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"It is a challenging time to be a customer centric company when every experience counts.
But there is good news: Consona
CRM products can help. Built on the foundation of two world-class solutions,
formerly Onyx and KNOVA, Consona CRM offers companies with vital and multifaceted customer relationships, or
companies offering complex or technical products and services, a wide range of fully integrated customer
relationship management (CRM software) and knowledge management (KM software) solutions that span customer service
and support, sales and marketing."
Source : Consona
Customer Process Management: The Real-time Enterprise Depends On the Merging of CRM and BPM
Customer Process Management is also known as :
Customer Process Management,
Advanced Service Software,
Business Process MGMT,
Process Planning Software,
Free Process Modeler,
New Product Development,
Order Management Process,
Production Planning Process,
Process Management,
Process Management Includes,
Business Process Management,
Customer Expectation Management,
Customer Process Management Enterprise,
Model Processes,
Steps to Customer Process,
Customer Process Re-engineering,
Customer Showcase,
Search Customer Showcase,
Livecycle Process Management,
Corporate Performance Management,
Business Process Improvement,
Entire Systems Management,
Capabilities of Customer Process,
Improve Process Management,
Manufacturing Business Process,
Customer Process Management Real-time,
Process Management Component,
Customer Applications,
Workflow Process Management,
Management and Invoicing Process,
Process Management Technology,
Process Management Enhances,
Share Customer Info,
Get Info on Customer Management,
Customer Management Info.
Introduction
Customer-facing processes are a challenge to manage because they are dynamic. Conventional
workflow automation and standalone business process management technologies lack the critical
components which come from CRM the building blocks of customer-facing processes. They also
lack the flexibility, integration and reach required to manage continuous process improvement in a
changing environment.
The convergence of customer relationship management (CRM) and business process management
(BPM) provides the responsiveness, cost effectiveness and manageability to achieve optimal results.
With true customer process management, process evolution is in the hands of business analysts
closest to the customer. Businesses can optimize complex processes that reach deep into CRM
and extend across departments, supporting constant change and business agility. This converged
approach to managing customer-facing processes improves effectiveness and process visibility.
It aligns priorities enterprise-wide, reduces risks and unblocks revenue growth potential.
Whitney Arms, the Venetian Republic and Ford Motor Co. had one thing in common: The desire
to make their operations more effective at achieving results. Each is credited with discovering modern
assembly-line manufacturing, although none set out solely to be more efficient at their work. Results
were the motivation for optimizing their operations. Venice changed shipbuilding in hopes of defeating
Napoleon's navy. Whitney optimized musket assembly to win lucrative defense contracts. Ford
perfected the assembly line, not just to make more trucks in less time, but to achieve a cost structure
that would change American society. Without results, efficiency would have been meaningless.
Fast forward to the information age, when businesses have tried various technological approaches
to making their operations more agile and effective. From this experimentation came workflow
automation, which was good for making day-to-day back-office tasks more efficient. Then came BPM,
uniting disparate systems and users by separating the process from the application.
Fast forward to the information age, when businesses have tried various technological approaches
to making their operations more agile and effective. From this experimentation came workflow
automation, which was good for making day-to-day back-office tasks more efficient. Then came BPM,
uniting disparate systems and users by separating the process from the application.
Just as assembly-line manufacturers have discovered the shortcomings of earlier theories, businesses
are realizing the limitations of simple workflow and standalone BPM technologies. In a world where
customer expectations are constantly rising, assembly-line methods are not suited to customer
satisfaction and retention.
What is needed is a merger of BPM and CRM that enables a better approach to process management.
This converged methodology delivers the flexibility to manage complex customer processes in real
time. This white paper describes this converged approach to BPM selection and deployment, and the
benefits it brings to customer-oriented process management.
Processes involving a customer are demanding
Customer-facing processes are challenging to automate and manage because they are always
changing'in fact, change is perhaps the only constant in customer processes including buying
patterns, lead distribution, account opening and enrollment, order management, cross-sell and
up-sell campaigns, and maintenance renewal. Manual processes can cause an enterprise to perform
unpredictably, blocking service improvements and hindering revenue growth. Undocumented or ad
hoc processes expose a company to compliance risks.
