Café Innovation Blog

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]

In the last few posts I have implored organizations to not shut the door on the notion of innovation. Innovation is not necessarily about unearthing that killer app or revolutionary product that will change things dramatically and overnight. Innovation is a lot about the small things we can change in how we solve existing problems and challenges. The message I have been trying to get out is that this can be done by looking closely at your processes, not merely IT, and figuring out where you need to make changes. If you are having trouble with accomplishing that internally, there are always other avenues such as leveraging the community, seeking out community-enabled channels, and, of course, your trusted implementation partner.

In the SAP world there are Enterprise Services to be taken advantage of and the flexibility of the NetWeaver platform to be exploited. Recognizing this, the new iteration of SAP’s business platform, SAP Business Suite 7, has been put together to assist its users in just these areas. In my mind, some of the key aspects of leveraging this suite that stand out are as follows.

For one, it is recognized that traditional ways of managing the enterprise are being challenged. In the past, it was sufficient to pass data from one department or group to another so that a transaction could be completed and an accurate record of an event captured. For organizations that seek to stay competitive and consider becoming a Business Process Enterprise (BPEn) (see my June 17, 2008 post, “Café Innovation – The Business Process Enterprise“), it is important to cater to the fact that even the most basic business processes involve many other individuals in an organization interacting dynamically. In addition, since business requirements change so frequently, the idea of installing a system once and never having to worry about modifying a process is a matter of history. Today, it is equally important for enterprise systems to remain flexible enough so that they can be configured to address a new business requirement quickly; this is the essence of a BPEn. SAP is addressing this by going further with SAP Business Suite 7 to enable companies to enjoy the power of more agile end-to-end business processes with the mantra of: no more stove pipe processes.

Second, SAP is delivering on something we’ve heard their leadership talk about at past SAPPHIREs – providing the ability to pick and choose software functionality without the need for wholesale changes to the system landscape. Tying the future of SAP functionality to enhancement packages makes this notion a reality. SAP enhancement packages are optional packages that should help enable an organization to take advantage of ongoing innovation while keeping the enterprise system landscape stable, thus keeping out the somewhat disruptive impact of large upgrade projects. Each SAP enhancement package provides a collection of new or improved business functions that an organization can choose to deploy in a modular fashion by activating only the new features that are most critically needed. This is a big blessing for those organizations that are in need of new and improved functionality in certain key areas but are not ready to go through a massive upgrade from a time and cost perspective.

Third, this new flexibility of SAP Business Suite 7 that is provided by the enhancement packages makes it possible for an organization to target specific challenges without the need to implement the entire suite at once. This provides the option to start process improvement initiatives that are linked across individual departments such that an organization is better positioned to compete more effectively or generate a positive impact on the bottom line. What this also means is that now the IT department might not be able to call the shots on when a hurting business unit can get new functionality deployed. With the help of their Enterprise Architect and BPXers, most business areas can make a case for themselves – they will likely not be obstructed by the economics or physical challenges of a full-blown upgrade. This puts the decision-making power back where it should be – with the business.

In time, many aspects of SAP Business Suite 7 will be discussed in depth. SAP will also certainly have a lot of official literature going into considerable detail around this. I have chosen to dwell on this topic here because I wanted to connect a few key dots – think about process renewal, and think about leveraging the platform to get the most bang out of your IT investment buck. Some businesses might not be ready to take full advantage of SAP Business Suite 7. However, there are many others who are contemplating upgrades from older versions such as 4.7 and earlier. For them, this is a strategic opportunity to give themselves the boost they need, so that they then have the technology available to enable and deploy what the BPXers design in order to fulfill the needs of the business. For those who have already invested in SAP ERP 6.0 the ability to take advantage of all the latest solutions within SAP Business Suite 7 is a lot easier. The other dots that must be connected to this matter represent the need for a process culture and establishing a clear BPX role. As I have often said, and confirmed by so many of you, the best most flexible technology cannot do wonders for you if your processes are ineffective and if you have not empowered your BPXers to do something about it. When taken together, all these forces can combine to give your organization the boost that will enable you to keep on improving your processes and performance despite the change in external conditions.

