Singularity is privileged to be able to see our technology used to help a humanitarian agency CRS – Catholic Relief Services, in helping them become a more agile organization. CRS provides valuable disaster relief support for thousands of people on an international level. The TotalAgility product will enable CRS to carry out a business transformation program and improve its efficiency in undertaking important relief work.

To help generate increased capacity sources of funding, transparency of operations is essential. Funders need to know where their money is going to and the value of the service delivered.

The integration of your organizations enterprise into a BPM and Case Management product means you can begin orchestrate your entire organization, through automating information sources, coordination of assets, prioritize projects in real-time, eliminating the need for cumbersome paper work and provides accountability and transparency for key stakeholders.

BPM enables end-to-end service delivery, from the first steps when funders and suppliers sign contracts to ground level disaster relief support. BPM provides intelligence gathering of information to help decide where funds are most needed and faster real-time availability of data, results in significant reduction of operational costs.

Case Management adds an extra dimension within the TotalAgility product by catering for the unpredictable, when exceptions happen with your business processes, you need to have the right sources of information available to empower your employees to make decisions fast, yet be accountable for their actions. Case Management provides collaboration, real-time information, goals and objectives, project milestones, historical analysis, trend and case related information to better manage business process exceptions and provide excellent levels of service.

The Insurance industry today is faced with rapid change, increased competition, more rigorous compliance standards and increased customer expectations. Singularity have been chosen by one of the leading independent specialist insurance and reinsurance brokers (Miller Insurance) to help facilitate and align business related change. Singularity have a strong portfolio of Insurance clients and the TotalAgility Case Management capabilities are continuing to deliver exceptional results within the Insurance and Financial Services Industry.

Insurance business processes tend to be long-running, complex and require expert human judgement. Singularity’s TotalAgility product helps facilitate the Insurance Case Worker by providing real-time information, standardizing processes, collaborative communications, and reducing paper and manual processing. The end result is improved business performance, better client retention and enhanced service levels.

The implementation and capabilities of Singularity’s TotalAgility product, was extensively demonstrated during a one week Proof of Concept (PoC) held at Miller’s London Offices. The importance of implementing Singularity’s solution within Miller’s I.T. enterprise had to be demonstrated and tested before final selection. In addition, Singularity had to illustrate achievable Return of Investment (ROI) and how they can meet Miller’s immediate and long-term process operational efficiencies. After completing the PoC, Miller Insurance realized that organizational change could be achieved with the TotalAgility product and using Singularity’s getagile implementation techniques.

I should also mention some of the new features launched in version 5.3 of the TotalAgility product. The ‘Data Virtualization’ and ‘Just-in-Time Data’ features help empower the Insurance ‘Knowledge Worker’ to exceed customer service levels and compliance standards by sourcing relevant accurate information in real-time and make accountable decisions on the spot. For more information on the subject matter, we recently hosted a webinar called “Empowering employees and transforming customer service” lead by Forrester’s William Band – Watch the recording of this webinar at: http://www.singularitylive.com/resources/webinars.aspx?info=blog

In response to a post created in the Linkedin BPM Guru group…

Case Management by its nature is extremely unpredictable compared to Business Process Management. Case Management is about being able to handle exceptions and the complexities within Business Process Management. Business Process Management requires relatively little human input to complete a business process.

When business process exceptions happen, how does the problem get resolved quickly and effectively? This is where Case Management plays a key role to help the human decision making elements and interactions.

Case Management is about providing the ‘Knowledge Worker’ with the right information, infrastructure and tools to make critical decisions in real-time. It’s about achieving objectives and goals, rather than just following a single process line. You may follow many different processes just to find and achieve your end goal or resolve business process exceptions.

Applications of Dynamic Case Management (DCM), goes beyond traditional industries such as health, insurance, security investigations. It now extends into the broad spectrum of customer service. Today, crucial to many organizations, is the ability to provide excellent customer service. It is the competitive edge when competing for new customers and keeping existing ones. Customers have a new voice; they can easily share their bad experiences through social media channels, at the cost of your reputation which you spent substantial dollars to build.

Many organizations realize that this element of their business is so important, but just can’t figure out the solution to the problem or how to deliver it without an expensive overhaul of their existing enterprise. Case Management platforms are able to utilize existing infrastructural investments without the need to replace existing technologies, they need to be complemented and made to work better together.

