How BIC supports you to rethink processes with Marc Stromberg from GBTEC
#025: My search for a human-centric BPM tool continues and BIC must not be missing in this. Thus, I invited Marc Stromberg to explore the latest version of BIC.
In this episode, I’m speaking with Marc Stromberg from GBTEC to have an in-depth look into his product: Business Information Center, or BIC for short.
I have known Marc for many years and in my search for a human-centric tool, BIC is of course a must. Marc gives deep insights into the tool and provides a highly detailed and candid account of his own practical experiences with process management. In addition, he gives actionable advice and shares resources that you may find useful in you own future endeavors.
Today’s Guest
Marc Stromberg
Marc is Co-Founder of GBTEC and since then, he is Head of Sales for the BPM Products of GBTEC.
Before that he worked as a BPM Consultant for IDS Scheer and SECO Consult.
He told me, that he is the only one in his family who is in the software industry. His whole family in the restaurant business and so he has always been somewhat of a “black sheep”. But in the meantime, they recognized that BPM is not such a bad industry to work in.
GBTEC was founded in 2004 in the city of Bochum, Germany. It is widely known for its BIC Platform which is a software suite with modules for Process Modeling, Process Execution, and Process Mining as well as Governance, Risk, and Compliance modules for Risk Management, Information Security, Audit Management and more.
GBTEC is also producer of the Process Pioneers Podcast hosted by Marc’s colleague Daniel Rayner where I had the honor of sharing New Process ideas in the beginning of the New Process journey. Probably the BPM podcast with the widest reach and definitely worth listening to.
You’ll learn
- What the underlying philosophy of BIC is
- How to model processes in BIC
- How employees retrieve their processes in BIC
- How BIC supports you to involve the people in the process into the work on the process?
- How BIC supports you to disrupt established processes
- What developments of the BPM tool market Marc sees
- What BIC has on its development roadmap
- What BIC costs and how you can test it
Resources
Get notified about new episodes:
Transcript
Please note that the transcript was generated automatically and only slightly adjusted. It does not claim to be a perfect transcription.
Mirko:
Yeah. Welcome to episode 25 of the New Process Podcast. Today we’re going to explore how BIC supports you to rethink processes. BIC is the process management platform of GBTEC, and therefore, I’m talking to Marc Stromberg. Marc is co-founder of GBTEC, and since then he’s head of sales for the BPM products of GBTEC. Before that, he worked as a BPM consultant for IDS Scheer and SECO Consult. As a fun fact, he told me that he’s the only one in his family who was in the software industry. His whole family was in the restaurant business, so he was always a bit of a black sheep. But in the meantime, they realized that BPM is not such a bad industry to work in. So GBTEC was founded in 2004 in the city of Bohum, Germany, and it is widely known for its BIC platform, which is the software suite with modules for process modeling, process execution, and process mining, as well as governance risk and compliance modules for risk management, information security, audit management, and way more.
GBTEC is also the producer of the Process Pioneers podcast, hosted by Marc’s colleague Daniel Rayner, where I had the honor of sharing new process ideas in the beginning of the new process journey. Maybe one of the other of you already listened to that episode, and I think the Process Pioneers podcast is probably the podcast with the widest reach, and it’s definitely worth listening too. Cool. So what can you learn in today’s episode with Marc? I’m going to talk about the underlying philosophy of BIC. We’re going to talk about how to model processes BIC as well as from the other perspective on how to retrieve processes. And BIC will also deep dive into the new process principles. And there Marc will explain how BIC supports you to involve the people working in the process into the work on the process. Secondly, we’re going to talk about how BIC supports you to disrupt established processes, and he also provides an outlook on the BPM tool market as well as on the BIC roadmap itself. And we’re going to explore the cost of BIC, the pricing model and how you can test it. And there’s also a special offer for you. So don’t miss that. Just enjoy the interview with Marc Stromberg.
Yeah. Welcome to the New Process Podcast. Marc, it’s great to have you here today. I think we have known each other for so many years. We had first contact more than 10, I would say, 15 years ago, and I just had to invite you to the New Process Podcast. So great that you’re here today. Marc, welcome.
Marc:
Mirko. Thanks so much. I really feel honored, uh, that you invited me to your podcast because I watch every episode and as you said, I try to find out how, many years we have known each other, and it’s at least 15 years, so, so happy that, that we are still in the same industry and now getting together in your excellent podcast. So thanks so much again for inviting me.
Mirko:
Yeah, cool. That’s super great to have you here. Then let’s start with the check in. As always, what do you prefer in an aircraft, aisle or window seat?
Marc:
Mirko, I am one meter and 86. I prefer the aisle of course, uh, more leg room and you can somewhat sprawl in the aisle and into the aisle, so that’s much better. But I have to say Mirko, I’m a train guy. Yes, I have been flying a lot in the past, but whenever possible, at least in the, on the European continent, I try to check the train, but again, it will be the aisle seat in the train as well.
Mirko:
Okay, that’s good. Yeah, it’s also a good approach to take the train instead of the aircraft, but as you know, I’m an airline guy, so I know I have to ask this question and that’s why I also asked the second one, which is your favorite airport?
