ITEC832 Application Integration: Faculty of Science Department of Computing - IT Assessment Answers

IT Assignment Help

You are to produce a formal Process Reengineering Report with the following suggested outline:

Section Part Description 1 A B Executive Summary Identification of Context

• Brief description of the organization
• What are the significant processes that are affected by the new technology? Why are these important? - How does a technology solution deliver IRACIS?

[Increased Revenue, Avoidance of Costs or Improved Service]

• What are the deliverables and possible metrics of the project?

2 A B Describe the possible ‘pain points’ in the current As Is Process Brainstorming map of ideas for process redesign (a Mindmap). (Find a good Mindmap drawing tool.) 3 A B BPMN Model of To Be Process (Blue Works Live) (Use BPMN 2.0 to demonstrate the new process efficiencies. Keep this high level.) Provide a Comments summary detailing the process improvements. Describe the specific areas for IRACIS. 4 A B C Implementation – Description of the specific functionality in the SaaS solution. Reference directly the comments in 3B. Do not provide a vendor’s feature list! Interfaces and Integration – The cloud solution needs to integrate with the backend. Provide a high level architecture and recommend the integration technologies e.g. APIs, WS, REST, BPMS with ESB, App Server, Portal etc. Make assumptions. It just needs to be credible. Feedback and Monitoring Loop – What are the success metrics, KPIs? Is there an ROI estimate? What feedback and monitoring is needed to ensure benefits realization? How will the solution evolve in the future?

Executive summary:

Salesforce.com is one of the high revenue CRM product in American cloud computing companies and never faced the GAAP profit rates since 1955. Business Process Management (BPM) software is difficult to evaluate and compare and the market appears as the surface in similar functionality. IT and business differing in needs and weighing factors but they can work together on the BPM tool to the complexity of the selections. Companies require the unsure best product needs. This section includes the introduction to the salesforce.com, BPMN2.0 and detailed instruction of the blue works live software.

Description of Salesforce.com

Salesforce is a primary enterprise which is on Salesfoce1 platform that provides the companies an interface for task management and case management. These are the systems to route or escalate the important events automatically. The salesforce portal site offers customers the ability to notice the own cases and that also includes the social networking plug in to enable company’s conversations feature among the customers and it provides services and analytical tools to access customer’s contracts or entitlements that includes google search, email alerts, etc. Salesforce CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can be classified as service cloud, data cloud, marketing cloud, analytics cloud, IOT, community cloud. In addition to the cloud differentiation and web interfaces salesforce also offers integration with other systems through SOAP/REST web service API. Salesforce offers the customers to configure their own CRM’s which contains associated information along which the customers can add their user defined custom fields.

Technology can emerging as new everyday so as the business becoming more dependent on the new technologies to make the company renowned. The significant process that made the business better with the new technology involved by streamlining the sales technique and sales process. Thus, the new technology makes the organization strong and profit. The technologies revamping the industries on which the heavily affected part is the sales. Among which the cloud technology revamps the sales techniques which is thought unacceptable few decades ago.

According to December 2014, 42.3% of the world access the internet and the users of internet, 80% of them have smartphones. This assures the usage from few zettabytes to many zettabytes in the next six years which makes the digital universe. Many sales organizations are seize new technologies to improve the profit, productivity and competitive sales processes. Some are

