Like many others, last year I applied for tickets to this year’s Olympic Games in my home city. I selected a number of events ranging from the popular track and field to those less popular which I felt I may stand more of chance with.

I didn’t hold much hope given the hugely oversubscribed sale process; it therefore came as no surprise when I was informed that I’d been unsuccessful in my attempt. The controversial ticket application process was by no means straight forwards; and I wondered at the time about the system behind scenes and whether it really was geared up.

Earlier this week the media reported that the London 2012 organising committee (Locog) confirmed that a decidedly unsynchronised error in its ticketing process had led to four synchronised swimming sessions being oversold by 10,000 tickets. The error occurred in the summer, between the first and second round of ticket sales, when a member of staff made a single keystroke mistake and entered ‘20,000’ into a spreadsheet rather than the correct figure of 10,000 remaining tickets. The error was discovered when Locog reconciled the number of tickets sold against the final layouts and seating configurations for venues, and began contacting ticket holders before Christmas. Ticket holders have been compensated with tickets to alternative events offered at no additional cost, starting with tickets for sports they had applied for but been unsuccessful.

This revelation comes days before Locog unveils its ticket resale system, an online exchange designed to allow fans to swap unwanted tickets rather than sell them to touts.

The ticket allocation process has proved the most controversial aspect of London 2012 planning, with criticism of the failure to get tickets to more members of the public.

I like to use analogies where possible to explain my thoughts behind a matter so that they resonate with many people….

When booking a leave of absence from Casewise, like all employees I am required to complete an online vacation request form built using our very own BPM Suite Casewise Synergy. Once submitted my request is duly sent to my manager for approval. The workflow is geared up so that I can only book a maximum of 28 days per year; my allocated number of vacation days. If attempt to book off any more time, my line manager is alerted by the system and I am also informed that the request is outside of my allowance.

It therefore leaves me to ponder why so many organizations today overlook simple business process applications which feature alerts, validations and notifications to solve their problems.

Last year in the run up to Christmas I posted a comment on this blog about the Charles Dickens novella a Christmas Carol. In my role as a technology marketer within the business process marketplace, I frequently talk about the importance of businesses modeling and analyzing past, present and future states. In the blog post I commented how over 150 years ago, Dickens used a similar methodology of the supernatural visitations of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come in one of the most famous and popular novels in history.

This year, in the spirit of Christmas, I thought I’d have some festive fun by creating a tongue-in-cheek case study on a new Casewise customer; an iconic, legendary folklore figure who recently approached Casewise for assistance given increased demand for the fulfilment and provision of gifts at this time of year! Enjoy.

May I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year. I look forwards to sharing further blog posts with you in 2012.

Casewise Santa Claus Case Study

Casewise Modeler Christmas Present Process

My recent blog post ‘BPM – Deciding on the First Process to Implement’ has provoked much comment and response within the BPM community via a number of social media channels – it’s great to see this community coming together to exchange ideas and opinions.

Many of those who have commented to date make some very valid points including those who suggest that starting small often means starting with an irrelevant process that few will notice if it fails.

I don’t want to dwell on the matter but the point I was trying to make was to start simple and work up to more comprehensive processes.  I totally agree that whatever process you do decide to begin with, you must have an eye on the overall strategic Business Process Management vision.

Let me sign off on this matter and leave you with one final thought…. if you were to bake a cake for the first time would you start off with a simple sponge or fruit cake, or jump straight in by attempting to bake 5 tier wedding cake!

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The financial regulator unveils new rules for banks on approving mortgages to make sure customers are not able to borrow more than they can afford.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) today (19 Dec 2011) announced plans to prevent a return of the risky mortgage lending seen in boom times, by ensuring that common sense standards continue to apply in future.

The Mortgage Market Review aims to prevent a recurrence of the irresponsible lending which resulted in some borrowers taking on mortgages which only seemed affordable on the assumption that house prices would always rise. Many of those borrowers ended up struggling to repay their mortgage and in danger of losing their home.

The proposals will see prospective borrowers – whether they are first time buyers, right-to-buy tenants or home movers – get the right information and advice, at the right time, and ensure mortgage lenders will be properly checking each applicant’s realistic ability to repay their mortgage.

In light of the subprime mortgage crisis which has had such a profound impact on the world’s financial markets it is clear to see from the FSA’s plans that a review of the mortgage application process is required and well overdue.

My own perspective is that the FSA’s plans infer that the current processes employed are not up to the standards they should be. This positive move shows that the FSA are committed to greater mortgage regulation, including income checks and affordability tests, and a review and overhaul of the processes which govern them.

It’s not very often that I get the opportunity to combine writing about my professional career in technology marketing with my passion of motorsports and Formula 1 but on a few occasions I’ve had the opportunity to draw a parallel.

Recently, I was asked to present at my former University on the subject of aligning sales and marketing to aid revenue performance. I wanted to be a little different and took to creating an analogy whereby the salesperson was represented as a Formula 1 driver, and marketing by the team pit crew.

