BPM software provides a solution to recent drastic changes in the federal government's approach to telework. Mobile BPM in particular helps fulfill the vision for telework, despite the budget cuts levied at telework centers.
Earlier this year, the General Services Administration announced it will cut funding to over a dozen regional telework centers. The remaining telework centers will operate under a private sector model. This move seems to be at odds with the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act, which expands telework opportunities for federal employees. While the legislation encourages federal agencies to create telework opportunities for employees, it did not provide funding for telework centers.
The telecenters are intended to offer a workplace close to people's homes, thereby reducing commuting times and costs. Business process management software gets around the apparent contradiction in government's telework policy, creating affordable solutions for collaboration and organizational efficiency.
BPM software could improve the manageability and performance of the work done in those centers, while reducing the overall cost of their operation. More excitingly, using mobile BPM with inherent high security could eliminate the necessity and cost of those centers entirely. When federal employees can not only see, but also take business action, directly from their iPad/iPhone/Blackberry/Android devices, with all required data protection and access privileges, government agencies can move towards supporting true remote workers.
Appian's BPM platform embraces the administration's focus on reducing cost while enhancing performance through mobility and cloud computing. The result is better collaboration within agencies. The capability to create templates for repeatable processes also can be shared among agencies, enabling better operating efficiencies across government ñ improving service to all citizens.
According to some reports, only about five percent of the federal workforce telework on any level; the goal is to increase that number. Appian provides a low-cost way to simultaneously increase that percentage while also delivering better overall federal business practices.
-Ben Farrell, Director, Corporate Communications