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]

So 2009 is here. Major headlines range from the buzz around a new administration getting ready to take over in the US to record job losses and fraudulent corporate activity! The old refrain of “let us contain and cut costs” is louder than ever. Over this din it is hard to hear those who are saying “we can and should find ways to boost long term revenues that will keep us from cutting too deeply.” Often the focus is so much on stopping cash outlay that companies forget that there are things that can be done differently such that they will be able to continue with certain strategic investments. In my last post of 2008 I suggested that the resolution for 2009 should be to keep strategic investments alive despite pressures to not entertain any cash outlay that did not have an immediate ROI. My conversations with friends and colleagues over the holidays and thereafter has confirmed that this is easier said than done, for it is a difficult argument to make to an executive or manager who is charged with a myopic KPI that calls for taking a hatchet to the budget rather than a scalpel!

For the corporation that has put off its R/3 upgrade to ECC until now, they may not be able to afford (for various reasons) to wait much longer; will this not constitute a strategic and tactical imperative? Those who are forced to reduce their workforce in these times, might find it increasingly difficult to run their businesses the way they have been; will they not need to do something in order to not be crushed by the burden of not being able to execute effectively? Those who are in markets where differentiation is needed to move ahead (or, perhaps even to survive) will be under pressure to do something different without a significant outlay of capital; will this not be a key reason for considering something different? If these corporations are to do something about these issues, they will need to consider something new, something innovative.

Innovation in these times is about what can we do different to achieve same or better results. It is also about where to apply scarce resources. Innovation is about recognizing that it is not about information technology but business technology – where technology rises to meet business needs. Leveraging the SAP platform or any other complementary technology offering is about developing and acting upon a vision of how the available technology pieces can drive business process innovation. Such an approach will also necessarily mean lining up the right people so the changes can be sustained and improved over the long run.

Now is the time, more so than ever, to dedicate the organization to the achievement of process excellence by calling upon the BPXers and leveraging the right pieces of technology. This requires a new mindset, not necessarily a significant new outlay of resources. Let us dedicate ourselves to a new mindset in this new year. Let us apply this new mindset to seek out innovation opportunities in our existing business process models in this new year. Let us seize the economic downturn as an opportunity and use it to drive necessary change in this new year.

Happy New Year!

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]    

Record oil prices, painful stops at gas stations, an unprecedented terror attack in Mumbai, and an unprecedented change in economic conditions are some of the things that 2008 might be remembered for. But hopefully, 2008 will also be remembered for a stronger resolve to move traditional ventures into more “green” territory, and for looking ahead to 2009 with a creative outlook as to how best to stay the course with respect to strategic initiatives – strategic initiatives that support innovation for that is the antidote to the effects of this downturn.

In the December 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) there is a special report titled, “Navigating A Downturn.” This features a collection of points made by numerous thinkers and practitioners. Perhaps the two most striking points are those that should make traditionalists sit up and take notice.

Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton (Protect Strategic Expenditures), caution against conventional wisdom which leads managers to “an indiscriminate slash-and-burn response.” They point out that such a reaction is a big mistake because it fails to distinguish between what a company needs in order to see the bad patch through, and what is likely a strategic imperative. They cite examples of companies that put aside funds during regular budgeting to exclusively address strategic initiatives. These funds are off-limits from the machete treatment most operational and capital expenditure budgets face in a typical reaction to a downturn. This enables a company to continue to pursue those activities that will help it succeed in the marketplace while simultaneously making hard decisions on the operational front. In my experience, such behavior sets apart the winners from the whiners! It might be recalled that in October I had put forth the argument (Café Innovation – Innovation is the mantra for competitiveness…even in tough economic times!) that companies that continue to innovate during the downturn are the ones that will emerge ahead once things get better.

“When times are tough, professional development is a luxury.” B. V. Krishnamurthy says (Use Downtime to Enhance Skills) that this is precisely the sort of conventional wisdom that needs to be shed. According to him, a downturn “presents the perfect downtime to enhance the skills your people need to excel.” Can we achieve process excellence or any other kind of excellence if our people are not equipped with the skills to excel? In my post last month (Café Innovation – Now is not the time to shrink back!), I put forth the argument that important skills of the near future that will be essential for SAP practitioners should not be ignored in these tough times. Perhaps, we might dial back the enthusiasm, but significant progress – long-term – can still be made if corporations invest in their people now.

