Adopting enterprise decision management has risks and issues. For some decisions, the approach can be complex, requiring sophisticated analytics and technology. Although these techniques and technologies aren't new, they might well be new to an organization, and the processes and training that people in the organization need could be immature. Developing expertise in analytics, business rules management, and adaptive control takes time.
It's also true that organizations can overreact and apply enterprise decision management too quickly or without sensitivity in addressing cultural and labor issues. Enterprise decision management can result in a reduction in staff and often changes job descriptions, expectations, or definitions of success for workers. Underestimating these consequences can cause serious problems, especially in organizations that already have difficulties in these areas. In addition, a lack of focus on ROI can lead to unnecessary costs, and a focus on manually intensive or collaborative processes can result in unnecessary failures. Picking the right decisions is important, and applying enterprise decision management without enough thought about which decisions it's applied to can be a recipe for expensive and difficult implementations.
When applying enterprise decision management to customer decisions with the goal of improving customer interactions, you must also be aware that automating decisions can be another way to put a barrier between you and your customers. Too much customer relationship management (CRM) technology has been used this way in the past. Although enterprise decision management offers the potential to personalize interactions with your customers and make them more valuable, it could also be used to further reduce the human contact your customers get, and they might not appreciate that result. Be sure you're adding value for your customers, not just saving money.
Enterprise decision management is a good idea, but that doesn't mean it has no risks.