Automating processes alone falls short
Application automation and workflow take the manual tasks out of repetitive processes where human
involvement creates bottlenecks. BPM has taken workflow a step further by managing work items
between applications. For customer-facing processes, however, conventional approaches fall short of
their mark for three reasons.
- Lack of flexibility. First and foremost, customer processes are dynamic. With conventional
applications, the control to create and evolve processes resides with the information technology
(IT) department. The programming of processes and business rules takes time and resources, and
competes with other IT priorities. As an unfortunate consequence, companies decide not to automate
processes that are subject to frequent change.
Business managers, measured on the effectiveness of their processes, have little involvement in the
evolution of those processes. So departments develop a myopic view of their role the process ' they
become isolated by their lack of understanding of the overall business and their isolated contribution.
To control a static procedure, automation is sufficient. But to manage and optimize a dynamic
process'to retain customers and adapt to change'continuous improvement is essential.
Responsibility for managing and changing customer processes should be under the control of those
closest to the front lines.
- Lack of integration. Many companies make their CRM application the system of record for customer
information. Managers dream of using outside data in their CRM applications. If only CRM could tap
into inventory status, for example, to prompt call center agents to up-sell, then revenues could increase.
Conversely, the ability to apply CRM data to other processes could make a company more
competitive 'checking customer status when prioritizing work queues or scheduling service, for
example. Achieving this level of ongoing integration and collaboration, when separate CRM and BPM
applications are deployed together, takes significant money and time. And it may not even be feasible.
Without tight integration, these capabilities are no more than a daydream. CRM is a dynamic
application that changes with the customer. But its rich capabilities are limited by inaccessible silos
of data in other applications which, in turn, are cut off from the vast and valuable customer data
stored in CRM. Business rules are isolated in discrete systems. Gold customers wait, while less
valuable customers get quick service. Customer complaints increase, loyalty declines and repeat
business suffers.
- Lack of process reach. The workflow functions found in traditional CRM applications often do not
extend throughout the enterprise. Customer-facing processes are almost always cross-departmental,
yet CRM workflow automation is designed to operate primarily within the CRM system and for a select
group of neighboring applications. It is not easily extended beyond that scope'into finance, legal,
and compliance departments, for example'so it cannot promote predictable outcomes enterprise-wide.
Even simple processes such as approving contract terms become invisible when they leave CRM, as
other departments work their tasks. With gaps in accountability, blind spots become black holes.
Account reps spend their time searching for answers. Requests get "lost" and tempers flare.
" We asked 145 business and IT managers to identify their key challenges with today's
packaged enterprise apps. Their top gripes? Packaged applications can't keep up with
today's dynamic business processes: 81% of respondents indicated that their apps can't
support processes across functions."
Forrester Research Inc. Packaged Apps Lag Business Requirements. December 2, 2004
These shortcomings limit growth
Revenue growth can be stymied by inadequate approaches to establishing and managing customer
processes. Service is increasingly the differentiator among similar product offerings. Delivering
superior service requires continuous improvement. Static processes do not allow an organization to
adapt, which creates opportunities for the competition.
Plus, sales opportunities are lost when data or processes are out of reach. Call centers have become
profit centers'with more responsibility for generating sales than ever before. Customer touch points
are becoming more valuable, especially with tougher outbound calling restrictions. Inadequate
processes can result in lost sales opportunities, equating to lost revenue and increased risk.
Without visibility into how work gets done, a company has trouble demonstrating compliance with
Sarbanes-Oxley and other corporate governance regulations. Risk increases when a company has
not documented its internal controls. Enforcing policies and procedures, and demonstrating their
effectiveness to watchful audiences, requires enterprise-wide process integration.
Hard-coded links between proprietary interfaces are costly to program and the work must be revisited
with every software upgrade. Switching databases or other major components is disruptive and risky.
Customer-facing process management demands a new approach to BPM
Customer-facing processes are so important and so different from back-office processes, they
deserve a distinctive approach to selecting and deploying BPM. Enterprises that demand agility
need a converged system with native capabilities for customer management and process management.
They need more than merely automation or conventional BPM'they need a true customer-oriented
process management system.