Marc:
I don’t think about that one. It’s Chicago.
Mirko:
Okay. Really?
Marc:
And it’s not because, purely because of the airport, but I have been an exchange student in the US in my high school time. And as a young, uh, student, I, the first really long flight was through Chicago where the hosting family picked me up and as a, as a young student, you know, going to the US without the parents, etc, that will always, I will always remember getting to Chicago and then, you know, seeing that really large airport and, and all the new impressions that you have in the US. So this is why I said, okay, Chicago has, has got me. And it’s not about the features and functionalities, but the personal memories about it.
Mirko:
Yeah, I have nearly the same memories. I haven’t been there for a high school year, but, uh, I flew via Chicago to Louisville for, uh, my MBA program that time. And so I, I can imagine that it was also really interesting to get there and to find through this huge airport. Yeah. Cool. Great. And what was the best process you’ve ever experienced?
Marc:
Mirko, I cannot say that there’s that one process that stands out where, you know, when somebody asks me what’s the best process, and, and immediately it springs to my mind, that’s it. And that was the most amazing part. I recognized the process just a few weeks ago. We went to the winter holidays and went to a hotel where we spent some time, so it’s not in business really, in, in private part. And, uh, we spent there, I think the third time that we went there. And when we got to the hotel, first of all, we were greeted by our names. When we got to the hotel room, there was a personal handwritten greeting card wishing us a wonderful holiday. There were the chocolates that we laugh and the mini bar was filled, not with alcohol, but with the juices that my little son likes.
Correct. Um, and when we get to the restaurant in the evening, we were handed over the vegetarian menu instead of the meat one, because they remember, okay, we rather go for vegetarian than for meat, and this is something I just love. It’s personal, and there’s actually not really machines involved in there. It’s somebody that recognized and documented what we love and then contacted lots of colleagues in the hotel to say, Hey, please do that, that, that, that mm-hmm. to have a wonderful experience for family strong work that night. So that is something that, that really stands out and, and I appreciate very much.
Mirko:
Yeah, that sounds very good. Cool. Then how would you describe your relationship to processes
Marc:
I’ve been working in business process management or my professional career When I got out of university, I started directly with a very large consulting company doing process management work. And this went on up until now. So processes in my work life is there every day, and it’s present every day. And everything that I do professionally, somewhat is related to, to process management. And I personally started out as a BPM consultant in my life. So I, I know it from, from the start, designing processes, modeling processes, rolling out processes to the organization, better processes if needed, change management. So everything that I more or less did in the last, whatever, 20 years, had something to do with processes, and still it goes on. So there’s really, uh, process management on my mind. And this actually goes also to, to my, my spare time when I go to a restaurant, I very often see that. I also think about processes. So when I, when I leave the restaurant, I don’t rate it as of the food was good or the food was bad, but rather, oh, they had good processes in the restaurant, everything, uh, went quite, quite well. So this is something that is just incorporated, in myself. And, of course processes, not everything, uh, maker, you know, that it’s people, it’s applications and tools and, uh, processes, but processes, of course is more or less the binder between all of these things.
Mirko:
Absolutely. That’s super cool. And I would say it’s not a surprise for, for your history, to have such a relationship. Great. Yeah. Cool. Then let’s have a closer look onto the tool. So it’s BIC, that’s the name of the tool in GBTECH’s offering, and I would love to learn more. And starting with the philosophy. So could you explain a little bit more what the underlying philosophy of BIC is?
Marc:
Business Information Center is actually the abbreviation because most of our employees don’t even know it. It’s because it’s always known as the BIC, tool. BIC is, is actually not that just one tool. BIC is more or less a BPM platform with different modules supporting the analysis of processes, the execution of processes, governance, risk and compliance topics, monitor and measuring. So there’s not that BIC one BIC, but customers use different modules or use all of them at once. The main philosophy that spans across all of these different modules are ease of use and modern interface attractive design. That might be a little bit astonishing when you ask me what’s the difference about your tool that I don’t start, you know, listing all the features and functionalities that we have, but my personal experience, yes, we have lots of features and large organization, global organization use the application actually for everything that they do
But when it comes to user acceptance, when it comes to how do customers organization roll out a BPM application, like BIC, one of the decisive factors is, is it easy to use? Do users have fun using it? And is this something they incorporate in their daily work or if not daily, but whenever they use it, they love using it. So this is something that, that spans across all of the modules. The design part analysis part of course vehicle is, is a very modern process documentation, process analysis tool for co cooperation communication. We have the, the automation part, the so-called no-code automation application that supports customers really automating, executing processes that have documented modeled. And we also have a full-blown module for governance risk compliance features or functionalities which support the customers in, in fulfilling all regulatory requirements, uh, surveys, oxley, internal controlled stuff. So there are different use cases, different requirements, what they all have in common, it must be easy to use. So the customer don’t test much effort to train users in using the system, in onboarding those occasional users that use the system maybe once a week, once a month, once a year. And this is really something that is important to all of our customers. And that is really something that we pay attention to that our software fulfills all the functional requirements of course, but it must be easy to use. So this is more or less very much the philosophy that stands behind all of the modules.