It then got me to think that I could also apply this analogy relating to Business Intelligence…

Having qualified in first place with the fastest time, our driver is starting the race on pole position. Off to a good start, our driver begins to pull out a lead over the rest of the pack; however, as the laps pass by he is beginning to lose grip in his tyres through natural degradation, his fuel levels are beginning to run low and the data analysts and engineers in the pit garage who are constantly monitoring the driver/car performance realize more down force is required to sustain this level of performance and maintain the lead. The team then notify the driver to call into the pits on the next lap in a revision to the original race strategy.

Pulling into the pits our driver comes to a stop in his box; and the pit team go to work changing the tyres, refuelling the car and adjusting the front wing to provide more down force. The intelligence provided by the cars onboard data systems, and the communication and collaborative efforts by team is now the key to winning or losing the race. It’s at this point when pulling the car into the pit box that the driver knows he can sit back feeling confident that his team have all the intelligence to set to work and action the tasks in just a few seconds.

The point I am trying to make here with this analogy is that you should not have to go in search of the data intelligence, it should automatically come to you. This is just the way in which the Casewise Analytics product bundle works in providing you with a series of tools to make successful decisions and communicate the business value to your entire organization ensuring complete transparency.

In today’s society everyone wants information and answers immediately and to a detailed level of choice; and that’s exactly what Casewise Analytics provides.

It may sound strange to say, but one of the most important priorities for an organization embarking on a new BPM initiative is to identify the first process to implement.

Lets say that you’ve selected and implemented the chosen Business Process Management solution within your infrastructure and your now ready to begin building and rolling out workflows. You may have a number of processes in mind that you wish to implement straight away, but careful consideration needs to take place on which one to begin with. Its important to achieve a positive impact from the first, newly implemented process; it needs to show added value to employees and the business as a whole, and gain positive feedback. As a result, users will propel the BPM initiative forwards, creating a real impact on the organization. In a previous blog post I’ve mentioned that the success of a BPM project is influenced by the speed at which employees embrace the new technology, reaffirming that the project is there to benefit all.

If the wrong process is selected, the positive impact won’t be felt. Disappointment, backlash or objections to using the solution can lose the business buy-in, stall embracement from a wider community, or even cause the whole BPM initiative to stall or be cancelled!

The key principles for deciding on the first process for implementation are:

• A process which demonstrates a high level impact, with low risk to the business
• A well defined process that covers all bases
• A process with low complexity

Simple processes that involve approvals are usually good candidates such as holiday requests, expense approvals etc… Other good starting points are processes which can aid management teams especially if the workflow can eliminate any of the insufficient visibility or traceability issues found prior to the BPM solutions implementation.

I would suggest avoiding complex, inter-departmental scenarios for the first process. These types of processes normally involve too many opportunities for political infighting, delays and increase the project risk.

So when starting out, keep it simple, or in the words of Dr. Koichi Kawana ‘Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.’

Everyone has the ability in today’s socially connected world to check in with Facebook, post updates on Twitter, download apps and music while on the move.

The same is now true for the always-connected mobile workforce. With organizations becoming more and more decentralized, mobile working has now become an accepted standard in today’s business world. It is unthinkable nowadays to envisage a business world without the ability to keep in contact with the office when travelling, visiting clients and prospects or simply completing tasks out of standard working hours.

Let me paint a picture. Twice a week, my wife undertakes a grocery shop via her iPhone with online UK supermarket retailer Ocado. Upon placing the order, she has the ability to schedule a date and time for her delivery, is informed via email or SMS text message that she has up until a certain time to amend her order. Once placed, my wife can track her order, is informed about the status of her delivery; she is even informed of the delivery drivers name and the registration number of the delivery truck. The service has changed her life in giving her back much time and making the laborious task of visiting a supermarket in person (with children in toe) almost redundant. What my wife does not realize is that she is in fact working with a comprehensive and sophisticated BPM workflow solution.

In today’s business world, the advent of BPM has given managers a huge amount of visibility and control over their companies’ processes in addition to saving time and money, increasing efficiency and productivity and simplifying the decision making process.

With the introduction of mobile BPM this has now ensured that employees are always connected with enterprise processes, while on the move at any time of day or night. Mobile BPM is now essential for business; it’s not just a trend but a vital need.

A recent survey conducted by Casewise on the BPM Marketplace recorded some key findings on the mobile element of BPM. The data collected has been visualized in an infographic and covers a high level analysis of the mobile BPM findings of the study. The survey received 450 responses from a well-balanced range of business and IT role based individuals from both private and public sector organizations. A large number of executives participated in the survey, which adds to the richness of the contents of this report.

To download the full version of the infographic simply login or register at Casewise OnDemand.

