Technology Forecast 2010 Issue2

8/4/2019 Technology Forecast 2010 Issue2

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In this issue

04

Managing variabilitywithout constraining it

24

Smart digital assets: Catalyst forend-to-end process management

44

CIO can mean more thana transaction wizard

TechnologyforecastManaging theend-to-end process

A quarterly journal2010, Issue 2


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Features

04 Managingvariabilitywithoutconstrainingit

Leverage smart digital assets to extend process management tovariable human tasks.

24 Smartdigitalassets:Catalystforend-to-endprocessmanagement

The rise of smart digital assets presents a compelling opportunity toextend process management to variable human-driven processes.

44 CIOcanmeanmorethanatransactionwizard

The CIO can lead the way to derive more value fromlong-neglected processes.

Contents


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Interviews

16 Usingmetadataofsmartdigitalassetsforend-to-endprocessmanagement

Stephen Kaufman of Schawk discusses how the conuence ofprocess and asset management enables the company to manage

its end-to-end process while facilitating the versatility of staffcontributions to customer value.

36 Model-baseddesign

Steve Miranda of Oracle discusses how metadata is making adifference in managing human workow processes.

40 Personalizedandparticipatorybusinessprocess

Marge Breya of SAP forecasts how smart digital assets combinedwith the process of me present a compelling opportunity forbusiness process management.

54 Whowillowntheprocess?

Ismael Ghalimi of Intalio discusses the need for process owners anfor process models to drive execution.

Departments

02 Messagefromtheeditor

58 Acknowledgments

62 Subtext


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02 PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology Forecast

Messagefromtheeditor

In this issue of the Technology Forecast, we examine the yin yang1 ofstructured or repeatable work processes and versatile or variable humanprocesses. Most large enterprises have spent much of the past 15 yearsimplementing business infrastructures focused on standardized processessupported by modern enterprise applications. The words roll off the tongueso easily that we often forget that for most large enterprises, these highlystandardized, repeatable, and automated processes represent a fraction

of what really happens in the business. For every yang in the business,there are probably two yinsthe more variable, responsive, creative,analytic, and insightful activities that heavily rely on the versatility ofemployees efforts.

Software-based process management of the yin of the enterprise hasnever really taken off. After all, if the process is highly variable, what couldactually be standardized for automation? Why would an enterprise want toinsert structure where it is not wanted or useful? Shouldnt we just leavethe yin of enterprises alone? How could software possibly improve on whatis essentially a human process?

During our research for this issue, we explored ways that companies arebeginning to bring the yin and the yang together in pursuit of end-to-end

business process management. What we uncovered is that managingthe yin doesnt mean standardizing and constraining the value-creatingvariability of human actions. Rather, it requires adding just enoughstructure into the yin of creative processes to actually enhance themwhile connecting the overall work activity to the yang of structuredprocess and data.

A good analogy is in the role and usefulness of music notation. The humanmind seems highly attuned to the sound of music, regardless of cultureor experience. Music clearly represents a creative activity for both thecomposer and the performer. And yet there is archaeological evidence ofefforts to introduce structure into music as long ago as 2000 BC.2 And thereasons are obvious.

1 From Wikipedia: In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin yang (often referred to in the westas yin and yang) is used to describe how seemingly disjunct or opposing forces are

interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn.

2 A. D. Kilmer, The Discovery of an Ancient Mesopotamian Theory of Music, Proceedings of

the American Philosophical Society 115 (1971): 13149.

Messagefromtheeditor


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Message from the editor

The second article describes the rise of smart digitalassets as metadata about them has become richerand deeper over time. The last article explores theCIOs role in bringing meta-process management tothe enterprise.

As always, our articles are supported by in-depthinterviews with leading executives and thought leader

who are dening the future of IT. Stephen Kaufman ofSchawk describes how the metadata of smart digitalassets enables the company to manage its end-to-endprocess of brand management from creative to delivewhile facilitating the versatility of staff contributions tocustomer value. Steve Miranda of Oracle discusses hometadata is making a difference in managing humanworkow processes. Marge Breya of SAP forecasts hosmart digital assets combined with the personalizationof process present a compelling opportunity forbusiness process management. Ismael Ghalimi ofIntalio discusses the need for process owners in anenterprise and for process models to drive execution.

And Dr. M. A. Ketabchi of Savvion details how businesprocess management systems are process applicationthat complement transactional and other applications

Please visit pwc.com/techforecast to nd these articleand other issues of the Technology Forecast. If youwould like to receive future issues of the TechnologyForecast as a PDF attachment in your e-mail box, youcan sign up at pwc.com/techforecast/subscribe.

And as always, we welcome your feedback on thisissue of the Technology Forecast and your ideas forwhere we should focus our research and analysis

in the future.

Tom DeGarmoPrincipalTechnology [email protected]

Imagine a world without music notation and anindividual playing a song. That scenario is not toodifcult. Imagine now 10 musicians playing a songtogetherpossible, but only with lots and lots ofpractice and after many hours of experimenting todetermine which notes blend together to create apleasing sound. Now extend this test to 100 musicians.

Thats OK for very simple forms of music but nearlyimpossible for anything complexunless there is someagreed-upon higher-level structure for describing thepitch, rhythm, and tempo of the sounds coming fromeach performer.

In fact, the specication of pitch, rhythm, and tempo,among other details, constitute the musics metadatacreating shared visibility and making it possible for allparticipants to be in harmony.

Large enterprises are much like a 100-person orchestrawhen it comes to the human activities that really denethe value propositions of an enterprise. Whether it is in

product design, customer knowledge, or continuallyadapting a supply chain to deliver the best value,individuals and teams of bright, creative employees andpartners working together make all the difference. And afew companies such as Schawk, a brand managementcompany, are learning that metadata (a structure) cango a long way toward helping everyone work moreeffectively together. In the process, they are achievinghigher performance from both their yin and their yang.

This issue of the Technology Forecast examines howdigital assets resulting from human activity havebecome smarter over time. These smart digital assets

present the opportunity to extend process managementto human-driven activities without constraining theirvalue-creating variability. The rst article introducesthe idea of meta-process management, achieved bycombining digital asset metadata with assetmanagement and process management technologies,as an approach to managing and continuouslyimproving an end-to-end process. The article detailsthe experience of Schawk in using smart digitalassets to facilitate end-to-end process management.


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Leverage smart digital assets to extend process management tovariable human tasks.

By Vinod Baya and Bo Parker

Managingvariabilitywithoutconstrainingit


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Managing variability without constraining it

We were too heavily focused on asset management, so we ippedthat paradigm and began putting much more of our thought in theprocess piece.Stephen Kaufman, Schawk

Schawk, a global brand management company, works

with clients to design and deliver the visual branding forthe packaging of consumer goods. The design processis creative, unpredictable, and expensive, and thestakes are high: packaging directly affects the shoppersbuying decision, and legal issues can arise if text isntaccurate. Clients need to be able to make changes aslate in the process as possible. At Schawk, this deadlineused to be 30 days before delivery, but in recent yearsthe company has reduced the freeze date to 15 daysbefore delivery, creating a major competitive advantagefor Schawk and its clients.

Schawk halved the freeze period by shifting itsmanagement focus from assets to processes.We were too heavily focused on asset management,so we ipped that paradigm and began putting muchmore of our thought in the process piece, saysStephen Kaufman, CTO of Schawk. Assets enter andexit [the process], and they have intelligence andmetadata. The more metadata they have, the moreintelligent the digital assets can be, but typically theyrestill players on the stage of process. You dont wantprocess to be a player on the stage of assets.

Specically, Schawk combined an existing businessprocess management system (BPMS) with an existingdigital asset management (DAM) system to build a

system to manage the end-to-end process from creative

to delivery. This system uses metadata about the digit

assets to provide the agility and variability necessary frapid visual brand development.

In contrast to this new system, most companiestypically focus their automation efforts on thetransactional processes best suited to standardizationand reduced variability, because variability is considerwasteful and value destroying. The result has been anearly exclusive emphasis on managing transactionsinstead of processes. Most companies optimizeautomation ows rather than what really counts:their end-to-end processes. Rare is the companythat manages variable processes, including value-producing, creative activities like visual brand design.

