Guest Author: Deb Miller
Global 360 Inc.

I’ve been sharing examples in this series about the possibilities of process-enabling SharePoint to drive business improvement in different vertical industries. This example is a personal confession.

 I recently participated in the Microsoft 2010 DC Launch event – actually held in Arlington, Virginia – and really enjoyed meeting some great SharePoint enthusiasts there.  If you were at DC or one of the other launch events I’d be interested in hearing your experiences.  This story is not about the event itself though; it’s about what happened afterwards.  Yes, after… when I got hopelessly helplessly lost on my way home to Maryland.  This story is about my journey and what I learned about SharePoint and business process management along the way.

What happened?  Despite living in the DC area for many years, I had never before visited the actual site for the launch event.   I had printed out the maps and directions both ways ahead of time so I was all set.  That’s right, I didn’t (yet) have a GPS in my car so was still going the paper route. That worked just great getting there, and was going well on the return trip until I missed a critical exit turn – or said another way, “an exception occurred.”   Once that happened I was lost and with every subsequent turn I made it just got worse. 

What did I do?  I refused to admit defeat of course and kept driving until I couldn’t even figure out how to get back to the launch event.  At that point, I actually started thinking about the business analogy for what was happening to me.  Yes, I really did; I am after all an admitted BPM-aholic.  It occurred to me that if we keep our important data in SharePoint – our destination for doing business – how can we help people to use it better to accomplish their work?  If you just use workflow to guide the work path – like my directions guided me – what happens when an exception occurs?  And, how can we help people to gain visibility into their work and have a real time view of status?  This is exactly where business process management (BPM) can be applied.   

What do I mean?  For those of us involved with supply chain, this equates to BPM solutions that process enable our data to achieve the nirvana KPI of the “perfect order” – orders delivered on time, in full , damage free and with the correct invoice documents.   BPM can handle logistics and invoice exceptions when an order fails to follow “the happy path” and help us to get orders back on track quickly.  For Banking and Insurance it might mean better handling of NIGO (not in good order) situations for new policies or loans so that underwriters can be more efficient.  And for the government it can mean securely and easily electronically rerouting selected court orders for review and audit in time for the coming docket trial, or guiding law enforcement in the legal and proper situations to take DNA samples when an unanticipated “event” occurs.

So where did my personal journey take me?  Well, I finally found my way home about 90 minutes late with an almost empty tank of gas.  I was definitely embarrassed about getting lost and thankful to the good Samaritans who gave me directions along the way.  Good news is I’ve since implemented my BPM solution. I now have a Garmin 1490T in my car that organizes and safeguards my data, guides me on my way, knows when I’m lost – sometimes before I do – and helps get me back on track fast! 

Guest Author: Deb Miller
Global 360 Inc.

Deb Miller is Director of Market Development for Global 360. Her work focuses on industry strategies for business process improvement. You can read more of Deb’s writings at http://DebsG360.wordpress.com/ and at @DebsG360 on Twitter.