BPM in a Data Driven Eco System: "Processes Need Data Like Animals Need Water"

Austin Rosenfeld, founder of Macedon Technologies, has written an insightful article for BPTrends on the interconnected nature of business processes and business data. "The relationship between process and data," he states, "is bidirectional, so a well designed system accounts for both the data processes needed to operate and the data they collect and calculate."

In other words, it is time for BPM software to start treating data like a first-class citizen. As BPM is applied to increasingly-complex processes, the data dependencies in those processes become more complex. Appian has long been focused on moving past mere data integration to create the process/data symbiosis that organizations require for modern business.

"To be a first-class player in the enterprise stack," Rosenfeld says, "the BPM suite needs to evolve to provide a seamless interface to data that is housed externally."

This iswhat Appian's social collaboration interface does so well. It turnsthe old-school BPM portal approach on its ear by providing a single modern environment where all enterprise data, from all source systems, is surfaced ina directed way for collaboration and immediate action.

Appian's BPMplatformbrings data fully into the context of process, allowing our customersto master their "work." Taking it to the next level, Appian marries that "work" to a social interface (driven by changes and events in that same enterprise data), delivering "worksocial." This vision radically expands the value that BPM software delivers and simultaneously leap-frogs the enterprise social platforms that have no grounding in "work" (i.e., processes and data).

Having made the case that "processes need data like animals need water," Rosenfeldcloses withthis advice: "Demand more from your BPM tool provider. The ones we use on our projects support this modern view of data ownership. Yours should, too."

Ben Farrell