Finally, I do not believe it is much of a coincidence that these pieces appear in the same issue of the HBR as the leading strategy and competition piece co-authored by SAP co-CEO, Henning Kagermann. In the article, “Reinventing Your Business Model,” Mr. Kagermann and his co-authors Mark W. Johnson and Clayton M. Christensen answer the question why for many established companies it is “difficult to pull off the new growth that business model innovation can bring.” According to them, these companies do not “understand their existing business model well enough,” and so “they don’t know when success requires a new business model;” often, they are also not savvy about building a new model when they do realize they need it. In this forum and elsewhere we have focused extensively on the necessary but very tactical issues of ERP 6.0 upgrades, of building composite applications, and such. The fundamental issue is that the long term success of these operational efforts are also very dependent on a robust strategic direction, which, it is increasingly clear, must be linked with understanding one’s business process and thus being better positioned to make the necessary changes to achieve process excellence.

Taking these points together, companies need to remember that their long-term success – beyond the current financially troubled times – is dependent on appropriate business model innovation which calls for process excellence; which, in turn, almost by definition can only be achieved by knowing one’s processes well. The question then is who in organizations are the ones that will lead the charge? More importantly, will the senior leadership demonstrate true leadership and recognize what is strategic and actively support that with a budget that provides for the furthering of strategic initiatives including the upgrading of skillsets? Or, will they be mere spreadsheet managers who bring a hatchet where a scalpel is needed? These are questions that must be answered by enterprise architects (BPXers) and by the stewards of the organization. If nothing else, looking keenly at furthering the strategic agenda with these considerations needs to be high on your company’s list of New Year resolutions for 2009!

P.S. I will be back in 2009! Happy Holidays and Season’s Greetings to all!

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]   

In recent times we have focused a lot more on the importance of processes and the need for them to enjoy the primacy that will get organizations to achieve a much needed Business Process Perspective. In an earlier post (Café Innovation – The Business Process Enterprise), I had sought to make the case for recognizing that the business process orientation of an organization is an imperative that can make the difference between the success and failure of its SOA journey. We said that if process excellence were to be achieved, we needed to move away from the traditional functional silos and the damaging divide between IT and Business. Continuing on with this line of thought, in a subsequent post (Café Innovation – Is your organization’s leadership committed to delivering on The Business Process Enterprise (BPEn)?) I pointed out that this will remain a noble goal unless there is true and demonstrable senior leadership commitment to taking the organization beyond just using SOA as another enabling tool. The use of the word “leadership” is deliberate; what is needed is not more “management” but a level of engagement from these senior executives that is clearly much higher. In the last two months I have traveled around the globe with these messages and it is increasingly clear that they resonate at many levels across cultural boundaries.

I am hopeful that what is becoming a trend will eventually grow into a tidal wave that will sweep us into a new era where we do not implement software functionality but realize business process value through technology deployments. In the quest for attaining this objective we will need to consider at least one other vital practical matter. And that is the governance of these processes themselves! And this is what I discuss in my SAP NetWeaver Magazine column (Winter 2009) titled: SOA Success: Got Process Governance? (online at: http://www.netweavermagazine.com/archive/Volume_05_(2009)/Issue_01_(Winter)/v5i104.cfm?session=).

We must consider that a lot has changed since SAP R/3 first came out. When “SAP introduced its three-tier client-server architecture (SAP R/3), traditional IT folks found logical extensions to the governance methods they already employed and simply built a governance model around them. This was fine until the age of SAP NetWeaver, when the IT world shifted to an Internet-intensive model, requiring organizations to think beyond traditional IT governance and consider how to best use and manage the newer stacks necessary for maintaining meaningful SAP functionality.” This, needs to be tempered with the fact that processes “no longer change slowly and occasionally; they often change prolifically and at the speed of thought.” This should lead us to conclude that to “meet the demands of this new era, enterprises need a more robust framework and a process governance model.” The good news is that this is being recognized in the marketplace. There are emerging solution providers out there, such as PIEmatrix Inc., that offer up new ways and tools to put process governance in place. One way is through collaboration tools (some in development) that are “designed to be repositories of best practices (as accepted by the organization), as well as function as a guide for implementing them.” The promise of tools like these is that they will “help provide an auditable trail of changes and help companies understand why their processes are what they are.”

It should be recognized that an organization’s evolution into a BPEn is not just a matter of appropriate emphasis and commitment from its senior leadership or that of appropriate enablement of the BPXers, but also one of due importance being given to process governance. A true BPEn will “have an integrated aspect of process governance that encompasses both IT and the business…” A comprehensive governance approach will be required – one that goes beyond good IT governance.

