July 30, 2014 - BPM-derived Smart Process Applications represent a new opportunity to apply adaptive, intelligent workflow solutions to solve the major challenges in managing complex cases and improving customer experiences, according to the findings in the latest AIIM industry watch 'Case Management and Smart Process Applications'.
The new report, authored by AIIM and underwritten by AvePoint, Hyland Software, ISIS Papyrus Software, K2, Kodak Alaris, Kofax, IBM, OpenText, Readsoft and Swiss Post, was conducted between May and June this year and attracted over 300 respondents. Spanning organisations from 500 to 5,000+ employees the survey secured responses from a wide range of vertical markets with local and central government accounting for more than 30%.
Smart Process Applications (SPAs), Intelligent Business Processes, Adaptive BPM are all terms applied to a new generation of applications that use computer intelligence to extract context-relevant information from the content associated with a business process, and use it to select, modify or re-direct the next steps in the workflow. One of its primary applications is in case management, the key focus for this research.
Case management covers a broad range of applications. In the finance market for loan applications for example, in procurement for contract and bid management, in HR for recruitment, and increasingly in customer facing applications with help desk, customer disputes, claims processes and, of course, law suits. What typifies case management as a smart process application is often the complexity of the process, the number of internal and external agencies involved, connecting multi-channel inbound content to one managed process, parallel storage of data in multiple systems and managing multiple device connectivity. Yet it is the increasing impact that case management is having on an organization's Customer Experience Management (CEM) ambitions that is a timely driver for improvement.
The 30-page report takes an in-depth look at the applicability of Smart Process Applications, the experience of early users, the drivers for improved case management, and the feature sets required of a modern case management system. Some key findings include: -
1. For 51% of the organisations polled, half or more of their business processes are not straightforward or predictable.
2. Increasing customer expectations for speed of response is the biggest pain point for those surveyed (44%).
3. 58% consider their case handling system to be vital or very important to their customer experience management. For 67% it is vital or very important for legal and regulatory compliance.
4. The biggest benefits cited by users are faster and more consistent customer response and faster end-to-end process times.
5. The biggest issue with current solutions is lack of a single view of the customer due to parallel storage of data in multiple systems.
Doug Miles is AIIM's Director of Research and comments on the findings. "Adaptive or smart business processes are already producing good results for early users. For its broader and widespread potential to be realized, the research suggests that managing input across multiple channels and routing it automatically to the case file is the single biggest benefit – a necessity to impact Customer Experience Management." Doug continues, "Most surprising though is the challenge still presented by mobile. Not just mobile access to content but interacting with case processes from mobile devices. Despite 40% considering mobile access to case content and approval processes to be very important or vital (22%), only 6% already have it!".
The AIIM industry watch paper, Case Management and Smart Process Applications' is available online.