" Dynamic business demands will drive a new form of BPM and cause the convergence of several
individual markets for business process that demand agility."
Gartner Group. Business Process Management Suites Will Be the 'Next Big Thing'. February 5, 2005
A converged system reaches deep into a customer management system to drive processes.
At the same time, it extends across departments and applications for end-to-end process
management. Above all, a true customer process management system supports constant change
and process optimization.
Flexibility enables responsive evolution of processes
To manage and optimize a process, constant adaptation is essential. A customer-oriented BPM
application is intended to support constant change and improvement. Monitoring processes provides
visibility into the entire process, so it can be fine tuned.
This new approach to BPM keeps the responsibility for optimization securely in the hands of customeroriented
business analysts. The application's business rules and processes evolve under the control of
people closest to the customer, with no need to rewire the software.
" Just as spreadsheets are placed directly in the hands of businesspeople without the need for
a cadre of support technicians, BPM [systems] must be turned over to business analysts."
Intelligent Enterprise. Prime Time for Real Time. Peter Fingar. May 1, 2005
Keeping process evolution in the hands of the business analysts is made possible by intuitive, graphical
interfaces for creating and maintaining process flows and business rules. Adjustments are treated as an
ongoing process, not as one-off projects. Optimization is given the priority it deserves, driven by sales
and service performance. All processes are stored and managed in one place, so components can be
re-used and their interdependencies are always clear.
" By giving business analysts software to build and manipulate end-to-end processes,
companies are dramatically improving response times to routine customer transactions and
emerging market demands by bypassing lengthy software development cycles."
Intelligent Enterprise. Prime Time for Real Time. Peter Fingar. May 1, 2005
Cross-departmental reach improves visibility
Customer data is valuable throughout the organization, but not if the data is kept locked away.
A converged approach makes information accessible and actionable everywhere, immediately.
Production backlogs are prioritized using information about customer segmentation and value.
Service requests for the best customers are scheduled ahead of others. Contract approvers take
into account a complete picture of the customer's current activity with the company'from Web
inquiries to orders in production.
Requests and orders originating in CRM are routed through other applications, never disappearing into
a blind spot. Customer service agents always have up-to-the-minute status of every process that affects
their customer. Events such as changes in a customer's status trigger notifications to processes that
may be affected. Delays in one process raise alerts that inform other processes, as well as triggering
appropriate communications to the customer.
" A flexible BPM solution for orchestrating cross-department customer-related processes is
critical for streamlining key business processes such as customer acquisition, distribution
management, client service operations and risk management."
Yankee Group. Onyx Adds Business Process Engine and Analytics with Latest Product Release. June 15, 2005.
Integration strengthens customer relationships
Every department has customers of some kind, and many applications are used to serve them. CRM
applications are specific to those customers the enterprise depends on for revenue, but there is
significant additional value when CRM capabilities are accessible to processes throughout the enterprise.
A converged approach makes these capabilities available to any part of the organization. Processes
throughout the company can call on specialized functions to build, rather than damage, customer
relationships. When an order is held up in production, the process can trigger an outbound contact
to the customer. The contact is made in the context of all other communication with that customer'
taking into account their communication preferences, buying patterns and customer value.
The rich capabilities of the converged solutions enable the access to processes throughout the
organization. Customers calling for service can check the status of their pending orders. Excess
inventory conditions trigger dynamic agent scripting to up-sell or cross-sell overstocked items. If a
delicate customer situation is being handled in one part of the organization, seemingly insensitive
outbound solicitations are suppressed until the issue is resolved.
Customer process management optimizes business results
A converged implementation of BPM goes beyond service efficiency. It increases the
effectiveness of revenue-generating processes enterprise-wide. This enables a company to
adapt and improve its service to meet changing customer demand'essential for customer
acquisition, satisfaction and retention.
" Becoming a real-time enterprise demands more than fast technology. It's also about how
fast a company can transform or add end-to-end processes to execute new strategies."
Intelligent Enterprise. Prime Time for Real Time. Peter Fingar. May 1, 2005
Above all, the converged approach enables continuous process improvement. Business analysts,
not programmers, are in control of refining processes and forms. As processes are fine-tuned, both the
customer and the enterprise benefit. Cycle times get shorter, and the advance warning of potential
problems happens sooner. Barriers to process improvement are removed and business priorities,
however fluid, become the sight line for every part of the organization.