By empowering the employee with the ability to resolve customer problems quickly and effectively you can create an exceptionally positive impact on the customer experience.

How often have you phoned up to complain about your broadband/internet connection? It’s the 3rd time in a month that you have complained, yet the customer advisor has to go through the troubleshooting process from the very beginning, again! The advisor isn’t able to draw on previous troubleshooting calls with the customer, can’t call on other information/colleagues to check on network status in real-time, can’t even assess if there is a trend appearing with other similar calls in the area.

By implementing a Dynamic Case Management solution the advisor is then able to provide quick real-time information, skip unnecessary steps based on previous calls, link into business intelligence tools, use unified collaboration tools and even provide unexpected compensation measures. Customer expectations will then be more likely to be fulfilled and exceeded. Customers will be more willing to tell others of the great service provided and customer retention will be more likely.

Singularity has been at the forefront of Case Management technology and is cited as a leader within Forrester’s Dynamic Case Management Wave. We have also co-written books on the subject and have several whitepapers which explain in depth what are the critical elements of case management. Visit the singularity website for more information (http://www.singularitylive.com?info=blog) or simply reply back.

“Because Singularity’s technology bundles in good Case Management capabilities with a strong range of BPM technology fundamentals it currently stands apart from the other providers of BPM Suites with products based on the Microsoft stack.” MWD Advisor Analyst – Neil Ward-Dutton

It has often been argued that BPM and Case Management are two separate disciplines and don’t really work together. However in more recent times, this notion has subsided. The lack of clarity on the subject matter caused much confusion, BPM and Case Management as a product is possible and necessary. It is important to note that BPM processes represent the primary approach for many businesses, but in a more competitive world, the difference between success and failure rest in being able to adapt and handle complex long-running business process exceptions.

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Forgive me for plagiarising the title of a well-known book, to explain why some problems demand different solutions to achieve effective outcomes.
Computer technology has come a long way in the past 50 years. With the invention of the digital computer – where information is reduced to a series of binary information (i.e. 0’s and 1’s) – we have managed to address many common needs, especially in business.
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Many organizations use variants of the same core process map. For example a multinational organization may follow the same sales process worldwide but have different products or employee sales targets per region. A Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organization will deliver the same core process for many customers but will have for example different SLA agreements or use different resources depending on the customer and product. (more…)

 Despite being aware of the business benefits of improved customer service, public and private organizations globally are struggling to step up to the mark and in some cases are getting punished by regulators and their customers, putting the very future of their businesses at risk.

The traditional view of the customer relationship as a simple dichotomy between the competing needs of the business for improved productivity and efficiency and the needs of the customer for improved service levels and increased satisfaction is no longer valid. Businesses struggling to improve their customer service are failing to recognize the role and consider the needs of their own employees. Traditional approaches to customer service using CRM and automated workflows are failing because they do not consider the power of the employee. Attempts to automate the employee out of the customer service equation have backfired. (more…)

2011 sees the death of a great innovator – Steve Jobs, who raised Apple from despairing times with amazingly simple and easy to use technology and now stands at the pinnacle of technology today. The iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, the i-generation.

The key to Apple’s success is providing an end-to-end solution: from buying music on itunes, providing a library of ‘apps’ (through the Apps store), easy-to-use interfaces, beautiful intelligent design & packaging and of course great marketing.

Many organizations have great individual systems collected over the years, but don’t work well together to provide a customer centric end-to-end package. The value of a complete package far outweighs disparate individual systems that work independently, which in the end, lead to poor service levels and inefficient business performance.

The TotalAgility product’s greatest strength is to provide a complete solution to your organization that creates the capacity of uniting your enterprise together and producing true Business Agility.

“With the release of v5.3 the TotalAgility product extended its data handling capabilities allowing organizations to easily utilize fragmented data, extract value from it and put it to work for the benefit of the organization. This version helps organizations reduce the cost and risks associated with process improvement activities by enabling the reuse of data models in related business areas, reducing data integration costs and eliminating the risk associated with the management of multiple data sources,” said Peter Whibley, Singularity’s Product Marketing Manager.

The Singularity TotalAgility product now provides superb Data Virtualization that allows users to “link data and sync data” which simply makes the process of connecting and managing multiple data sources faster and more cost effective.