Mirko:
Okay. And now the challenging question, because we are in a podcast and it’s not possible to show something, how does the interface look like
Marc:
It’s reduced to the max? Let’s say it this way. It’s modern and it’s really appealing. When somebody asks me, I rather very often resonate and say, it looks more like a modern website, or it looks like an app you use on your, on your phone because this is the way we designed it. So the features and the functionalities are not the foremost and are not right in your face, but it’s, it’s very user-friendly and reduced with buttons, with features, uh, with icons. So again, that, uh, occasional user will have a super experiences using it. And imagine Mirko, we have customers that have more than 100,000 licensees of B not the, the, not your professional BPM expert team or whatever, but the readers, the ones that follow the processes, and you cannot train all the 100,000 in using such a tool. So it must be intuitive, it must be easy.
And of course these days it should be mobile device capable. So if somebody would like to see a process on the phone or on the iPad or whatever tablet you use, it should be the same good user experience that you have when you look at a flow charting graphical way. So really reducing the tool to the maximum and not, uh, disturbing the occasional user with features, with buttons, with menus that he or she might not ever use in the system is really the way to go for us. And this is how the interface actually, uh, looks like. Okay.
Mirko:
I hope that I’m not wrong, but I remember that when I used BIC the last time that you told me that you already implemented a facelift. So if there are listeners out there who have been using BIC a few years ago, what did you change?
Marc:
We actually migrated the old user interface to a new, more or less platform or user interface technology or framework as you call it. And this framework goes the next step for us. So even before this new user interface, I have to say that we already had an excellent user interface, easy to use, but now we go the extra mile and we take the next step. Now, when the new user interface, everything is mobile capable, so all the features functionalities are optimized for usage on any kind of device because we also see the trend that you don’t just look at processes on your laptop, but maybe even if, if you are on the plane, on the train, you want to see it and you don’t open your laptop. So this is one, was one of the things that was important to us, but also, again, going the extra mile in reducing the application to the maximum on to resemble more to, to the modern website that are out there, that are coming out there today to really don’t have any, any break. When somebody uses the internet at the customer site and then goes to BIC, it doesn’t look like a clunky old external application, but really seamless, very nice, very user friendly, and of course you can adapt it to the corporate identity very quickly. So the, the main part, the main changes is even more mobile capability. Next step regarding user interface and attractive design and of course intuitive usage and, and reducing the menus, the icons, whatever you have in that application.
Mirko:
Okay, cool. Yeah. Then let’s focus more on the processes. On the content. How do you map processes like the process architecture, the different levels? What kind of notations are you offering
Marc:
Tool wise? In BIC, there are no restrictions on how you want to document processes. So you can go out to the, to the classical standard value chain diagrams, bpm, N 2.0, event driven process chains or flow charters as, uh, we all know it, customer journey maps. There are IT resources in the application. There are notations for risks controls, compliant topics, and these are out of the box, but it’s not like, like an endless, when a customer onboards BIC, you will or she will see maybe 10 to 15 standard notations that are used throughout the globe, throughout the world, and the users can start right away. So there’s no need for configuration. We set the system in a up in a way that really a user can start whenever he or he gets access to the tool. And the, the notations like the, the BPMN or the EPC or the value chain diagrams are already tailored to what we have gotten to know o over the last 10, 15, 20 years, what users actually, what kind of symbols, what kind of object they’re using.
So you don’t have to start from scratch reducing the 100 pmn object types to only 10 or five that you wanna use. It’s already done in the application. And then of course the customer can tailor it again and, and configure it the way he or she likes it or it’s needed for the BPM initiative that is going on. The system is flexible, we call it, it’s got an open meta model. So whenever there will be new notations coming up in the future, either customers or we are able to incorporate those into the tool without, you know, programming and customizing it. But it can be really configured regarding the levels of the process framework. They are, again, are no restrictions in BIC, it depends more or less on, on the customer. Do you want to document processes in three levels, in four levels, in five levels?
If you have an SAP P implementation, you might go down to the sixth level or second level, but BIC does not interfere with whatever you have come up how you want to use the system. So that’s important. It’s got flexibility, it’s got freedom, but it’s set up in a way that you do not, you know, start from scratch. One main aspect because regarding process mapping or management, that that is very often a discussion point with customers is, okay, how detailed do we document processes at all? I just said, okay, in SAPP project you might document until level six or seven, but this is not the norm. Typically customers stop at a certain chart level in a certain detail level, but there’s still lots of other documentation process oriented out there in the organization. And this is stored in documents. Mm-hmm. in your pdf, in your word, in your Excel, in your PowerPoint presentation.
And very often there’s a lots of good information that is related to those processes. One thing you can do is you can link from BIC to a document management system you have placed, not a problem. Then you just link, okay, you want details about this s o p, then go to whatever SharePoint for example. But BIC offers capability that you can manage those process related documents in BIC itself. Not just uploading them but managing them. Versioning, archiving revenue and approval workflows. And this way the user that is looking for information process related does not have to think, is it a document? Is it sort in a document? Is it sort in a process? Do I go to SharePoint? Do I go to B? No, the information will be in B and via the full text search. He or she doesn’t even know, doesn’t need to know is it’s gonna be a document or a process that’s coming up. But you just type in the, the keyword and either document comes up, a process comes up. So that’s a very important part. And this also solves the discussion. Okay. Do we put everything that is process related to the BPM tool? No, please don’t stick to your existing documentation that is very detailed and then link it to the processes where such information help define the process in more detail.
