This document provides an overview of Business Process Management (BPM) systems, including their history, features, benefits, applications in different business areas, and major vendor products. It highlights the BlueSpring BPMS 4.5 product, which was developed from the ground up as a third generation BPM suite built on Microsoft's .NET platform. It allows designing, configuring, executing, and managing business processes without coding, and includes features like dashboards, reports, and integration with Microsoft Office and SharePoint.

1. Business Process Management for SaveWithUs by Mark Carlson

2. Overview BPM Introduction BPM History BPM Features Benefits of a BPM System BPM Touchpoints Major Vendor Products Spotlight: BlueSpring™ BPMS 4.5

3. Introduction BPM systems build, execute, and monitor automated processes that may go across organizational boundaries to facilitate optimum operational efficiency Forrestor Research estimates that BPM systems will grow from $1.2 billion in 2005 to over 2.7 billion in 2009 (Tanrikorur, 2007)

4. BPM History 1990’s: Workflow was the tool of choice with the focus on people and document processes. Enterprise application integration (EAI) vendors gave rise to more sophisticated BPM features. Today, BPM systems manage processes that include person-to-person and system-to-system communications or combinations thereof (Tanrikorur, 2007).

5. BPM Features Automated person-to-person processes (Front office solutions) Automated system-to-system processes (Back office solutions) Automated translation of businesses processes into technical code Incorporated tools such as email, documents, DB queries, report creation, or calculations Can overcome distance and heterogeneous systems via web services BPMs are managed in a lifecycle to ensure continual improvement and predictability

6. Benefits of a BPM System Transparency – bottlenecks, delays, and risks are seen immediately Process Refinement – emerging data allows for consistent improvements Centralization of Data – workflow metrics are stored and available for future mining (Tanrikorur, 2007) Business Back in Control – IT plays an implementation role based on business needs Higher Customer Satisfaction Improved Decision-Making (Enjbiz.com, 2007)

7. BPM Touchpoints Inside Touchpoints Distribution centers- phone, person-to-person, website Manufacturing centers – phone, person-to-person, website Sales Department – phone, person-to-person, mobile devices System – web services, email, mobile devices, and dashboard/other application interfaces Outside Touchpoints Vendors – phone, person-to-person workflows, email, web services, mobile devices Customers – phone, person-to-person, email, website, mobile devices

8. Major Product Vendors BlueSpring (2007), BPMS 4.5 Savvion (2007), BPM Studio TIBCO (2007), TIBCO iProcess Suite IBM (2007), WebSphere Process Server PegaSystems (2007), SmartBPM Suite Global360 (2007), Process360, Execute360, Case360 DST Systems (2007), Automated Work Distributor (AWD)

9. Spotlight: BlueSpring BPMS 4.5 Attributes Developed from the ground up to be a 3rd generation Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) technology, and not just a workflow upgrade BPM Suite is a highly scalable, Service Oriented Architecture application built on the Microsoft .NET 3.0 platform (BlueSpring, 2007).

10. Spotlight: BlueSpring BPMS 4.5 Advantages Design, configure, execute, and manage processes without writing code Does not require expensive development tools Easy to decipher graphical interface Dashboard reports MS SharePoint foundation for current SharePoint users Built in Business Activity Monitoring tools Access task lists via the web, Pocket PC, or custom interface (BlueSpring, 2007).

11. Spotlight: BlueSpring BPMS 4.5 Uniqueness More "out of the box" features than any other product on the market BPM Suite comes pre-integrated with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Business Solution products No programming knowledge required for business designers Lowest entry cost point (BlueSpring, 2007)

12. References BlueSpring. (2007). Retrieved December 9, 2007 from http://www.bluespringsoftware.com/products DST Systems, Inc. (2007). Retrieved December 10, 2007 from http://www.dstsystems.com/dstsol/awd/awd_home.html Enjbiz. (2007). BPM benefits. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from http://www.enjbiz.com/BPM%20benefits.html Global 360. (2007). G360 enterprise BPM Suite. Retrieved December 10, 2007 from http://www.global360.com/products/g360_enterprise/ IBM. (2007). Websphere software. Retrieved December 10, 2007 from http://www-306.ibm.com/software/websphere/ Pegasystems. (2007). SmartBPM Suite. Retrieved December 10, 2007 from http://www.pega.com/Products/SmartBPMSuite.asp Savvion. (2007). Retrieved December 10, 2007 from’ http://www.savvion.com/bpm-products/businessmanager-7.php Tanrikorur, T. (2007). Business process Management 101: The basics of BPM and how to choose the right suite. Retrieved December 10, 2007 from http://www.intelligententerprise.com/print_article.jhtml?articleID=199204260 Tibco. (2007). Business process management software. Retrieved December 10, 2007 from http://www.tibco.com/software/business_process_management/default.jsp