AWD Development Direction – Rick Welch

“AWD Development Direction” is a regular feature presenting updates to current projects within the AWD Development group.

Modeling and Simulation

If you are a long time user of AWD you know the tremendous benefit of being able to quickly change workflows. You will recognize this as just one major differentiator of AWD over the competition. With it being so easy to make changes to the workflow as the environment changes, why do we need to be able to model the process? After all, if the changes do not work out as we expected, we just quickly and easily change it back, right?

One of the main tenets of Business Process Management (BPM) is the ability to model out and manage the entire business process. Haven’t we been doing that for a decade? Well, yes and no. Yes, we have automated back office functions; yes, we have linked line of business systems with the call center; and yes, we remind clients to get the missing pieces of information in order to process a claim or transfer funds. These are all major parts of managing the business but up until now, we have not had an avenue to model the pieces that cannot be immediately automated or directly linked to IT initiatives. So what value is there in spiraling outward and analyzing the entire business process, including the tasks that are not automated, that may never be automated, but are crucial links in the chain?

Modeling can provide a dynamic look at business. Plotting out static boxes gives the flow, but real time resources including people, equipment, supplies and timings assigned to each box provides new insights. The holistic view of workflows combines people, automation steps and manual events into a single mosaic that is a definition of BPM.

AWD has recently partnered with IDS Scheer, a leading provider of modeling tools. This is a partnership that shows tremendous promise in taking our customers to the next level of productivity. The partnership is being worked from a technical side and from a business case perspective and includes a vast array of service offerings that transcend AWD in the traditional sense. The simulation of various alternatives can save you time, money and resources and at the end of the day, pay back in terms you originally experienced when you implemented AWD. We are asking our tools and processes to work harder and smarter and you will be the beneficiary of these efforts.