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]  

I returned from speaking at Tech Ed ’08, Bangalore, last week but had to travel immediately to speak at SAP Insider’s inaugural BPM Conference. This sequence of events told me two things: (a) I need to manage my travel schedules a little better, and (b) the best investment in skills that an organization can make is in the BPM arena. As a result of many conversations, one other thing that became clear was that more evangelizing is necessary to keep organizations on-track with their intended platform growth – if you are currently solvent, now is not the time to shrink back just because the overall economic climate has taken a turn for the worse.

Last month I had put forth the argument (Café Innovation – Innovation is the mantra for competitiveness…even in tough economic times!) that companies that continue to innovate during the downturn are the ones that will emerge ahead once things get better. I am ever more convinced that this has to be the way forward.

It appears our national effort to shore up the economy includes the promise of unprecedented investment that will ultimately return consumer confidence and purchasing ability to levels that will re-power our economy. It is commonly understood that corporations must further stakeholder returns while national efforts are less geared toward personal profit. However, there is something to be borrowed from the logic of investment in the right areas during the downturn. Let us take the example of a corporation that is solvent, and has defined plans to grow its capabilities, perhaps requiring some form of process innovation to make it happen. In this scenario, it will behoove this corporation to not abandon its plans just because these plans demand cash outflow without the promise of an immediate return. No doubt, these plans need to be reviewed, and perhaps sharpened, but there may still be enough merit in them to promise a solid return in the future. In such a case, this growth/innovation plan should not be abandoned, but instead viewed as part of the strategy to gain long-term competitive advantage vis-à-vis those corporations that are not financially solid and cannot afford to pursue such initiatives for the time being.

Investing in the skills of the future ought to be one such strategic initiative. In a recent interview (The Role of BPX Skills in a Changing Economy), I was asked if the recent downward swing in economic conditions would adversely impact the desire and ability of organizations to push for more BPM skills within their workforce. From what I see as trends in the SAP ecosystem, I would say that for SAP-centric organizations gaining sharp skills in NetWeaver BPM, as it continues to evolve, will be important; and this is especially true for those who must use modeling to successfully deploy SAP solutions in response to their process requirements. The SAP practitioner of the future is one who must possess modeling skills, and preferably in the tool of choice that SAP has begun to direct them to. With that in mind, forward-thinking organizations will, likely, resist the temptation to put on hold the evolution of its SAP-inclined workforce.

I find many in the SAP ecosystem have questions around this subject. I welcome your thoughts, input, and suggestions.

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]  

EcoHub was the big story in the SAP world when I was at Tech Ed ’08 in Berlin. Coming on the heels of the launch of SAP’s Innocentive program, SAP made it clear that innovation was high on the list of things needed for future success. I will return to EcoHub in a subsequent post. Let us explore what leveraging the SAP platform for innovation could mean.

Are you struggling with the ability to connect a mobile work force with a monolithic application base? Are you looking to make your workforce more agile? Are you seeking to plug a gap in your process because out-of-the-box SAP does not fulfill all your requirements? These are not unusual questions nor are they novel. What is interesting is that now we can look beyond the limitations of the delivered business application and the known abilities of your programmers to find ways within the platform to address the apparent functionality gap. For example, one might have a situation where the mobile work force needs to synchronize with, and leverage, backend capabilities. If this is not something that can be easily accomplished by out-of-the-box functionality, perhaps the use of Adobe Interactive Forms and NetWeaver Mobile can solve the dilemma without the need for seeking additional external solutions or writing copious quantities of code! If this were done, it could well illustrate business process innovation enabled by the SAP platform!

When you do something like this you have shown additional return / benefit from the platform – perhaps something you had not accounted for earlier. Proper exploitation of the SAP platform going into the future is all about addressing business pain points with novel use of the platform. As many SAP customers engage in the upgrade process, they need to consider a comprehensive return on their upgrade investment – one that includes benefits from process innovation leveraging the power of the platform – and not just a mechanical ROI that is limited to a technical upgrade. I will concede that this comprehensive ROI will be difficult to estimate, but that cannot be a valid reason for not doing the right thing. When my colleagues and I evaluate upgrades for our clients we challenge them and our own folks to identify and deliver value beyond what is possible with a mere technical upgrade. This helps these SAP customers derive better value from the platform. This sets them on the path of innovation with the platform.

