ACM? Adaptive Case Management

There's a new Acronym roaming around in the content managment and process management space: ACM.
Adaptive Case Management. Does it bring anything new, or is it just new marketing hype?
Well I think it has enough potential to merrit a post, so I'll tell you more about it.

For years there has been a huge gap between structured and unstructured processes. Structured processes have been automated and optimized using workflow and Business Process Management solutions. Unstructured processes have mostly been more difficult to capture. Knowledge Management implementations just present some documents or work items and let the user sort out what he needs to do to get his job done.
Though Knowledge Management tools help a knowledge worker, they are either too free form, or too complex to be called efficient. What would be usefull is a tool that guides the user, without forcing him into a strict process. A tool that provides hints, tips and information relevant to the activity the user is performing, so the user can make quick and high quality decisions.

Lately the Case Management paradigm was introduced to combine some BPM and KM functionality. In Case Management a folder with case related information is routed through a mostly structured business process. Role based views, task lists and searches seek to provide the user with context information.
It works pretty well, but everything is pre-configured by product specialists, so it is still mostly suited for structured processes.

Along comes Adaptive Case Management. ACM will be to unstructured processes what CM is to structured one's. ACM will enhance KM or ECM solutions. Where CM focuses on the case, ACM will focus on the person and the job he is trying to perform. An ACM system will offer a user tasks to perform and suggest next steps. For a task it will show relavant context data to help the user decide.
Most innovative feature: an ACM system will adapt as you go. The list of next steps will be shown with the most popular choices first. When you select the 'call customer rep' activity, the system knows which customer you're working on and will show a list of customer reps for that customer, with the one you called most recently on top. If you're having trouble deciding what to do, the system will show a list of peers who have worked on similar cases.
ACM will be personalized. The user can decide how he wants his user interface organized. He can move, resized and close widgets and open new one's.

All this is just a promise at the moment. Software vendors are just getting to grips with the new paradigm at the moment. I can't wait for the first products to show up though. ACM sounds like a real step forward and I'd love the opportunity to put it to the test.

ACM: business processes are personal again :)

Some interesting references:
CMS wire on ACM: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/what-is-adaptive-case-management-008277.php
Max Pucher of ISIS on ACM: http://isismjpucher.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/adaptive-case-management/