Let’s define what a case is first. According to Oracle, it’s “a collection of structured, semi-structured, un-structured processes, information and interactions used to make a business decision.” Success is heavily dependent on real-time decision making, so multiple knowledge workers will need visibility and support for collaboration.
Business Process Management (BPM) alone may not support the type of flexibility needed for cases—BPM is better suited for routine, predefined tasks. The creative thinking, judgment and leeway that knowledge workers need to reach an end goal can actually be stunted by traditional BPM. Adaptive Case Management (ACM) on the other hand, adheres to a “people first” philosophy for managing cases and complex processes. While process control comes first in BPM, human control comes first in ACM. It’s well suited for projects with many unknown variables, in which knowledge workers must rely heavily on documents and their judgment.
When faced with unstructured processes, ACM helps knowledge workers to adapt, use their judgment and expertise, and deal with stuff as it happens. In short, ACM is a great solution for extending BPM capabilities to support flexibility and user-driven case progression.
Read our recent newsletter article, The Case for Adaptive Case Management in a Knowledge Worker World, to learn more.
You can also visit Oracle’s website for three informative videos introducing ACM: Learn what ACM is and the types of processes most likely to benefit from it in an Overview of Adaptive Case Management. Anatomy of a Case Management Project shows how Oracle BPM supports knowledge workers dealing with unstructured processes, and Participating in a Case illustrates case participation.