One on One with Jacob Ukelson of ActionBase

Jacob Ukelson is CTO of ActionBase [1], a company that provides a tool for creating processes on the fly. Ukelson has an extensive background in innovation having served as CTO and business development executive for IBM's (NYSE: IBM [2]) Global Technology Unit along with several other high-profile roles. I asked him about ActionBase and how it helps end users organize content and activities.

FierceContentManagement: Explain how ActionBase works, for our readers who might not be familiar with it?

Jacob Ukelson: ActionBase is focused on helping knowledge workers manage the ad-hoc, unstructured processes that they do every day--those processes which are usually done through email (e.g., Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT [3]) Outlook) and documents (e.g., Microsoft Office). ActionBase’s goal is to allow users to remain in their familiar environments while providing enough structure to help manage the process, but not so much as to strangle it. ActionBase is implemented as plugins in MS Outlook and MS Office and on a server that is either locally maintained or in the cloud. Users get an “ActionBox” in parallel to their normal inbox where they can initiate or participate in ActionMail-based processes--a type of business class email that is trackable and auditable that is shared by all participants in the process.

There is only one line item in the ActionBox for each process in which the user participates, with the line item changing as the state of the process changes (e.g., bold for new or modified, red for overdue). Participants can add attachments, delegate and initiate sub-processes just as they can using regular email, but now the exact status of the process is available at a glance.

ActionBase also links between documents that play an active role in the process and the process itself. ActionDocs allow users to take a standard document and use it to initiate and track the processes that are invoked as a result of that document. For example, the minutes of a board of directors meeting can generate any number of processes that are required as a result of board requests or decisions. Each of these processes initiate an ActionMail related to the board minutes and a summary report of the status of the process can be requested from within the document itself.

FCM: How does it differ from business process management software?

JU: BPM software focuses on structured processes--ones that can be modeled and used to guide the execution of the process. ActionBase focuses on unstructured, ad-hoc processes–-processes that change on a case-by-case basis. As a result, some industry analysts and standard bodies are starting to call this approach “adaptive case management.” These two approaches are complementary, since many processes have a structured part and an unstructured part. For example, every structured process has exceptions; in many cases, the mechanism used to handle those exceptions is email. By using ActionMail instead of regular email, the ad-hoc handling of exceptions can be made part of the processes, making sure that nothing gets lost or falls between the cracks, as can happen with email.

FCM: Is it a tool aimed at IT or something end users can tap into?

JU: It is mainly for end users (i.e., business users). It is based on the paradigms of email and documents, the tools most people use to manage these types of processes, so the learning curve is low. Setting up ActionBase requires tailoring the ActionMail (similar to email) templates to make them appropriate for the processes to be managed, tailoring the document templates as needed and setting up the appropriate reports. These templates are simple to set up and don’t need deep technical skills. IT is needed to install and manage the product, and we have found that once installed, IT uses ActionBase for its own internal unstructured processes and for managing complex projects.

FCM: Is this strictly a SharePoint add-on or is this something companies using other CMS tools can take advantage of?

JU: ActionBase can be (and is) used with any CMS. For example, instead of using attachments as part of ActionMail, users can provide links to any CMS. Also, ActionDocs can be stored in any CMS, enabling it to support active documents.

FCM: How does controlling processes help users more than, say, controlling pure content?

JU: You need both. Business processes provide the usage context for content. If all you control is content, you are missing half the story--how that content is used in a business context. Let’s take our earlier example of the minutes of a board of directors meeting; of course you need to manage access control, versioning, archiving and all the content-oriented activities around the document. But that document doesn’t stand alone; it is related to processes that are kicked off as a result, or to other documents that are related to those processes. So, only by managing both process and content can you get a handle on unstructured, ad-hoc processes, which make up the bulk of the work for today’s knowledge workers. Managing content, structured processes and unstructured processes will enable organizations to create a system-of-record of how work really gets done.