Business Intelligence Lowdown

BEA Acquires Fuego

BEA Systems has added to its service oriented architecture offerings with the acquisition of BPM software solutions provider Fuego Incorporated. With the purchase, Fuego's business process automation software has become part of Bea's AquaLogic product line, besides acting as the foundation for the AquaLogic Business Service Interaction product family. Information Week reports:

Jason Bloomberg, analyst for market researcher ZapThink LLC, said the acquisition made sense because BEA's existing tools for business process management did not provide strong support for SOAs. "Their existing process tooling wasn't particularly service-oriented, and service-oriented processes are clearly on the AquaLogic roadmap," Bloomberg said in an email.

New Version BPM Tool

BEA Systems Inc. is set to launch AquaLogic Interaction Process 1.5, a business process management (BPM) tool that will aid in the building and management of collaborative business processes. AquaLogic was developed based on Plumtree Software's Plumtree Process Server, after BEA took over the reins of Plumtree. The tool will allow users to interact with processes instead of just tying together business processes from existing back-end systems with Web services to build composite applications, according to Christine Wan, BEA's director of product marketing. Computer World reports:

AquaLogic Interaction Process 1.5 can attach collaboration documents to work items, map a business process to a collaboration project and allow users to participate in threaded discussions within a process. Potential use cases include expense approval, benefits administration, customer management, field service management, inventory management and sales cycle management.

HP to Deliver Combined Tools

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is looking to tie up with Itron Incorporated as part of its efforts to integrate partners in specific vertical markets to deliver combined tools that will help address specific industry issues. HP has merged its OpenView BPI (Business Process Insight) with Itron's metering, data collection, data management and knowledge application suite via open adaptor to enable a utility to track and measure business metrics. Itron is a technology supplier focused on the energy and water industries with more than 3,000 global customers. InfoWorld reports:

HP is likely to target the automotive and high-tech industries in relation to supply chain management (SCM) and product lifecycle management (PLM), according to Margaret Herndon, vertical solutions team lead for HP OpenView. HP is also looking at the pharmaceutical industry in terms of modeling SCM and the clinical trials process, she added.

BPM Within SOA

Software solutions provider Tibco has merged its business process management (BPM) suite with its business integration offerings to provide BPM capabilities within a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Services like customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and legacy applications, can be reused as Tibco posits within business processes. These posits then act as building blocks that can be combined and structured to support other business processes. CRM Daily reports:

According to Tibco, the layering of BPM on top of an SOA will allow the company's customers to reduce the time it takes to bring a product to market. It also will lower development costs because customers will not have to buy multiple process-management suites.

Complete BPM Suite to Monitor Processes

Business Process Management (BPM) users and developers are being offered a comprehensive BPM solution that allows modeling, execution and monitoring of the entire business process, through the tie-up effected by Celequest, provider of operation performance management solutions, and Intalio, open-source BPM solution provider. Celequest’s business activity monitoring (BAM) will integrate with Intalio’s IntalioIBPMS to allow non-technical business people to monitor processes in real time, without the help of custom monitoring tools. Database Trends and Applications reports:

"The community edition of Intalio|BPMS runs on MySQL with Geronimo Application Server and requires no licensing fees, a great starting point for companies," said Ismael Ghalimi, founder and CEO of Intalio. "And if they want to upgrade to a different database, say Oracle or SQL Server, they can purchase an enterprise license," he added.

Ultimus BPM Suite Certified Secure

Ultimus, the Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow Automation software provider, has announced that the Ultimus BPM Suite now offers the highest level of security, after successfully completing a rigorous software assurance program, which measures if a product meets current security and privacy standards.  The company worked in tandem with IOActive, a network security products and services provider, to assess the vulnerability of its BPM software. Security practitioners at IOActive put the application source code through a detailed appraisal by searching for potential security flaws that might unwittingly permit unauthorized access to sensitive information. Ultimus reports:

"Many organizations have extremely stringent security requirements for all their technology vendors," said Rashid Khan, CEO and co-founder of Ultimus Inc. "We're very proud that the Ultimus BPM Suite has been certified by a reputable organization such as IOActive. This is good news for any enterprise looking for a secure and solid BPM solution."

