Ascentn Expands to Romania

According to this post on eBizQ Ascentn, which is a provider of .NET-based Business Process Management System (BPMS) solutions, has announced that its further expansion by signing a partnership for the Romania-region. Read the full post here.

BPM Solutions from IBM

Here’s an interesting clip I came across on YouTube. This clip, provided by IBM, provides an overview of a business process management solution based on service oriented architecture that can provide the flexibility your company needs to innovate and win in your marketplace. The video is 5 minutes long, so take a couple of moments to view it. Enjoy!

Colosa Launches Business Process Library

This post on BPM Architect highlights Colosa’s latest launch of a new library of business process templates called ProcessMaker Library. Colosa is a leader of open source business process software, and now it will be able to simplify business process for managers to increase the efficiency and structure of their business.

New templates will be added every month so the library will have a range of business process templates. Patricia Cabero, ProcessMaker Community Lead, mentions:

"ProcessMaker Library responds to a community desire to share workflow designs. This innovative resource will offer increased utility to ProcessMaker users and grow the community network in new and interesting ways. The Library is in Beta version, and new templates and features are coming soon."

The free software can be downloaded here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/processmaker

Enabling Enterprise Business Process Management

Researching the web I came across the white paper “Enabling Enterprise Business Process Management” written by Robert Shields, who is the director of product marketing at Telelogic.

Here’s a brief description of this 16-page white paper:

The premise of this paper is that enterprise process modeling, analysis, architecture and implementation are at the core of business process management and optimization. Topics covered include process modeling collaboration considerations, process architectures versus enterprise architectures and the requirements for linkages between the two and process implementation issues.

Take some time to read it as Robert goes over several Issues and Challenges for Coordinating and Managing BPM Initiatives. View the white paper here.

The Difference between BPO and BPM

I came across this post on BPM in Action in which Dennis Byron reminds us not to confuse BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) with BPM (Business Process Management).

Business processes that do not provide any particular competitive advantage are good candidates for BPO. Here are some processes that Dennis mentions are good candidates for BPO: payroll processing, benefits administration in highly regulated jurisdictions, purchasing office supplies, shipping small packages, demand deposit accounting in banks, anything that follows an ACORD form in insurance/assurance, and scheduling worker hours in any kind of retail operation. Any processes that do provide competitive advantage is a good candidate for in-house responsibility.

So according to Dennis, BPM is the best way to automate business processes whether it be outsourced or retained within the enterprise.

Pegasystems Launches an Industry-First BPM Platform-as-a-Service

BPM Architect reports that that Pegasystems, a leader in business process management software, has released PaaS, which will give enterprises the benefits of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), but without the risks and limitations that come along with traditional Saas technology.

Unlike SaaS, corporate organizations can now take advantage of the same technologies while still maintaining the same shared infrastructure. Daryl Plummer, Managing VP at Gartner mentions:

“We believe that there are more immediate and practical uses of cloud-enabled technologies than hosted SaaS, and using them to encourage BPM adoption and re-use within an extended enterprise makes sense. Large organizations host many different communities that need their own specialized processes to evolve, and they are not likely to entrust change-sensitive mission critical functions to a commoditized SaaS offering more appropriate for the SMB market.”

More information about the PaaS offering can be found on the Pegasystems PaaS page.

Savvion Releases New Order Management Solution

According to this article in MarketWatch today, Savvion, a business process management solution provider has released Savvion Communications Order Management Solution, which is a BPM system for communications industry service provisioning and customer order fulfillment.

Sanjay Kumar, Vice President of Communications and Media Solutions at Savvion mentions:

"Companies providing cable, telecom, cellular, content or other communication services must deliver seamless service to customers while keeping costs down. With our new Savvion COMS 7.0, we are the first in the industry with a solution that helps them meet those goals immediately."

The solution will help both managers and workers better manage order management activities that are needed in order to fulfill customers’ service requests. COMS 7.0 integrates easily with existing CRM systems and order entry systems.

MEGA System Blueprint Unites Application Design with Business Processes

MarketWatch recently reported that MEGA, a pioneer in EA technology and business process solutions has introduced MEGA System Blueprint.

This software tool is the first application that links business requirements directly with application design for the development of modern IT systems. According to Lucio de Risi, president and CEO of MEGA, EA and Business Process tools lack this important direct link between application design and business requirements. MEGA Systems Blueprint breaks this by allowing application design metadata to be stored close to information on business processes.

Business Rules and Data Requirements: Pulling in Tandem for Success

Here’s another free webinar in the series of BPM webinars that we will produce in the upcoming weeks. Mary Gorman from EBG Consulting, Inc. will be presenting “Business Rules and Data Requirements: Pulling in Tandem for Success” on October 2^nd, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM EDT. Mention priority code G1M2020W2BL when you register. The description and a couple of the key takeaways are posted below:

Requirements expert and mentor Mary Gorman explores ways to effectively elicit and analyze business rules and data to help you deliver a balanced set of requirements.

