Three Prerequisites to Addressing Change

Why is change often so tough?

We become tied to what we know. We turn our actions into habit. We become comfortable with how things get accomplished. And, it is when this “how” broadly becomes comfortable, that we—as people, as leaders, as technologists, as workers—are at risk of becoming stagnant; our organizations at risk of becoming irrelevant.

Especially now in the era that Gartner has aptly coined “Big Change,” we have to be open to new ideas, new technologies, new ways of conducting business. And so, when it comes to traditional BPMS and case management solutions, forget what you know. The schemas you associate with these technologies are holding you back.

Sure, business process management as a discipline is incredibly important. Managing process and information as effectively as possible is vital to organizational success. Especially in case management, that now clichéd adage, “Get the right people the right information at the right time” still rings true.

But what you define as BPM, whatever you think of as case management… It is changing. The boundaries are blurring as you read this.

Just 10 years ago, enterprise technology had to be complex to be considered good. iPhones did not exist. Social collaboration meant instant messaging. Workflow automation and enterprise portals were all the rage.

Today, can you imagine a world without mobile connectivity? Without the inclusive, social nature of modern technologies? Without the convergence of enterprise tech that integrates, leverages and manages multiple capabilities?

There’s good news. To stay relevant, organizations can be navigated through the change. And while transformation is never trivial, there are fundamental steps that can pave the journey. Some of the most recognizable brands, businesses and even government entities are well down this road. You can be too.

Here are the three things your organization should be doing now to improve both BPM and case management operations while driving digital transformation:

Become natively mobile. Native mobility is important to gain alignment with both employee and customer expectations. Information should flow in real-time so work is done more quickly and customers get what they want, right when they want it.

• Can your employees capture and share information from outside a normal work environment?
• How do you enable work that may happen in the field, addressing needs like remote information capture and access?
• More than access, can your employees accomplish work on a mobile device? Mobile has become a lifestyle. This is true in the workplace, too. Give workers the ability to get more done more easily, whenever they want, wherever they happen to be.
• Does your organization enable information to be shared with you via mobile devices? Your customers, partners, constituents, etc. are mobile. Is your organization enabled to interact with them in the way they prefer? Are you set up to capture information from these populations?

Become inclusive. Your greatest organizational strength is largely untapped. It’s your people and their ideas. It’s those synergies that happen when your entire workforce is empowered to effortlessly share and learn from ideas, comments and knowledge of others.

• Proactively pursue inclusion. How do people share ideas and information at your organization? Email? Meetings? Phone calls? These are all exclusive by nature—you must be added purposefully to be included. Case managers need to know certain milestones and access the most current information. But, what if more context and information could be provided by people not considered directly involved?
• How rigid is your organizational structure? Can truly anyone contribute ideas, information or improvements? Or is there a hierarchy that causes certain groups or individuals to keep quiet?

Tear down the organizational silos that impede transparency.

• Do you have a way to proactively push information and milestones from systems to the people that can take action? What about those who do not need it, but could add value?

Take advantage of technology built for the Now-Now-Now economy. By sharing milestones as they happen more broadly, you’ll uncover additional information, and more importantly, added context.

Become truly agile. Agility is paramount to drive new product innovation, develop new and better ways to do things and quickly deploy these to outpace competition.

• Do your legacy systems get in the way of progress? It used to be we had different systems for different capabilities. Just Google “KMWorld 2004” and you’ll see lots of technologies that today are converging. ECM, document and records management, BPM, case management, and the list continues. If your current systems are not fully integrated and leveraged in a single environment, you will be slower than your competition.
• How quickly can you address change? Are your internal processes, systems and protocols rigid? Can you take advantage of new information, trends and innovation immediately? Does the technology you employ allow you to immediately change how things operate so you can navigate constant change coming from anywhere? For example, the Internet of Things (IoT) is predicted by Gartner to have such a profound impact that “…by 2018, digital business will require 50% less business process workers and 500% more key digital business jobs, compared with traditional models.” Are you prepared for a world where adaptability is the most important organizationalattribute to achieve success?
• How do your case workers navigate data? Is there a constant swiveling from system to system, trying to uncover the right data? Or is all information from across your organization securely and centrally available with just a click?

Don’t hold on to how it’s been done. The latest innovations of modern iBPMS, case management and other technologies mean you can manage Big Change more easily now than ever before. Continually grow and progress in this regard, and your organization will improve, achieve and succeed into the future.