Mirko:
Okay. So let’s imagine we’ve set up our system, you know, it’s somehow customized. I know which notation I want to use, and now I’m a process modeler. How do I proceed to map a process?
Marc:
Typically two ways. Mirko, if you are well trained process modeler, you know the notation, you know how to work with bm, NEPC, value change, customer journey, whatever, you just go ahead open the BIC tour and start creating flow charts, let says this word, the typical modeling part that you also do in, in PowerPoint invi, but also in BIC But the difference is database. And of course the system will help you and guide you through that process by offering validation rules and by offering only the relevant symbols that are, that are really able to connect to other symbols. But you need to know the tool, you need to know the notation. And typically this is something that our consultants do that the customer side does. The BPM competence are cap competence center goes out to the business and very often sits down in the process workshop, interviews the business, and while interviewing it, beaming and streaming the process on the wall and then documenting the process on the go, let’s hit this way mm-hmm.
And therefore the business can really relate to what this process is all about. And they come to think about different things they would not have thought about if they would’ve start documenting the pros on their own. But you need some skills for that. You need to interview, you need the notation, you need the tool knowledge and so on for those that maybe have fairly a modeling training. And in large organization, that’s very often happens because not everyone can be as trained as a BPM competence center. And there will be consultants in there will be working students in there that will not ever get the same kind of training that maybe the competent center team will get. We have a way of documenting processes in a spreadsheet kind of way where you don’t need to to document in flow chart, but maybe really like an exit spreadsheet.
You enter the activities, you enter the related roads and description and BIC then translate this spreadsheet into a flow chart and automatic generates such a flow chart view. These are typically the two ways if you want to use BIC for documentation, how you do it in BIC. And of course, as you know, there are so many ways in first of all, come to a process that have nothing to do with the tool. Yeah. But you write it down in paper on this, on PowerPoint and only afterwards start documenting in them into the tool.
Mirko:
Yeah. Okay. Definitely makes sense. That’s super interesting. Great. And after mapping the process, I guess there is approval workflow and then as an employee, how do I access my processes?
Marc:
Typically BIC is, is integrated with the authentication application within the customers, like a single sign on onboarding part. And whenever a user clicks on the link to open pick, he or she will get a personalized landing page. We call this the MYB page. And the MYB page is either populated already once a user will access the tool for the first time because somebody, the head of department, the BpM team defined that this user is working on loca in location A in department B for customer, c and this information that are relevant for his or her, her work should be present on that personal lending page. So in the, in the idea word, and this is how it works, typically the user goes to BIC and on the first entry page, he or she finds relevant processes, relevant documents, risk controls, the link to the customer journey map that is relevant for his department or a department.
It doesn’t have to start going to an explorer bar, doesn’t have to go to a search bar, it’s, it’s all there, but like I said in the beginning, we want to make it easy on the occasional users because they are no BPM expert. They want to get to the heart of the their, the question fast. Two clicks, and this was Niko, I, I remember still today we had a customer in Munich, a very large company producing brakes for trains and for trucks. And this process, uh, responsible person always told me, Mr. Schroer, we need the three click process portal. The user only, uh, needs three clicks to get to his content. And actually that was 10 years ago now we made it two clicks. So opening, uh, up BIC, you’ve got the, my BIC page and the second click is go to your document, go to your process. And this really helps in rolling out a tool like BIC to the entire organization because we get away from the discussion. I don’t know where my process are, just, just truly slow. It, it’s not intuitive. No. The system will present the content that is relevant for that person in that drop role, right. When they open up the application.
Mirko:
Yeah, I love this two click approach. That’s great. Also with regards to getting people excited about processes. So that’s easy for them to find the information they are looking for. That’s, that’s super cool.
Marc:
And even beyond nico, you don’t have to go to BIC all the time to understand and find out if there are changes, of course there’s something like a notification application, so whatever are your favorite processes, favorite documents, favorite content will inform you once there have been changes after this approval workflow that you already mentioned. And this way you stay up to date what’s going on in the processes that I’m related to or the documents that I’m relevant, uh, to, so this is something also supports, I don’t have to go, you know, all the time to pick and see what, what changes have taken place.
Mirko:
Yeah, that’s great to somehow involve the people by, by pulling them into the system by notification and with regards to the new process principles, and there is one which I really like to talk about. So how does BIC support to involve people into the work on the process, which are currently working in the process? So how can they contribute, how they are involved?
Marc:
Mirko, goes back to what I already explained earlier, in order to involve users or employees or people in process management that typically are not part of the BPM competent center that are, don’t have any b BPM roles in the organization. The first thing is we need to make the experience in accessing a tool like BIC, easy. It needs to look modern, it needs to be fast, it needs to produce the content that I’m looking for right away without going to search for it. So this is something where we as a tool provider, tool vendor can support our customers or internal customers on the customer side. And it’s typically the, the BPM prop and center. Uh, however, it’s, it’s, uh, located by giving them a tool that does not provide a hurdle for the occasional user to get involved in processes. Because when I started out in bpm, I don’t know, 20 years ago, it was paper-based.