According to Usman Sheikh, Vice President, Global Ecosystem & Partner Group, (…and, I paraphrase) using the platform to create that differentiated value is what leveraging the platform is all about. It is my personal opinion that SAP customers who are ready to take a close look at the platform to leverage it more effectively will find a lot of support from SAP and from systems integrators. So they should not in any way hesitate to seek assistance in this matter.

Does your organization have a point of view on innovation that is achieved by leveraging the platform? Do you have thoughts on how a comprehensive return on upgrade investment might be estimated?

P.S. My next post is likely to be somewhat delayed. I will be back some time after Tech Ed ’08 in Bangalore.

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]

It was on a long flight back from Capgemini’s headquarters in France, earlier this week, that I finally got to read the September 22, 2008, issue of Business Week. I had been saving it in order to get to the cover story, “Keeping America Competitive”. In this intense political season the issue would have been seriously wanting if it did not focus on what our two main presidential candidates have to say on the subject. As reported in this magazine, it is clear that the next President, irrespective of which candidate wins, is going to place a heavy emphasis on spurring the creativity of Americans to find newer products and services to re-establish our pre-eminence in the world. Both of them have a definite position on innovation and what they would do if elected. Why are they promising targeted investment to encourage entrepreneurs and potential innovators? What is the underlying message here? These are important questions, and especially at a time when we seem to have a pall of financial gloom over us.

In periods of economic distress, conventional logic would often point organizations to cut back on any cash outflow that did not promise an immediate ROI. However, if the intent is to gain competitive advantage and to emerge from tough economic times with a clear advantage, then there is perhaps a need to look at select ways in which to invest effort and resources. This is what, I hope, our political leaders are after when they promise investment in innovation. This is what, I would ask, corporate leaders to focus on instead of knee-jerk reactions to blanket spending cuts and freezes. So, if corporate leaders are to look at investing in innovation, where should they focus?

Another thing that was evident in reading this issue was that creating “hip devices like the iPhone may not be the most profitable form of innovation” (pp 48, indata, by Reena Jana, Business Week, September 22, 2008). The companies that outshone their competitors in both increasing average stock returns and revenue growth in the period from 2004 to 2007, were those known for their “innovative business models.” One then wonders why would others not emulate this model? It is significant that the companies studied for this analysis fell in three major categories besides the category for “innovative products.” These other three categories were those that were known for “innovative business models”, “innovative processes”, and “innovative customer experience.” It may be argued that all three of these have to do with refining business processes and personalization of the experience(s) with these business processes.

In my opinion this is validation of the notion that successful innovation in these companies is tied to their business processes and the significance they place on the business process perspective. In other words, the Business Process Enterprise or BPEn (see blog post of June 17, 2008, titled: Café Innovation – The Business Process Enterprise) is the one that is likely to be best positioned for success in delivering on innovation that does not necessarily have to do with a cool gadget! Let us not forget that innovation happens for most organizations in increments and not necessarily in a big bang realization of something cool.

It is important for organizations to now focus on making targeted investments that will further the cause of realizing the BPEn state such that they emerge from these times with the ability to successfully innovate, and attain or lock in competitive advantage.

Does your organization have a point of view on innovation and where they should focus their energies?

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]

I have recently returned from SAP Tech Ed ’08 in Las Vegas. The lights and sounds of Vegas that so many of you are familiar with were very much there, but in addition there was a heightened sense of “where are we going next” at the conference. The attendees and SAP alike were interested in looking ahead to what evolutionary actions were going to be most beneficial, and to venture into interesting new territory. In partnership with SAP’s Marco ten Vaanholt, I made my contribution toward the former (Lecture Session BPM 104: The Business Process Enterprise Imperative: Business Process Experts in action). And, addressing the latter, SAP announced its InnoCentive based initiative that was certainly a very intriguing addition to the discussion of how do we create/foster a climate of innovation.

