A new way for BPM from Appian

Appian has introduced the latest version of its namesake BPM Suite. The company explains the release extends process visibility and participation through native mobile device access, real-time collaboration, filtered and personalized views of key business events, integration to external systems, and the ability to take direct action in a familiar and intuitive social media interface.

All Appian customers and partners can use the new interface via the Appian Forum community site. Customers can log support cases, register for Webinars, get product and industry updates, share components and collaborate on topics of mutual interest.

The new Appian release focuses on mobile, cloud and social BPM. The platform builds on Appian's heritage of natively integrated process, business rules, reporting and analytics, content management, data integration and collaboration. By enhancing support for ad hoc collaboration, unstructured processes and unplanned business events, Appian delivers even more powerful solutions in areas such as case management.

Appian further emphasizes mobile BPM in the new versions through native client applications for the Apple iPhone, iPad, and RIM BlackBerry devices. The iPhone and iPad applications can be downloaded from Apple App Store. The Blackberry application is available now from the Appian Forum community site and will be available shortly on the Blackberry App World site. A native application for Google Android devices will be available shortly, says Appian.

Already established in the cloud, the new version delivers full functionality, providing a powerful way to accelerate process improvement initiatives, and, reports Appian:

• offers low upfront investment, instant deployment and fast time-to-value;
• reduces risk by enabling customers to easily migrate between cloud and on-premise at any time; and
• includes VPN access for integration to systems and applications behind a company firewall.

Appian utilizes familiar social tools and interfaces to drive business collaboration across the enterprise. Features include:

• personalized, filtered views -- Users can filter views by relevant application or process areas and subscribe to customized feeds to monitor the key events and information that is meaningful to them.
• collaboration -- Comment, question and collaborate on business events through real-time message posts and ad hoc updates to targeted groups within and outside of pre-planned business processes.
• taking action -- Generate actions and complete tasks from inside the event feed or from a mobile device, using optimized Web and mobile forms to capture data and route tasks.