It was really applications that catered to the expert and not to the standard employee that has no BPM background. And this has changed dramatically. And, and BIC is really on the forefront of giving the occasional user a very good experience without detailed knowledge about BPM or about the BPM tool. So this is something that we are working on constantly making the user experience really excellent, fast, easy to use, modern, like we described earlier. The other part is the content echo, and we can also support on that one. Yes, you can document and model processes in your classical BPMN flow chart level. You can use it value chain diagrams the way that probably most of the users know it from VI or from PowerPoint. You have the Chevrons and then you put the Chevrons on the process map and that’s it.
Will this engage an occasional user and, and make them enthusiastic about process management? Can be, but the chances are not that high. So what do our customers too, they really come up with creative, fancy, very modern process landscape. It’s not just your chevrons, it’s a picture of a company location in the background. We have a customer that showed us last year on our process day that he created the level one and level two process maps, like a tube map that, you know, you know, from London So, you know, okay, that tube is maybe the, the supply chain management process. So it look anything but your old chamber process landscape. We have customers in the airport industry, that have created a process landscape like the airport with the airport fingers representing different processes and Subprocesses. And we have, uh, for example, a manager of our manufacturer of suites of chocolate and their initial landing page is one of their most representative suites that they have as a really nice picture.
And on that suite, they have the different process levels where you can click on and then go to different process departments. So this is something that, that we as a true provider of course, don’t do, but we support the customers that the system is capable of integrating graphics pictures and almost use BIC like VI on PowerPoint in creating really nice looking diagrams where somebody who’s not a BPM expert says, oh, I would never expected this is a BPM tool. I thought this is only about flow charts and very detailed ones. So this is also something that the BIC tool is supporting in by creating such very nice process landscapes.
Mirko:
That’s cool. I’d love to see the chocolate process map. That really attracts me we,
Marc:
We, we, we can arrange this.
Mirko:
Oh, that’s, that’s cool. Ah, delicious. Wow. Good. With regards to another new process principle, which I also find very disrupting very interesting is how does BIC support to disrupt established processes?
Marc:
Earlier on I explained that the BICgest is not BIC, it’s not that one BIC, but we have the, the part for the process documentation, for the standardization analysis part, the design part. But by mapping processes, analyzing them and maybe standardize them, harmonize them, you probably will not disrupt anything. You will create harmonized processes, you will create standardized processes, but does it disrupt anything? Probably not. When we talk about disruption, we come to a different module within BIC, and it’s the BIC execution part that I mentioned before. This is a process Yeah. Automation, execution module that automates processes based on the so-called citizen developer approach. Meaning somebody who’s not an IT expert, somebody who has no skills in scripting, in programming, but is still able to generate workflows very easily and very fast.
That means we bridge the gap between the document, the process, and we tell users and give guidelines how to work in the process. We have been working in BPM, Mirko for such a long time. And you recognize it? I recognize it, yes. You document, we document the process, but when we go and do an internal audit and ask them how, how do you perform the process very often it does not synchronize what is related
Mirko:
Really. This is something I’ve, I’ve never experienced that before. Oh.
Marc:
So I, I’m only talking about cases which somebody told me I’ve never experienced Okay. As well. So, so all good. And this probably happens, uh, quite often and by, by having like a middle technology between your applications where you create workflows and you need the to develop and to script, we put that little tooling inside there based on the, on the processes that the user has modeled. B B P M N B D P C, it both works with a few clicks, you can actually digitize and automator process. It’s then not set that it’s integrated with all the other applications around. But very often we find that customers still use template-based processes, you have a PDF template and you send it around via Outlook, somebody needs to fill it in, you print it out, et cetera. You, you know that by using checklists that are sent out via Outlook, and the ones who sends them out expects answers by 10 different people, but of course he or she doesn’t get them and then tries to call them and, and tries to get information.
And these paper-based auto based processes can be digitized with BIC process execution really in minutes. And we really see that customers love it. Even the ones that started out, no, we only want to document processes in the first place. They start out using BIC for first processes very quickly because they can showcase that the mapping processes not just brings value in standardization, harmonization, creating a common language in the organization, but we can directly gain value and show the ROI that if we now have the process supported via a workflow, instead of sending out, uh, paper stuff, it really brings value to the organization and, uh, supports the users, the employees in getting rid of all the attachment that are flying around the office all the day.
Mirko:
Okay. Yeah. Uh, this is something I would say for the more mature processes. So after having a common understanding, then you can think about how to manage and automate the processes, but, uh, that’s interesting to have that in the same application. Yeah.