This issue of the Technology Forecast examineshow smart digital assets and their metadata offerthe opportunity to extend process management tohuman-driven activities without constraining variabilityThis rst article introduces the idea of meta-processmanagement, achieved by combining digital assetmetadata with asset management and processmanagement technologies, as an approach tocontinuous improvement of an end-to-end process.The second article explores technologies that exist tosupport this approach; the last article explores the CIOrole in this approach. In the following section, we start

with a closer look at Schawk and the lessons it offers.


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Figure 1: Thekeyend-to-endprocessforSchawk,thebrandpointmanagementprocess,goesfromcreativetodelivery.Thetasksclosertocreativearelargelyhumandriven,andthoseclosertodeliveryaremoretransaction-systemdriven

Source: Schawk

Flipping the paradigm

End-to-end process management has remained elusiveto most enterprises, because they have difcultymonitoring and managing the variable human activitiesin the process. At Schawk, existing data assets, proventechnologies, and a willingness to look at things froma different perspective led to effective end-to-endprocess management.

Based in Des Plaines, Illinois, with more than 3,000

employees in 48 ofces around the globe, Schawkworks with some of the largest consumer packagedgoods companies to create consistent and compellingbrand experiences for all touch points. Theres anindustry standard that estimates that for a given product,roughly 70 percent of the buying decision is made inthe store, Kaufman says. The process of looking atthe package, analyzing the buy decision, and deciding

whether to put the product in the shopping cart isoften based around the look and feel of the product,and the graphic presentation of the product orbranding concept.12

One end of the branding process includes creative tasksto develop the brand expression. On the other end isthe delivery of the brand expression on the products.(See Figure 1.) Tasks closer to delivery are repeatable,highly structured, and driven by transactional systems,while tasks closer to the creative end are human driven

and highly variable. The process is dynamic andchanges are common at all stageschanges to theartwork or text on the label, and downstream in theprinting supply chain. Something as simple as the client

1 See the interview, Using metadata of smart digital assets for

end-to-end process management, on page 16 for a detailed

conversation with Stephen Kaufman of Schawk.

film

digital

digital photo

negatives

Creative Production artwork Premedia Delivery

End-to-end processHuman-driven tasksTransaction-driven tasks

Client IdeaDesign

concept

Databasemgmt

Text copycreation

Variabledata

Imagerydefined or

created

Photography

Artwork

Typography

Media

Postpressor

convertingFulfillment

Kitting

DistributionPre-flight Pre-flightImage

assembly& layout

Assetmgmt

Colorcorrection

Retouching

Scanning

Raw colorproofing

Proof(content &

layout)

Trapping& colorbreaks

Colormanage

for output

Contracthard proof

Contractsoft proof

Final RIP

Final RIPContract

proof(analog)

Final RIP

Plating

Computerto plate

Computer

to plate

Largeformatprinting

Digitalpress

Internetpublished

Computerto plate

Stepping

Stepping

Stepping

Internetdata

capture

Brand point management process


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nding a better bulk price for palm oil than for coconutoil could lead to a last-minute change in the ingredients

list for a few dozen versions of the package. Schawkpreviously managed this process with a focus on thedigital assetthe artwork, the text, or the in-storedisplays. All were led and controlled using a DAMsystem and its workow capabilities.

Over the years, Schawk took on different types ofwork across multiple regulatory, demographic, andgeographic markets spanning many languages. At thesame time, it saw a tremendous increase in its clientsneeds for customization. Dealing with changes as lateas possible became a competitive necessity and akey differentiator. In the late 90s, you might have foundone or two basic variations on a candy wrapper,Kaufman says. Then, maybe the brand owner wouldchange it once at Halloween and put a pumpkin on it,and at Christmas it might have a holly leaf on it, andthat would be about it. In todays market, the samecompany might have a size and a package for Wal-Martand a different one for Target and a different one forSams Club or Costco. They might change that packagefour or ve times in a year for seasonal promotions,and they might also do a cross-brand promotion for anot-for-prot organization and have a temporary colorvariation on the package, and so on.

This dynamic affected operations in ways not

immediately apparent. The watershed moment camewhen Schawk achieved a deeper understanding ofits end-to-end process. Initially, we saw it as arelatively straightforward, linear process. But the morewe peeled that onion, the more dependencies wediscovered. These dependencies included critical pathgateways and events that had triggers that we mightnot have understood when we started studying theproblem, explains Kaufman.

Schawk executives wanted to manage the complex,nonlinear, end-to-end process while allowing thechanges necessary for competitiveness. They found

a solution by shifting the approach from asset-drivenmanagement to process-driven management. Inpractical terms, the company combined an existingBPMS with the DAM system and some other functions,and included the metadata of the digital assets.

The resultant system is called BLUE, rst rolled outmore than two years ago. The most recent version is

BLUE 3.0.Process management today most often focuses ontransactional tasks and human tasks closest totransactions, because those are what todays systemscapture and automate. (See Figure 2.) Schawkextended process management all the way back to thhuman-driven creative tasks. The human-driven tasksneeded to accommodate a high degree of variability, isharp contrast to transactional systems and traditionaworkow systems.

The key to achieving this inclusion of human-driventasks was the metadata of the digital assets. Metadata

is descriptive information about the asset, such as theauthors name, dates of creation and modication, sizelocation, status, keywords, and other characteristics.This information can help manage, execute, andintegrate the asset with a process. Some metadata iscreated automatically by the software, and some iscreated by the people working with the asset.

Using the metadata, BLUE 3.0 gives Schawk staffgreater visibility into the human-driven processes andan improved ability to be exible with late changes.Schawk has made impressive progress toward ameta-process for managing and handling changes,

and for staying on a path of continuous processimprovement. In addition to reducing the freeze dateto 15 days, the approach sharply reduces the numberof required touch points, including reviews. Fewertouch points limit the possibility of introducing errors,and thereby avoid costly mistakes.

All this directly impacts the clients return on investme(ROI), Kaufman says. Imagine a market where only twkey brands compete for a valuable market. If one branmakes a change shortly before the holiday season, theother thinks, Thats going to give them a competitiveedge this Christmas season. We need to get somethinto market to match that. You can only imagine theamount of money at stake in the retail environmentwhen they can execute that responding change beforethe holiday season as opposed to after.


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Task variability from human versatility

Schawk is an exception. In general, enterprise attempts

to create more value from process automation have hitthe proverbial wall because the goal of automation is toreduce variability by focusing on repeatable processesand standardizing them. Further, most repeatablebusiness processes that can be standardizedprimarilytransactionsalready have been automated.

But most enterprise activity is not transactional; itcomprises human-driven tasks, which in an end-to-endprocess range from those close to the transactionalsystems to handle exceptions to those further from thetransactional systems to handle planning and strategy.(See Figure 2.) These human tasks are collections of

loosely integrated activities that benet from variabilityand rely on judgment, creativity, analysis, wisdom, andother cognitive capabilities of the staff. Human-driventasks are highly variable because humans are versatile.Tapping that versatility is how most enterprises deal withthe dynamism in their business environment. However,human-driven tasks have been largely unexamined,

rightly seen as too complex to enhance through standardautomation. Human tasks can be opaque; managementcannot always see, audit, or measure them.

Now, many experts say human-driven processes are ripefor process management. You can group processes inan enterprise into either system-centric or human-centricprocesses. Looking forward, the more interestingcategory is user-centric, because thats where a largeportion of the enterprise processes are and thats wherethe adoption of new systems and technologies in theenterprise will succeed or fail, says Marge Breya,executive vice president at SAP.

Further automation of business processes should notbe seen as a fools errand, but as a great opportunityfor improvements in human-driven tasks and processes.

As Schawk illustrates, what is needed is a newapproach for process improvement that explicitlyaccounts for value from the versatility of human activity.

At the same time, the new approach should include astructure for orchestrating the broader activity withinwhich that versatility occurs.

