It's been a year ....

How did that happen? I took my eye off the blogging for a minute and 12 months slipped by.

Getting back into it now, and what a year it has been, I'm not going to bother commenting other than to say "I don't think that is a sea bird sitting on the bow, there must be land nearby".

What is really coming into its own now is the whole business process management story - the "do less with more - leverage your existing investments - get efficient, get smart" mode of thinking. We are seeing a lot of companies under pressure to maintain and improve their customer service whilst still reeling from one or more bouts of cost cutting in the last 12-18 months. And of course "cost cutting" for many means less people, either through deliberate reduction or non-replacement of attrition.

But they are not pulling the lifeboat up on the beach just yet. There are few plans to initiate major projects. What is of interest is the opportunity to cost effectively extend the footprint of the existing solutions, to reach out to different stakeholders and include them in a controlled and efficient way, to start a process in the way they wish it to be completed - accurately and audit-ably.

And that is a BPM sweet spot.

Some of the recent projects of note we have been delivering for customers include:
- better asset management to reduce additional capital purchases
- better employee onboarding to get people generating revenue earlier
- better invoicing processes to shorten the time to cash
- better spend control to reduce unnecessary costs

All very focused "do less with more - leverage your existing investments - get efficient, get smart" activities that have bring rapid results and tangible return on investment.

Certainly looks like a coastline in the distance.