Managing organizational processes is an ongoing endeavour. It does not start with a reengineering project, and does not end with the deployment of a workflow solution. Instead, it is a continuous cycle of design, implementation, execution and evaluation, much like the Deming cycle developed in the 1950s. Most process management research projects address a particular aspect of the process management life cycle, but few look at the overall effect of process automation on organizations. CEBPI is looking at the relationship between process automation and organizational change. Since the automation of business processes will increase, mainly due to the immense efficiency gains it promises, organizations will have to learn to make the most of process automation technology.
Therefore, our research questions are:
- What are the organizational effects of process automation?
- What are critical success factors for process automation projects?
- Which type of automation is suitable for which organization?
- BPM Life Cycle (click to enlarge)
Our research activities are grouped in four areas, which correspond with the lifecycle of process management in organizations.
Process design projects focus on tools and techniques for the capturing, representation, and management of process models in organizations. For this purpose, the center has developed a framework for the management of process modeling projects in large organizations.
Process implementation projects analyze the integration of business processes with back-end applications, the development, choice, and use of standards in business process automation projects, and strategies for the flexible allocation of tasks to users.
Process monitoring projects deal with the analysis of process performance indicators and the management of process risk.
Process innovation projects focus on the generation of new process configurations based on historical and context information.
The Center of Excellence in Business Process Innovation conducts research on the interplay between business processes and the organization. Our projects are driven by 2 major research themes:
- How can technology facilitate the redesign of processes?
- How can processes be managed using technology?
CEBPI Projects are funded by both government agencies and corporate research bodies. Our research is based on new technologies, but industry focused, it is practice-oriented, yet rigorous.
Research at CEBPI is conducted in the context of several international academic collaborations with institutions in Europe and Australia.
CEBPI hosts a state of the art lab infrastructure with several commercial workflow and BPM systems as well as high-end process modeling products. We use this infrastructure in both research and teaching and maintain good working relationships with most major BPM vendors.
