> What is Business Process Management?

Business process management (BPM) focuses on continuously improving and aligning all aspects of an organisation with the wants and needs of clients. It promotes business effectiveness and increases efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with various technologies.

[Hide]

> Why do organisations automate their Business Processes?

To survive and prosper, organisations will require an integrated business and IT infrastructure that allows them to respond to changes in the market as they occur. BPM allows this to be achieved today and can be used across a whole host of systems and applications to provide universal control. Experts predict that BPM is clearly on the rise and that it will experience even greater levels of enterprise adoption before the end of 2011. BPM is fast gaining the reputation of being one of the most valuable IT investments you can make because it helps you achieve your most critical business objectives:

 > Increased Productivity
 > Better Customer Service
 > Greater Competitive Advantage
 > Stronger Financial Performance
 > Regulatory Compliance

A process driven organisation has clear goals to achieve optimal business performance through process innovation. These organisations realise that they could get ahead of their competition by leveraging technology, process driven methodologies and business practices while adopting necessary resources to change the way they operate. The prime motive driving these organisations is the need to achieve a right balance between their IT and Business practices boosting revenue and cutting costs.

[Hide]

> How can BPM help my organisation?

BPM is a business driven management discipline that helps organisations model and optimise processes to align overall business objectives. BPM enables business to adapt to dynamic market conditions and take strategic decisions on the fly. Therefore BPM can help organisations become more agile and sustain emergent changes on an ongoing basis whilst constantly providing key organisational benefits.

[Hide]

> Can a solution from ask-4® Business Solutions be tailored to suit my requirements?

All of our solutions have been designed in a modular fashion and can very easily to adapted to suit your own business requirements. Our fully functional solutions are based on the Metastorm BPM technology and can quickly be customised to reflect your own unique business identity and be fully deployed within a matter of days. (Subject to of course your own deployment polices); in most cases, in less than 10 working days.

[Hide]

> What factors can influence BPM projects?

Factors that may influence BPM projects could be:

 > Lack of visibility and quantitative feedback in process initiatives and projects.
 > Identification of reasons for implementing automated processes.
 > Process inefficiency due to lack of accountability and clear understanding of responsibilities.
 > Employees inconsistency in carrying out assignments throughout the organisation.
 > Process not adapting to changing business requirements.
 > Process crossing departmental and organisational boundaries, making assignment and ownership responsibilities less clear.
 > Lack of clear measurable metrics for gauging employee performance.
 > Process involving documents and forms as well other structured and unstructured content.


[Hide]

> What are the key benefits of BPM?

BPM offers many benefits from competitive advantage through to better management and greater control of processes, analysis and better collaboration between people across various departments. Many organisations have successfully adopted BPM suites to establish a platform for continuous business process improvement. BPM provides the lowest risk, highest return on investment for driving process improvement, increased operational efficiency and overall organisational cost reductions.

 > BPM is a technology that you should evaluate to manage the key end-to-end interactions of your business.
 > BPM assists organisations in staying competitive.
 > BPM does not replace your existing IT Assets, but complements them.
 > Definition of business processes consumes the majority of the time and not implementing the software.
 > Cross-departmental/divisional alignment of processes is key

[Hide]

> What is the future of BPM?

There are several factors driving the growth of the BPM industry such as.

 > BPM enables agility and policy management requirements.
 > Process standardisation initiatives from industry.
 > Integration of several systems through a central process layer.
 > Organisations like to integrate their different IT systems in a seamless manner.
 > Transition from building software systems with traditional data centric or interface centric approach to process centric approach.
 > Process mergers and alignment can be done quickly and with minimal impact on the organisation and the people involved.
 > BMP enables automation of manual processes.


[Hide]

> Is BPM right for me?

Please contact us to find out. You will have the opportunity to talk to one of our BPM experts who can assist you and guide you accordingly.

[Hide]

> What is the relationship between Metastorm and OpenText?

OpenText is an enterprise software company and leaders in Enterprise Content Management (ECM). They help organisations manage and gain the true value of their business content. Metastorm offers market-leading software for enterprise and business architecture (EA), business process analysis (BPA) and business process management (BPM).

With the recent acquisition of Metastorm, OpenText moves into the BPM market allowing customers to purchase leading solutions in both Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Business Process Management (BPM) from a single vendor which ultimately helps them improve their business in the most comprehensive way.