Figure 2: Thisguredescribesthecontinuumofhumantasksintheend-to-endprocess.Thegurecontrastsbusinessactivitiesthatcreatevaluefromstandardizationmanagedbytraditionalenterpriseapplicationsversusbusinessactivitiesthatcreatevaluebyencouragingvariabilityinthinkingandprocess

Supply chain management,

ERP, channel management

Financial management,regulatory compliance,talent management

R&D, product design,

sourcing and partnerships

Strategic marketing,knowledge acquisition,talent acquisition

Direct value flow

to customers

Indirect value flowto customers

Transactional tasks(e.g., printing 20 million copies of a package)

Exception tasks

(e.g., approval for price change to quote)Planning tasks(e.g., where to print and how to orchestrate the supply chain)

Design tasks(e.g., which design for which market and whereand how many places on the package)

Creative tasks(e.g., which visual expression)

End-to-end processStandardizedTransaction-driven tasksVariable

Human-driven tasks


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Understanding the end-to-end process

Todays enterprise applications claim to supportend-to-end processes, such as order to cash, procureto pay, or design to deliver. In reality, they support onlythe set of linked transactions that dene the initiation orconclusion of more substantive, human-centric tasksassociated with these transactions.

Consider order to cash. Before an order is received,various sales initiatives, account plans, pricing analyses,and other activities occur. If those activities aresuccessful, an order is placed, which is the transactionthat starts the so-called end-to-end process of mostapplications. The myriad activities that preceded theorder do not exist in the transactional system, yet the

intellectual capital in a sales team is a signicantcomponent of enterprise value. Figure 3 shows thisdistinction graphically, illustrating how human effort andtransactions are interspersed in a process.

At a high level, todays enterprise processes compriseprimarily two groups of tasks: automated and manual.(See Figure 3.) The automated tasks are driven bytransactional systems, whereas the manual tasks aredriven by humans. Until recently, the darker parts ofFigure 3 would have been entirely manual. For example,the human activities in a sales planning process wouldhave included a series of meetings supported by note

taking, task assignments for individuals to create listsof ideas about approaching a target, and a plan on howto proceed, perhaps detailed in a paper document.

As Schawk came to realize, the combination of analogand digital tasks in an end-to-end progression results incomplex, nonlinear, and interdependent processes.Managing and improving such processes are beyond thecapabilities of transactional and linear workow systems.

The collection of human-centric

tasks supported by digital tools israrely made explicit for visualizationunderstanding, analysis, andprocess improvement.

The rise of smart digital assets

An odd thing has happened to many of these human-driven manual tasks. They have become partially digitabecause people use software to organize, design,

collaborate, and manage deliverables. Ofce workersuse collaboration and productivity applications such associal media tools and the Microsoft Ofce suite.Marketing staff use tools from Adobe Systems andothers to create compelling collateral. Semiconductorengineers use tools from Mentor Graphics and others tdesign new chips. Hardly a discipline exists that doesnot have its own collaboration and productivity softwar

The use of these digital tools in the human-centriccomponents of end-to-end processes has createdseparate solar systems of technologies and workproducts. As Figure 4 shows, transaction systems sit inone solar system waiting for what is often a long-runninhuman-centric collection of activities in a separate solasystem to deliver an event of some kind. Mediatingbetween these systems has been a job for a human.The collection of human-centric tasks supported bydigital tools is rarely made explicit for visualization,understanding, analysis, and process improvement.

Figure 3: End-to-endprocessesincludeautomatedtasksdrivenbytransactionalsystemsandmanualtasksdrivenbyhuma

Manual tasks, human driven

Automated tasks, transaction-system driven

End-to-end process


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The news is not all bad. The result of humans usingthese tools is a new set of digital assetsdocuments,drawings, architectures, methods, models, videos,

images, and others. Rather than mere outcomes thatneed to be managed as content, these digital assetshave become smarter over time and present anopportunity to extend process management to theentire end-to-end process. Digital assets have becomesmarter for the following reasons:

They are enhanced with extensible metadata capableof tracking important details concerning the author,date created, version number, and more specicinformation related to the specic tool.

The digital assets are themselves becoming moremodular and organized around components that

dene different mini-workows. Text and imagedevelopment, for example, can follow separatetimelines, supported by different subteams, and thenbe integrated at the last moment before production.The metadata is increasingly open to third-partysoftware, conforms to industry-standard formats,and can be used to manage processes.

Metadata about a digital asset is a key contributorto the smarts of the digital asset and helps withmanaging and executing an end-to-end process.

The Schawk example shows that the metadataassociated with smart digital assets is the key toextending process management to the end-to-endprocess without constraining the necessaryvariability of human tasks. Standards andtechnologies that allow metadata to be used thisway are discussed in the article, Smart digitalassets: Catalyst for end-to-end processmanagement, on page 24.

Metadata about a digital asset

is a key contributor to the smartsof the digital asset and helpswith managing and executing anend-to-end process.

Exceptions

Task variability

Process changes

Other

Productivity,collaboration,and other tools

support

strategy developmentplanningproduct developmentinnovationM&A

Collaboration

ERP, CRM,SCM systems

support

transactions

Automated tasks

Manual tasks

End-to-end processLow variability High variability

Figure 4: Theactivitiesinanyend-to-endprocesslargelyexistintwocategoriesbasedonthevariabilityoftheassociatedtasks.Themovementbetweenthetwocategoriesresultsfromexceptions,changesinprocess,collaboration,andvariability


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Conuence of process and assetmanagement protects variability

Smart digital assets present a signicant opportunity forend-to-end process management by bringing focus tothe versatility of human activities. Establishing this focusrequires the conuence of two classes of solutions thatseparate the data created by the human activitythedigital asset itselffrom the metadata about the digitalasset. The rst class of solutions creates or managesthe digital assets, and is represented by whatPricewaterhouseCoopers calls collaboration and contentmanagement systems (CCMS). The second class ofsolutions supports the modeling and management ofprocesses, and is commonly referred to as business

process management systems (BPMS). Both leveragethe metadata of the smart digital assets.

Schawk achieved this conuence by separating thesmart digital asset from its metadata. Metadata isusually embedded in the digital asset, but, accordingto Kaufman, this approach has limitations. To removethe limitations, Schawk stored the metadata in arelational database and managed it separately. Thistechnique also separated the human activity from the

management of the process by using the metadataas a standard interface for the variable processes.

The metadata creates visibility into the variable humanactivity and offers relevant metrics useful in end-to-enprocess management.

Combining a CCMS and BPMS, as Schawk did, allowthe orchestration of the end-to-end process withoutrestricting the variability and versatility of human effortThese technologies, when combined with the metadatof smart digital assets, essentially provide the bridge tbring together the manual and automated tasks in thetwo solar systems. (See Figure 5.)

BPMS and CCMS are not new technologies, soenterprises do not need to take risks with early-stage

software from small vendors that have uncertainfutures. However, the enterprise must integrate thesetechnologies in a way that supports a different approacto process management. Schawk found this effortworthwhile. The reward for taking this approach is aset of process models that accurately reect how thebusiness actually works, a management team that fullyunderstands how the enterprise creates value, and ameta-process for continuous improvement and agilityin a dynamic business environment.

Figure 5: ThecombinationofBPMS,CCMS,andsmartdigitalassetsallowsthemanagementoftheend-to-endprocesswithoutconstrainingtheversatilityofhumanefforts

Automated tasks

Manual tasks

ERP, CRM,SCM systems

Productivity,collaboration,and other tools

End-to-end processLow variability High variability

Business processmanagement systems (BPMS)

Collaboration and contentmanagement systems (CCMS)

Smart digital assets

+

+


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The metadata provides a standard interface to the variable activity,eliminating the need to structure, standardize, or constrain thevariability necessary for human versatility.

Role and benets of businessprocess modeling

A key step in the use of a BPMS is business processmodeling, the activity of describing how work gets donein a company at the appropriate level necessary for adesired objective. A model of a strategic process couldbe fairly high level, while a model that needs to drive anexecution environment would have a much deeper levelof detail. The goal of business process modeling shouldbe to capture the end-to-end process so it can bebetter understood and supported by systems. Businessprocess modeling is an important activity to facilitatemanagement of the real end-to-end process. Themodel-based design goes more toward completeness

of the solution. One part of this is bringing more of thecomplete end-to-end process into the model and theresulting application logic, explains Steve Miranda,senior vice president of Oracle Application developmentfor Oracle. Model-based design is a key feature ofOracles Fusion solutions.