Marc:
Yes. And, and I would agree, Mirko, that yes, typically you, you would say, okay, let’s, let’s have a mature process and then automate it. But the real killer feature in, in this execution part is along the way in defining that stable process, you can always go back and say, okay, okay, this is how we do it today. This is how it could look like automated. And it’s really done in minutes. So using the execution module helps you coming to that final process and having a blueprint for either No, we, we are not going to automate it or yes, we automated an application we already have, but this is, it’s like a little bit of the specification phase that, you know, when you, when you want new tool and you start writing down the specification what the new workflow should be doing it, you’re doing it at live based on the real process that the users have defined So that’s, that’s really a good tooling that, that you wanna use for, for relevant use cases.
Mirko:
Okay. Cool. That’s interesting. Yeah. Before we look into the future, I would like to ask if there is anything else you would like to share with our listeners with regards to rethinking processes. So is there something you would like to add before we look into the future?
Marc:
You know, we are coming from the tool side. We are tool vendor. We offer coaching, we offer training, but we are foremost of course, it’s, it’s all about the BIC tool. And when either new interested, uh, parties come to us or even the existing customers and we talk about what they haven’t planned, what they’re trying to do and the vision that they have, it very often focuses around process mapping, because right now they might be using videos, they might be using PowerPoint or Excel or whatever, and of course they have a need to get a more professional tool in order to support that, that process mapping in a better way. And then they have, they have, you know, process mapping on their mind and my role, and I’m there like the sparing partners of course, to show them the capabilities of, of BIC and what it can do for the organization and the be benefits it will bring.
But my point is always the mapping part is just the few percent of business process management. They are not, you know, after, well immediately they’re after a BPM tool, but they want a BPM tool to have the better business process management system. And the business process management system is so much more than just the documentation of processes of course, and all that we talked about before. So I always remind customers think about communication marketing, thinking about change management, thinking about integration of the tool with other applications. So spending the whole BPM lifecycle right at the beginning when the customer has pros mapping on their mind, but already telling them, Hey, please think ahead a little bit for the future. And we have lots of customers and lots of good examples, how you can already incorporate future requirements, use cases right at the beginning while you still have process mapping on your mind. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So this is something I can always tell whatever tool you use. Yes. BPM is, is business management. It’s not your only the BPM tool. And this is always important to remind even existing customers about that.
Mirko:
Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know if you saw that a few days ago, I shared a slide on LinkedIn what people think BPM is it’s process modeling. And then on the other side it was about what BP M really is about and this somehow went viral. I’m a little bit proud of this picture, and that perfectly fits to what you just said. So process modeling, this is what most of the people expect, but there’s way more than just process modeling so too, and that’s good to have that in mind right from the beginning. Cool. So let’s look into the future. Which trends do you see currently in the BPM tool market developing and what is coming up there?
Marc:
One thing we already touched about and talked about is this operational part. Customers say we have documented processes and what do we do about it? We have gotten the benefits of standardization, harmonization, uh, common language and all the things that come with documented processes. And then, well, you have already the blueprint, so why don’t you start automating? So what we see is that lots of customers ask, okay, now we have the to be process documented in your tool. How do we get to living this to be process in the organization? And one thing can be that you then talk about changes in processes in existing applications. And, but one thing can also be why don’t you go and start automating processes when you know now that there is a top B process and it should be different than the one that is existing right now.
So this, this operational process execution is really on lots of organization’s mind. How do we go the next step from documentation to, to living the process to automation? And this is something that we follow up with, uh, with the tools that, that we mentioned about ongoing thing, not a new trend, Mirko, but still as ever popular integration of business process management with regulatory requirements. The governance part, look at all the crises that we have. Yes, the processes were defined nicely, but the risk that came up that were nobody’s mind suddenly brought the process to, you know, nearly a breakdown. So this has really renewed the attention of the process Owners say, Hey, yes, we need to pay attention. What can break our processes? Where do we have risks? What do we do to control those risks? It’s nothing new, but it’s, it’s more popular than ever.
And this is also something that is on our customer’s mind, but also on the ones that ask. And we request a demo, for example, a stronger integration of the applications because should not be a silo within the customer’s application landscape. We talked about single sign on a notification part, but there’s a strong trend in integrating the process content. For example, in earlier on it was SharePoint these days is in Microsoft teams. How can I see the flow chart in my teams stuff? How can I comment the processes? Actually not in BIC, but in other applications like Confluence, how can we integrate the process content in our enterprise wide search? So we hand over process results to the search engines that are used throughout the organization. And of course integration with disciplines that are close to B P M, like enterprise architecture management with integrations in tools like Lean IX or other enterprise architecture tools.
SAP integration is really now taking off since SUB for Hannah is on those minds that have s SAP in focus. How can we integrate, uh, pro management with the soman, for example. So integrating is really something that is, is going on all the time. Process and data mining, yes. Everybody’s requesting, okay, what this process binding is all about. How can we incorporate it? I think this will be a very common use case in the future where we see that using such techniques, uh, mining techniques is really a very, it’s a project centric way of doing things. It’s not like we can fix things very quickly, but it’s a project and therefore process and, and data mining are on the agenda, but customers and users see that is, this is not like for everyone. It’s, it’s a speci a specific discipline where we need specific skills for, but more and more customers see the interest and the value that mining technologies can actually bring.