The recorded video of the lecture session (referenced above) will be available online soon to at least all Tech Ed attendees. If you are planning to attend SAP Tech Ed in Berlin (October) or in Bangalore (November) this year, you will have an opportunity to attend this lecture session in person at those events. Hopefully, we have made the case that getting your processes right is a very important pre-requisite for an organization to achieve true success with its SOA initiative. If processes are not addressed first, we run the very real risk of achieving only sub-optimal results. The coinciding release of the first edition of the BPX Community book, Process First, at Tech Ed drives home this fact. Another point I hope our lecture attendees walked away with is that there are ways and means today that were not perhaps available a decade ago that blunt the argument that the ideal process (perhaps, a mission-critical business-defining or differentiating one) cannot be deployed because of technology or governance limitations. SAP’s announcement of its InnoCentive based initiative has helped this position.

SAP announced its sponsorship of the SAP Innovation and Technology Pavilion along with InnoCentive. This provides a forum for “Seekers” to present problems in need of cutting edge solutions and “Solvers” to present solutions that could win handsome cash awards. The idea according to SAP is based on “tapping SAP’s Community which will be actively participating in the SAP sponsored Innovation and Technology Pavilion.” The thinking is that this “type of Innovation is a powerful tool by which all members of the SAP Ecosystem combine their collective talents to solve critical problems facing SAP, its clients and partners, and also the wider community of business software users.” The expectation is that this will lead to “bigger breakthroughs – faster – at lower cost.” The more cool aspect of this to me is that now yet another level of solution seekers and providers can work through the community (be it SDN or BPX) ; it is my understanding that InnoCentive will manage all Intellectual Property (IP) matters between both sides of the equation. As stated in his blog (https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/10923), Mark Yolton, Senior Vice President of the SDN and BPX communities at SAP, expects that SAP’s “customers and partners — and even companies not at all associated with SAP — will become Seekers by posing challenges that will incent the community to produce deeper insights thru co-innovation.”

I am confident that this is not the last step SAP, and, for that matter, others in the ecosystem, will take to further the cause of innovation because such steps help organizations accelerate their ability to establish agile platforms. Such steps emphasize that your differentiating business process is supreme and that it should not be limited by what a certain “out-of-the-box” offering forces you to think the boundaries should be. As you dream of the ideal solution, there is perhaps a way out there that helps you make it work with your platform – and, this can come to you without your having to compromise on your process! Such avenues, current and future, should give your organization the confidence that technology solutions that are better than those of the past will be found for unique processes, and consequently allow you to focus on your processes to lay a solid foundation for your SOA efforts. This confidence should lead you to work on getting these processes right first and to provide the right organizational set up (see my post, Café Innovation – Is your organization’s leadership committed to delivering on The Business Process Enterprise (BPEn)?, Sep 5, 2008) that fosters a climate where constant process refinement and process renewal are a way of life. Such an environment is the perfect setting for an organization to succeed in achieving process excellence and, consequently, true SOA success.

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]

In an earlier post (Café Innovation – The Business Process Enterprise), I had sought to make the case for recognizing that the business process orientation of an organization is an imperative that can make the difference between the success and failure of its SOA journey. We said that if process excellence were to be achieved, we needed to move away from the traditional functional silos and the damaging divide between IT and Business. In my SAP NetWeaver Magazine (Summer 2008) column, I introduced this in an article titled: SOA Success: Is Your Organization a Business Process Enterprise? While this article made the point that “until an organization can truly function as a Business Process Enterprise, it will not be able to fully exploit its enterprise SOA capabilities,” the successor piece in my column appearing in the Fall 2008 issue of this same magazine, titled: SOA Success: The Role of Senior Management in Establishing a Business Process Enterprise seeks to point out that this will remain a noble goal unless there is true and demonstrable senior leadership commitment to taking the organization beyond just using SOA as another enabling tool.

In my interaction with individuals at SAP events and within various organizations, I have noticed a lot of excitement in the rank and file of most organizations where individuals are motivated to transform into business process experts. Questions about what they should do are beginning to come from these individuals and from their leaders alike. Now, we also find other thinkers and practitioners beginning to call for recognizing the importance of giving business process its due place. For example, in this same Fall 2008 issue of the SAP NetWeaver Magazine I find it encouraging that a fellow columnist, in discussing the need for an organization to embark on its Enterprise Architecture journey, concludes that this will likely have to start “with new emphasis on business process definition and organizational support ” (The Enterprise Architecture Journey Starts Now by Adolf Allesch); this is a position that essentially agrees with my premise about the primacy of business processes. Yet again, within the cover story of this same issue (7 Best Practices You Can Put in Place Now to Make Your Future Upgrade a Breeze by Evan J. Albright) there is a clear example of how IT/business assimilation is an important success factor (also raised in this forum through an earlier post, “Café Innovation – Going beyond IT-Business alignment and integration” on April 6, 2008). These are just two examples of this thought pattern beginning to take hold. It is now the turn of senior leaders within every organization that seeks success with SOA to consider this seriously, for this can make the difference between merely upgrading your technology landscape, versus giving yourself a platform from where you can launch the ability to benefit from executable process models and adapt dynamically to the demands of changing business models. As the column, “SOA Success: The Role of Senior Management in Establishing a Business Process Enterprise” states, “the onus is on senior management to articulate the case for change and to support the organization through the necessary shifts that this significant transformation involves.”