Business process modeling of complex work streamscan be time-consuming, so much so that processmodeling tools have not been as widely adoptedas enterprise applications. Potential adopters wonderwhether they will see a return on investment fromdetailed process modeling. And entirely human

processes have not had a software supportinfrastructure to ensure behavioral compliancewith any enhanced work-process designs.

This is where smart digital tools and assets come in.By predening a number of mini-workows and

modularity in the architecture of digital asset creation,smart digital tools introduce a level of processstandardization to human-centric activities. Themetadata of the digital assets can play two key rolesin this regard:

The metadata can serve as an abstraction ofthe model of the human effort that takes place.Business process modeling tools can inheritmuch of this process architecture, simplifyingthe detailed modeling that previously wouldhave been necessary.

The metadata provides a standard interface to the

variable activity, eliminating the need to structure,standardize, or constrain the variability necessaryfor human versatility. These standards at specicpoints in the process then create opportunitiesto produce metrics that introduce a minimallyinvasive mechanism for better management of theend-to-end process.

Enterprises have long known the value of treating dataas a strategic asset and investing in systems andprocesses for creating an authoritative source for dataand information. The creation of process models inBPMS establishes the potential for enterprises to also

treat process as a strategic asset. The sidebar Usingmodels to manage processes as enterprise assetscontrasts enterprise treatment of data and process asa strategic asset.


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Usingmodelstomanageprocesses

asenterpriseassetsAsk any CIO or chief operating ofcer about thecompanys end-to-end processes, and theyll likelysay they have no authoritative repository ofinformation. The documentation they do have forthe transactional systems is likely to be outdated,because the enterprise lacks a process for keepingit up to date. Besides, this documentation usuallyexplains the operations of the transactional systems,not the activity that is human driven.

However, enterprises have long known the value ofmanaging data as a strategic asset. Data provides

visibility into operations, drives decisions, and is thekey to managing an enterprise. Enterprises spendsignicant resources collecting, normalizing, storing,and managing this data. Table 1 contrasts whereenterprises are with respect to their treatment ofdata and process.

Many enterprises would like to do the same withend-to-end processes but have no authoritativesource for process information. This is whereprocess models can pay dividends and presenta compelling value proposition.

In systems today, the single source of truth of a

process has to be the BPEL process, the BPM[business process model] process itself, becausethats the reality of whats being executed, saysSteve Miranda, senior vice president of Oracle

Application development for Oracle, explaininghow models can be the authoritative source ofinformation about the end-to-end process.*

Although models can be built just for the capture,visualization, and analysis of processes, the trend istoward having the model drive the actual executionenvironment by creating a tight coupling betweenthe two. Unless this [business process] model is

there to drivein a closed-circuit fashion with adirect feedback loopa transactional system thatwill automate major portions of the process model,youve wasted your time, says Ismael Ghalimi,CEO of BPMS software maker Intalio, a companythat offers hosted cloud-computing services. Withmodel-driven execution of the end-to-end process,the enterprise will have a single authoritativedescription that will allow it to manage that processas a strategic asset.

* Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) isthe industry standard that describes how to assemble

and execute a set of activities into a process.

Data Process

Seen as an enterprise asset Needs to be an enterprise asset

Value of an authoritative source of data is well understood Value of an authoritative source for process information isnot well understood

Metadata is becoming managed (metadata management) Meta-process needs management(meta-process management)

Data modeling and analysis are known competencies Process modeling and analysis are evolving

Data cleansing and data integrity are well known,advanced capabilities

Process cleansing and integrity need support from tools

Table 1: Theenterpriseviewofprocessasanassetlagsbehindthatofdata


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Meta-process management forcontinuous improvement

Changes and transformations constantly challengeenterprises to stay on a path of continuous processimprovement. So far, BPMS and other processmanagement solutions have largely focused onmanaging the process that is modeled and executed.These solutions are useful, but enterprises need ameta-process for managing and changing theend-to-end process.

Schawk has made impressive gains toward creatinga meta-process for change. Smart digital assets andthe combination of CCMS and BPMS resulted in anew approach for managing continuous process

improvement that we call meta-process management.(See Figure 6.) Meta-process management is abetter t for end-to-end processes because of thefollowing reasons:

It extends process management to includehuman-driven activities while acknowledging theneed for staff versatility to respond to changing

job requirements and deliverables.

It uses business process modeling tools to revealthe desired process models and process logic for

changes, discussion, and analysis. It treats the end-to-end process and associated

process models as strategic assets that need to begoverned and managed to maintain an authoritativesource for them.

It leverages the smartness of smart digital assetsby managing the metadata separately from thedigital assets and using it to manage and improvethe process.

Finally, the full life-cycle management of an end-to-end process becomes a much more compellingpossibility in the context of continuous improvement.

This continuous improvement loop shown in Figure 6 isimportant in the dynamic business environment mostenterprises face. By maintaining accurate models ofvalue-creating processes, management can respond tochange with agility. Therefore, any signicant enterprisetransformation has far greater potential to successfullyachieve desired results.

Figure 6: Meta-processmanagementforbusinesstransformationandcontinuousimprovement

Transactional systems Collaboration andcontent managementsystems

Business processmanagement systems

Productivity tools andsolutions to supportmanual tasks

End-to-end processAutomated tasks Manual tasks

Transactional data | Asset metadata | Process models | Process metadata | Smart digital assets

Business transformation | Continuous improvement


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In addition to digital asset metadata, two classes ofenabling technologies make end-to-end processmanagement possible: a CCMS optimized for themanagement of digital assets and team activities,and a BPMS for shifting focus from managing assetsto managing process.

The future for enterprises, and a key responsibilityfor the CIO, will be to leverage the smart digital assetsand associated enabling technologies to create ameta-process of managing the end-to-end processthrough changes and transformations in business.The metadata is the link among all the activities andprocesses, enabling the smart digital assets to improvthe organizations ability to be efcient and versatile.Meta-process management will extend the power oftechnology to assist human activities, facilitating thekey enterprise asset of human versatility.

For more information on the topics discussed in this

article, contact Hemant Ramachandra at +1 973 2365546 or Gerard Verweij at +1 617 530 7015.

Conclusion

Most enterprises have found management of theend-to-end process to be elusive, because the goal oftraditional process automation is to assert repeatabilityand standardization into the processto reduce

variability. However, all end-to-end processes includesignicant human-driven activities, which are and mustbe highly variable.

Certain trends now make it possible to extend processmanagement to human-driven activities withoutconstraining the value-creating variability. The outcomeof much human activity in enterprises includesdocuments, media les, and other digital assets, allof which are getting smarter. The smarts are a resultof the increasing amount of metadata in these digitalassets. Metadata can become a standard interfacethat, when integrated in a processes-driven approach,can extend visibility and management to the variablehuman-driven activities and the end-to-end processes.

The model-based design goes more toward completeness of

the solution. One part of this is bringing more of the completeend-to-end process into the model and the resulting application logic.Steve Miranda, Oracle


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Usingmetadataofsmartdigitalassetsforend-to-endprocessmanagement

Stephen Kaufman of Schawk discusses how theconuence of process and asset management enablesthe company to manage its end-to-end process whilefacilitating the versatility of staff contributions to

customer value.Interview conducted by Vinod Baya, Steven Kahn, and Bo Parker

Stephen Kaufman is CTO of Schawk, a worldwide brand services consultancy headquartered in Des Plaines,Illinois. Schawks clients include many well-known consumer product companies, pharmaceutical rms, and globalretailers. Kaufman provides Schawk with strategic technology visioning and currently serves on Schawks Strategic

Advisory Board. He is chairman of Schawks Technology Leadership Council and, specic to the packagingindustry, is also chairman of the Intelligent Packaging Consortium (IPC), which creates Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML) standards for the packaging supply chain.

Kaufman came to Schawk in 1993, where he became the founder and rst CEO of Schawk Digital Solutions.

Schawk Digital Solutions created BLUE, the packaging industrys leading digital asset management and graphicarts workow suite. In previous roles, Kaufman has served as Schawks technology director and vice president ofclient strategy.

In this interview, Kaufman shares how Schawk manages changes at all stages of its end-to-end processby combining metadata from smart digital assets with a business process management and digital assetmanagement system.

PwC: Would you please tell us about Schawkand its business?

