Smart Process Applications

The term “Smart Process App” (SPA) was coined by Forrester and describes software that is designed to support organization's process management efforts in a collaborative manner characterized by contextualization and intelligence. As the demand for business agility increases, SPAs are expected to change the way employees create, manage and interact.  Such applications are intended to the gap between the systems of records (e.g. SAP ERP) and the systems of engagement (e.g. Microsoft Office) by supporting both the structured and unstructured activities and information involved in a process. Specifically, Big Data Analytics is leveraged to integrate and analyze structured and unstructured information in a scalable and intelligent way.  

As part of this research project we will investigate SPA’s from a user needs, design alternatives as well as impact point of view.  First, we will systematically engage with users to understand user needs and document business scenarios for SPAs along different value streams. Second, we will suggest different design alternatives for SPA’s and evaluate their impact on an individual and organizational level within lab and field experiments. As one key practical result, we will deliver a methodology for SPA’s fast-track business case evaluation and implementation guidance for the different scenarios.

The project is co-funded by SAP SE and the corresponding development unit “Technology Integration & Orchestration” focusing on the development of SAP’s process foundation based on the HANA platform.