Prime Time for Real Time

Today's acronyms are: BPM, BPA, SOA, ESB and POA. It's the stuff of an IT architect's wet dream. BPM (in addition to BPA and POA) is supported by the SOA and ESB technology plumbing -- and, as this article from Intelligent Enterprise summarizes -- can be exploited to automate real-time enterprises -- who's defining trait is "for squeezing time and associated costs out of processes, transforming how companies operate and even the very businesses they're in." Time-based competition leverages the capabilities of real-time enterprises and BPM to give the business the ability to "build and manipulate end-to-end processes." With this flexibility, businesses can respond to the real-time changes of their business climate; meet the ever changing demand of customers; execute dynamic marketing strategies to increase customer base and sales; and deliver competitive advantage.

Changing from an information-based to a process-based IT department isn't an easy task -- but it doesn't have to be impossible. SOA for instance, makes it easier to leverage on legacy systems with hard-coded processes, to an environment that thrives with change -- allowing the extension of processes internally, as well as externally to service providers and trading partners. IT departments however need to embrace this paradigm shift -- a shift that sees the creation of a different type of business process -- one that leverages on the hard-coded processes in legacy systems, but is dynamic and responsive, easily being manipulated by business users to enable new business processes. "IT must move from the Information Age to the Process Age to enable time-based competition. The real-time enterprise is the process-managed enterprise."