SK: Certainly. Schawk has been around for more than50 years. The company started in Chicago as a printing

plate manufacturer, reinvented itself through the years,and has expanded the scope of its offering to includeintegrated strategic, creative, and executional services.Our focus today is on helping companies createcompelling and consistent brand experiences at home,on the go, in the store, and on the shelf, starting with

brand strategy and design, through production andprint management. We currently operate in 17 countriesout of 48 ofces worldwide, mostly in North America,with some signicant presence in western Europe,

Asia, and Australia. We refer to our offering as brand

point management and while our sweet spot ispackaging, our services include specialized pockets ofexpertise that include retail marketing. Our client baseincludes 64 Fortune 500 companies, across differentindustries, but concentrated in the CPG [consumerpackaged goods], retail, and life sciences categories.


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When our work relates to packaging servicesspecically, one of the values that Schawk mightbring to a brand client would be a t for use analysis.This analysis allows us to apply our deep knowledgeof the printing and publishing process, and help thebrand client understand up front if their design intentcan be accomplished with a given process.

Capturing intent early on and helping the brand clientsteward that intent through a complex productionprocess brings high value to the brand and oftensignicant cost avoidance. Said another way, we aresimply determining the feasibility of a potential plan.We translate what the brand wants to execute from acreative notion into an engineering action. We want tostand at that nexus between creativity and execution.

PwC: What is the key business process that isthe core competency and a differentiator foryour company?

SK: I should point to this graphic that shows our keyend-to-end process. [See Figure 1.] As you move tothe right in the graphic, the processes become moretransactional. All the way to the right is delivery, whichis almost completely transactional. However, on the left,the activities are human driven. They are creative- ordecision-based activities, completely non-transactional.So our end-to-end process has strong elements ofboth kinds of activities.

The overall process starts with a client trying tounderstand and identify a market opportunity

[not shown in the gure]. That activity eventuallyresults in a revenue forecast against the opportunityand usually a VP-level decision to move forwardto market test the production of the product or theproduct design.

From that point, the process moves to a creativephase. The client might hire three or four competingdesign rms for ideas about how this new productcan best be launched. This is where creative agenciesincluding Schawks strategic design company, AnthemWorldwide, may be involved. You might start with fteeideas and narrow it to four. Then you narrow it down

to two, and nally the client will pick one idea. At thisstage, the clients brand marketing or marketingservices people are still in control and these activitiesare largely being orchestrated from within their walls.

The next stage is often referred to as productionartwork. This stage occurs as the client movesthat one ideawe sometimes call it the big ideainto the supply chain for packaging and brandpoint management. In other words, while the packagedesign le is moving physically into the supply chain,the big idea is moving quickly toward the consumer.Our role as stewards of that idea is to facilitate thatmovement through the process such that the originalintent is not distorted or diminished along the way.This activity is executed in our virtual ofce if we areon-site at the customers location, or it might quiteliterally move into our brick-and-mortar operations andinto our systems.

During this all-critical phase, the client routes thatdesign through its legal department, regulatorydepartment, trademark group, and so on. Everyone isvetting the content in their area of expertise. As theprocess progresses, more investment is involved andthe stakes get progressively higher. A mistake anywhepast this phase is going to be very costly to the client,

because theyve now ignited a lot of supply chainactivity. Also, the liability for consumer-readable text isalways exceptionally high.

Using metadata of smart digital assets for end-to-end process management


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Once we get all these designs nished and approvedby the client, we then move to premedia. Premedia isan industry term that signies an engineering phasethat involves looking at that digital le representingthe packaging and asking, How is this actually goingto work on a high-speed printing press with, lets say,a polymer substrate, soy-based inks, and a metallicemboss? This is a highly technical phase, and in asense we are applying a technical process to a creativeendeavor. We might also ask postproduction questionslike: What if this product sold in a high-humidity market,where the temperatures are such and such? There area lot of engineering aspects at this point in the ow.

During this journey, small changes are taking place inthe artwork. To the untrained eye, the design might staythe same, but in premedia terms, they actually mightchange things by as little as a thousandth of an inch toget them to work on these high-speed presses.

At the back end of premedia we have a digital lethat we send to the printer. The printer might test thatdigital le on its printing presses, running 500 or

1,000 samples. The printer might check the sealingmachines and how the product works with that design.Then the printer will move into mass production andpilot the materials, and then the printed product will bepicked up and moved into a further production step,or possibly directly to retail distribution.

film

digital

digital photo

negatives

Creative Production artwork Premedia Delivery

End-to-end processHuman-driven tasksTransaction-driven tasks

Client IdeaDesignconcept

Databasemgmt

Text copycreation

Variabledata

Imagerydefined orcreated

Photography

Artwork

Typography

Media

Postpressor

convertingFulfillment

Kitting

DistributionPre-flight Pre-flightImage

assembly& layout

Assetmgmt

Colorcorrection

Retouching

Scanning

Raw color

proofing

Proof(content &

layout)

Trapping& colorbreaks

Colormanage

for output

Contracthard proof

Contractsoft proof

Final RIP

Final RIPContract

proof(analog)

Final RIP

Plating

Computerto plate

Computerto plate

Largeformatprinting

Digitalpress

Internetpublished

Computerto plate

Stepping

Stepping

Stepping

Internetdata

capture

Brand point management process

Figure 1: Thekeyend-to-endbusinessprocessforSchawk,thebrandpointmanagementprocess,startswithstrategyandcreativeandcontinuestodelivery

Source: Schawk


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PwC: What are some of the challenges that youmust contend with in this process?

SK: A key challenge is dealing with changes at allstages of the process, while ensuring that we have agood view of the state the process is in and ensuringthat costly missteps will be avoided. For example, inproduction artwork, many les need to be routed to

many internal and external supply chain stakeholders.A lot of quality assurance is going on, but the content isstill somewhat in ux, which adds complexity. Lets saythe food product originally was designed to containcoconut oil, but now palm oil is a much less expensivecommodity, and procurement has decided to substitutean ingredient. That new information has to make itsway through nutritional analysis again, because theremight be an impact on taste or quality, and so on.The important thing to note is the deep interconnectionof the entire ow. The artwork for the product must berevised to reect the ingredients, and if we have 32different sizes or variations for the various markets

(convenience, grocery, club retailer, etc.), then we needto make that change from coconut oil to palm oil in all32 instances. We have to be diligent about this. If it wasan allergen ingredient such as peanuts, it could be amatter of life or death.

Also, ongoing business dynamics have led to anexplosion of customizations for our clients. Forexample, in the late 90s, you might have found oneor two basic variations on a candy wrapper. Then,maybe the brand owner would change it once atHalloween and put a pumpkin on it, and at Christmas itmight have a holly leaf on it, and that would be about it.

In todays market, the same company might have asize and a package for Wal-Mart and a different onefor Target and a different one for Sams Club or Costco.They might change that package four or ve times in ayear for seasonal promotions, and they might also do

a cross-brand promotion for a not-for-prot organizatioand have a temporary color variation on the package,and so on. Today, there are many more iterations ofindividual packages than we saw 10 years ago. On topof that, different geographic and regulatory requiremencreate additional customization requirements for thepackage design.

Being able to deal with these challenges is how wecreate value for our clients.

PwC: How are your clients trying to drive morevalue into the end-to-end process?

SK: At some of our more advanced clients, they talkabout their involvement as touches. A large consumproduct company might have ve or six million touchea year if you consider all of the companys productsglobally and the number of times people at thecompany made some decision, large or small, relativeto some product, large or small. They know each of

those touches costs money, and so theyre looking totheir supply chain to provide automation and expertiseso that they can reduce that number of touches. Andwhen there are touches, the client wants to be sure thathey are high value. This is the business issue wherebusiness process management [BPM] and automationare coming into play for us.

PwC: As you just mentioned, you have adoptedbusiness process management [BPM]technology to manage your end-to-end process

Was there a moment that caused you to pauseand realize you couldnt stay with what you hadand you needed to look at BPM?

SK: Yes. There was a watershed moment. I think itwas a collision of two factors. One factor was that our

The more metadata they have, the more intelligent the digital assets can

be, but typically theyre still players on the stage of process. You dontwant process to be a player on the stage of assets.