[Hide]

> How are ask-4® Business Solutions associated with Metastorm-OpenText?

ask-4® Business Solutions have an established, productive, and value-producing partnership with Metastorm spanning over a decade. Metastorm offers market-leading software for enterprise and business architecture (EA), business process analysis (BPA) and business process management (BPM). Their award winning BPM design environment coupled with our experience and expertise provides customers with Strategic, Operational and Process Excellence.

Collectively, we share the same goals – mutual growth and customer success.

[Hide]

> What differentiates ask-4® Business Solutions from others?

Our Values, our customer service, integrity, honesty and generally the way we work. We aim to provide a high level of satisfaction and quality throughout our relationship with you. We monitor the effectiveness of our goals by encouraging open feedback, we only take on work where we believe we can add significant value and we don’t make promises that we can't keep. The best thing to do is read our customer testimonials and let them answer the question.

[Hide]

> What is Metastorm BPM?

Metastorm BPM is a Business Process Management systems platform for automating administrative and management processes. It is a flexible production-strength BPM system, supporting a very large number of processes, users, and transactions. It can access data from any ODBC data source, make use of external forms, integrate at an API level with a number of document management systems, and exchange mail with most email clients. More importantly it can easily integrate ALL these systems via one simple user interface, then present that interface to the user.

[Hide]

> How does Metastorm BPM compare with other BPM products?

Metastorm is the only solution provider to provide an integrated software platform that unifies strategy & enterprise architecture, process analysis and optimisation, and human- and system centric process management for optimal results. Metastorm BPM has a number of unique features that sets it apart from other BPM products. These include its single integrated client, its STAR (Stage Action Role) methodology, its enterprise dynamic roles, its people centric process designer, its process aware forms and its real time business process monitoring.

[Hide]

> Is Metastorm BPM right for my organisation?

Customers achieve success with Metastorm BPM because it delivers on the following business requirements:

 > Flexibility - Design a solution to meet your unique business process requirements.
 > Control - Be confident that your operations are now working how you need them to.
 > Tracking - Monitor the progress of items as they move through a process cycle.
 > Collaboration - Involve the right people at the right time inside and outside the organisation.
 > Accuracy - Put the checks and balances at the proper stage in the process.
 > Insight - Have real-time access to the lowest level of detail.
 > Improvement – See immediate improvements in process efficiency, control, and agility.
 > Results - Expect a fast impact on your business.
 > Send out automatic emails - The BPM software can send automatic emails when triggered within a process.


To learn more about Metastorm BPM, please contact us to discuss further. You will have the opportunity to talk to one of our BPM experts who can assist you and guide you accordingly.

[Hide]

> What is Metastorm BPM and what modules are offered with it?

In 2010 Metastorm announced the availability of Metastorm BPM Version 9.0 as a replacemented to version 7.6. Metastorm BPM uses a standard based Web-centric architecture that was designed from the ground up to provide the ability to allow the agile business to deploy human centric processes quickly and easily. Metastorm BPM comprises of the following modules:

 > People centric graphical Process Designer
 > A robust, scalable, fault-tolerant Process Engine that manages the folders in the process and the access control to their forms.
 > It uses a database architecture, from which the engine can draw information
 > The Client allows users to participate fully in Metastorm BPM processes
 > Enterprise Directory Services that provide data caching for popular directory services
 > The Metastorm BPM Public Access provides the members of the public with the ability to initiate Metastorm BPM processes
 > The Metastorm BPM Software Developers Kit (SDK)

[Hide]

> What are the major benefits of Version 9 over Version 7?

Metastorm BPM® Version 9 is a significant new release of Metastorm’s industry leading Business Process Management Suite. Version 9 builds on the strengths of the past while adding many new capabilities designed to allow our customers to enjoy even greater success going forward. Version 9 provides significant business benefits to our customers including:

 > Improved ease of use for business and technical users.
 > Faster and easier deployment of process intelligence.
 > Improved collaboration and handoffs between business and IT.
 > Easier and more powerful integration into external systems.
 > Improved governance and compliance.
 > Improved support for the needs of global clients.
 > Greater reuse of work across projects.
 > Greater and easier ability to customize to client needs.
 > Faster project implementation and time to value.


[Hide]

> What is the Metastorm Architecture?

Metastorm BPM Version 9.0 has been designed to be flexible and fully configurable with multi-tier architecture. This allows deployment in a number of different enterprise environments, depending on the demands of that environment.

Metastorm BPM is typically deployed in one of three ways:

Single Server In a single server deployment, the Process Engine, Service List and Database are installed on a single computer. The main advantages of setting up a single server deployment are simplicity, low costs and Optimum response times, particular database access efficiency being on the same physical server The disadvantages of a single server deployment are less scalable and Single point of failure.

