Digital Business Automation as a Lifestyle with Mike Lim, IBM’s Global Acquisition Leader
On this episode of Bots & Thoughts, our host, Jimmy Hewitt sits down with IBM’s Global Acquisition Leader, Michael Lim, to discuss his experience in the #Digital Business Automation space, focusing specifically in on the Process Mining world. They discuss the IBM Process Mining Acquisition that Lim made last year and more. This is an episode you do not want to miss!
Technologies that help deliver work to people or systems to get a business outcome
Business process management
Orchestration
Matured overtime:
Used to be really code driven based
Wrote code to describe how work was triggered already
New standard: Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
Wanted a unified standard to do interchange and describe execution of workflow application or solution
BPMN: focuses on 3 aspects of workflow
1. Allows you to describe what the workflow tool or the business process manager tool is trying to understand or what it is trying to do
2. Gives you the ability to analyze and do “what if?” scenarios on models and ensure that it is optimal
3. You can build applications and solutions
Managing by Control vs Managing by Exception:
Managing by Control: manage what you understand and anticipate what is going to happen
Example: What is status of project, when will it be done, do you need help, etc.?
Managing by Exception: manage what you don’t anticipate happening
Example: Onboarding 1,000 employees a year but only managing several that need assistance with the onboarding process
The market and world are changing so rapidly, so you must handle the exceptions that come up by adjusting and adapting
Fix the problem, don’t use duct tape
New low code, no code technologies and managing your business processes with a workflow management platform make it easier for a businessperson to make adjustment then to require heavy duty technical resources
Process Mining Acquisition Drivers:
1. Dynamic changes in the market:
Pandemic: Following the COVID-19 Pandemic, the need to drive business in a digital manner was explosive
Digitization:
If data is on paper, it becomes stale
When you digitize it, the data comes alive and can give guidance and navigation on what customers want
Processes: The processes that companies were running their business on were not designed for working from home
Companies struggled to find what parts of their business processes they needed to change or adapt to the new way of work
Consulting Costs & Time:
Before Process Mining: Hire a big global systems integrator to come into your company, do a whole analysis of your business, and form a report
Cost thousands to millions of dollars to do
Needed to do this is a short amount of time to find where adjustments needed to be made to adapt to the new normal following the pandemic
Only way to do this is to look at log files that were driving the company to give them visibility into how the organization operates
With Process Mining:
Technology looks at how businesses operate
Looks like a management consulting firm and gives you visualizations to see how your business run, but without the time and costs of a firm
Use Case: Onboarding
9, times out of 10 C level executives don’t know how their customer onboarding processes work
Lim looked at the logs of the customer onboarding process and showed them a picture
If 80% of processes work this way, then 20% has derivations of the process
Manage the 20% by exception
No longer have to look at 100% of the processes, they only need to focus on the 20%
2. Prioritization:
Many customers buy a lot of technology and then don’t know how to apply it first, second, and third because they do not have visibility in the overall business process
Process Mining helps prioritize technology, Digital Business Automation, or digital transformation projects based on what is going to give them the most value upfront
Process Mining Technology:
Retrieve log files and import them into process mining platform and you will receive a process model
Digital exhaust: every application has log files of the chronological order of what actions were taken, by who, at what time, and what the actions was not
Based on the data from log files, it will start building up a picture of what happened in a process or department
Will only generate the pictures where you have log files (using a computer)
However, can go in and fine tune an activity that isn’t in the picture where you were not using a computer
Example: technician of cable company driving to a site
Process Discovery: Process Mapping and Process Mining
You should use both technologies
You must have a baseline understanding why derivations exist
Discovery allows you to interact and understand the current processes and what you think the process should be
Can compare actual data to the reference model you created (for example, in Blueworks Live) and revalidate what is truly happening
Process mapping and process mining are best used together
The two tools are more complimentary than competitive
Lim’s Favorite Use Case: Department of Justice
Project: building out the business process model for how a bill becomes a law
Interviewed the process, understood everything that happened in the process, and then built it into an application
Government was embracing process modeling to define the process
Built some of the early workflow applications that managed the process
Future:
Using blockchain to connect companies who are process mining together who are process mining and work to look at the whole interconnected process between companies
Companies working together and optimizing supply chains ==to drive value holistically
Digital Business Automation & Process Mining Reminders:
Lifestyle change: Digital Business Automation is a program, similar to a lifestyle change
It is about marking the health of your company and ensuring that you are always going to understand how the market impact will dynamically change how your business should operate overtime
There is no end to a Digital Business Automation implement using agile, different aspects of automation in the business and as the market changes, you want to analyze if you are still seeing value from what you implemented or if you need to pivot or adjust
According to Lim, most of the failures in automation is when companies implement automation as a finite project and then they have no ability to add in controls to adjust for change.
You do not get 100% of the benefit from the first project, you get it as it evolves over time and as the business is evolving overtime
Digital Business Automation is not a sprint it’s a marathon
Must ensure your business is resilient when there is change
Pandemic was a wakeup call
The degree of how companies apply automation and where they apply it will be determined based on the individual projects, wins, process mining, etc. for proof of concepts
Process Mining: Use Process Mining to determine what project to do first
Look at all the potential opportunities from Process Mining that you have that could be automation candidates (Example: RPA project that could go in and digitize some of the workload that humans are doing)
Low-hanging fruit = Proof of Concept
Process Mining will help you run simulations to help you prioritize all the opportunities
Start small, but know it it’s incremental
Digital Business Automation drivers:
1. Great resignation: lack of workers, high rate of retirees
2. Value of work: paycheck is not enough for the millennial generation, they want to do meaningful, valuable work
Technology (example: Task Mining) can start recording actions and how people do work, and technology is going to start learning and digitizing those skills and making them available as a knowledge repository
Humans are going to be much more focused on the critical thinking of how to apply the skills learned and focus on higher-value work
While people retire, companies will be able to reap and keep the skills that employees are performing
Overview:
BPMN Standard focuses on 3 aspects of workflow:
1. Allows you to describe what the workflow tool trying to understand or do
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Salient Process is a full-service digital business automation shop and proud IBM Automation business partner. To learn more about us at our website, request a free consultation with one of our expert automation advisors! We look forward to guiding you and your company along your own unique Digital Business Automation journey.
Advised vendors on building Digital Business Automation solutions
You should use both technologies
Look at all the potential opportunities from Process Mining that you have that could be automation candidates (Example: RPA project that could go in and digitize some of the workload that humans are doing)