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understanding of the process itself became richer anddeeper. Initially, we saw it as a relatively straightforward,linear process. But the more we peeled that onion,the more dependencies we discovered. Thesedependencies included critical path gateways andevents that had triggers that we might not haveunderstood when we started studying the problem.

This nonlinearity of the process is a result of howboth our business and our clients businesses have

evolved. Formerly, we worked in a very narrow sliceof the workow, maybe from very, very late creativeto very early execution, just to get through a little bitof content approval. Gradually, however, the supplychain has become more complex as Schawk itselfhas begun to work on multiple aspects of the brandpoint management process as well as working acrossmultiple regulatory environments and multipledemographic and geographic markets.

The second factor was the matter of frameworkselection. We had the problem dened, but faced thequestion of what toolkits addressed the problem, had

reasonable TCO [total cost of ownership] metrics, andwere sustainable from a technology perspective. Oncewe started looking at jBPM and other BPM frameworks,we started to believe they could indeed interoperatewith our workow software. We then found a specicBPM framework that had enough computationalcapability and enough backbone to be worth theintegration effort.

PwC: When you had a deeper understanding ofthe process, what were you looking for from yourprocess management system?

SK: As I said, the workow itself has become muchmore complex. We could no longer look at the workowas linear. And the business rules, which were essentiallyhard-coded in our legacy system, needed to be muchmore dynamic and intelligent. We needed the notion of

triggers and metadata associated with the triggers. Thesystems that sit beneath these supply-chain-orientedworkows needed to be more robust and smarter thanthey were formerly. We basically came to understandthat the tools that we had in place simply werentcapable of being the foundation for this cross-supply-chain workow. I think the word nimble properlydescribes what we were looking for.

PwC: A good portion of your process is humandriven and results in digital assets, such asles, documents, graphics, and so on. Havethese assets become smarter over time anddo they bring benets from a processmanagement perspective?

SK: Yes, I would strongly agree. As I look at assetmanagement and workow, there are systems wherethe most important thing in the database is a digital le,and the metadata attached to the digital le actuallydrives the entire process. This is awed in a number of

ways. In our tool and in our core philosophy, the mostimportant thing is the process itself, and the digitalle is nothing more and nothing less than metadatadangling off the process. In other words, the processis the king of the hill, and the assets are well-dressedsubjects in the palace. We believe that the process-driven tool is stronger than the le-driven tool, becausewe dont believe the le is an overarching notion. Thisdistinction is critical and fundamental.

We ran into this dichotomy early on, because we weretoo heavily focused on asset management. So weipped that paradigm and began putting much moreof our thought in the process piece, like the BPM piece.

Assets enter and exit, and they have intelligence andmetadata. The more metadata they have, the moreintelligent the digital assets can be, but typically theyrestill players on the stage of process. You dont wantprocess to be a player on the stage of assets.

The process model represents the single place we can go to understand

and visualize the process and analyze any potential changes.


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PwC: So, for you, the drive toward a process-driven tool was actually the conuence of these

smart digital assets with a process orientationdriven by a BPM system?

SK: That is indeed what we have done and it works forus. Many workows today are embedding the metadata(process details) inside of the le, and that creates anumber of limitations during the workow. If you wantto read or write metadata, you have to have access tothe asset and the security to write to that le. What ifthere are multiple copies or versions of the le? Whichone holds the truth? How can this be arbitrated in astructured way?

Additionally, these assets are large and cumbersometo move around. You wouldnt want to have to moveit from point A to point B just to get the metadata.We believe the trend is that an asset will simply havea serial number as metadata, and its serial number willrefer to a database in the cloud, so to speak, andthe data in the cloud will be the denitive record forthat asset.

PwC: Most process improvement approachesaim to standardize tasks to eliminate variability.Was preserving the context that leverages the

versatility of staff in the human-driven processesessential while you extended processmanagement to the end-to-end process?

SK: That was a very strong consideration for us, sincehuman tasks on the creative end of our processes needconsiderable freedom. In general, when you get intothe creative process, if you use words like workow,KPI [key performance indicator], and process, I thinkthe typical knowledge worker in that eld sees thoseterms as potential restrictions to creative freedom.

Theres a cultural limitation of putting a highly auditableand visible process in a creative space. So you needto gure out ways to introduce process managementwithout interfering with the versatility of humanprocesses, which create immense value in the creativeand execution phases of our processes.

PwC: Enterprises are continually transforming athey deal with changes in their processes. Wha

is the role of BPM in handling and managingthese changes?

SK: Over the years, we have learned that enabling theagility of our client to make changes during the procesis impeded if we work in extremely linear workows.These are workows where a design is approved andthen locked from a graphics perspective, and thennobody gets to touch it until it gets to production.

But the reality is that during that process, somebodymight want to change the graphics. More often, theywant to change some copy or content or tag or ID. If wdont have tools like BPM, the management of changeduring the work in progress is particularly difcult andcostly to the client. These les are managed by differesystems, so they might be in a desktop graphicsapplication like Adobe Illustrator early on, and then thecan get transitioned into Acrobat les or fully proprietale formats. If the client wants to make even a simpletypographical change, the process to support that kindof change, the sign-offs, the execution, and thecommunication of that change to the rest of the supplchain can be extremely manual.

Changes of this type cost time and money and in somcases preclude a client from making them at all in the

linear workow. If they were pursuing an optionalchange, the price point or the time required for thatoptional change might simply cause them to say,We cant make that change, because either we cantmove the date or we dont have the budget. With BPMwe can lessen the cost of this change and manage itmore efciently. Now, rather than having to make theirnal change 30 days before their in-market date, we cperhaps provide them a window so they can make achange 15 days before their in-market date. The actuametrics for this vary from client to client and have asmuch to do with production and distribution logisticsas anything, but the basic trend is the sameBPMfacilitates a more exible change environment deeperinto the process.

Thats very, very valuable to brand customers from anROI [return on investment] perspective. Imagine a


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market where only two key brands compete for valuablespace on the shelf of a global retailer. If one brandmakes a change shortly before the holiday season, theother thinks, Thats going to give them a competitiveedge this Christmas season. We need to get somethingto market to match that. You can only imagine theamount of money at stake in the retail environment

when they can execute that responding change beforethe holiday season as opposed to after.

Theres an industry standard that estimates that fora given product, roughly 70 percent of the buyingdecision is made in the store. For the end customer,the process of looking at the package, analyzing thebuy decision, and deciding whether to put the productin the shopping cart is often based around the look andfeel of the product, and the graphic presentation of theproduct or branding concept. To be sure, its all a verymercurial process, but changes and counter-changes,executed in a timely fashion, can have a high-volume

impact on market share and the success of our clientsproducts overall.

PwC: What is the role of modeling in businessprocess management? What value does itcreate for you?

SK: Modeling is very important and is the foundationfor our system. The process model represents thesingle place we can go to understand and visualizethe process and analyze any potential changes. AsI learn more about a process for one of my clients,

I nd it interesting how assumptions they had in thebeginning can change as the clients learn more abouttheir own process. Modeling helps with that. It showsthe parts of an existing process that are causing themost problems, and what parts arent as much of aproblem. Bottlenecks, critical paths, what-if scenariobuildingall of these help the brand control itsprocess ow and decision-making algorithm.

PwC: How does the BPM system help youwith planning for and visibility into theend-to-end process?

SK: The client might have greater agility now, but theinterdependence in the process is much more complexand needs to be presented visually and explicitly.

BPM helps with that. For example, ve years ago,if we had 32 salad dressing avors to do, wed probablydo the execution in one location with one team ofpeople. Theyre all sitting 15 feet from each other,and theyre sharing any nuances that need to occurwith production. Well, we dont have that much timeanymore. Sometimes, Schawks tactical productionartists need to turn around those 32 design mechanicalsin 72 hours. That faster turnaround means we needvisibility into a load-leveling production plan. I might do15 of them here in Des Plaines, just outside of Chicago,and I might want to send 5 to Chennai, India, and thebalance to Penang, Malaysia, tonight to get worked on.

So now Im actually pushing out beyond the traditionalbrick-and-mortar of a single Schawk location andleveraging a global production capability that worksaround the clock. We need to nd the lowest price pointwhere we have the production lift tonight or tomorrownight to do that work. That can be down the street oracross the ocean. We dont have the luxury to havepeople sitting together sharing best practice. The bestpractice has to be embedded in the workow asmetadata, and we have to be able to shuttle that workaround even though our client may not know or careabout the physical location of the production work.

