Access to any Bank's ATM is free now.

When I heard of this news,

I thought that any bank, which operates a large number of ATMs are in for a loss. Any new bank can make use of the existing ATMs, they do not have to operate their own ATMs. So they gain a lot. So was my thinking.

Today I asked the person in a bank, with whom I am working. I asked him the same questions. He said, when you withdraw money from another bank's ATM, your bank has to give a transaction fee to the other bank. Previously they were taking it from you and giving it to the other bank.

Ex. I have axis bank ATM card, if I am withdrawing from SBI ATM, then axis bank has to pay SBI. Before April 1st, axis bank will take the money from me and pay SBI. In that case, axis bank did not have an incentive to operate a large number of ATMs. Because the customer is paying for the access to other bank's ATMs.

After April 1st, axis bank still have to pay SBI. But in this case, the customer will not be paying this. Axis bank will be paying this. So now they have to operate a large number of ATMs, or pay for all the transactions that we do in other bank's ATM.

Summary is, I thought the April 1st rule benefits bank with fewer ATMs, but in fact they benefit the bank with more ATMs.

That's how things can be strangely different from what we think, when we don't know how things work :)

Windows Internet Explorer 8: Home page

Windows Internet Explorer 8: Home page

Seems to be more of the same. Should they have called IE7+ or IE7 Service pack?

Inside Architecture : Why Automated BPM will never live up to its hype

Inside Architecture : Why Automated BPM will never live up to its hype

Where would we be with out such enlightenment?

BPMS Watch » IBM Announces a BPM Suite

BPMS Watch » IBM Announces a BPM Suite

Should be interesting to watch how IBM integrates their stack of products, in a way that makes sense to business users without making them scared of the BPM

SAP & Business Objects

With SAP acquiring Business objects and Oracle already purchased Hyperion. It is becoming evident that these "would be" BPM vendors need the BI to be an integral part of the BPM space.

We all know that the cycle of of BPM needs analytics. BAM will be helpful in the analyzing the real time events and actions taken, but still a large part of historical & real time data analysis lies with in the purview of the BI tools.

Or are these guys leading us to a corollary of sorts here?
ERP = open data but locked process.
BPM = open processes but locked data.

Oxymoron

Inside Architecture : Asking IT to perform Business Process Management...

Nick Malik defines oxymoron - Asking IT to perform Business Process Management...

Automate or Improve?

All organizations have business processes. A business process is a sequence of steps, to get a desired output. Now when we say sequence of steps, it’s not blindly one step after another. The business process needs some decision making.

Then the business processes are not like the Ten Commandments. They change very often. The things that can affect a business process are also very varied, from a genius physicist to a dumb politician, from inflation to deflation, from market demand to market surplus etc.

Process Automation - ERP

We know that the ERP solves lot many intra organization collaboration needs. The ERP had industry best practices. It automated the business processes. Then why do we still need BPM?

The butterfly effect

Because the ERP forgot about the butterfly effect. When an organization automated the business processes, they created a ripple in the process; they uncovered potential areas for improvement. These improvements in other areas, in turn created their own ripples.

These ripples, going back and forth, needed not only process automation but also process improvisation.

Now there are two groups, which improvise a lot. One is military, the other is business. Why, again, because of the cut throat competition.

In case of the former, it is literally cut throat competition.

When it comes to improvising, the businesses were constrained by the ERP.

Improvise = Configure?

The ERPs tried to correct this, by including lot of configurations. Basically they tried to define a business by a fixed set of parameters (200 - 2000 such parameters??).

But is it really possible? The business processes are like finger prints of an organization. They are unique for every organization. Every organization has its own challenges and opportunities. Even the opportunities and challenges change with time. And trying to map these varied processes to a fixed set of parameters, is like driving a F1 in a bed room.

It is making the lives of the CIOs and business heads difficult. Because the space, they have to maneuver around, is limited to the set of parameters defined by the ERP.

So what has changed now?

Now we understand this. With the BPM, now we give the businesses the race car and also the freedom to define the road, with their own bends and straight lines.