Practitioners will learn the value of going beyond process requirements (often detailed in use cases or stories) to explore functional requirements specified in business rules and data requirements. Gain an appreciation of how analyzing data and rules, in tandem, will help provide a more complete and correct understanding of customer needs.

What you will learn by attending:

• How process requirements trace to data and business rules
• Appropriate timing for modeling data and business rules
• What skills are needed to model data and business rules
• The risks of single-dimension requirements

Make sure to forward this link on to any colleagues and friends who will benefit from this information. Register for the free webinar by clicking on this register link:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/561652152

Business Process Management Solutions for the Apple iPhone

MarketWatch reports in this article that Autonomy Corporation’s business process management solutions will provide support for corporate users of the Apple iPhone. The iPhone will be able to collect and automate information related to business processes through HTML, PDF, and paper-based forms and documents.

There is seamless integration with the iPhone and the Autonomy Business Process Solution. It provides many capabilities like approval workflow, information collection, business activity monitoring, and collaboration to the enterprise. IT professionals can also be ensured of seamless and rapid integration with their existing infrastructure.

Mark Seamans, CEO of Autonomy Cardiff mentions:

"Autonomy's support of the Apple iPhone brings the ability to initiate, route, approve, track and even digitally sign key business processes using an intuitive iPhone-based interface. This enables field and mobile-based employees and users to effectively participate in business processes as though they were in their office environment."

Managing Your Business

This afternoon I came across this post ‘Manage Your Business in 4 Easy Steps’ from Jeremiah Whitehead on GK Business. He details four steps business should take in order to ensure that their business will not fail. Here’s a brief recap of what he proposes.

1. People – Your company’s first concern should be to keep employees happy. By creating an environment where people know exactly what to do, you will ensure that the quality of the product/service does not suffer.
2. Applications - Using good business process management software can provide structure, control, and an easier way for people to manage conflicts. Applications that employers use on a daily basis can be controlled and monitored through BPM software.
3. Databases – Databases can wreak havoc within the organization. Make sure that your BPM software allows for the programmability in multiple languages to avoid this problem.
4. Quality Control – With solid tools and BPM software in your company you can rest assured that the quality of work will be high.

What steps has your business taken to create a more efficient and effective workplace?

Top 10 Open Source Rules Engines

This recent post on the Business Review Online blog discusses how even though business process management systems have managed to become mainstream, business rules companies have remained a very niche area. Business Rules Companies are extremely important because they enable companies to reduce their reliance on hard-coded application logic. But with so many choices in open source rules engines, how do you know which one is best for your company? Here’s a list of top 10 best open source rules engines provided by Business Review Online. Enjoy!

1. Drools

2. Hammurapi Rules

3. JEOPS

4. JRuleEngine

5a. Mandarax

5b. Take

6. Open Lexicon

7. Prova

8. SweetRules

9. TermWare

10. Zilonis

BPM Vendors Use of Internal Products

Appian, recently posted a report regarding some of their cost savings techniques. Specifically they mentioned that they estimate a cost savings of $500,000 a year attributed to use of their own products by eliminating licensing and support costs. Also mentioned is how by using their own products they feel they are able to provide better service to clients by discovering new uses for their products. As stated in the report:

Many other of our BPM applications are cross-functional, demonstrating the new possibilities our technology offers. For example

- Our Human Resources department uses Appian to manage many of their day-to-day administrative responsibilities and process integrations with other departments, such as handling departmental transfers, promotions and reassignments. Our Recruiting team uses Appian for managing the complete lifecycle of recruiting from prospect intake through interview through offer. Appropriate handoffs are then automatically made to HR, where Appian makes on-boarding fast and easy by providing all benefits and employee handbook information in the context of their associated processes, with status-tracking.

While some may feel that it is obvious that BPM vendors should use their own products, this blog post on Column 2 poses an interesting question to BPM vendors by asking them to release reports on use of their own company’s internal products. What is your opinion on the subject of BPM vendors maximizing use of the products they offer?

Building BPM Success: How to Manage the BPM Lifecycle

As part of this blog, we bring you up-to-date information on the latest trends and processes of BPM. In the past we’ve hosted several webinars on BPM management, and this is where we will be posting any future webinars. In case you didn’t get a chance to view Building BPM Success: How to Manage the BPM Lifecycle, here’s your chance to view it for free!

This webinar was presented by John Rymer, Principal analyst at Forrester, and Malcolm Ross, Director of Product Management at Appian Corporation. This webinar session will taught clients on proper techniques in evaluating their current process ecosystem and selecting the right processes for an initial BPM project. John and Malcolm also reviewed organizational changes and best practice methodologies for process improvement.

I’m sure you will find this session very informative. Click here to view it.

Business Process Outsourcing

Recently, we looked at what the important factors are when choosing to outsource business processes.

To further expand on the topic, I thought I would share this video with you. Here, UHY discusses outsourcing parts of the business process management process. They discuss why it is important to know your current business process and then take those and use outsourcing in a why that it can benefit your company. Another way is to find a process that is not essential to the finished version of the product, such as those performed in the accounting department.