Read more about Ultimus BPM Suite

Perceived BPM Industry Leaders

IBM, Microsoft and Oracle emerged the front-runners in the joint Intelligence Enterprise-Network Computing Business Process Management (BMP) survey conducted last summer. Over 1,600 people chose either one of the three companies when asked to name leaders in the BPM software industry.

This brings to focus the major difference between how "pureplay" BPM suite vendors and users of BPM software perceive the functionality and purpose of BPM software. "Pureplay" vendors tend to adhere to the industry analysts' view of an ideal BPM software __ business performance optimization through modeling, human task automation and Business Activity Monitoring (BAM), while IBM, Oracle and Microsoft describe BPM as "one possible flavor of agile application development based on their new service-oriented middleware stacks".

The basic pattern followed by BPM is modeling, execution and performance monitoring. Process steps, resources and overall performance metrics are modeled, the model is optimized through simulation analysis and then converted into an executable application that automates the process steps and generates KPI (Key Process Indicators) data to monitor process performance.

Oracle offers BPM based on the BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) service orchestration standard. The Oracle BPEL Process Manager provides a process engine and graphical BPEL designer, integration adapters and human workflow, but it does not support business-IT collaboration. According to Oracle, only 10 percent of a company's business processes are "structured" and addressable by BPM, while BAM can monitor performance of the other "unstructured" 90 percent.

Microsoft's Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) is part of the next-generation Windows platform, Vista. It will provide a common set of workflow services for Microsoft applications ranging from Office and SharePoint Services to BizTalk Server, as well as for ISV- and user-developed applications. Microsoft also provides a BPEL-compatible process engine and programmer-oriented graphical design tool. But WWF's process engine is not a standalone component; it is a run-time library that must be hosted in another application, such as Office or SharePoint, and its capabilities vary with each host.

IBM's WebSphere Process Server v6 also provides a BPEL-based process engine and programmer-oriented graphical designer, including a more elaborate suite of human workflow and application integration services. Unlike Oracle and Microsoft, IBM makes the leap to true BPM by integrating the execution piece with optional business-oriented tools for process modeling, simulation and performance management. In doing so, it matches the functional capabilities of the leading "pureplay" BPM suites while using the company's infrastructure.

Though "pureplay" BPM vendors have integrated business modeling, simulation, business rules, analytics and BAM into their BPM suites, they are not getting the recognition they deserve. Users who believe that BPM should connect business analysts and process owners more directly to IT solutions must either demand changes from their perceived technology leaders or take a second look at the smaller vendors providing true BPM.

Corporate Portals for Small Businesses

While large enterprises effortlessly customize information management solutions and systems by using vast staffs of programmers and developers, small businesses cannot always afford to do so. As a result, they may end up with a jumble of desktop applications that may frustrate users. You can learn from public portals about creating more effective information systems within your organization. Besides the basic accounting systems that every business needs, the rest of the information systems in a small business constitute highly individualized content and applications. Since formal IT group definitions of applications may need constant revisions / updates, the continuity of users' tasks is disrupted. Also, tasks are disrupted when employees leave and new ones are not able to comprehend the jumble of applications that the previous employee had used. Corporate portals make it possible to both create personalized work environments without extensive IT support and share these work environments with colleagues. Corporate portals let you integrate information sources, applications, and Web resources from nearly any source into a single comprehensive desktop. Currently, there are forty separate corporate portal products on the market to pick from. With a corporate portal in place, any employee can create a personal view of the processes, tasks, customers, and market conditions that are most important for executing their tasks. No programming is required for doing this - you only have to click or drag the mouse a few times. CRM Today reports:

Most portal products also come with a large library of what are called gadgets, nuggets, or components, which are already programmed to work with most popular applications, from spreadsheets to databases. Users simply check off the components they want to use in their portal.

