application infrastructure, business architecture, consolidation, enterprise IT, integration, sharing experience, SOA
In benefits, markets on November 12, 2009 at 2:30 am
The enterprise IT market is often characterized by fragmented products for specific applications. Although their hard-coded functionality may seem sufficient for the intended purpose it is time and again overlooked how much effort it takes to integrate them via XML and SOA.
The Business Architecture concept of ISIS Papyrus therefore provides businesses with a single consolidated information system that offers collaboration, process coordination and role coaching on top of the background data processing. This single information platform enables a business to model its key information assets, to support its process workgroups and to create and retain the knowledge about how the business actually performs its processes. All this knowledge and experience is shared between workgroups according to authority. Management can monitor quality criteria and audit each single process if needed. Because it is a single life-cycle platform, software borders do not exist and process optimization is a continuous exercise that does not require complex projects.
Enterprise architects who hope to create an infrastructure of replaceable components by segmenting and layering various products have to consider poor compliance to standards and continuously changing products. These are major stumbling blocks for an enterprise architecture, whereas ISIS Papyrus integrates seamlessly with legacy applications to provide instant benefits with its rich functionality and platform and output channel independence. On the long term it provides an application infrastructure that allows for a gradual enterprise strategy towards consolidation with no additional integration efforts.
Activity Recorder, BPM, human interaction management, NLR, process management, UTA
In benefits on November 10, 2009 at 3:05 am
When analysts come to the conclusion that end-user organizations want to be able to change their processes considerably faster than they actually can and add “They want to move to environments in which there’s a lot more self sufficiency on the part of the end user to configure the process,” this clearly reflects the constraints of currently used rigid process models.
To avoid such limitations ISIS Papyrus focuses on the business needs to respond quickly to dynamically changing customer requirements. The built-in process engine of the Papyrus Platform does not use simplistic procedural flowchart graphs to define the process but instead the Papyrus BPM is state and event driven to avoid problems associated with parallel activities, human interaction management and the rigid sequence of a procedure. This state and event driven process does not require complex decision blocks or listen-for-event-loops. All changes of the process are defined in the Desktop and stored in the central WebRepository.
Papyrus process management is flexible, understands the needs of users and supports knowledge-intensive business processes in combination with business communication. Users define the user interaction with the Activity Recorder and Natural Language Rule Editor and train the process sequence with the User-trained Agent. Collaboration, check-in/check-out, versioning, project management are generic platform functions. Other major benefits include:
- Less process tuning and correction because an unforeseeable event sequence does not invalidate the process
- Changing the state engine and event definition of one item updates automatically all processes using this item
- Changes of the process do not require Java coding
- No programming of dialogs required
consolidation, customer experience, customer-driven organization, profitability
In value proposition on November 5, 2009 at 6:10 am
In mature markets with fierce competition there are usually two broad strategies to foster growth and become more profitable. The first strategy is to be price aggressive. This strategy is especially popular in downturns or to drive competition out of the market. Yet it is a shortsighted strategy and does not do much for profitability on the long run even if it may be instantly successful for a short time in growth terms. If businesses cut their margins this usually initiates a risky downward spiral. Reduced margins are often followed soon by some cost cutting, which then results in poorer service and product quality or the complete elimination of services, layoffs, still more reduced capacity of servicing customers, ensuing negative publicity and word of mouth and a long and often futile struggle to bring back margins to healthy levels.
The other strategy encompasses the shift to a customer-driven organization. Now this term is used in abundance but what is it all about? The main idea behind the customer-driven approach is that of another transformation taking place, namely from the notion of products and services as a commodity to that of shaping the perception by the customer (“the experience”) in a very particular way that is a real differentiation from the competition. However easy it sounds this transformation is not something that can be achieved overnight and it is certainly no one-off procedure.
A customer-driven approach is marked by flexibility and quality. Flexibility means an organization’s capability to accommodate different customer preferences (which may change over time); quality means that all customer communications have to be accurate, clear, consistent and relevant. Relevant communication again is personal and relating to individual context based on consolidated data. These are cornerstones in building long-term customer relationships which result in increased loyalty and revenue.
ISIS Papyrus understands the challenges large corporations face to manage processes and to produce, manage and distribute personalized, data-driven and process- related customer communications to remain competitive in today’s market. ISIS consultants analyze a corporation’s unique communication goals and then provide the tools and expertise necessary to produce high-volume, personalized paper and electronic communications that significantly improve customer and prospect responses as well as client satisfaction.
