The document discusses the evolution of business process management (BPM) tools and highlights the importance of agile processes that leverage actionable information for decision-making. It emphasizes the impact of technology, particularly cloud-based applications, on automating standard processes and creating competitive advantages. Additionally, it outlines the requirements for agile decision support and process automation in a rapidly changing information landscape.

1. C2
The C-Square
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The Agility
Matrix,
Updated!
Clayton Costa
Enterprise Solutions Executive

2. Background…
C2
The C-Square
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 When I started to work with BPM suites, I
first tried to understand WHY ANYONE
would EVER invest on such tools
 To explain my conclusions, I have created
a slide deck called “Agility Matrix
Explained”, available at SlideShare.
 Now, it is time to update my comments and
elaborate on the subject

3. C2
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From the basis
 To the initial simple axiom:
“Every single company is made of business
processes.”
 I will add a second one, specially
relevant these days:
“Humans make difference taking decisions and
adding creativity to the tasks (that are part of
the processes).”

4. C2
The C-Square
So, companies
are a sum of
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5. C2 Common sense?
But…
The C-Square
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Consumerization of IT & Mobility made people smarter
than ever, always connected and with access to high-
quality IT services – for personal and professional
needs.
Processes are still spread among different classes of
agility, with ideal process automation tools for each
class. Agile processes gain momentum as they have a
bigger potential to generate competitive advantage.
Information - and ‘data’ - is not
what it used to be…

6. C2
The C-Square
Information
used to be rare
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Information
Systems would
collect data
about processes,
as they run.
Other data would
come from
different sources,
like surveys and
data providers.
And storage space used to be
expensive!

7. C2
The C-Square
Once processed*
it was ‘ready to
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consume’
(*) But ‘processed’
means: modeled,
normalized, mined,
extracted, explored,
aggregated, stored,
queried, analyzed,
etc..

8. C2
The C-Square
Nowadays
information is
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abundant
M2M
Log files
And most of it is really disposable…
So, is it worth the trouble?

9. Not really…
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 A new axiom:
“Valuable information is the one that
is actionable – i.e. drives a decision!”
 It can be:
Structured or Unstructured
Perennial or Disposable
‘Normal’ or ‘Big’

10. A New World
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• People
• Mobile & Equipped [BYOD]
• Short Available Time/Attention Span
• Information Overflow
• Processes
• Mixed [Standard / Ad-Hoc]
• People & Machine Actionable
• Always Changing / Adapting
• Data
• Structured or Unstructured
• Perennial or Disposable
• Normal or “Big”

11. C2 Requires a New
Enterprise
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Technology Stack
Decision Support Process Support

12. C2 Volatile
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The Agility
Expands on the same idea to
Expands on the same idea to
include Decision Support
include Decision Support
assets e.g. reports,
assets e.g. reports,
Matrix
visualizations, scorecards
visualizations, scorecards For Decision Support
and dashboards.
and dashboards.
Standard Life Cycle Specific
of a
Level of uniqueness of a
decision
decision support asset
support
asset
Stable

13. C2
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Volatile
ExampleServices &
Products
Development
Corporate Market
Governance Research
Customer
Loyalty &
Engagement
ITSM Reporting Sales
Performance
Measurement
Standard Specific
Quality
Control
Standard Revenue
Performance Management
Measurement
Accounting &
Financials
Reporting (e.g.
Books Closing)
Stable

14. C2
The C-Square
Make or Buy
Decision
Project
If it is a standard asset,
there has to be a ‘ready-to-
buy’ solution somewhere.
If it changes very often, I
can expect higher
maintenance costs.

15. C2
The C-Square
Make or Buy
Decision
Project
If one specific asset is
very specific to the way
one company does
business, then it has to
be developed - either in
or off-house, but on a
tailor-made agreement.

16. C2
The C-Square
Make or Buy
Decision
Project
And finally, there are
those assets that are
very specific, but
change very often
according to the market
conditions. Those
assets need an Agile
Decision Support
technology.