And one more thing is, and it’s popping up now here and there, it’s make a green Bpm, how can BPM support in having a more sustainable environment, more sustainable business? How can we fulfill ESG requirements? maybe with the documentation, maybe with the automation, maybe with the government risk and compliance part. So this is something I think we will also discuss much more in the, in the months and years to come, what kind of, uh, support can we bring with BPM tools to that, uh, green aspect of our life.
Mirko:
Yeah, that’s true. That’s definitely an important aspect as well. But beside these, uh, general trends to be more specific, what’s on the roadmap for the further development of BIC right now?
Marc:
Ongoing support working on keeping the user experience. Excellent. So this is, this is always something that, that is on the roadmap. Yes. We have lots of new features coming up with each version and the features function, ATTs are customer driven, are competition driven, are GBtech driven? So there’s lots of new features coming with each version. You might know we bring out a new version every three months and uh, therefore customers don’t have to wait a long time to get their hands on the new features and functionalities. Some of the stuff that is, that we are working on, and this is maybe also going to the trends is for example, the artificial integration of things. How can we integrate the automatic translation of content by using very modern translation tools? . Yeah. You know, the people, you know, the Google translate and all that stuff.
And the quality these days is quite high. So we are talking about integrating these technologies into the application to use it, for example, translation purposes, the AI integration for speech recognition. How cool would it be, Michael? We would tell our iPhone, I start off and with a starting event, I have two lanes and the system will, uh, create our flow chart based on what we tell, tell the application to be doing. So this is something that we look at and block a little bit in the future with universities that are actually, uh, looking into that one. This is something we are working on besides lots of features, functionalities that better the, the, the user experience, but also having new features. The ones that stand out are really right now that, uh, integration of AI and to find out what works and what sounds good, but it will not work in the BPM
Mirko:
Tool. Okay, cool. I would love to learn more on that and love to see that in the future. Super interesting. Cool. Now somehow important question about the price. So what’s, what’s the pricing model of BIC, uh, let’s imagine talk about two different company sizes. One with about 1000 employees on the one side and on the other side just a small startup with 50 employees. What would they have to pay
Marc:
The license model? Mirko is, is very, very transparent and it’s very, very open-minded and, and, and, you know, user-friendly. That means customers only pay what they’re using. I explained before that BIC is a platform with different modules. So somebody who’s only looking for the mapping module will only pay for the mapping module. And within the different modules we have different user roles. And the typical license model is that you pay a certain amount of money for a dedicated role. The role could be the administrator of the application, the modeler, the rever, the reader in the workflow. It could be a workflow participant. So this is how we typically license it based on the number of users. And another criteria is the duration of the contract. So does the customer start off and doing it for one year or the other, planning it for three years, for five years.
And this very much is relevant for defining a price model. Typical pricing for a company, you said around thousand is, let’s say around 20,000 euros per year? I would say there is, it depends also on how the company is setting up their BPM competence center. Will they document processes very centrally? Will they have a decentralized way of documenting? Do they need more modelers in comparison to the readers? So there’s a variety in there, but that figure I just mentioned is, is quite a good starting point. And it is all in, it’s not just a license, but when we talk about the licensing today, Mirko, it’s different than it was earlier. Uh, in the years before, it’s a SaaS option. Typically we do the hosting for the customer in ISO 27 0 1 certified data centers typically in Germany. But if the customer wishes all over the globe, it’s the maintenance in there, it’s updates, upgrades in there, it’s the technical support in there.
So the price that I mentioned is, is really all in and only services that if they are needed will come on top of that for that startup company. And we have quite a few of those where in the beginning I said, oh, 50 employees using a BPM tool. Like BIC, well, you typically use a BPM tool when, when you have a complex organization, when you have many redundant processes, when you have locations globally, then the real value comes in because you need that, that common language, you need that common notation. And so in first time when customers came in and said, no, we have like a law firm with 25 persons. And I said, well, is BIC the right truth for you? And after discussing with them what they have in mind, what pain points they have said, no, it’s, it’s, it’s very well you have the same pain points like the global Fortune 500 company, but maybe with a little less factor in there.
And especially those that have that are startup that will grow quite quickly in the next years. Those organization want to implement processes rights from the beginning and even maybe the BPM tool is at that point a little bit too much. Let’s say it this way, they know that maybe in one year’s time it’s too late, then processes have gotten the life of their own and then to bring it back into a common language than maybe it’s much more effort. So I fully understand now that, that, that startups come to and say, Hey, we, we plan to grow quite fast. And right from the beginning we want to document standardized processes. When we onboard now lots of, lots of new employees in a, in a very short time pricing for that is, I would say make it start at two and a half thousand euros all in. So you might need one model, you have 50 readers, and again, it’s the all in price and this is not much more expensive as you know, than, than using vio, for example, if you have to license it.
Mirko:
Yeah, that’s good to know. And I know a lot of startups which are already thinking about implementing processes because at certain point the founders cannot answer all the questions. You have to document processes onboard new employees. And so what’s better than having processes there? Cool. That’s true. Yeah. So now we know a lot about the tool. If we wanna know more, where can we go to, where can the listeners go to? Is there a way to test it? Have, do you have a special offer for our listeners?