Further advances in external data source data integration, make “Just-in-Time” decision making possible. There is no need to wait lengthy periods of time for information to become available. ‘Just In Time Data’ makes crucial information available on-demand. In addition, the TotalAgility product delivers support for a visual representation of your Enterprise data stack.

Finally, v5.3 extends the relationship with Microsoft Dynamics by allowing fine grain control of storage attributes of an entity within Dynamics CRM.

Financial services firm Oakam has chosen Singularity’s TotalAgility product as their preferred BPM solution. Oakam is a rapidly developing business and to ensure that its processes and systems are robust and capable of supporting its growth.
Oakam recently completed a project to define the target operating model at each stage of the customer lifecycle.
For Oakam to implement its target operating model a scalable BPM solution was required to optimize customer focused processes with an agile business lead approach.
Following an initial vendor selection process Oakam then proceeded to a ‘proof of concept’ (PoC) stage with 2 vendors. In an interactive one week engagement, Singularity demonstrated their TotalAgility BPM Suite focusing on developing a small part of the future operating model in parallel with a competing BPM vendor.
Nidhi Maheshwari, Project Manager of Oakam who led the PoC, said, “We needed to fully understand the functionality of both the solutions and future working relationships, which was crucial in the final selection process. Singularity showed innovation and leadership with their focus on business process agility. It was evident that through the implementation of the TotalAgility product Oakam will have the ability to realize their goals within a very short time-frame and be self-sufficient.”
“The PoC confirmed that Singularity’s intelligent BPM Suite matched our requirements and ticked all the boxes from technology through to the experienced team of people we would be working with,” Nidhi added.
Initial project deliverables include streamlining the onboarding process of new customers and general operations of Oakam. The TotalAgility product will help to offer exceptional levels of service to Oakam’s customer base whilst helping to bring new products to market quicker.
“By bringing Singularity onboard Oakam will quickly be able to integrate existing systems which will ultimately allow us to scale rapidly as an organization. We are very excited about this next stage of growth realizing the long-term benefits of becoming more agile as an organization through the use of the Singularity BPM Suite,” said Frederick Nze, CEO at Oakam.

1. If I want to deliver process improvement do I need both a BPM and a Case Management Solution?

It depends on your business objectives. If your business is focused on streamlining routine processes, driving the cost out of predictable processes or ensuring for example legislative compliance then a BPM only solution will probably suffice. However as we have seen organizations have a combination of routine an unpredictable processes. It is impossible to predict every customer or business scenario and as a result organizations really need a combination BPM and Case management that drives down the cost of managing routine processes yet delivers support for unpredictable processes. Singularity’s TotalAgility product delivers support for both BPM and Case within the same application.

2. How do I know if I’ve got a case management problem?

I would say all organizations have Case Management problems whether they are aware of it or not because knowledge workers, highly skilled employees mandated to exercise their judgement, exist in all organizations. In addition unpredictable events or exceptions occur in all organizations. The real question is not do I have a case management problem but are Case Management problems impacting business performance and the bottom line? If a high proportion of your employees are knowledge workers having to switch between multiple business applications in order to get their work done then it is likely you have Case Management processes that have the potential to become more effective and agile using a Case Management application.

3. Can I perform Case Management using Microsoft SharePoint or other content management applications?

While SharePoint can handle some of the characteristics associated with Case Management e.g. cases often involve the management of large amounts of information SharePoint does not support complex workflows and the variability and unpredictability associated with many cases. Cases also evolve in flight and the case worker must have the ability to make decisions on how the case should progress. Thus what is required is a case platform that allows the case worker to select alternative steps should the need arise or to create new process steps on the fly if necessary to successfully complete the case. This isn’t possible with SharePoint.

4. Can I use a CRM application to deliver Case Management?

For the same reasons outlined previously CRM platforms only partially address Case Management. In many case processes, for example customer support processes, CRM applications are however an essential ingredient. A strong CRM solution that manages customer data combined with a Case Management Platform which puts the data to work is essential in many Case Management processes.

5. Does Singularity’s product integrate to other business applications?

Singularity’s TotalAgility product integrates out of the box with essential business applications to deliver Case Management including content/document/records management (eDRM),communication/collaboration management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The TotalAgility product integrates with Microsoft SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Lync and Exchange. In addition integration with HP Trim and social applications including Facebook is also possible.

6. What mobile devices are currently supported?

Singularity’s TotalAgility product currently supports mobile applications for Windows mobile and the iPhone and iPad.