Separate Database The main advantages of installing the Metastorm database on a separate server to the other Metastorm components are better engine performance and management of resources/data.

Separate Web Server(s) Metastorm BPM supports the use of separate web servers. This allows for the integration with existing enterprise implementations, as well as load balancing and network traffic management.

[Hide]

> Can Metastorm BPM be integrated into an existing infracture?

Metastorm has an open integration architecture that allows tight integration with existing systems. It is flexible enough to fill any gaps in your infrastructure linking disparate systems together to form a single cohesive system.

Some of the main Metastorm BPM intergrations that we have experienced are SharePoint, MS Exchange, BizTalk, Active Directory, NDS, LDAP and various databases using technologies such as SMTP/MAPI, JavaScript/VBScript, ActiveX, API Calls, XML and SOAP.

[Hide]

> Will you be able to use Visual Studio for developing?

The Metastorm BPM Designer for Version 9 has been built on the top of the Microsoft .NET Framework. The new scripting and integration layer is now based 100% on .NET technologies. Because of this it is very easy to build extensions in Visual Studio to assist in your process development. However when it comes to the actual designing of processes, forms and reports, this must be done within the Metastorm BPM Designer and cannot be performed to Visual Studio.

[Hide]

> What considerations should be made when designing a new Metastorm project?

When designing a project, the following should be considered:

 > What is the initial action that triggers the project?
 > What are the various actions and tasks that must be performed to complete the project?
 > In what order must these actions and tasks be performed?
 > Who within the organisation will be involved in the project?
 > What will be there role in the project?
 > What information / data is needed during the course of the project?
 > What information should be shared among participants?
 > What are the possible outcomes?
 > Does the project flow in a step-by-step manner from start to finish, or are there alternative paths that must be taken into consideration?
 > That is, are actions taken sequentially or in parallel?
 > What elements of your design could be reused for other projects?
 > What happens when the project is run?


[Hide]

> What e-mail systems are supported?

The Metastorm Process Engine is able to send emails via SMTP and MAPI. Direct exchange server integration can be achieved through CDOEXM or WebDAV. Scripts can be made available by contacting ask-4 Business Solutions.

[Hide]

> How does ask-4 address security?

The first level of security is authentication to Metastorm BPM using a user name and password or via some other system’s credentials using Metastorm BPM’s Open Authentication Architecture. The second level of security provided by Metastorm BPM is via the Metastorm BPM Role Security Matrix. Roles are evaluated every time the Metastorm Process Engine requires the role. Within a process, different users may hold the same role for different folders at the same stage in the process.

Role Security Matrix - The Metastorm BPM Role security matrix controls the work that appears on a user’s work lists, the folders that a user is authorized to monitor, whether a user can initiate a process, the forms a user has access to in their work items, the actions or tasks that a user can take on their work items, whether a user has administrative control over an item and if a user can report on a process.

Database Access - Metastorm BPM allows users to view and update database tables through a browser. Database security is maintained, as the individual users do not need access to the database itself. The access that the user has to the database is under the control of the designer of the process and is limited to what the designer allows in the process. It is the Metastorm Process Engine that accesses the database and individual user access to information in the database is always through the Metastorm Process Engine.

Digital Signature Architecture - The Metastorm BPM Digital Signature Architecture will allow designers to add signature fields to forms. Users completing such a form may (or must, if the field is required) provide a ‘signature’, which will be recorded in the database. Many different types of ‘signature’ (biometrics, smart cards, digital certificates, etc.) can be supported, by means of this simple, open ‘plug-in’ architecture.

Secure Sockets Layer - Metastorm BPM can run on a server where Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is installed. Metastorm BPM will make use of SSL where this has been installed on a server.

[Hide]

> Can I convert my Metastorm BPM Version 7 processes to Version 9?

Metastorm provides a migration tool that allows version 7 processes to be converted to version 9. Metastorm BPM Version 9 does not currently support some of the third party extensions that version 7 does and it is for this reason that some consultancy/development mat be required after a process has been migrated. ask-4 are equipped to assist with such projects providing a range of services from advice and support through to handling the entire process.

Metastorm provide a side by side tool with version 9. This allows version 9 and version 7 processes to be accessed from the Version 9 client, however at present the two engines must be running on different machines

[Hide]

> I have a technical question?

Not a problem, please use the 'Contact Us' form selecting type: 'Technical Question', and we will endeavour to answer your question. If we deem the question to be suitable for others we will include it in this section.

[Hide]