Can BPM Based Templates Compete with COTS Applications?

There is an evolution going on in the world of applications that is relegating the traditional way of leveraging COTS (common off the shelf) application packages a thing of the past.

The problem with COTS applications is that they are not interoperable, flexible nor component-based. They are generally only aimed at a traditional transaction-based solution with little leverage of process and knowledge workers.

Business professionals are looking for solutions that leverage agile processes, business rules, knowledge management, flexible human workflow, configurable content, collaboration based on skills profiles and a highly configurable and usable interface.

I do not see traditional application vendors evolving to this target any time soon, though several application platform vendors are moving in a better direction. Is the answer in BPM templates? Is there enough best practice embedded to purchase as a starting point? Let’s explore the possibilities.

What are BPM Templates?

Processes templates are jump-start processes that can deliver a core best practice for a particular business focus. This focus can be aimed vertically or horizontally. An example of a vertical focus would be a life insurance underwriting process that would include agents, paramedical facilities, underwriters, advanced underwriters, doctors, and policy makers. An example of a horizontal focus would be a customer service and/or a call-center-based process.

In their most simplistic form, they are jump start processes (40-50% of an ultimate process) that form a core that will be extended to fit the end business need. Since the underlying BPM infrastructure is flexible and easy to extend, this is not a bad solution to pursue for quick hits with an ability to incorporate differentiating features. In their more complex forms, BPM templates can include some or all of the following jump-start intellectual properties:

• Flexible workflows
• Business policies/rules
• Goals/KPIs with tolerances
• Prescribed Analytics
• Focused content/micro-content
• Personalization by role
• Associated knowledge
• Prebuilt collaboration patterns
• Digital asset management
• Pre-configured and flexible component orchestration patterns
• Well behaved cross platform inclusion via pre-built integration patterns

Can BPM Templates be Common off the Shelf (COTS) Applications?

Today few BPM templates are as complete as those described above and COTS applications have detailed best practices baked-in for immediate consumption. There is a trade off that has to be balanced here. A solid jump start process on top of a flexible infrastructure that can be easily extended might be worth more over time than a more complete and rigid solution. In talking to thousands of business and IT professionals, I have found that most COTS packages end up being altered and/or extended.

The average amount of customization exceeds 30% of the function at a high cost against a brittle application package suite. There must be a problem here as the large application suite vendors are investing billions in refurbishing their infrastructures and converting their fossilized applications. Many of the new value-added process resellers are using BPMS platforms as a base process infrastructure and a number of BPMS vendors and/or their partners are providing BPM templates.

Bottom Line:

At this point in time, the amount of best practice instantiated into a BPM template is moderate at best. However, as these templates become richer over time and the demand for agility grows, it will be common place for templates to provide a 70+ percent solution out-of-the-box with nearly unlimited extendibility possibilities. This is worth investigating for those organizations that want to surround and extend application packages.