BPM: bellissimo!

Business process management (BPM) software is said to be helping Grandi Stazioni with its mission of revitalizing and managing 13 Italian railway stations, including terminals in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan.

Grandi Stazioni, which is chartered by the Italian government to manage the railway stations, was finding it difficult to keep track of the many processes involved in maintaining them, as well as the orders and service agreements it had with suppliers. To improve the situation, Grandi Stazioni reviewed various BPM products, looking for one that provided a Web-based interface, rapid implementation and the ability to model processes and extend them across multiple business silos.

The company decided that Savvion BusinessManager offered what it wanted. Since deploying the solution six years ago, Grandi Stazioni has streamlined operations, improved budget forecasting and management, cut the time to process order requests by 30 percent and improved internal auditing for Sarbanes Oxley compliance, Savvion recently reported. Furthermore, Grandi Stazioni can better monitor contractual agreements, ensuring that supplies are shipped on time and that service agreements are met, according to Savvion. In the event that agreements aren't met, the company can more readily leverage fines against suppliers for breach of contract.

"Over the years, Grandi Stazioni has established a reputation of excellence in Italy and beyond for managing the infrastructure maintenance of some of Europe's premiere railway stations," says Grandi Stazioni CTO Nicola Gazzaneo. "Managing railway stations is often encumbered by the number of processes required. Savvion BusinessManager has enabled us to improve multiple key processes around the maintenance of our railway stations, cutting repair time, improving financial transparency, more effectively managing supplier relationships and enhancing the overall customer experience."

Future plans for the implementation include extending it to human resources procedures and to a clustered environment to control processes related to railway station security. The BPM solution will also be integrated into the mobile devices of workers for easier access.