More and more organizations are adopting BPM as a discipline and scaling up their efforts to establish BPM as an enterprise-wide program. This has become very clear for me to see having spent much time with the Casewise BPM team in recent months. It has brought me to realize that when implementing a BPM project there are just as many technical issues as business issues which need to be initially addressed if success is to be realized. Research carried out by Casewise in a recent study on the BPM marketplace has uncovered the 5 main problems and risks encountered when implementing a BPM workflow solution…

1. Missing the Business Pain
The top reason for a BPM project “going cold” is missing the business pain. Unlike IT projects, where creating an application with “lots of functionality” is enough, a BPM project must tackle and solve the main business pain. For example, if the finance department still needs to spend the same amount of time completing “an electronic form” (instead of a paper-based form), or if the workflow hasn’t cut down the time it takes the sales team to approve a quote – the project will go cold.

2. Trying to use BPMS software for something it wasn’t designed for
The temptation to try to use the BPMS wizards to create a non-workflow application (such as creating an appointment diary or a search engine) is very risky. 90% of the development takes no time at all given that the BPMS wizards create the workflow quickly and easily; however, the last 10% can take forever. This will happen when you try to implement functionally that is not built-in to the BPMS software. Stick to what the tool has been designed for.

3. Change Creep
We have all been there before… Everyone is happy with the workflow although “it just needs a few tweaks here and there.” Agreeing with every nice-to-have request will cause delivery delays, and may result in the project never going live. Stick to the original plan; implement the workflow and then further down the line, look at improving it and working in additional features and functions.

4. Missing Prerequisites
When working with Casewise Synergy to creating internal workflows within Casewise (we practice as we preach), even complex scenarios take very little time to build and implement given the wizard-based functionality of the toolset.

It can be very frustrating when a project stalls due to things beyond our control; things that should have been addressed or completed before even starting the workflow development:

Installation: Not set up properly / missing a component / missing a service pack etc…
Security: The system administrator has blocked everyone from accessing the database server / external server / ftp  etc…
Integration: Cannot access a remote server / email account not fully configured etc…

Try to ensure that all external sources outside of the workflow are in place, configured, user permissions set etc… before commencing on the workflow build.

5. User Acceptance
BPM projects change the way an organization operates. They change the way employees work. People don’t like change; they worry about the unknown, worry about losing their job, prestige or power. New technology scares many employees; will I be replaced with an automated system.

I recently asked an audience by a show of hands, have you witnessed a positive reaction by your fellow employees when announcing the implementation a BPM workflow solution? Approximately 60% of the audience stated yes they had witnessed a positive reaction; however, this still leaves a high proportion of people either opposed or just fearful.

The success of a BPM project is influenced by the speed at which employees embrace the new technology and work with the methodology. It’s important to reaffirm to employees that the project is there to benefit all and to ease and reduce daily working activities.

Management must not only be positive, supportive, and passionate about the BPM system and workflow(s), but also communicate early and often with the user base to explain exactly why the organization has implemented this initiative. By clearly articulating the benefits of the workflow and how it will help the organization and specific departments meet strategic business objectives, employees will recognize that their time invested in training and familiarizing themselves with the system will not be wasted. Upon hearing and experiencing how the workflow is going to help individuals perform their job and yield personal advantages, users will be more likely to embrace and support the implementation project.

For more information on Casewise Synergy contact your regional Casewise office or email synergy@casewise.com

According to Reuters news agency ethnic Serbs in Kosovo have defied demands by Nato to remove roadblocks, amid tensions over control of border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo. Nato peacekeepers had given the minority Serbs until Tuesday to remove barricades set up at two crossings, but Nato troops sent to the area left without dismantling them in an apparent bid to give the Serbs more time.

Peacekeepers from Nato’s Kosovo force, K-For, withdrew their convoy of trucks and armoured personnel carriers from one of the crossings, about 100km (60 miles) north of the capital, Pristina. Serb politicians said no further action would be taken before their leaders debate a compromise proposal on Wednesday.

Despite the ongoing tensions within the region, the Hope & Aid Direct convoy support by Casewise has made it through to Kosovo. The humanitarian aid workers and volunteers who include Casewise CEO Alexandre Wentzo yesterday visited two schools in Gjilan, 50km outside the capital Pristina.

As the photos below display, the physical state of the schools is quite alarming.  Alexandre reports that “it is quite amazing to see the schools still using such antiquated heating systems.”

Alexandre continues “Each classroom is so cold that children can quite easily fall asleep in these conditions. A new exercise book and a few pens and pencils put a huge smile on the children’s faces. When we turned up in both schools, it felt like we were Santa Claus. I was so taken by their kindness, and the warm welcome we received; and the fact that the children speak English reasonably well.

Even though we have been here just a short time the links to the videos below clearly show the joy we are bringing to the children of Kosovo with such simple items.

Delivering educational Items

Children’s delight at receiving gifts

If you would like to make a donation towards this cause and lend your support please visit:

http://www.justgiving.com/casewise-hopeandaid