- Workflow flexibility.
- Workflow verification
and validation.
- Knowledge extraction
from processes.
|
Reluctance to process standardisation. Reluctance to precise roles functions definition. Reluctance to performance measurements at people and group level. Management resistance to changes required in the processes, organizations, and their own work. |
Massive consolidation from EAI, BPM, workflow and application devlopment side of the market. Confusion amongst users about the role of standards. Lack of co-operation by vendors in standards development. |
I see general awareness as the largest problem facing vendors today. The economic squeeze most organizations face today should incite a significant move towards process automation technologies as a means to maintain productivity, while increasing aspects of efficiency and competitiveness. Unfortunately these projects are not getting the budgeting priority because the functional areas most commonly targeted (e.g. Accounts Payable) are viewed as administrative and non-strategic. Conceptual understanding of workflow is not sufficient to demonstrate measurable value.
With every enterprise application system boasting some form or workflow and every workflow package having differing capabilities, market confusion is the second largest problem vendors face today. Why do we need another workflow system? Didn't we buy workflow with our ERP system? |
flexibility, distributed workflows, reference workflow models, benefit realisation, workflow-based process controlling, continuous workflow management, |
Spans several disciplines
(IS, Operations, organizational
design, HRM,..) and has
not gained academic respectability |
web based workflow integration
exception handling and dynamic change
end user control, programming, and flexibility
making the systems more humane - social and organizational awareness |
heterogeneity of the applications and lack of standardization has made it difficult to develop effective workflow tools.
these issues were likely be solved, at least to a certain extent, in the near future. |
Application software not built to support workflow. |
Distributed processes are currently a major challange: There is no agreed upon architecture for such a system. The many competing process and service description 'standards' efficiently prevent process definition exchange. Required services like system landscape lookup, partner address resolution, interface and service discovery are far from being resolved. The complexity of setting up a distributed process is beyond practical bounds. |
To get the neccessary attention/priority from the affected users.
To get the neccessary cooperation between affected organizations. |
One of the problems is the fast appearance (and disappearance) of many e-business standards. |
Vendors are to quick to sell a solution before they even have a good understanding of the organization or the custumer expectation. More time should be spent with the client not just automating a process but rendering the org more efficient and effective as well as more economical. |
Confusion - once potential customers understand what it is, the benefits and potential ROI there is little difficulty in getting the technology accpted |
See Q4,
the biggest barrier is
user training, not just
on the use of a computer,
but on the new roles and
responsibilities that
their job has been transformed
into. in other words,
the buggy-whip manufacturers
need to be retrained to
make steering-wheel covers. |
Research seems to be lacking behind products in many ways. Researchers need to understand current products and go beyond. There is a big need for better connection with real world.
Also, there is need for more research on standards and also for the study of organizational issues in workflow. |
bridging the gap between research, products and users. Technically, integration, expressiveness and performance are the key issues |
I would say that process automation will most likely cause problems with users. People do not like change. Change in workflow or automation of workflow will cause users to be "up in arms" until the automation process becomes the standard way of doing business. |
I see the major problems in process automation for workflow vendors is that, at least in my organization, technologist believe the actual technology is simple and would rather try and build a proprietary solution. |
Building a software product that follows the conceptual models of users, not researchers or software engineers. |