Flexibility in a BPMS is Essential

BPMS marketing in the past introduced BPM as the necessary enterprise application for your existing IT landscape.  While today's BPMS is perfectly constructed to have the robustness and structure to serve in that role, this is not the only way a BPMS can provide value to you.  In fact, an argument can be made that a deterrent for BPM adoption for some companies is that total upheaval and reorganization of your company's IT landscape is not needed. 

Ultimus Adaptive BPM Suite currently serves as the software application backbone for many customers across the world today.  Because of Ultimus BPM Server's SOA construction, the ability to easily integrate with other systems and applications, and the ability to scale to support high volume needs, Ultimus Adaptive BPM Suite is positioned as the cornerstone of companies' IT landscapes.

Having said this, it is important to note that BPM can provide value to you in other ways.  A BPMS does not always have to be the enterprise application upon which all other systems rely.  Take for example:

• You currently have an ERP application that serves as your cornerstone application but exceptions in your business processes cause major disruptions in your day-to-day operations
• Integration across your existing applications is not a current problem.  You have constructed your existing applications to successfully and efficiently integrate with one another (and they are sufficiently serving most of your IT needs)
• Your company is small and/or your IT department is small and is not prepared to start a new endeavor where you uproot and reorganize your IT landscape.  But you have an identified need to unify your company's business data and streamline operations

All of these situations merit you considering a BPMS as an application that can serve to augment your existing IT systems.  By utilizing a BPMS for exception handling, you will continue to take advantage of your existing systems, but you will have the added capabilities of ensuring disruptions and exceptions to normal operation systems are handled in an organized manner. 

In fact, you very well might be overlooking how exceptions are currently handled today.  Upon close inspection of this, you might be surprised to see how much time and effort are needed to handle these types of situations.  Consider the following unhandled exception situations:

• New Orders are received and the Ship To Address information is incorrect
• Customer information collected through the order process does not align with customer information in your Finance application
• Placed orders are being received with a discount amount that is not adherent with agreed upon company policies

It is these types of situations where your existing day-to-day operations fail and your employees spend too much time and effort focusing on correcting the exceptions.  Moreover, because exceptions are not accounted for, your employees are spending inordinate time determining who / which department is responsible for managing the exception.  A BPMS is ideal here to handle these types of situations.  By implementing a BPMS to handle exception situations in your existing applications, you can be assured that your employees are focused on spending their time in handling the majority of incoming orders that are contributing to your company's revenues and profits. 

If your existing BPMS is not flexible enough to work in the ways you need it to, then how much actual value does it provide to you as your business needs change?

Chris Adams
VP Product Marketing and Management
Ultimus