Marc:
First of all, you can go to our website and on our website you will find lots of more information about pick about GBtech. You find resources like white papers, like videos, so you get a good first impression about the tool even without speaking to Mark Stromberg or my colleagues at GBTech. And you get, uh, certain kind of flavor how GBtech, how the BIC tool takes without even being in contact with us on the website, you will find the link to the access for the demo. Yes, we offer a free demo of the different applications. Typically it’s for 30 days, but of course if customers or if interest parties need a longer time to do it, we just prolong it. But this is the best way how you can really get a feel of, of for what I explained today. And instead of having then somebody from GBTech explaining you how the tool takes, we have integrated a so-called user pilot in our demo that will like a little chat robot that will showcase the most important features while you use the system.
And this is like a little online training, onboarding training in the tool itself. And it actually works wonders because we have all different users trying and testing it. They are the BPM experts that have, you know, worked with different tools. Then they’re the ones that have been using Viseo Excel PowerPoint and we have the to total new piece who, who’s have never documented flow chart. And if you tell them about BPM and EPC, they are already lost. So that is integrated in the tool to help you get a wonderful onboarding part. And in this user pilot we reference to our online academy. We have a training academy at GB Tech, which do trainer led trainings either on premises or online. But since we have lots of global companies using our tool with lots of employees in the enterprise, we started a 24 hour seven online academy where users can go to trainings anytime of the day 24/7, 365 days.
They even get some kind of certification that they did the training. And this is something that really brings value, not just for onboarding new interested parties and you can use it for free some of the courses and those that use it then professionally to support the rollout of BIC in the organization. Also find many, many more courses available there. So go to our website and of course you can go to LinkedIn, you can go to, I don’t know, do we have a Yeah, we still have account and find resources and if you want to hear and read what other customers think about BIC, then go to the typical website. Like g2, process Guard are peer inside, I think it’s called, where you find ratings of customers that already use BIC and you can get a good impression of what it feels like and looks like for the new Process Lab listeners. We have a special treat. Yes. The moment you show interest in BIC and the moment the interest gets quite deep and you request a quote, we have that special chocolate treat I told you before Miko that we will incorporate into that, uh, price information, but please reference that you are listener of New Process Lab, uh, from Mirko and that will be done automatically.
Mirko:
But it’s super cool. Thank you Marc for, uh, this special offer to our listeners. That’s great. And wow, also thank you for all the super interesting insights. It’s always good to learn more about it. We’ll, even if I know it for years now. It’s great to get all these, uh, insights from you personally here before we leave the aircraft. Before we end this episode, is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners?
Marc:
The main message i I want to bring across, and I, we did it already before the com process management is, is, is such a valuable asset to organization that, uh, please, please, please try to, to make yourself hurt within the organization. And as you also know, Mirko very often BPM is a grassroot topic. The employees are, are frustrated about how processes work and then they start, you know, documenting translation analysis, et cetera. But it’s not really a top-down approach. And this is something where I can, can really reach out to all the executives in organizations, please support your employees when they, when they raise their voice and say that they think process management is a valuable asset using professional tools will even bring more benefits. So this is that it’s not just, you know, a silo attempt approach in the organization, but it should be an organization-wide initiative and not that trench topic, but it should be ongoing. The most value customers get out of PPM is when they go do it systematically. Go do it consistently. And even in times when processes are not as, as hip, maybe as they might be right now, please go on doing it because the next hype topic that this process related is just around the corner. And then everybody will value what the BPM team has been doing over the years and, uh, will really get benefits out of what is already there.
Mirko:
Cool. Thank you for these motivating final words. Just one last question. How would you describe your flight experience with just three words?
Marc:
I have three words and one, one little letter well designed and performed.
Mirko:
Perfect. Cool. Marc, thank you so much for being my guest on the new Process podcast. Great to have you here and I’m looking forward to further opportunities for collaborating with you. So thank you very much. Bye-bye. Have a great day,
Marc:
Mirko. Thanks so much for having me and I’m looking forward to, to our next 15 years, uh, together in v bpm
Mirko:
Yeah. Great. Let’s do that, Cool. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Marc:
Thank you Mirko. Bye-bye.
Mirko:
Yeah, cool. I found it super interesting to get an update on BIC and also what’s on the roadmap and so on to learn how you can use BIC data to rethink processes. So as I said, I know Marc already for years and I had to look into the tool from time to time, but if you haven’t, feel free to contact Marc and his team and don’t forget to mention that you listened to this episode. Uh, thank you. He said that he’s holding a special offer for our listeners there. Right. Cool. So in the next episode, this will be another tool episode and I’m going to explore a tool which I haven’t seen up to now. So I’m really curious. Stay tuned and let’s explore it together for now. Thank you very much for listening. Bye-bye. And auf Wiedersehen!
Okay. Before you leave, just a quick question. Have you already listened to the previous episode where I talked to Andreas Bierk about how to become a process influencer to inspire people for processes? If not, you definitely have to think that the idea of the role of a process influencer was just amazing. So if you listen to it, have you already started your first content creation activities would be super cool to learn how it worked out. And then just send me an email to mirko@newprocesslab.com. That will be cool. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Bye-bye.
