The good news is that we identified one opportunity to elevate the value of UC to a new level - Universal Collaboration – the marrying of UC and Web 2.0 principles.
Now, I’d like to discuss two additional trends that can help organizations realize sustainable business value in adopting a UC strategy…trends that, of course, have close ties to Web 2.0: Software+Services (S+S) and Communications Enabled Business Process (CEBP). This week we’ll focus on CEBP and next week we’ll attack S+S.
In Web 2.0 terms, CEBP can be best described as a UC-business process mash up – combining two distinct business elements to create a super-process; one that is communication-enabled. The goal of CEBP is optimize business process by reducing the human latency that exists within any given process flow. For example, a mortgage approval process may be experience human latency because the person assigned to providing an approval is on vacation or busy working on something else. To reduce this latency, CEBP leverages UC capabilities (i.e. UC services) by embedding them into the business process flow. The result is a more efficient, more automated closed-loop process; translating into significant ROI.
In this example, if the person does not provide the necessary approval within a designated period of time then the business process would invoke a UC service such as “notify and respond” from an IP-PBX, voice portal/IVR, conferencing application, etc. These embedded UC services would “notify” the person that they need to do something. If the person does not “respond” to the notification then it can be escalated to a manager in the same manner.
In fact, there are a number of UC services that could be embedded within a business process to reduce human latency. These could include: conference [on demand], alert, escalate, contact resident expert, etc.; all of which create measurable business value.
The great thing about CEBP is that it can be applied horizontally across different lines of business and different industries. Virtually every business process is hampered by human latency. Some other use cases that CEBP can be applied to include: roadside assistance, stock portfolio alerts, personal information loss, claims processing, inventory management, etc. Here is a more detailed example:
CEBP Claims Processing Use Case Example
Let’s look at a healthcare claims resolution business process. The organization’s goal is to decrease claim close times and improve their closure rate. However, the process is hampered by several inefficiencies - the paperwork process is manually intensive; time-sensitive dependencies on member signatures resulting in significant delays in the approval process.
The CEBP solution is to automate and communications-enable the claims process with embedded UC services like: reminders, alerts, and notifications.
CEBP Modeling Example:
Click image to enlarge
Quantifiable business results include: decreased close times; greater agent/specialist productivity, enabling them to spend more time adjusting claims rather than fielding calls on the claims; increased revenue and member satisfaction/retention.
Many UC vendors claim that they do CEBP today. However, one very important distinction needs to be made…there is a difference between communications integrated into business process and communications enabled business process. For example, ucstrategies.com defines UC as "communications integrated to optimize business processes”. It is person triggered as illustrated in examples like adding a Click-to-Dial function to an ERP or CRM application. As described above, CEBP is much more sophisticated in its ability to automate business process flows; it is usually event triggered, providing a much stronger ROI to many lines of business and vertical industries.
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