I invite you to read the above-referenced article, and join the discussion here. Tell us what your senior leadership has contemplated on this front? What are some definitive initiatives they have undertaken to provide permanent primacy to business processes?

P.S. The SAP NetWeaver Magazine is available online at: http://www.netweavermagazine.com/

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]

[Cross-posted from SAP Community Network: Puneet Suppal’s SAP Network Blog ]

Last week I was in a workshop with a number of new consultants starting with our practice, a good number of them fresh out of college. The enthusiasm and energy of these new entrants into the workforce were quite infectious, and it reminded me that beyond the attainment of success against all the day-to-day challenges of delivering complex solutions there is something else that attracts us to this line of work. Perhaps it is a greater sense of fulfillment, perhaps it is just the satisfaction that comes with enabling new or renewed processes contributing to the value proposition at hand. There was one other thing that struck me. This group of individuals took to the notion of process primacy and grasped the basics of Enterprise SOA so much more easily than some seasoned professionals I have had to work with in the past. This phenomenon is not something unusual but it was really interesting to see it unfolding right before my eyes.

We used an innovative (what else?) non-technology hands-on exercise to illustrate key points and it hit home quite well. Also, this group clearly identified with the “iPhone phenomenon” so much more clearly that to them it was perhaps somewhat surprising that we needed to discuss it! They are living the ongoing revolution in the technology world and perhaps wonder what the fuss is all about! Perhaps it was a surprise to them that the real world, from an enterprise standpoint, was still in the process of making the transition to a more people-centric technology model and there were still miles to go. They probably wondered, “Okay, it might be too much to expect the business world to work like Second Life or have Facebook-like applications, but is the real world really that different?” I am confident that many organizations are experiencing this; new entrants into the workforce anywhere will tend to belong to this emerging group that expects technology to bend to its needs.

As businesses cater to these changes around them, and as IT reinvents itself (see my March 16, 2008 post, “Café Innovation – SOA and the new role of IT”), we will find the enterprise experience to be more people-centric than it has ever been. These new entrants into the workforce will provide the accelerator effect in making this happen. Understanding that a process can be accomplished in different creative ways, and making this happen, will come naturally to them, for they do it in their personal lives without even thinking about it. The challenge lies elsewhere.

Individuals who have grown up with mainframes or even PCs have a very different way of relating to technology in the enterprise. As they would look upon any other significant change, they ask a number of questions about morphing to a people-centric approach. They question, “Why do we need this?,” or, “Why is this important?” It often becomes an exercise in futility to justify the need to morph before your competition does. Does this mean that these individuals are obstacles in the path of progress? No, that would be a hasty and erroneous conclusion to draw. They are cautious because that is how they have been conditioned to behave when faced with change. It is this conditioning that needs to be impacted.

The mindset that has for decades been trained to look at IT-based processing of day-to-day transactions and routine information needs will now have to accept that the role of IT must change. The traditional IT folks will need to grasp what the dominance of people-centric technology will mean to the future of the enterprise. Starting with key leadership initiatives within the enterprise, significant change management initiatives will have to be put in place. This should not be taken lightly. It is important that the incoming workforce mesh well with the established and seasoned professionals. So the mindset, in this context, that the newcomers bring with them will need to be established for their senior colleagues by helping them to reshape their existing mindset. Organizational harmony, and ultimately the success of the enterprise could depend on how well this is addressed, for this will be important in driving to achieve primacy for business processes and eventually success with SOA.

Does your organization recognize that the world is changing around them? Does your leadership have a clear approach to promote the right mindset? What are some of the steps your enterprise is taking to address this?

– Puneet Suppal [Enterprise SOA Solutions & Innovation – Capgemini]