‘What about?’. Two little words that can spell the death knell for a project at any time down the line. No-one noticed the possibility of that circumstance occuring until it was to late. Now the blame starts and the expensive rework in terms of time, money, patience and re-thinking.

But it could be so different if you listen out for those two little words right up front. As BA, don’t just rely on the senior management to tell you what the current process is. Talk to the people on the ground, the people that work with the customers, with the process day and daily. They know the ‘quirks’. They know the ‘what abouts’.

There’s probably 1,001 ‘what abouts’ that have cropped up in the past and not everyone knows about them, so listen out for them. It may be that they’re unknown common practice and result in the process being more tricky and expensive to automate. They may even make automation impossible.

It may be that the ‘what about’ is something that you may chose not to do any more in the interest of simplicity, like dropping those installment plans, but that decision needs communicated to customers to ensure a smooth transition. At least you can plan now without it tripping you up further down the line.

And all from listening out for two words. What about it?

Author: Paul Gordon, Singularity

I find travel one of the real joys in life - I’ve been lucky enough to have visited many countries as part of my Business Development role, but Norway had always managed to elude me. Last week I got the opportunity to visit Bergen as part of the Microsoft Government Solutions Forum 2010. Singularity, as a sponsor, took a table and we had a hugely interesting and inspiring two days attending sessions, and sharing with Microsoft and the other attendees how Singularity is uniquely placed to offer Case Management for the Microsoft family of products. A number of case studies were presented which showed how greater efficiency in Government services is being pioneered by a number of cities - given the financial pressures and challenges many government departments will face in the near future we believe that Business Process Agility and Case Management have a pivotal role to play. We will shortly be publishing some thoughts and experiences in this area, so please come back in a few weeks, or get in contact directly at m.savage@singularity.co.uk. Finally - my personal thoughts on Bergen ? A stunningly beautiful city populated by fantastic people. Walking back to the hotel at 11:30 on a warm summers evening, but in broad daylight I thought, sometimes being away from home and family has its tiny compensations. Check it out on the internet – it’s a fantastic place. 

Author: Manus Savage, Singularity

Last week I presented the Singularity ‘Case Management for the Microsoft Enterprise’ to an audience of clients and partners in London. The feedback was very positive, with broad agreement that providing a Case Management solution which works in conjunction with the Microsoft suite of products is a good thing.  We also had some interesting Q&A – one of the interesting topics was how we can use BPM tools to estimate efficiency savings, and help the client build a business case for process improvement.  Talking afterwards,  many of the attendees were looking to the future and the challenges some public sector organisations will be faced with in the coming weeks and months.  We are confident that Singularity and our partners can work with our clients to build confidence in how more efficient process can be built, and how Singularity and our partners are ideally positioned to bring about these savings. If you are interested in working with Singularity, or have a project challenge, we would love to hear from you.