1. Big Data: with the help of the big data analytics tools, the organizations manages prospecting and follows he critical steps involved in the sales process. The prospection, a finding and qualifying of potential customers with what they needs, is a time consuming and labor intensive process in all the traditional sales process. Currently with analytics and customer data models, organization can predict the leads among B2B or B2C generation efforts rather than identifying the potential customers and make them as clients. Analytics help the organizations to determine the targetable customer and to ways of using the profiles to identify the customs which buyers are to respond to different messages and their offers. The analytics tools helps to focus the efforts on sales and profitable activities and the customers which makes profitable organization.
2. Social Platforms: On which the statistics turns the peer recommendation and the reviews on the social networking as part of the product research. The average customer carries 10 times of the recommendations from salespeople. Most buyers have completed the sales process without seller interaction. Social media feedback sites helps the business organizations to shape the messages and tactics helps the success continues in future as well. Social platforms provides the studies that suggests 78% of the sales people to utilize the media to out sell the products which their peers cant.
3. Automate the Sales Force systems: Sales Force Automation (SFA) solutions provide tasks automations and frees the sales employees to focus only on the activities to make high revenue and more sales. It also allows managers to maintain the teams up to date on the new technology and the services so as to automate the systems. Managers will have access to activities or employees or opportunities to determine the good process and should know about the customer complaints and other data to determine the sales process successful one.
4. Cloud-based CRM: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems is a key tool introduced to give organizations a wide view of the customer relationship by integrating sales and customer support. Once if the CRM is placed successfully, it represents the sales employees and allows them to access fast and accurate customer activities on what are they doing and what will dawn out from their activities. Updated information and the contacting customers makes a sales team to achieve agility and greater productivity. Thus the organizations takes advantages on software package to integrate the automated systems and CRM to bring the cost effective solutions.
5. Mobile technology: As in the digitalized world the evolution of mobile represents the good opportunities to gain productivity and growth in the mobile device. Mobile technology with Cloud based platforms and employees made easy and immediate access to the customers and their ideas. It gives advantage to the sales people increasing the effectiveness of the sales that results in higher closure rates and better CRMs. Mobile access makes the documentation on all the process to readily access to the process flow.
6. Implementing Own Device: In order to capitalize the mobile technology initiatives, organizations introduces their own devices in the sales force. With the help of the personal devices, a team member easily access the resources the needs to collaborate with peers and customers across the locations. The own devices brings sales trainings, strategy updates and support to team members that results in empowered sales force. Some organizations implements the device policies to increase the employees’ productivity 20% higher than the normal sales process. Organizations enforces and institutes the devices security policies to use their personal devise for compromise cooperate process and customer data reorganizations.

Figure 1: Salesforce.com

A Growing Divide

New technologies improves the sales world which makes the organizations to use powerful tools and technologies as described above to streamline the process of sales that makes profitability and competitive advantages. Choosing the outdated technology leads to organization not to exist. The usage of same technology embraces the sales team to help driving the business through the customers. Customers eagerly purchases the newly technology advantages. This shows the new technology inventions increased the sales.

To understand the tradeoff of the change request, configuration or development initiative, Organizations access the complex metrics across the companies. Using the key metrics from the salesforce organization and the way of comparing the salesforce environment provides the guidance and context n future directions. The salesforce cloud metrics helps to identify the critical factors of complexity and management cost. The leverages of the experience on terms of the salesforce projects provides the way to focus on the impacts on the environment. Cloud metrics provides the complexity measure to educate the stakeholders and determine the fundable platforms investments to ensure the cost effectiveness and pace with challenges.

Pain points

Pain points makes the entrepreneurs may create opportunities but there will be the pain points where everyone creates the solution. There are seven challenges to be managed to effectively use the Customer relationship models. They are

1. Teams source of truth.

Some of the customer contacts can be store in the spreadsheet or documented while some of the reluctant customer contacts will not be stored in the spreadsheet due to priority of the relationship it will be just like post it contacts and with which some of the team members will have no visibility to such customers. Thus the customer details must be saved in a customized data sheet mandatorily to not to limit the view of the customer connecting to the business and the people.

2. Activities visibility.

The activities of the employees plays a vital role in visibility of the customer. Thus the lacks in visibility on what the employees are doing and the tracking disability are taken into account. Current opportunities and process needs to be tracked among the sales team to provide more visibility among the team and which reflects the potential ability of the competitive companies and he customers.

3. Report and analysis considerations.

For all the process in this ideal world needs the report to notify the process flow and the techniques. The sales team also needs the reports on the monthly or yearly basis so as to showcase the sales process level and performances. But the report generation on this fast moving technological world modifies the interest among the sales team since mean time some other implementation can be made.

4. Prevention of Data loss.

The tracking of each and every process and the schedule of it is hard to maintain. If some of te employee misses the point the entire customer prospectus remains changed. The sales team will not always share the notes and follow ups and thus leads to the data loss. If some employee leaves the company, the adequate information of the sales might be lost.

5. Communication gaps.

There comes the situation of the sales representative is out of office and the meeting prospectus might miss some new information. The problem occurs when all new data has to be overridden with the exiting data and files on the computer and sometimes the handwritten copy is preferred in the sales process. Thus lead to the slow process and which is not easy to store the information in the database to share it to entire team.

6. Customer prioritization.

The sales process should not be based on the value of the business. But, the same type of the offers and messaged can be send to the customers in varying stages of the process and in different industries. The appropriate customer relationship system help in identifying the patterns to the business and groups them accordingly so that refining he efforts to be an easy task.

