Complete Business Process Management
Business Process Management (BPM) paves the way for organizations to improve efficiency and drive profit. BPM delivers maximum utility of legacy systems, real time awareness of business activity, and a method for revolutionizing the way work moves throughout an organization.
Business Process Management solutions providers come from one of three heritages:
- Traditional workflow and content management vendors who have glued human and machine processes together with enterprise applications;
- Business process engines focused on rules and application integration; and
- Middleware providers extending application integration infrastructure to support straight-through processing requirements.
While all three categories of vendors lead with different strengths, enterprises must strongly consider a single framework that can integrate processes, bridge applications, deliver content, and ensure that regulatory compliance is supported through the final disposition of records. The providers in the strongest position to fulfill all of these requirements come from the heritage of traditional workflow and content management markets.
Business Process Management Defined
The ideal BPM solution:
- Blurs organizational boundaries;
- Incorporates both machine-based and human-based processes;
- Connects to any system associated with the business process;
- Facilitates the electronic availability of supporting business content;
- Supports compliance initiatives; and
- Monitors process status and effectiveness to facilitate continuous improvement.
A complete BPM solution addresses workflow management, content and records management, enterprise application integration, and business activity monitoring.
Workflow Management: Workflow is a foundational element in a BPM framework for business users and IT professionals to ensure that the right work gets to the right person at the right time. Ideal solutions can be scaled from the department to the enterprise and provide easy drag-and-drop process design, ad-hoc process collaboration, complex work assignment rules, sub-process architectures and escalation features.
Content Management: Business processes are supported by business content. Content may come in the form of scanned documents, electronic print streams, digital assets, e-mails, signed approvals or accompanying decision criteria. The availability of business content to facilitate efficient processes is essential. Business content may be consumed by customers, constituents, lawyers, office workers or executives during processes or at process completion.
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI):Many business processes—either straight-through or those requiring human intervention—must integrate with existing applications in the enterprise. Data may be retrieved, updated or evaluated during a process requiring a robust enterprise application integration toolkit—preferably with pre-built connectors, support for custom adaptors, and adherence to emerging standards such as web services and XML to facilitate integration. EAI allows organizations to capitalize on existing IT investments without bearing the weight of inefficient legacy applications.
Process Monitoring: BPM helps organizations with more than just process automation; it also provides them with real-time, actionable metrics that can improve decision-making and enable action. No BPM solution is complete without a powerful monitoring component that can drive change through continuous, real time monitoring of both processes and metrics to power continuous improvements to the bottom line.
FYI®, from Identitech, is an example of a complete BPM solution. The FYI BPM framework incorporates the complete range of industrial-strength functionality that enables organizations to maximize efficiency and improve the bottom line. With tightly integrated enterprise content and process solutions that incorporate revolutionary, patented business activity monitoring technology, Identitech is uniquely positioned to provide immediate benefits to any organization.
Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, eiStream (formerly Identitech) is consistently rated as one of the top companies specializing in providing information management technologies to global businesses. Identitech helps companies collect and analyze information, automate processes, improve business operations, and improve organizational efficiency. Our business intelligence approach encourages innovation and provides companies with the competitive edge they need. More information is available at www.eistream.com. Note: (now Global 360)Global 360