17. C2 Some Agile Decision
Support Requirements
The C-Square
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 Leverage all  Model-less Asset
information assets Building
 Cloud/On-Premise  Dimension-Free
 Structured & Unstructured
Analysis
 Perennial & Disposable
 ETL-free
 Normal & “Big”
 Pluggable Advanced
 User-Friendly Analytics
 Engaging user
 High Performance
experience
 Pre-built templates  Real-time user
interaction
 Wizard-driven

18. C2
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Volatile
The Agility
This updated version just
This updated version just
considers the whole left
considers the whole left
quadrant as “packaged
quadrant as “packaged
Matrix
application” --assuming cloud-
application” assuming cloud-
based applications can fulfill the
For Process
based applications can fulfill the
demands for most of the
demands for most of the Automation
standard processes.
standard processes.
Standard Life Cycle Specific
Level of uniqueness of a of the
business process business
process
Stable

19. Volatile
C2
The C-Square
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Services &
Tax Products
Management Development
Sales &
Marketing
Mgt.
SS
HR
Development
E
IN
Knowledge & IT
B US Strategy
HE
Mgt.
Development
T
Standard TO Specific
AL
CustomerIC
T
RI
Services
eC
Environment
Mgt.
or
Impact Mgt.
Accounting &
M Manufacturing
Financials & Services
Mgt. Delivery
Stable
Examples of processes from the APQC Reference Model

20. C2
The C-Square
The Matrix is
UNIQUE
Project
Volatile
While the full process
portfolio must be very
Standard
unique…
Specific
Volatile
Standard
Stable
Specific
Professional Services?
…there might be
some patterns per Stable
industry…
Manufacturing?

21. C2 The Make-Or-Buy decision
The C-Square
when automating…
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Volatile
Hum… Standard and
Tax
neverProducts&
changes?
Services
Management Someone must have a
Development
ready solution to this! Marketing
ISales &
want a Packaged App Mgt.
(ERP)!!!
HR Development
Level of uniqueness of a business
Knowledge & IT Life Cycle Strategy
process Mgt.
of the Development
business
Standard process Specific
Customer
Services
Environment
Mgt.
Impact Mgt.
Accounting & Manufacturing
Financials & Services
Mgt. Delivery
Examples of processes from the APQC Reference Model
Stable

22. Volatile
C2
The C-Square
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Services &
Tax Products
Management Development
Sales &
Marketing
Mgt.
HR
Development
Hum… Always
Level of uniqueness of a & IT Life Cycle changing,Strategy
Knowledge but for
business process Mgt.
of the everybody at the
Development
business same time? There
Standard process has to be a packaged Specific
Customer
Services
app for this as well…
Environment
Mgt.
Impact Mgt.
Accounting & Manufacturing
Financials & Services
Mgt. Delivery
Examples of processes from the APQC Reference Model Stable

23. Volatile
C2
The C-Square
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Services &
Ops… It’s a process
Tax Products
Management Development
that just relates to my
Sales &
company? Let’s do Marketing
Mgt.
some coding, once it’s HR
not going to change Development
very often…
Level of uniqueness of a & IT Life Cycle
Knowledge
business process Mgt.
of the
Strategy
Development
business
Standard process Specific
Customer
Services
Environment
Mgt.
Impact Mgt.
Accounting & Manufacturing
Financials & Services
Mgt. Delivery
Examples of processes from the APQC Reference Model Stable

24. Volatile
C2
The C-Square
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Services &
Tax Products
Now what? Pieces of
Management Development
these – very important – Sales &
processes are already Marketing
Mgt.
automated by packaged HR
apps, but I often need to Development
Level of uniqueness of a market
adapt them to the
Knowledge & IT Life Cycle
businessreq’s. This is the place to
process Mgt.
of the
Strategy
Development
use Agile Process
Automation solutions. business
Standard process Specific
Customer
Services
Environment
Mgt.
Impact Mgt.
Accounting & Manufacturing
Financials & Services
Mgt. Delivery
Examples of processes from the APQC Reference Model Stable

25. C2 And, what about…
The C-Square
“The Cloud”?
Project

26. C2
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What changes
with the cloud?
Mixing on-premise and
Mixing on-premise and
on-the-cloud apps spread
on-the-cloud apps spread New core-integration
New core-integration
the information and
the information and capabilities have to be
capabilities have to be
processes all around.
processes all around. developed, like Data
developed, like Data
Virtualization.
Virtualization.
And others have to be re-
And others have to be re-
invented, like Process
invented, like Process
Integration.
Integration.

27. C2 Some Agile Process
The C-Square
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Automation Requirements
 Integrated with the  User-Friendly
user work stream  Mobile (always on!)
 Office automation apps;  Engaging user
 Email & calendar; experience
 Social networking;  Gaming concepts
 Project Management
tools;
 Business Applications
(expenses, time
tracking etc..)

28. C2
The C-Square
Back to my
blog…
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 From now on I will blog about potential enabling
technologies related with the concepts mentioned here.
 I will use the following tags as identifiers:
 Agile Process Automation
 Agile Decision Support
 Process Integration
 Data Virtualization
 You can find my blog at http://claytoncosta.com
 Also, you can follow my reading list on twitter @cpcosta

29. C2
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That’s
all
Folks!