They just want us to do each SKU [stock-keeping unit]at an agreed-to price, and in an agreed-to time frame.On our end, we intend to use BPM to orchestrate workto and through our highest-value production locations.

Another example is using the process-supportedknowledge in BPM to predict a nish date given aprocess and a known start date. This is called

With BPM, we can create triggers that can actually manipulate and

modify the metadata itself, so that the next step is more informedabout what it should be doing and where it should be going than thepreceding step.


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Date-Rippling scheduling. You can ripple forwardfrom a start date, or you might ripple back from an end

date, answering the question, If I need it in store bydd/mm/yyyy, what date do I have to start? Prior tousing BPM, we didnt really handle that well, particularlywhen clients wanted completion time estimates thatwere accurate within a few hours of asking the question.

PwC: We discussed how the digital assetsare getting smarter because of the metadataassociated with them. What role does thismetadata play in managing the process?

SK: Whats unique about BPM, or at least the way

weve begun to think about applying it, is that themetadata needs to be much more dynamic. BPM canactually orchestrate the change to the metadata duringthe process. Rather than thinking, I have 10 data eldsin this le. Lets push it through the process and hopenothing changes with that data while this le is in thepipe, we need something more dynamic.

As we move through each decision point, we want tomove the process information, reroute data andreplicate data, update data, act on data. With BPM,we can create triggers that can actually manipulate andmodify the metadata itself, so that the next step is moreinformed about what it should be doing and where itshould be going than the preceding step. In a sense,were adding some intelligence to the workow that it

just didnt have with the older toolkit.

PwC: Does this metadata allow you to introducea level of standardization into these highlyvariable human-driven processes?

SK: Yes. In many cases, the process is not completelystandard because the way individuals do work issubject to change and personal interpretation. So,what becomes standard is a higher-level abstraction

of what the process represents, and for us the metadatais a key component in that abstraction. Abstraction isa technical term, but what it really means is creatingrepeatable patterns that operate above the level ofwork instructions, and more at the level of activity,or direction, or process step.

I need to get that abstracted data out of the leasset and into a database, because it denes the

intelligence that I need to manage that asset or projecThis data in turn informs the process, together withother factors, like a rejection, revison, status change,or altered deadline.

With BPM, we can make these little bits of data intodecision gates in the process itself. So if somebodyrejected a proof, the workow moves this way insteadof that way. If we pick up a le asset thats a newerversion than we had in the rst instance, then we mighwant to know who worked on the asset and in whatlocation it was worked on. This way we can determinewhether we have the right version. I think the key herewould be a very interconnected process managed bya exible system that supports intelligent decisionmaking. Thats the core goal: informed, effective, andprocess-relevant control. n


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Smartdigitalassets:Catalystforend-to-endprocessmanagement

The rise of smart digital assets presents a compelling opportunity toextend process management to variable human-driven processes.

By Vinod Baya and Karen Schwartz


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Smart digital assets: Catalyst for end-to-end process management

Human activities are increasingly supported by software and result in thecreation of digital assets that have metadata.

If you need to know which lines of business produce

the most revenue or which factories have the mostdowntime, you can usually get the answer at mostcompanies. But if you want to know the processesby which HR hires employees or engineers designproducts or marketing creates collateral, the answersarent easy to nd. As discussed in the previous article,the only parts of end-to-end processes that enterpriseshave visibility into are those closer to transactionalsystemswhich focus on standardized tasks andignore variable, human-driven processes that dependon the versatility people bring to their work.

In todays business environment, it is crucial to be ableto manage human-driven processes with the samesteady hand as transactional processes. The challengeis how to get there without investing heavily in detailedprocess modeling of every nook and cranny in theenterprise. A quick start is needed, one that takesadvantage of process standardization driven by factorsinherent to the activities themselves.

This quick start is now possible thanks to whatPricewaterhouseCoopers calls smart digital assetsand their integration into an approach for processmanagement that leverages existing business processmanagement systems (BPMS) and collaboration andcontent management systems (CCMS). As noted in

the rst article of this issue of the Technology Forecas

we call this approach meta-process management.This article examines advances in three key technicalareas that make our vision of meta-processmanagement possible.

Smart digital assets: A function of metadata

Human activities are increasingly supported by softwaand result in the creation of digital assets. And theseassets are getting smarter because their metadata goebeyond simple descriptors that have long existedlikle name and time stampto include more process-specic information. Metadata is relevant data about

the dataembedded information in the digital assetthat can be used by both software programs and user

Most human-driven activity now occurs with thesupport of the software that enterprises use to conducbusiness. This software includes ofce productivitysoftware such as that from Microsoft and others, CADCAM applications, applications from Adobe Systemsand others for various creative work, and other softwathat support a wide range of human activity in allindustries. Although specic to particular tasks, thesetools are designed to accommodate and support theversatility that humans need to carry out their

knowledge work.


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Figure 1: Anexampleofthemetadataassociatedwithaphoto

Source: http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/plugins/images/exif-metadata.gif

In many ways, these tools have allowed knowledgeworkers to develop and express their own methods ofcarrying out the variable tasks. I would say that users

also have their own personal methods, and those, too,are smart digital assets. If they want, they can publishtheir personal methods and then others can decide ifthey want to use them or not, explains Marge Breya,executive vice president at SAP.

In the course of using these tools, workers producedigital assetsdocuments, media les, engineeringdrawings, legal arguments, business contracts,presentations, and countless other work products.These digital assets are becoming smarter becausetodays applications generate more and moremetadata. Metadata can be descriptive (title, author,

keywords), structural (for instance, how pages areordered to form chapters), administrative (when a lewas created, le type, who can access it), or provideother pertinent details.

All computer les have long captured data about whenthe le was created, edited, accessed, and reviewed.This metadata is not new. What is new is that metadata

is increasingly part of any digital asset created byhuman-facing applications. And metadata has

become richer and deeper, detailing more aspects ofthe digital asset and the associated human activity.

Metadatagettingricher

Metadata is becoming richer. For example, thedigital asset that results from taking a photo wouldhave metadata as shown in Figure 1. This metadatadiscloses devices, resolution, key activity parameters,and other useful details. Figure 1 shows metadata inthe Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF), a standardfor sharing metadata about photos. The metadata canbe preserved and added to further creative work, suchas editing and post-processing in Adobe Photoshopor similar applications.

Metadata is captured and available for digital assets,and digital assets can be in any of the different mediaformats, such as audio, video, Web pages, pictures,graphics, or sometimes even a physical artifact such asa book with a radio frequency identication (RFID) chip.Therefore, the use of metadata can cut across contenttypes and can be used to represent the full spectrum ofcontent resulting from human activity.

Metadata is most often created by the software, asin the case of the metadata in Figure 1. In some cases

it can be added manually. For example, most photoediting software allows the user to add ratings,keywords, captions, and other details useful forsearching, processing, and sharing images. Scannedforms and documents in insurance or medical claimsusually require the input of other details necessaryfor processing.

Metadata can result from collaboration with colleaguesor industry partners on the digital asset, detailingwhich participant handled it for each step in a valuechain. The social and the collaborative technologiesare giving us a host of metadata we didnt have before,and its already transforming some industries,says Steve Miranda, senior vice president ofOracle Application development for Oracle.

At Oracle, the most helpful documents on thecompanys support Web site land at the top of the list,not because Oracle has put them there, but becauseof the metadata created by customers who believe


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those documents are helpful. We get the hits on thedocuments, we get ratings on the documents, andthen its kind of a survival of the ttest on thesethesmarter digital assets, Miranda says.

Metadatagettingdeeper

Metadata now reaches deeper into a digital asset andis becoming standardized. The Extensible MetadataProcess (XMP) format from Adobe allows metadata

to be specied for the overall digital asset as well asa particular subcomponent of the digital asset.(See Figure 2.) This capability improves the visibility ofactions at the component level of the asset, and allowsmore granular business rules for validation and actionregarding the asset in any process. For example, onfood product packages, the metadata for the creativegraphic and for the text about ingredients can beentirely separate. Then if changes are made to the text,the document needs to be routed only to the nutritionalor regulatory expert, thereby limiting the number oftouch points and potential errors in a review cycle.

