Case for Virtual Business Processes, The: Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiencies, and Focus on Your Core Business

Product Description

Reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and focus on your core business

• Leverage your technology infrastructure to save money and virtualize processes.
• Discover the principles behind BPV and the ways in which they can benefit your business.
• Benefit from incremental cost savings, maximizing your business' ROI.
• Learn from real-world case studies that illustrate best practices.
• Understand the solution-provider market, maximizing the impact of your investment.

The dot-com collapse generally discredited the idea of leveraging the Internet to build viable businesses. Many market pundits have decried the concept without examining the underlying dynamics associated with these companies' failures. The truth is, prior business models were built on a flawed business case, not bad technology. In fact, the dot-com bubble created a whole new class of automation that, when applied to conventional businesses, can dramatically improve time to market, competitive response, and customer interaction. This is not virtual business; this is business process virtualization (BPV), and enterprises that don't grasp and apply the principals of BPV will rapidly be rendered obsolete by those that do, being quickly outmaneuvered and displaced in the market.

BPV is the application of networked, intelligent IT infrastructure to enhance skilled personnel, processes, and assets, which enables companies to improve efficiencies, increase competitive advantage, heighten brand awareness, reduce costs, and improve bottom line revenues. Unlike business process automation, BPV focuses on new management approaches for personnel and technology, signaling a fundamental change in the way that we think about business and its objectives.

While reading The Case for Virtual Business Processes, you will understand why BPV is critical to the long-term viability of your business, while learning how to leverage your intelligent networked infrastructure using leading-edge products and technologies from Cisco Systems.

This volume is in the Network Business Series offered by Cisco Press. Books in this series provide IT executives, decision makers, and networking professionals with pertinent information on today's most important technologies and business strategies.

Links

Read more articles by Martha Young:

The Rise of Intelligent Agents: Automated Conversion of Data to Information, Computerworld.com

Defining the Virtual Business and Its Benefits, Enterprise Networks and Servers
(This article also appeared on TMCnet.com.)

Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful BPV - A Means to Leapfrog the Competition, May 2, 2004 By  Vikas Arora (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews This review is from: The Case for Virtual Business Processes: Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiencies, and Focus on Your Core Business (Paperback) Enterprises that have effective business models are well positioned to execute in the current competitive business landscape. The bursting of the tech bubble to some extent illustrated the point that achieving effective ROI's from IT implementations are no longer driven by just the technology itself. Aligning people, process & technology with the strategic vision of the organization is imperative to succeed. The book contains a wealth of very timely advice needed by organizations on how technology can become an enabler to business process virtualization. This also falls in line with the current trend within enterprises in maximizing and generating additional value from existing IT investments. The case studies provided in the book provide a wealth of information on how you can achieve competitive edge by breaking the conventional barrier between technology and business. A must read for CXO's and IT/Business Strategy managers of startups, mid-size, large corporations &... Read more Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful Review of "The Case for Virtual Business Process", June 28, 2004 By  Robert - See all my reviews This review is from: The Case for Virtual Business Processes: Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiencies, and Focus on Your Core Business (Paperback) The Case for Virtual Business Processes - is an interesting review of the last "cycle" in the world of IT. While the authors make a case for "virtual business process" the text is at its most interesting as it paints a retrospective of what happened during the Dot Com era through interviews with companies that navigated the experience. The arguments are interesting, the case studies are enlightening, and the model is worthy of consideration. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment An intelligent read, April 28, 2004 By  Steve Jones (Lakewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews This review is from: The Case for Virtual Business Processes: Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiencies, and Focus on Your Core Business (Paperback) Mike Jude and Martha Young write an engaging read for those interested in improving business processes in today's complex business environment. If you are a student of business, this slips into your must read column. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  Was this review helpful to you?  Report abuse | Permalink  Comment

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Praise For Case for Virtual Business Processes, The: Reduce Costs, Improve Efficiencies, and Focus on Your Core Business

The Case for Virtual Business Processes

Reviewer Name: Vikas Arora, CTO Nakina System
Rating: ***** out of *****
Enterprises that have effective business models are well-positioned to execute in the current competitive business landscape. The bursting of the tech bubble to some extent illustrated the point that achieving effective ROIs from IT implementations are no longer driven by just the technology itself. Aligning people, process, and technology with the strategic vision of the organization is imperative to succeed. The book contains a wealth of very timely advice needed by organizations on how technology can become an enabler to business process virtualization. This also falls in line with the current trend within enterprises in maximizing and generating additional value from existing IT investments. The case studies provided in the book provide a wealth of information on how you can achieve competitive edge by breaking the conventional barrier between technology and business. A must read for CXOs and IT/Business Strategy managers of startups, mid-size, large corporations and service providers, to leapfrog the competition and attain unprecedented heights!

John Mihalec, VP, Analyst Relations for IBM
Rating: ***** out of *****
The Case for Virtual Business Processes demonstrates why focusing on technology only will not get today's enterprises where they need to go. To build a truly "on demand" business, you need to integrate business processes in a way that leverages the virtualization, automation and standardization trends in the enabling technology. And this book lays out specific recommendations and examples for how to do that with security and confidence. Bravo.

George Nettles, Denver (CO) Cisco User Group Leader
Rating: ***** out of *****
This new book from Cisco Press, The Case For Virtual Business Processes, may be the sleeper of the year. The authors, Martha Young and Michael Jude, have put a new slant on what happened to the dot-com/dot-bomb era, and how the promise of the dot com era is rapidly rushing down upon us. Simply put, and no surprise now, the dot-com era came to its end because of ludicrous and unsustainable business models. In 2004, we are embarking on a different set of requirements: Profit and Profit. This is most obviously manifested in outsourcing, as corporations have their backs to the wall to lower expenses, ushering the virtual office and other virtual business practices in. It is happening everywhere, in all fields. I left the networking world 18 months ago to go into real estate and have transformed my practice into a virtual office/virtual business. For example, I will soon use an electronic settlement room to post all documents for a transaction on the web for $4.95, rather than pay a transaction coordinator $200.00. Electronic signatures, written on a tablet plugged in to my laptop, can be faxed or emailed electronically, in addition to the normal use of electronic signatures. This quote from page 16 of their book sums it all up perfectly: “This is a wake-up call to all businesses. Profound things are happening; the paradigm for business has shifted. Those who recognize the signs and adopt the new paradigm early will have significant opportunities and competitive advantages. Those who wait may have no opportunity at all. BPV has the potential to accelerate business so extensively that enterprises adopting it will become much more agile and nimble. By the time nonenabled companies recognize the threat, the BPV-enabled firms will be in market-dominating position” Get this book now and know where business is going. For the last 4 months I have been pushing BPV deployment hard in every area of my business. The results already are impressive, as my real estate business has really taken off!

Jim Palmer, Senior Manager, Corporate Planning, Fortune 250 company
Rating: **** out of *****
This book addresses many of the major steps that today's corporations need to have squarely on their radar screen. If your IT and executive management have not acted on, or at least seriously investigated, many of the issues discussed in this book, you are certainly still living in the 20th century. And the 20th century is no place for today's corporation to be living. I, personally, am lucky enough to be working for a company that has addressed a little more than half of the topics the authors discuss. The challenge we face is getting our top executives to look at the other half. Half a loaf might sustain us but we can only step beyond being "average" when we go for the entire loaf.

Index

Download - 100 KB -- Index

Table of Contents

Foreword.


Introduction.


1. The Role of Business Process Virtualization in Your Business.

Downloadable Sample Chapter

Download - 2.07 MB -- Chapter 1: The Role of Business Process Virtualization in Your Business