7. Plan according to the growth.

The business growth might be increasing randomly across years and the process may change accordingly. The scalability of the process might vary accordingly and there should be confidence to keep the productivity in the increasing scale and to grow.

There might be some other pain points also apply in the different sales teams and would be addressed. The contact manager solutions or edition changes represents the pain point considerations. CRM system provide the visibility of all the activities of the sales team and prepares the reports to maintain the internal progress. It opens the collaboration transparently among teams which leads to the successful business.

New Salesforce design:

Lightning Experience is Salesforce’s new product designed to recognize the world rather than consumer companies’ information. The new desktop user interface determines the good design work done. In order to build this, the living design system is considered and the salesforce team determines the collection of the design pattern and components for this UI which is open source. The ever improving process of the salesforce team includes the following design challenges.

1. Frame the work

The intension of the redesign of the desktop experience bring out the goal to a meaningful broad. But the goal is simple in the terms of the salesforce process. The discussion on how to bring up the good design and UI looks in new and modern would not be enough. The common understandings results the outcome in the desired way of new design, customers and the business improvements.

2. Principle agreements.

Salesforce has four design principles which are efficiency, clarity, beauty and consistency. This principles helps prioritizing and making tough calls, saves collection of deliberation. Based on the consistency the decision is made.

3. Communication Investments.

The key challenge for any complex and large project is the proper communication which is the root of all the problems during the process. The tools and assets makes easy communication within the team. The team needs to keep in mind the end goal to make the process efficiently. The salesforce Lightening system provides the way of making the correct process in easy way. The process is through the codes which are flexible to evolve to the needs immediately. A natural distance among the team create the collaboration zealot and settle down the misunderstandings in real time. Leaders are considered to be a repeaters who just repeats the message to bring out the end goal successfully.

4. Decision debt Elimination

The above key challenges are to be faced on all the situations among the sales team since which leads to the debt on any chaos. Most of the decisions and the delaying in executing them will create more expensive process. The wrong decisions can be treated when in compared to the delayed decisions.

BPMN as a To Be Process:

IBM Business Process Management (IBM BPM) uses the Blue works live to capture the business process models. This involves the capturing the current state through discovery map and analyzing the process information and designing the future process implementation. The blue works live generates the process milestones and activities in the tabular form. The discovery map have the discovery sessions with the SME (Subject matter Experts) and owners. The boundary of the process and process discovery information can be focused with the help of the start and end points of the process. Identifying the milestone and defining activities provides the analysis and details relevant. The discovery map is drafted version of the knowledge transfer from SME’s.

Traditionally the Business Process Management (BPM) tools focus on either IT Professional or the process that could be a responsible automation work or the process analyst of six sigma to take organization to next phase. Realization of the scalable model determines the undergoing significance and continuous change for the tools requirements so as to easily start the specialized skills, but it is sufficient enough to render the insights and roadmap on transformations as fast as it is possible. For the best industry template and fingertips of the users, Blue works live software provides the return for the time invested for the business users to do the process.

Figure: Blueworks live Software

Most of the cases sales team uses the IBM BPM center to place and interact with the Business Process Modeling Notation and BPEL process to create the development tools. Process server processes the work item instances where the Business process managers executes the runtime environment. Once when the process is initiated the two different process is initiated. IBM business process managers is not with the version 2.0 but the end users access the IBM BPM to interact with every instances of the work item.

IBM’s blue works live tool does not provide the user interface design tool but IBM BPM process manager provides the people to build the user interface and which is a very simple tool. Thus the IBM process manager requires the technical expertise. Thus many forms can be created by the developers with rich user interfaces.

The reason for the success of the Blue works live software is that every company needs to make clear note on the process and document every process on it .the process improvement creates the visibility and trains the employees accordingly and also prepares the process documentation. But the documentation of the process is sometimes creates the challenges since simple structures documents can be prepared by some people and blue works live software changes the documenting challenges to the just outlining in power point or word. This software brings the simple method to process the documentation and creating the discovery map.

Business Process Management Notation 2.0 :

The task information and the flow instances runs exports can be done in the form of dpcumentation or as an external analysis. Blue works live software does a process called Blueprint process to explain the business process flows which can be documented and formalized as a universal nottion called Business Process Modeling Notation version 2.0. It can be exported as IBM solution formats.

Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) 2.0 process through the common repository. The artifacts of the BPMN 2.0 process developed by the Business Analysts, edits the business rules and transforms the complex data into a particular format.

When the customer do the Blue printing process then customer needs to describe the milestones and the activities of the milestones. Activity contains the properties list how a process should flow and the user specifies the upper limit of the data.

Thus the BlueWorks Live offers an easier way to analyze the content and fast decisions. If all the activities are defined then the next stage of creating the process diagram can be done with the help of BPMN 201 notations. The activities generated can be updated and upgraded for specific types of informations such as decision making branches to describe the completer process.

The process diagram can be exported a various formats available. Process diagram can be downloaded with the help of Websphere lombrdi edition with l the information relating to activities and run the process flows in the appropriate way.

BPMN 2 Activities are updated in the following ways: Task types markers, new business task rules, Multi-Instance markers changes, New Global Tasks, New Call Activities and New Event Sub-Processes.

Figure: BPMN2.0 notations

The following are the steps in the Blue works live software for creating the Blueprint the process.

In the administrator tool, select the space IBM Workshop.

Notice the button “Blueprint process” in the user role. The user role would be invaded as contributor and which will not allow the creation of blueprint process.

In the administrator profile, upgrade the account to editor so as to select the customer specific fields under user management section. But notice that under the user management space and check the blueprint process in the line.

If the refresh of the user view happens, click on the Blueprint the process button.

A popup appears to fill the required details and once the fields are files click on the create button.

Look into the View list which have choice of the discovery map, Process diagram and documentation view. Thus the next stage of Process diagram can be set.

Process diagram

First process diagram, blue works live provides the warnings that some activities cannot be reflected back to roadmap. It is accurate that the diagram and the documentation should be 100% synced to the map.

Note that when participants are added the horizontal swim lane would be updated automatically. The milestone organizes the diagrams vertically with the options of “Open a request”, “ Close the request”, and “Research”.

The process diagram makes the decision added in this process. The path can be extended with the help of the quick loopback to another activity. Click the (+) symbol and select the activities.

Sub processes and the process links can be included.

The process can be exported as a pdf files which can be found in view link.

This enables the process playback option and also provides the recording the process.

Documentation Process:

Open the documentation view in the edit mode and click on the documentation tab.

Identify the structure which determines the same flow as the discovery map organization.

Editing on the documentation option is also available.

Show all details tab describes the complete activity flow of the process which can also be hidden.

The documentation can be made as Microsoft powerpoint or Microsoft office word documents.

In the BPMN 2.0, the process diagram is generated directly from the Discovery Map according to the BPMN 2.0 standards. The user needs must know the model to process correctly.

Activities: a logical and discrete work unit for humans and systems.

Sequential flow lines: Manages the sequences of the activities with in the process.

Pool: includes the swimlanes and milestones to represent the organization process.

Swimlanes: containers for the events and activities.

Milestones: Vertical lanes for the process diagram views to represent the major milestone of the phases.

Events: represents the unique situations of the activities. Some of the events are message event, timer event, error event etc.

Comments summary:

IBM Blue works live product hosts the high level gathering of requirements. It results in people are limited to create the process model description. Business people have knowledge and comfortable in the BPMN artifacts and blue works live is not BPMN 2.0 complaint and it contains the sets of process modeling BA to use BPM projects. Identifying the ways to improve the process and brainstorm to consult the SME’s. Root cause analysis and some applications leads to obvious problems which describes the Lean and recognizing the not understandable RCA and making final recommendations tends to six sigma.

This can include the reminder on the objectives agreed upon the context for the presentations and current state findings provides the findings representation of the documentation and analyze phase information. This focus the presentation on recommendations and identify he requirement approval implementations. It has target maturity level to indicate the target state through process maturity assessment. This include the following the appropriate methodologies, establishing the measurement criteria and process use requirements. It should create the process verification and review plan along with the execution of the action plans and preparing the improvement plan initiates the process descriptive on the future recommendations.

Functionalities of Saas Solution:

Software as a Solution (Saas) is a solution for changing the business of all scale and industries uses the software. The functionalities include

Make leaders accountable – find a leader to consider the customers life cycle and establish the communication metrics with the customer that establish ownership of the metrics.

Create apps for customer comfortable – with the Saas model, the software is provided as web browser. Thus this develops the agility and personalize the applications.