But XMP goes even further to make metadata useful.It builds on Semantic Web technologyan extension ofthe Web that uses metadata expressed in the ResourceDescription Framework (RDF). Developments in themetadata world are intersecting with developments inthe Semantic Web world. RDF is a standard from theWorld Wide Web Consortium (W3C). An associatedW3C standard is Web Ontology Language (OWL), whichis typically used to dene the properties of artifactsdened in RDF. OWL is also used to dene relationshipsamong RDF entities.

Many believe that a data Web will develop that fully

augments todays document Web. (See the articleSpinning a data Web in the Spring 2009 issue of theTechnology Forecast.) Enterprises will be able to ndand take pieces of data sets from different places,aggregate them without warehousing them, and analyzethem in a more straightforward, powerful way than they

can now. The underlying technology used forWeb-based information also applies to internalinformation and non-Web-based external information.In fact, it can bridge data from anywhereincludingdata from an enterprises data warehouse andbusiness partners. These developments create moreopportunities to manage metadata and use it formany purposes.

Metadata that is not semantically consistent across

functions in an enterprise can create many problemsfor its interpretation and use in processes. Technologiefrom the Semantic Web world can harmonize andrationalize metadata that have overlapping but notidentical meaning. Many content management systeminclude features to harmonize taxonomies of metadataThis portends a future where metadata and SemanticWeb technologies make it possible to orchestratebusiness processes that span organizations andbusiness units to support exible and easier integratioof human activities.

MetadataasastandardinterfacetovariableactivitIn addition to carrying valuable information, mostmetadata exists in an Extensible Markup Language(XML) format. This means that it can serve as a standainterface to what is otherwise a highly variable activitydependent on employees, as shown in Figure 3.

Simpledocument

Compledocume

Document DocumentMeta-data

Meta-data

Documentsection

Meta-data

Documentsection

Meta-data

Figure 2: Metadatacanbetiedtotheentiredocumentasinasimpledocument,ortothesubcomponentswithinacomplexdocument

Source: Adapted from Adobe Systems

Metadata has become richer and deeper, detailing more aspects of the

digital asset and the associated human activity.


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Processmanagement

Otherapplications

Collaboration andcontent management

Strategydevelopment

Others

Marketingplanning

Innovation

Digital asset metadata

Metadata standards (XMP, DCMI, XMI, etc.)

Variable and versatilehuman activity

M M M M M M M M M

Smart digital assets

M M M M M M

Productdevelopment

Figure 3: Metadataservesasastandardinterfacetoavarietyofhumanactivityandthereforecanbeusedinprocessmanagementorotherapplications

In many cases, the process is not completely standardbecause the way individuals do work is subject tochange and personal interpretation. So, what becomesstandard is a higher-level abstraction of what theprocess represents, and for us the metadata is a keycomponent in that abstraction, says Stephen Kaufman,CTO of Schawk, a global brand management company.

As a standard, metadata can be easily used in programsto take actions such as routing for approval, requestingchanges, or review. And, as a standard, metadata alsobecomes a key resource for integrating with otherapplications and solutions as necessary for managingthe process.

The Object Management Group (OMG) has createda standard called XML Metadata Interchange (XMI),

which enables the use of XML to exchange informationabout metadata, so programmers can use themetadata in their applications. The Web gave rise tonew standards for exchanging metadata and facilitatingits use in applications and processes. For instance,the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is an openorganization developing interoperable metadatastandards that support a broad range of purposesand business models. It provides standards usedto describe information resources on the Web.The e-GSM standard is a similar metadata standardfor government resources on the Web.

The importance of metadata is growing so fast thatvendors are providing products focused on its captureand management. SchemaLogic provides a metadatamanagement server to address the growing use ofMicrosoft SharePoint servers for ofce productivityand collaborative work. The increasing importance ofmetadata is likely to push collaboration and contentmanagement vendors such as Autonomy, Microsoft,and others to extend their taxonomy managementtools into full-blown metadata management tools.Taxonomy management tools largely focus onclassication and categorization of content forefcient search and retrieval.

Metadata augments the actual digital asset and doesnot need to be visible to end users or interfere with theiractions. Therefore, metadata does not constrain thehuman activity. Metadata allows software programs toapply business logic as part of a process managementinfrastructure while preserving the necessary versatilityof human actions.

Using metadata in process management

If used intelligently and to their full potential, smartdigital assets, which can be integrated and manipulated

in applications and process tools, can create greatervisibility into end-to-end processes and provide morecontext than the asset alone. Both tools and peoplecan then use that visibility and context to improve theiractions and processes.


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collection of centrally managed terms that anorganization can dene and then use as attributesfor items in the repository. Newly created managedterms or keywords are stored in the database speciein the managed metadata service. SharePoint 2010 isexpected to include support for ad hoc metadata, inwhich users will add their own tags, either in documenlibraries or via new social media features such as wikisand blogs. All these features improve visibility and themanagement of human-driven processes that result inMicrosoft Ofcecreated digital assets.

When combined with a process management system,metadata can also be used in the broader end-to-endprocess in which the digital asset is created. Forexample, CAD/CAM systems include metadata tohelp the architect understand the interplay among allsystems (heating and ventilation, electrical, structural,and so forth) before committing to a blueprint. Creativetools from Adobe have increasingly included, used,and generated metadata to help designers betterunderstand the source assets and how they interact,how they might be affected by production systems(such as printing presses and computer screens),

and how they might be used in multiple media in whatis called an XMP workow.

Metadata makes activities visible and can triggerevents. For example, a brand management activitythat incorporates package drawing les for toothpastemight include metadata on the regulatory disclosurerequirements for ingredients for each market, sodesigners can ensure they adhere to each requirementin the common le and anticipate the effects on thedesign before the compliance review begins. Its alreadyaccepted practice for layout les to contain metadataabout the color model, so whatever printing press isused can apply color correction algorithms to ensure

consistency across different presses and ink vendors,and so the designer can preview the results on screenbefore deciding on the nal color palette.

Metadata has become such an important part ofMicrosoft Ofce that the company provides manyways to use it. Microsoft Ofce SharePoint Server2007 allows users to route content to a speciclocation in its repository according to contenttypeessentially a type of metadata.

Microsoft Ofce SharePoint Server 2010 promisesto provide more uses for metadata. One new feature,called Managed Metadata Services, allows users to

dene their metadata structure, maintain consistency,and share it. Managed metadata is a hierarchical

Metadata makes activities visible and can trigger events.

M M M M M M

M MM

M M M M M M

M M M M M M M M M M M M

M M M

Business processmanagement system

Metadata database resource

Collaboration and contentmanagement system

Smart digital assetsProcess models

Integration platform(SOA, middleware, etc.)

Transactional systems

Process metadata Digital asset metadata

Figure 4:IntegratingBPMSandCCMSleveragesassetandprocessmetadataalongwithmetadatastandards


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humans, is the integration of two classes of solutions:collaboration and content management systems

(CCMS) and business process management systems(BPMS). (See Figure 4.) CCMS comprise the systemsand technologies used to manage digital assets resultingfrom human activity. BPMS offer modeling, processexecution, and analysis technologies.

For highlights of some vendors and their solutionsin these classes of solutions, see the sidebarsA sampler of collaboration and content managementsolutions and A sampler of business processmanagement solutions.

Many building blocks for this integration are not new,which should help IT organizations to adopt the concept

Combining process and digital assetmanagement

As described in the article, Managing variability withoutconstraining it, on page 04, end-to-end processactivities are trapped in two separate worlds: thosedriven by transactions and those driven by humans.The rise of smart digital assets creates a compellingopportunity for enterprises to extend processmanagement beyond the transaction capturecomponents of end-to-end processes by targetingthe human-driven activities.

The key to managing the entire end-to-end process,including activities that rely on the versatility of


MicrosoftSharePointServer: SharePoint allowsusers to create their own collaborative workspacesand coordinate teamwork using shared calendarsand alerts. Communication with team membersoccurs via presence and instant messaging (IM).Document workspaces streamline the documentcreation process, while improved communicationhelps streamline people-driven processes.

NovellTeaming: This platform focuses on socialnetworking within the enterprise. It al

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