Iontas Helps Solve BPM Issues

According to this article on Market Watch, Iontas has added a function in their Focus software suite which will capture every step that people take to conduct business tasks, without interrupting their work or requiring integration. The application will graphically map out how processes are being followed, which will be a huge help for managers in order to determine where and how to focus resources for process improvement.

This software will end guessing games about how people use information technology. With focus, managers can look forward to improving efficiency and reducing operational costs. Iontas CEO Joe Stockton mentions:

"Every manager at every company needs to understand their processes before they can optimize them.”

We're getting ready to launch a new blog that looks at the broader issues of Business Process Management, update your RSS feed now as we get it ready for our official launch: http://evolvebpm.blogspot.com/

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

We're getting ready to launch a new blog that looks at the broader issues of Business Process Management, update your RSS feed now as we get it ready for our official launch: http://evolvebpm.blogspot.com/

IBM Launches New Financial Management Business Process Tool

CNNMoney.com reports that IBM has released an analytical financial tool that will allows companies to better analyze and manage the performance of a company’s financial function.

This tool will help to solve the problem area of accurately identifying where redundancies occur within the finance organization. A 2008 IBM Global CFO Study shows that 1/3 of CFOs stated that they are ineffective at effectively measuring business performance.

William Fuessler, Global Financial Management Leader, IBM Global Business Services mentions:

"CFOs need quick access to the truth, they need process and data commonality through enterprise standards to achieve higher levels of efficacy. The delay in understanding the true state of the business can mean the difference between profitability and lost growth potential. The Finance Transformation Workbench tool is yet another example of IBM's high-value services proposition which automates labor-based process and uses our Intellectual Property (IP) to create repeatable software-like assets."

IBM’s tool is fully customizable to an organization’s needs, since it provides an integrated view of various business models which include: Finance Function component business models, business process Taxonomies, (such as the American Productivity and Quality Council Process Classification Framework) and organization structure maps.

Also, we're getting ready to launch a new blog that looks at the broader issues of Business Process Management, update your RSS feed now as we get it ready for our official launch: http://evolvebpm.blogspot.com/

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.

The future of Business Process Management: BPM 2.0

Processes and applications working together in concert across the organization and leveraging compliant best practices with the help of SOA and workflow is a big step forward, but there is more to the story of running a competitive business today.

In a new post at Jim Sinur’s blog, he discusses the important processes. Sinur believes that the five points below will transform the way we see BPM today for the better:

• Processes Need to be Indeterminate

The processes must find a way to be more flexible and dynamic.

• Processes Need to Support Best Practice Discovery

BPM processes must not be stuck in one rut, and the must be able to figure out how the process is working. It should observe the patterns and figure out how the process can be adapted to the program.

• Processes Need to be Widely Inclusive

The processes can’t be limited to inside the organization. The program must know how to be cross functional.

• Processes Need to be Intelligent

The program would be able to identify anything going on in the programs, and then notify the users of the changes

• Processes Need to be Goal Driven

The process management could have several different outcomes that need to happen. The programs would then identify these, and determine the best plan of action to take in order to get the different processes to the one spot.

Savvion’s New Business Process Solution could be a Hit

The latest article in eBizQ highlights Savvion’s latest launch of its human-centric process solution through its leading BPM platform. What makes this application special is that it will support process automation from beginning to start enabling collaboration between IT professions, business users, developers, architects, and the rest of employees within the organization.

Kevin Schmidt, director of SOA product management at Sun Microsystems mentions:

"We saw in Savvion BusinessManager a strong product that helps customers build human workflow into composite applications, along with its intuitive process modeling and simulation tools, giving business users a more active role in conceptualizing, defining and refining SOA-enabled processes and applications."

Designing an application around the way people actually work is a change for BPM solutions, one that will allow for greater flexibility and control of business processes in the enterprise.

BPM: Beneficial for operating across borders

Often times, many companies have issues keeping up with their paperwork when growing by double digits. When a process hasn’t been created which keeps papers, documents, and bills streamlining into a smooth process for all parts of a company. If this isn’t worked out, there can be many errors, and lost papers, along the paper trail to the financial office. An example of this was recently profiled in Express Computer.

Kuoni Travel Group saw double digit growing and realized that they had to come up with a better way to manage the financial means. They turned to Newgens, a BPM solution provider that allowed them to help them organize their system. Newgen worked with Price Waterhouse Cooper in order to implement this new BPM process across all divisions of Kuoni Travel Group. The main areas that were helped by this new BPM process were Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and many internal-approval processes.

Here were the benefits they saw coming from this BPM process:

• By centralizing and detaching the finance function, the solution helped Kuoni to focus on its core business.
• Process transparency and efficiency came about thanks to automated task assignment, tighter monitoring and control due to higher process visibility, and easy tracking by recording the transaction trail.
• Reduced paperwork, and therefore, easier storage, routing and archival of documents became possible.
• Better sharing and collaboration of data to facilitate quick and informed decision making has been enabled.
• Reduced manpower costs resulting due to automation of tasks.
• Freeing expensive office space, which is being used to provide employees recreational facilities and for other administrative functions.
• Better risk management and compliance capabilities.