Business Reference Modeling: A New Rosetta Stone for Managers

by Ken Orr

Business reference models (BRMs) are becoming an important tool for large organizations to quickly analyze their major business processes and identify their strengths and weaknesses vis-à-vis industry best practices. This Executive Report by Ken Orr provides an overview of the various models by looking at the three major categories of BRMs: value-driven BRMs, industry-driven BRMs, and functional-driven BRMs. In particular, the author discusses the Supply-Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model in detail as one of the leading-edge models. The report also highlights examples from all of the other BRM categories and discusses future developments.