
Ep. 86: "The Reality of Research Processes: Why Email and Excel Are the True System of Record"
In this live episode from the All About Process Management Conference in Stuttgart, Caspar and Russell welcome Sabine Kaul, Head of Integrated Process and Application Management at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). Sabina shares her journey from administrative coordinator to leading process transformation across 3,500 employees at 20+ sites. She reveals the fundamental reality: 70-80% of critical work communication happens through email and attachments, not formal systems, because people choose the easiest tool available for getting things done. The hosts explore whether AI could mine email communications to extract process patterns that traditional process mining cannot capture—the coordination, decisions, and knowledge transfer happening outside formal systems. While GDPR constraints complicate this, the conversation highlights that digitalization's real challenge isn't technology but usability: when official tools aren't easy enough, people revert to email and spreadsheets as workarounds. Sabine shares DKFZ's innovative process landscape approach: an onboarding portal intentionally removing department names to force cross-functional thinking. HR, for example, appears across management, core scientific (PhD development), and support processes—revealing true organizational interdependencies. The landscape's greatest value is change management, creating awareness that processes exist whether documented or not. 5 Key Takeaways: Email and spreadsheets dominate because people inherently choose the easiest tool available, making usability the critical factor in technology adoption. Process management in complex research organizations requires enterprise-wide transformation, not isolated departmental improvements. Process landscapes serve primarily as change management and onboarding tools, creating organizational awareness rather than just documentation. Effective landscapes remove department names to reveal cross-functional processes and true organizational interdependencies. AI could unlock valuable insights from email communications capturing coordination and decisions outside formal systems, if GDPR constraints were resolved. If you have suggestions or questions, please reach out to us via questions@bpm360podcast.com If you enjoy our content, please like, rate, subscribe… we do appreciate that…