All this process improvement happens without shifting more workload onto the IT department.
Deployment and integration leverage the latest Web-services standards, instead of depending on
custom code or proprietary interfaces.
The result is an organization that anticipates and responds to a changing world in real time, without
subjecting the company to legal risk. Well-documented processes are the first step to demonstrating
the internal controls that are increasingly important to compliance officers and auditors. A customer
process management application verifies that a company is consistently following procedures for
complex processes, even when those processes span departments or layers of supply chains.
Whether the concern is for disclosure, privacy or outbound contact, process management reduces
potentially costly human errors. It improves transparency on work processes and offers the flexibility to
adjust those that need fine-tuning.
Assembly lines didn't conquer Napoleon, and they won't conquer your competition. It takes agility and
flexibility to prevail. The following are two case studies that show how a converged approach to BPM
selection and deployment provided the essential combination of responsiveness, cost effectiveness
and manageability to achieve optimal results.
Case study
A chief financial officer (CFO) needed to make sure her company could demonstrate that adequate
controls exist to enforce the approval process for contracts offering special terms. Such internal
controls are required for compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Among other rules,
Section 404 requires a public company's auditors to report on aspects of the company's internal
controls and procedures.
The company had been using Onyx for years and the CFO felt it was most logical to manage this special
approval process in the context of the customer management application. The sales department uses
Onyx to originate orders and contracts, and customer data is stored there, making it easy for the vice
president of sales to authorize certain activities for customers.
But the approval process for special terms required authorization by more than the vice president of sales.
Approvals were also required from corporate counsel, the compliance officer and the finance department.
This company deployed Onyx to enforce a complex set of business rules for contracts with terms
that fall outside specified parameters. A discount in excess of a set percentage, for example, triggers
routing of the contract to the appropriate executives and sets deadlines for their approvals.
Onyx's integrated Customer Management capabilities combine with business applications throughout
the company. Even though those approvers are using other systems, the sales department always has
visibility into the process and its status.
The CFO can demonstrate to auditors that her company has internal controls in place'and that it
follows them. The approval process and business rules are well documented in Onyx, which is also the
central repository for customer agreements.
Case study
A financial service provider needed to increase its throughput of lending and credit application
requests. It had to meet a significant increase in demand, while reducing its exposure to potential
processing errors and fraud.
The bank decided to automate complex account origination processes that were still being completed
manually. These processes limited the volume of new business the bank could handle, and their
numerous variations made them costly, error-prone and slow.
With decisions often undocumented or hidden in paper files, the bank had no insight into how closely
employees adhered to established lending and credit policies. The bank could increase its credit risk without
management's awareness. Combined with a rapidly growing customer base and the increased incidence of
fraud and competitive market pressure, this introduced an unacceptable level of risk into the business.
The bank had been using Onyx for several years in its full-service contact center and throughout
an extensive branch network. The organization extended Onyx's reach with an implementation
of a redesigned sales process for its retail customers.
Onyx's integrated Customer Management capabilities allowed the bank to fully automate its retail
sales process. As a result, the bank decreased the processing time for new credit card applications
by a third, and brought average approval time down from 24 hours to less than two hours. In addition
to a 47 percent increase in new credit card sales, the bank eliminated a backlog of mortgage lending
applications and gave management more insight into lending processes and credit exposure.
Onyx Software Corporation (NASDAQ: ONXS) is a worldwide leader in customer process software
and solutions for the enterprise. Onyx provides flexible solutions that enable organizations to
automate, manage, and evolve their customer processes quickly and cost-effectively for strategic
advantage. Onyx serves more than 1300 customers in a variety of industries including financial services,
health care, contact center, high tech and local government.
Call Onyx today
Call us toll-free in the United States or Canada at 1-888-ASK-ONYX or 425-451-8060. Outside the U.S.,
contact an Onyx regional sales office: Asia +65-6332-6880, Australia +61 (2) 9409-4300,
Europe +44 (0) 1344-322-000, Japan +81 (3) 5157-0700. For information online, visit www.onyx.com