A Model Business Process

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In a business environment where change is the only constant, smart companies don't hurtle blindly towards transformation ‑‑ they take time out to explore their options.

That's the view of Steve Shepherd, a solution specialist at Logicalis, who has worked with numerous major corporates on projects that have used the service-oriented architecture (SOA) approach to make their key business processes faster and more flexible.

Business process modeling, he says, is a vital stage in SOA projects. "Most companies find that there are a number of ways that a particular task might be carried out - the trick is finding the one that will help a company operate more efficiently, serve its customers better and become more profitable and competitive, without having any undesirable knock-on effect elsewhere in the business," he says.

Technology has a huge role to play here, he says. Most companies have established tools and methods for representing business processes in visual formats from handwritten notes on scrap paper to electronic depictions created using software tools such as Visio - but it's only by using more advanced tools such as IBM's WebSphere Business Modeler that they can start to experiment with ‘what-if' scenarios.

"Sophisticated simulation capabilities help companies to uncover process weaknesses, to see what happens to a process if steps are omitted or if new ones are introduced," he explains. "That gives them the confidence to proceed with SOA adoption and related process changes, because they're not just working on instinct."

As a result, Shepherd adds, companies that make good use of business process modeling tools tend to get better results from their SOA projects: "They get all the benefits of business agility without the risks involved in taking a step into the complete unknown."

Your Comments and Questions

Steve Shepherd, 5 months ago

Gary, in response to your question about the take up of SOA in medium sized businesses, in some ways it is easier for you since the complexity is less than in large multinational organisations. It is true that SOA was first adopted by large enterprises (apparently over 30% of large enterprises are trialing or deploying an SOA approach). The majority of the customers that Logicalis has worked with in this area are medium sized businesses. There are a few useful start points which all focus on taking tactical projects and using them to build an SOA foundation. From our experience the four main areas are as follows: - model a problem business process to build ROI case(see my response to George earlier) - pilot and deploy a portal to enable legacy systems to be pulled together around roles in a business process (this extends life of existing applications) - consolidate unstructured data content (eg. contracts, emails, statements) into an electronic repository and deploy workflow to use these documents to trigger and discipline business processes - standardise and wrapper core business functions (eg. stock look up, credit check) as a web service so that it can be used by a wider audience (eg. self service by your customers or suppliers). Where you start will depend on your priorities. Do let me know if you would like to dig into any or all of these in more detail. Perhaps we could put you in contact with a customer who is doing this already.

Steve Shepherd, 5 months ago

George In response to your question about BP modelling tools, IBM provide a tool called WebSphere Business Modeler (WS Modeler for short, see http://www-306.ibm.com/software/integration/wbimodeler/ for further information) which is not massively expensive. Logicalis also provide a £5K business modelling service using this tool which enables you to apply WS Modeler to a specific problem process. This can be useful to document an existing process for governance, model process improvements and calculate return on investment prior to implementing a business transformation project. Worth speaking with my colleague Phil Matthews if you want to progress this conversation. Do let me know.

Gary Eastwood, 5 months ago

In your experience, are SOA projects and BP modelling limited to larger organisations with more resources (financial and physical)? Or have you come across small businesses that are using a SOA to drive growth? If so, what kinds of SOA projects might one typically see at smaller companies? Thanks.