What Is CEBP?

Integrate Communications Applications to improve Productivity & Efficiency

CEBP (communication-enabled busi­ness process) aims to bring together email, phones, instant messaging, so­cial networking, and any other form of communication on the same network. In essence, CEBP integrates your com­munication infrastructure with your business processes in a way that im­proves efficiency and lessens the effects of human latency.

"CEBP reduces the delays inherent when a business problem or oppor­tunity requires human intervention," says Art Schoeller, principal analyst at Forrester Research (www.forrester.com). "When you connect the business event to a communications system that is aware of the availability of key people, you can improve the speed and ef­fectiveness of the processes related to that event."

CEBP (communication-enabled busi­ness process) aims to bring together email, phones, instant messaging, so­cial networking, and any other form of communication on the same network.

The possibilities and potential for CEBP are essentially endless, de­pending on how you decide to use it for your specific business purposes. But CEBP isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. In fact, there are multiple versions of the technology that have varying feature­sets and different use cases. So, before you decide to adopt a CEBP solution, make sure you choose the setup that is right for your company and employees.

Five levels of CEBP

According to Info Tech Research Group (www.infotech.com), a CEBP de­ployment has five distinct levels. The idea is to start at level one and move up to subsequent levels as your CEBP needs change. James McCloskey, se­nior research analyst with Info Tech, says the first level of CEBP only re­quires that companies have a con­verged network where IP telephony, QoS (quality of service), and maybe some video conferencing are on the same network. Many companies al­ready have this type of network in place. To reach the second level of CEBP, you simply enhance the toolset you already have in place by bringing in more applications and placing them on that same converged network. For instance, McCloskey says, you may add "desktop voice, instant messaging, video and Web conferencing, desktop chat, and other disparate pieces of IP communications technology that all ride on the same network."

The third level is where you'll begin to use these separate applications to­gether to speed up the communication process and improve overall produc­tivity, which is where UC (unified communications) come into play. The goal is to provide consistent presence information across multiple endpoints, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. "You get to this idea of unified interface where people are using these tools in a consistent way throughout the organization and they know they can rely on it," says McCloskey. You can check someone's status and feel confident knowing whether he is available.

It is at this third level that compa­nies will see improvements in busi­ness efficiency because "instead of picking up the phone and leaving messages, you're able to contact indi­viduals via their preferred method at a given moment," McCloskey says. He adds that this is also the level at which "most organizations can get a pretty significant benefit" from imple­menting CEBP; moving on to a higher level may not be necessary depending on your company needs.

CEBP Professional Services Opportunities

Level four introduces full integra­tion of UC toolsets into a company's "productivity applications, business apps, customer service, and contact center," says McCloskey. This is the stage where you can be working on a Word document or spreadsheet, realize you need clarification on a certain fact or figure, and then con­tact someone "immediately, without leaving Excel," he explains.

In a similar fashion, this level can improve a company's overall customer service. For instance, if a representative is on the phone with a customer, he can view his col­league's status regardless of where she is currently located or what device she is using. "If you look at enterprise content management sys­tems or process workflows, that's where being able to reach out and find the available subject matter ex­pert reduces the cycle time or lag associated with asynchronous com­munication," says McCloskey.

The fifth level is unique in that you are "fully optimizing some of your business workflows using commu­nication tools," says McCloskey. To explain further, he uses an example of a manufacturing company and its production floor. In the past companies had to create their own alert systems, but through the use of CEBP, they can now set up automatic alerts. The CEBP system can use the UC infrastructure to pinpoint the exact person to contact. At that point, McCloskey explains, you can set up a "dynamic collaboration space, so you can get people to join in and effectively collaborate on whatever the problem is."

Examples of potential CEBP use cases

As you determine which stage of CEBP is the best fit for your specific needs, you should consider potential use cases for CEBP in your organiza­tion. In addition to McCloskey's man ufacturing floor example, there are many other potential uses, as well. For instance, a popular fitness franchise with 370 clubs throughout the U.S. uses CEBP to locate managers when administrator-only changes need to be made at certain facilities, according to Bern Elliot, vice president and dis­tinguished analyst at Gartner (www.gartner.com). The application uses the activated GPS on a manager's phone to pinpoint his exact location and de­termine whether that individual is the best person to address the issue.

This franchise also uses CEBP to schedule replacements in case of trainer illness or unavailability. "This scheduling application notices that it's within a certain time of a class and a substitute is needed because someone has called in a cancellation or has gone online into the scheduling app and said they're not available," Elliot ex­plains. "The manger gets this pop up, which is an app executed within the program that gives him the order in which he should call [substitutes]. If he clicks on call and talks to them, he can conclude the call by saying they are available or unavailable as a sub­stitute, or he can call someone else."

In another instance, CEBP is as a system that "monitors the health of a fleet of power plants and can iden­tify a key problem at a particular plant that requires immediate at­tention." Schoeller explains that the system automatically searches through all available individuals "with the right skills and sets up a Web and audio conferencing session with them." Because problems at power plants can sometimes result in cata­strophic events, CEBP is absolutely essential to speeding up the problem­-solving process.

Cost vs. Benefit

Not all CEBP deployments are a fit for every company. One reason for this is due to the cost associated with the technology. "The key consider­ation for whether or not to move up to one of those higher levels of CEBP maturity is to determine if you have a true tangible return on that addi­tional investment," says McCloskey. "Typically, you're going to be talking about additional software licensing, software integration elements, and perhaps some custom development for your internal applications to be able to call out to these and use them effectively." As you can imagine, the cost of these individual elements can really start to add up.

 

To help companies efficiently incur the costs and not purchase more than they need, McCloskey recommends that they start slowly with CEBP, rather than jump in "whole hog with a full blown UC program licensed for all of your users." You should "get the basics, identify a very specific use case, work with each issue individ­ually, and then take a look at how you can repurpose those same invest­ments." If you can start by solving one pressing issue, then you may be able to use that initial investment to move CEBP into parts of your company you hadn't previously thought of.

Aiming for a natural user experience

Aside from integrating a company's communication and business pro­cess, one of the major goals of CEBP is to make the entire experience feel as natural and intuitive as possible. Eventually, Elliot says CEBP will be­come such a large part of doing busi­ness that it will feel completely natural. Companies will forget the ways of the past where applications were separate and contacting somebody meant di­aling a number and hoping they would pick up. In other words, CEBP can help companies reach efficiency goals they only previously dreamed of. And the great news is you probably already have a head start.