The dot.com Opportunity

With the dot.com shakeout, it is possible to acquire expensive technology at great prices. However, it is important to first understand why the venture failed in the first place before you advance your own development cycle by revamping and rebuilding someone else's efforts. The lesson to be learnt from failures such as industry.net and boo.com is grow strategically, not haphazardly. Remember to run your e-business like any other. Another lesson is that the way to go with the application service provider model (ASP) may be to target individual users rather than just B2B. Even when going after small-, mid- or even large-sized companies, consider alternative revenue models. Ask yourself if the new components will enable you to brand your company as something unique and valuable. Keep in mind that your branding efforts will reap greater rewards if there is real substance to your company. CRM Today reports:

The next generation of Internet companies will stake their success on more than just their Web savvy. Integration with physical distribution and manufacturing centers, increased human customer service, and new technologies will all play a role in the new Web economy. In other words, be careful of purchasing a failed dot.com in order to revamp it into a better dot.com. Revamp it into a better business.

Getting Marketers and Analysts To Speak the Same Language

The marketers and analysts within a firm seem to have a constant communication gap. One reason for this difference is the fact that since campaign analysis focuses on the past. Due to this, there is a time difference in when the results are delivered, and when data is required for future planning. Assembling facts is a strong point of the analyst, but designing the report fails to provide critical insights that are required for marketing efforts. It may also be that analysts are not provided with the context of the marketing campaigns, and that is why their analyses are not as meaningful to the context.

In order to bridge this gap, it is important for both teams to agree on a joint operating manifesto. Since each section has its own unique acronyms and slang, it is vital to develop ways to help get everyone to a common language. It is also important to align and tie organizational metrics and measures to all marketing. CRM Today reports:

Develop a balance between performance and predictive analysis. Organizations need to understand how their prior marketing investments performed. However, they also should know how to invest the next dollar – which may not be in the same fashion. As such, forecasts and forward-looking analyses are critical to looking at a complex and rapidly changing market. Using last year’s numbers as a starting point for measuring current performance may no longer be an acceptable approach.

Make Your Sales Team More Efficient

When you automate the friction points that slow down your sales people (such as paper work), they are able to spend more time doing activities that generate business - such as building relationships with prospects and customers. Technology-enabled selling (TES) uses technology to sell through all desired channels. These include resellers and over the Web selling. TES has become a critical component of CRM strategy. These technology-enabled selling applications are part of a larger system that combines business planning, forecasting, and account management. These applications allow business-to-business selling across field sales, inside sales, and external sales channels. Using TES to support all your sales channels, frees up sales representatives to focus on revenue-generating tasks. Online quoting lets agents do most of the initial data entry. Providing alerts about critical renewal opportunities gives sales representatives enough time to negotiate with customers to find the right benefit mix and rate structure. Moving the enrollment process online makes completing group and member applications quicker. This, in turn, lets sales representatives monitor progress in real time. CRM Today reports:

With an easy-to-use, tailored system, healthcare payer organizations get measurably better at the front-office tactics that help to grow and service business. Some of the most apparent bottom-line results include reducing administrative overhead, shortening sales cycles, collaborating, and sharing data — all of which lead to greater profitability.

Plan and budget your planning exercises

Planning company level deliverables and budgeting expectations, especially those of the head office are viewed as a cumbersome and time consuming exercise; something which has to be periodically tackled before one can get on with running the business. In fact, many times even after executing the planned initiatives, companies find that they are not much better placed than what they were earlier. It makes them wonder about the utility of expending substantial amounts of time and effort in the elaborate planning exercises. With the opening up of global markets, planners have to factor in things such as manufacturing and marketing capabilities of competitors in another country. Moreover, since the international market situation is becoming increasingly fluid, annual budgets are being rendered redundant. There are new regulations such as Sarbane-Oxley in place that lay down guidelines for management reporting. Several companies are simply not in a prepared state to meet these guidelines. Businessintelligence reports:

Finally, there is the move towards quarterly reporting, putting pressure on companies to meet financial results on a quarterly basis and to reforecast more frequently.

Read More: Six steps to improving your planning and budgeting system