Customer Reviews

Services Blueprint: Roadmap for Execution

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This was an interesting book to be sure. However, as I read the book, I felt like I'd read it before from the continued use of tired buzzwords such as "digitization." Enough on DIGITIZATION! I enjoyed the process templates provided by the authors, but they clearly do not understand some of the foundational technology concepts they mentioned, such as Web Services and Services Oriented Architectures (SOA). The Authors equated application servers with SOA, which is at best a massive oversimplication, and at worst, innacurate. This led me to believe that the authors are buzzword compliant but do not really understand Web Services. Also, reducing the entire world to PORTALS as the ultimate killer app is also a massive oversimplication as well. Portals are mainstream technology now and to be honest not that exciting anymore. Everyone offers it or uses it one way or another.

So, this book started out with a good premise but didn't deliver in the end. The process templates are good baselines for process understanding for those unfamiliar with business processes. This is a nice try by the authors, but I felt a little bit shortchanged by the book...

I bought this book after reading the Darwin Magazine excerpt and having the read the authors previous best seller "e-business: raodmap for sucess". This book is really very insightful about the changes talking place in the e-business and business process management space. The book is a very clear exposition about what is being termed BPMS.

Design of an process integration framework....The book is a must read if you are a consultant who is following some of the latest moves by SAP, Siebel, Oracle, Peoplesoft and others like Tibco. The book ties together rather nicely the business objectives with business processes and enterprise apps.

Design of self-service apps... The authors take an outside in (customer or employee) perspective to the design of business processes. The authors argue that customers interact with services rather than processes. For instance, you go to Amazon.com because they are the best at digitizing the book selling service and making it easy to use.

Design of business process management... The ability to translate services into underlying business processes is the critical aspect of next generation self-service applications. The authors systematically illustrate the different types of BPM platforms that are emerging in SCM, CRM, PLM and Spend Management.

In sum, this book is worth reading for consultants, MBA students and others interested in knowing where e-business is headed. The authors have done a fantastic job of synthesizing the fragmented bodies of information and presenting a framework that ties everything together.

This book is really about digitizing business processes. The book begins with an intriguing question: what makes some companies better at digitizing processes than others. The authors argue with various best-practice case studies that a digitization blueprint is a focal point (e.g., easy to do business with, every day low price) executed on service platforms.

According to the authors, Amazon.com is winning because it has a very sophisticated service platform capable of digitizing the complex order-to-fulfillment process. The authors in different middle chapters describe how the different enterprise applications (CRM, SCM, Financials) are migrating with the aid of Web Services to becoming the delivery platforms for digitized services. For example, SAP CRM 4.0 is really a multi-channel customer facing services platform.

The book ends with several chapters on how to construct a services blueprint. I really liked the chapter on how Six Sigma techniques can be used in improving portals and digital processes.

Highly recommend this book for professionals and consultants who are looking to make sense of the various buzzwords like Composite Applications, Business Process Management, and Service-Oriented Architectures like SAP's Netweaver and ESA. Technical people should avoid this book.

The authors have done a fantastic job of illustrating how to design and implement digital business processes in the post dot-com era. This is one of the first books that truly gets into the concept of multi-channel business process design.

The most useful part of this book was how it ties together the online digitial business strategy, composite business processes, and the emerging business process management platforms/systems areas. The book uses the concept of services to link the strategy side to the process side. This is emerging strategy being followed by SAP, Siebel, Peoplesoft, Oracle, IBM, HP and even Microsoft.

The other good aspect of this book are the variety of best-practice case studies that truly illustrate what business problems, web services and services oriented architecture is meant to support. The case studies on J.C. Penney, Eastman Chemical, Nike, Wal-Mart, GM, McDonalds, New York Times Digital, Georgia Pacific, IBM were quite interesting.

The audience for this book is defintely marketing, operations and IT managers who are trying to figure out what to do with their organization's different first generation portals. Most of the customer facing, employee facing and supplier facing portals built during the dot-com boom are out-dated and need to be completely overhauled. For those who are facing this problem, this book will be very useful.

Highly recommend this book. It is thought provoking and insightful.

We are migrating to a services economy from a predominantly manufacturing economy. The authors articulate very well how e-business technology is evolving into service platforms vis-a-vis portals to jumpstart this transition. Very soon, we will be in a world full of digital self-services (remember ATMs for banking and self-service gas pumps?) delivered to your mobile handhelds, desktops, etc. What more, these services will be tailored to the specific needs of individuals (not something you see in ATMs and gas pumps). Business folks out there looking to cut costs will definitely relate to that, as personalized self-services delivered via portals is it to cut costs dramatically. You might say "no, BPO is the answer for cost cutting." Just remember BPO at the end of the day is also a service provided by one party to/on behalf of another. How do you think those BPO services will be delivered, especially when the BPO provider is thousands of miles away across the globe? Take a wild guess ...

TWO THUMBS UP ... this book is both informative and fun to read ... kudos to the authors on a splendid job!

This book presents a solid foundation for what IBM is calling "Services Science" and SAP "Business Process Platforms."

The basic argument is that if you are thinking "outside-in" about creating a customer-centric business then you need to think about services. Customers buy services.

Making the linkage between services that customers (or employees) use and the business processes that companies actually automate using enterprise applications is the fundamental contribution of this book. The authors use numerous case studies to illustrate how services-centric business go about architecting their blueprints.

Highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in understand the architecture of a services driven business.

Despite contrived terminology, such as "digitization", this book truly lives up to its title because the authors provide both a blueprint for services in today's economy, and a roadmap for making it happen. The authors stay focused on business instead of technology. More importantly, they show how to shed outmoded thinking about business processes and supporting systems, and highlights how you should be viewing the marriage of services and processes to be successful.

The essence of this book is in the authors' equation, Services Blueprint = Focal Point + Services + Processes + Applications. The ten core focal points given in this book clarify one or more critical success factors to any business, and the clear advice for executing to achieve objectives associated with focal points is invaluable.

I like the way the authors distill a set of complex, interrelated elements into a coherent approach. For example, they breakdown service blueprints into types (three major ones); provide execution methods that aligned to organizational goals, and reinforce these using case studies from well known corporations. In addition, the discussions of processes, application integration, and how to tie everything together into a coherent view and execution strategy is among the most realistic and clearly articulated I've come across. I also like the way the authors support Six Sigma in the design and implementation of processes. If you are not familiar with Six Sigma, the clear and succinct treatment in the book will provide everything you need to know to understand its value. Of course, it will not teach the associated techniques to the point where you can effectively apply them.

Overall, this book is cuts to the key issues and challenges to align a business to today's economy. The approach is not only sensible and realistic, but the only one I've come across that 'gets it'.

this book give a specific and detailed method of planning and execution for those planning further automation. it gives examples and real world methods used by industry leaders. it is a must read for those not used to dealing with automation concepts. it also discusses failures and why they happen.
you customers will be satisfied by nothing but your best- so be prepared.