Personal History
Engagement Management
Most organizations considering BPM initiatives understand they'll need implementation help. They want consultants with deep expertise in the features and syntax of the selected software products. Usually, this expertise is found with the vendors themselves. However, the larger vendors have a universe of external consulting partners that possess similar expertise and often provide a particular vertical focus and lower rates. The missing piece, though, is often a skill set some call engagement management and others refer to as senior project management.
BPM implementations are large. They have many technology components, such as planning/budgeting systems, consolidation and reporting, dashboards, portals, no-code feature https://www.creatio.com/page/no-code and operational analytics, to name a few. All of these have to be architected and implemented. BPM often requires significant infrastructure work -- performance optimization for the network, security setups for hundreds if not thousands of users of the BPM system, data source identification, and data mapping and loading. The business issues are as large if not larger: What processes will we automate and in what order? What will we measure for each functional area? Where does the data come from and how are the key measures derived? What reports do we need and when do we need them? Who will have access to what data? Are we culturally ready for this? This all leads to multiple subprojects with their own project managers who come from the various business groups, IT, the vendor, and third-party consultants. Who will manage the project managers and coordinate the whole effort to come in on time, on budget, and on target with the original business requirements? Answer: the engagement manager.
Many companies try to fill the role of engagement manager internally, assigning it to a senior IT leader. This can be a mistake, as IT already has its hands full with the IT aspects of BPM and, quite frankly, a BPM initiative is bigger than just IT. Another choice is the project sponsor, usually someone senior in finance such as the CFO. That could work if the senior finance executive can dedicate significant time and effort to the day-to-day aspects of the implementation, which at most companies is unlikely. Quite often, when the need to fill this role externally is recognized, it's filled with a project manager from the implementation consulting company or the vendor. In that case the role just becomes an extension of -- and minor step-up from -- the implementation project itself. What's truly needed is a very senior, BPM-experienced manager who understands the needs of both business and IT and has no political ties in the client company or to any vendor. Then and only then will an organization have an engagement manager solely focused on guiding the overall BPM project to a successful conclusion.