The faster technologies evolve, the more overwhelmed we become with acronyms and technology terms we can hardly understand and pronounce, let alone remember, evaluate and properly implement. CEBP is one of those terms that has been around for a while and is frequently part of UC discussions, but is still poorly understood.

My colleagues Melanie Turek and Robert Arnold took it upon themselves to take a closer look at current vendor CEBP strategies and assess the market potential for CEBP solutions. They defined CEBP as follows:

“Communications Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) connect people, processes and information with the objective of reducing inefficiencies within business processes. CEBP solutions automate and optimize business processes by bridging the silos that exist between various business applications, and between communications and business software. These connections make information from multiple sources accessible, manageable and actionable to users within the context of workflows. By embedding communications capabilities into business applications that are part of the workflow, CEBP automates the connection of people to processes and information. The embedded communications functionality empowers users to take action and make decisions based on information provided within the context of their business processes.

Communications integrated into business applications is not synonymous with CEBP. The former usually consists of click-to-communicate or displaying user presence/ availability status within an application (i.e., word processing, email, CRM, ERP, etc). Such applications are commonly utilized in ad-hoc, unstructured ways that lack the ability to create contextual links between business processes and communications. CEBP is also not the same as BPA, BPO, BPM, self service or outbound messaging. Rather, any and all of these can be incorporated as part of overall CEBP solutions which enhance well-defined, structured workflows by providing users with contextual access to communications and information.”    

However, as Rob points out in his blog post, “Our most immediate discovery was that CEBP continues to be ill-defined. In a sense the concept and terminology has become like UC, a catch-all marketing term that has been overly used and in many cases abused. It has become watered down to the extent that it now describes a very loose and broad array of solutions and capabilities.”

The key value of CEBP is in accelerating decision making, reducing human latency, increasing worker accountability, and meeting compliance regulations. Therefore, it is considered most appropriate for people-centric, heavily regulated industries such as healthcare, financial services, government and education.

However, to make CEBP most effective for their organization, businesses need to gain good visibility into their business processes and identify process bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Unfortunately, many businesses skip this very important step in assessing and deploying advanced technologies. In a recent conversation with Bill Vass, former CIO of Sun Microsystems, he shared the following:

“You need to spend a bit of time on the business architecture. I can’t tell you how many companies don’t understand it. I go to so many places, where I hear “Our IT systems don’t do what we need them to do”; and every time it turns out they have not taken the time to understand their business architecture and what their business is. So you start with the business architecture, and then you do a system architecture, and then you do a technical architecture. What most businesses try to do is jump right into the technical architecture, because that’s what they understand and they leave their business hanging around, and they claim their systems don’t do what they need them to do, and they are totally mis-communicating.”

Rob and Melanie identified some additional factors deterring CEBP adoption, such as the lack of formalized CEBP offerings and programs from the leading communications and collaboration vendors, complex marketing messaging, lack of interoperability and pre-built product integrations, and the need for extensive (and expensive) professional services.

Yet, they recommend that businesses leverage CEBP to gain a competitive edge. There is a significant opportunity for a first-mover advantage with CEBP, since few companies are doing it. Further, businesses need to think strategically when developing communications and IT investment plans and seek to improve internal communications and collaboration, employee productivity and efficiency, and customer relationships through investments in advanced communications and collaboration technologies.

Vendors are engaged in a more fierce competition than ever before. Customers can exploit this opportunity to require exceptional value for their money. They need to explore various packages and bundles that can provide them with a broad set of features and capabilities at a very reasonable cost. A free trial, a small-scale pilot, etc. could be helpful in making a final decision.

Businesses should look to their current providers first when investigating CEBP. Through the existing relationship the incumbent is likely to have greater insight into the customers business culture, cycles, processes, budgets, staffing resources as well as longer term plans with respect to communications and IT tools. Such a foundation can allow solutions to be planned, implemented and expanded/modified over time at a measured pace. Additionally, customers should request references of other businesses that have implemented CEBP solutions to address similar pain points. Certifications and qualifications for providers should also be checked out.

For further insight into CEBP strategies and solutions offered by Avaya, BT Global Services, IBM, Interactive Intelligence, and NEC Corporation of America, please check out our recent study titled: “CEBP Takes Shape to Address an Emerging Opportunity.”