HONG KONG – OCTOBER 22, 2009 – Award-winning author and Business Process Management (BPM) analyst and consultant Terry Schurter today launched The Insiders’ Guide to BPM: 7 Steps to Process Mastery, a simple, real-world guide to help businesses take full advantage of BPM in transforming their processes to achieve new levels of performance, quality, cost reduction and business value. According to Schurter, fulfilling the promise of BPM means changing how work gets done, not just through automation or software, but by focusing on all of the people who actually do the work every day. The book is intended for those just starting a process improvement initiative as well as those who may not be achieving the level of success they know BPM can bring.
“Business process management is about people,” said Schurter. “That means embracing and empowering all of the people in process – not just focusing on a single perspective, like process models, which, unfortunately, remains the dominant approach in the industry.”
Contributor to the book and internationally recognized expert on BPM and business strategy Peter Fingar said, “The simple idea of making processes truly useful – and easy to use – seems to have somehow escaped many who have undertaken BPM initiatives. This book provides seven practical steps to improve the process experience for workers and the all-important customer. Examples from Revlon, Acerta and Nissan show what can be accomplished to make truly successful BPM the norm, not the exception.”
Highlighted excerpts from The Insiders Guide to BPM: 7 Steps to Process Mastery:
“We seek to improve our processes, yet we often produce processes that are unwieldy, non-intuitive or even inappropriate for the people responsible for doing the actual work on a daily basis.”
“While the designers, implementers, developers and installers are the people who create the process backbone for us, it is the people who do the work that live with what is created.”
“When considering that processes are nothing more, or less, than the sum of the people who participate in them, it finally becomes clear what must be done to realize the full potential of business process management.”
“Expecting employees to move in and out of multiple systems – often requiring them to enter the same information in multiple software systems – is just plain bad process.”
“…the customer experience has now become the center of the diagram, the bull’s eye of our process. While it may still be challenging for some people, it is certainly time we all realized and accepted that everything we do is done for our customer.”
“For technology, the most important takeaway is how software infrastructure is the foundation of all the perspectives on process, while perspectives on process become the foundation of customer experience.”
The first release of the book, in a Limited Edition run, includes a special foreword to The Insiders’ Guide to BPM: 7 Steps to Process Mastery by David Mitchell, president and CEO of business and process management provider Global 360, where Schurter recently was named Director of Product Strategy. “Terry and Peter have continually challenged the BPM industry to deliver on its promise to change the way work gets done,” Mitchell said. “They recognized early on that success depended on the involvement of every participant in a business process, an idea we championed with our persona-based approach to BPM. This new book is a practical guide to translating that simple but powerful idea into tangible business results.”
Commenting on the book, Janne J. Korhonen, Independent BPM Consultant said, “The Insiders’ Guide to BPM distills the wealth of experience in and insights on BPM that has accrued in the industry since the Third Wave struck the business process community seven years ago. Sobered from the hype, the book provides practical guidance to do BPM right.”
The Insiders’ Guide to BPM: 7 Steps to Process Mastery is on sale now in bookstores and at www.amazon.com.
About Terry Schurter
Prior to joining Global 360, Terry Schurter has been a consultant advising leading global companies on BPM initiatives. He is a co-author of Customer Expectation Management, Success without Exception (2006, Meghan-Kiffer Press), cited by Professor Colin Coulson Thomas (Professor of Direction and Leadership, University of Lincoln UK, noted corporate Board Advisor) as a “manifesto” for customer focused companies, and the recipient of the 2007 Global Thought Leadership Award from the BPM Group, presented to him at the Gartner BPM Conference in San Diego. He is also founder and Chairman, Board of Advisors of the International Process and Performance (IPAPI) Institute, and creator of the Certified Process Professional program, among other accomplishments.
About Peter Fingar
Peer Fingar is an internationally recognized expert on business process management and business strategy. He is a former CIO and practitioner with over thirty years of hands-on experience at the intersection of business and technology. Peter has taught graduate computing studies and has held management, technical and advisory positions with GTE Data Services, American Software and Computer Services, Saudi Aramco, EC Cubed, the Technical Resource Connection division of Perot Systems and IBM Global Services. In addition to numerous articles and professional papers, he is an author of nine best-selling books including the just-released Dot Cloud: The 21st Century Business Platform Based on Cloud Computing. Peter has delivered keynote talks and papers to professional conferences across the globe. www.peterfingar.com.
About Global 360
With more than 2,000 customers in 70 countries, Global 360, Inc. is a leading provider of Process and Document Management solutions. Global 360 is headquartered in Texas with operations in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and South Africa. For more information, call 1-214-520-1660 or visit the company web site at www.global360.com.
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