get and keep these customers, they do things that, at best, ignore customers and, at worst, drive them away.

So, organizations are looking to BPM to save them. Yet, vast implementations of BPMS’, EAI applications, ERP systems, workflow engines, SOA frameworks and other technologies of assorted flavors and colors have become the shiny baubles and silver bullets of the BPM age.

What’s worse is that these implementations seem driven, more and more, by inward goals of “reducing cost”, “streamlining staff” and “improving efficiency”. Along the way, THE ONE most important piece, the centerpiece if you will, of the organization disappeared from the discussion – the customer.

So, let’s unplug the process modeling tools, the EAI applications and SOA. Let’s shut down the workflow engines. Grab a cup of joe and let’s return to a simpler world where customers are truly kings (or queens) and the organization, with BPM, crafts its entire world on getting and keeping them.

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” – Peter F. Drucker