Create a 24/7 demnd generation machine – vending machines places in step forward when compared to other tech improvements for marketing and advertising which establishes the database and provides the marketing efforts.

Sell the service but not the product – As a Saas provider is not to provide the product but the complete service of delivery, support and maintainence.

Make customers success – delivering the program to drive the customer success and measure the satisfication of the customer with the surveys and motivate the customer facing employees.

Developing the good financial process – the Saas companies must maintain the financial process differently.to manage the model, financial process to be set along with invoicing and collaboration.

Place in the mashup universe - Most of the opportunities enters into new and vertical markets which comes from relationships with other companies that offers Saas web services. As this solution use the web as a platform mash up of two or more application with unusual partnership is common.

Figure: Software as a Service.

Integration and interfaces:

Amazon web service has been integrated with the Cloud as Commvault software. It provides the data movement between the disk storage and amazon service s3 from the centralized console. This software provides the integration alert, reporting and verification of data while the amazon ensures the scalability, reliability and secure cloud storage. Later on replacement for S3, Amazon glacier is introduced which ensures the storage and accessibility to the data.

The integration technology must be simple to develop and it should be reusable on as a service in the convenient locations and complete. The only integration technology to address the challenges in a single platform is the WebSphere® Cast Iron Cloud integration. IBM provides the simple form of integration which is defined by number of attributes. Some companies uses the this integration to resolve the integration problems which can be

Comprehensive integration to support integration in a single integration platforms as with the Data Migration and process integration mashups. The data is migrated to populate the new application and provide the integrated between process and apps in single app UI. Management functions, Connectors, workflow, transformations, reporting in a form that can run anywhere needed and deployed from the cloud based applications.

Figure : Integrations of salesforce.com

Complete Deployment Flexibility: WebSphere Cast Iron integration is a product of three deployment options which can be deployed as an integration as a service in the cloud on the managed data center. Deployments can be moved from any locations and without requiring the redevelopment. Thus defines the design once and run anywhere premise. This application to run on the cloud infrastructure thus providing the virtualized or appliance version in the cloud based service. Other applications prefers the plug and play hardware appliances. This integration is a multipurpose with different versions of the integrations.

Trusted Partnerships: the product integration creation is a leader for Saas providers. IBM proves the healthy bond with google, Salesforce.com Net suite amazon etc. WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration enables bonders use visual interface to integrate the products. Managing the large number of integrations via console on non-specialist resources is through WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud integration.

Reusability: any part of the integration comes with large library template integrate process (TIP). These templates is based on the question and answer kind with the common integration scenario. The WebSphere cast iron cloud integration contains many TIPs and which can also be customized. Thus reducing the skill level needed for implementing the integrations and ensures the best practices.

The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) metrics can be indicated with the tracking of user login which helps to measure out the development of the framework. To come up with the results, involve three key stakeholders – executives, senior manager and manager who determine the KPIs on the basis of business benefits and process performance. The regular monitoring and definition of the KPIs plays vital role in incorporating the reports and dashboard feature in Salesforce CRM that ensures the data quality and consistent usage. The three key on choosing the user adoption metrics is usage, quality and business performance. The indicator of the success and measurement of the adoption to the technology can be defined with the login rates. Data quality is a very important metric for adoption. The protocol can be designed which ensures the customer fills the correct and accurate fields to create an integrity and reliable data. The business performance can be reflected with the business performance and compliance and also should ensure the users are not logged out without the knowledge of the business effectiveness.

Figure: ROI estimation

Feedback and monitoring:

The solution can be provided for the problems if the customer feedbacks every process. That may include talking to the customers in person, requiring the feedback when the customers churn for example through clipboards, change the company culture according to the customer feedback to as to hold on the best customers, can utilize the time tested tools so as to respond to customers quickly. Deploying the feedback portal makes out the best practice, following the practice hands the supports, that can lead to the in app feedback facility, it can be provided as expenses of the authenticity and observe the metrics and analytics relying on it.

Future enhancements:

As the decades passing on the salesforce showed the wider scope in developing the app from the big screen dependency that’s what the organization prefers. The updating technologies makes the innovation and service oriented scope on cloud CRM. The cloud CRM in salesforce widened the scope to an OSS platform and flexibility to improve the apps which on future scope requires the often release to top in the competitive market. Adoption of the integrations and business necessity with its flexibility will provide the full future scope on its growth.