Business Process Mapping | Workflow Modeling | BPM Demo

Business Process and Workflow Modeling

Ultimus’ powerful yet intuitive business process modeler helps bridge the gap between business and IT so processes can be designed and modeled in an effective, collaborative way.

Create Your Process Model

The Ultimus Process Mapping Tool gives your organization the ability to easily create executable workflow diagrams of your business processes- in a graphic environment - that are clean and easy to follow visually. If you have created a Process Wiki in Visio, Ultimus can take these initial workflow maps and convert them into advanced executable Ultimus process templates.

Model Your Process

Once you have completed your process design, you can also use Process Designer to test and see how well it performs. First, identify your assumptions such as: number of resources, time to complete a task, and cost. Then, simply enter the assumptions into the modeling tool to see how efficiently the process handles the workload. Key issues such as bottlenecks, cost overages, and unbalanced loads are highlighted during the modeling exercise. You can then run reports for a further, more detailed analysis.

The Ultimus Difference

Ultimus has several advantages in modeling and simulation including:

Integrated environment – Ultimus business processes, and all the information captured in the design phase, is natively part of the process design. Without requiring data transfer for process rebuilding, the process builder can leverage all the design work the business analyst invested in the modeling phase.
Out of the Box Modeling Reporting - After modeling your process, you can get immediate feedback on cost analysis, task time, and modeling metrics such as balance and utilization (all without having to specially build any reports)
Round Trip Optimization – Ultimus’ RTO features allow you to compare live Business Process Management Server data against your original modeling scenarios. These features play a vital part in your Continuous Process Improvement initiatives.

Ultimus Process Designer Questions

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Who would use Process Designer?

Ultimus Process Designer is ideal for use by a variety of business users such as:

Business Process Owners interested in defining and documenting processes
Analysts interested in evaluating and optimizing processes
Workflow Consultants interested in deploying automated workflow processes
Six Sigma Consultants seeking to enhance process performance
Companies seeking ISO 9000 compliance

How does Ultimus Process Designer relate to the Ultimus Workflow Suite?

Process owners and business analysts can use Ultimus Process Designer to design and optimize processes before implementing and deploying those processes using the Ultimus Workflow Suite. As such, Ultimus Process Designer is a powerful design tool for process owners offering the following capabilities to design and fine-tune business processes through modeling:

Design – Ultimus Process Designer lets you create a process map as a graphical representation of how a process flows from one step to another and what happens at each step, from initiation to completion.
Modeling and Analysis – Ultimus Process Designer lets you define realistic scenarios and perform workload and throughput analysis on a process in order to predict its behavior. If the behavior is not consistent with expectations, the process design can be changed in order to optimize its performance.
Documentation – Ultimus Process Designer has the ability to produce detailed documentation and design instructions about workflow requirements.

The Ultimus Workflow Suite can directly import process designs from Ultimus Process Designer, and enable IT professionals to develop fully automated workflow solutions ready for deployment. The Ultimus Workflow Suite is composed of the following modules offering the capability to build, simulate, integrate, and deploy workflow processes:

Ultimus Builder – provides complete development and simulation of workflow without programming.
Ultimus Administrator – performs administrative and reporting functions related to workflow as part of the Microsoft Management Console.
Ultimus Org Chart – enables users to design the company’s org chart so that workflow is aware of users, job functions, reporting relationships, and more.
Ultimus Workflow Server – provides the engine for sophisticated and scalable control of workflow.
Ultimus Client – provides a powerful, user-friendly browser-based interface for users to participate in workflow.
Ultimus Reports – generates comprehensive web-based reports on process metrics.
Ultimus Flobots/FloStation – provides a platform for Ultimus Flobots to work with third-party applications.

What is BPMA and how does Process Designer support it?

BPMA (Business Process Modeling and Analysis) is a new category of software tools and analytical activities designed to provide comprehensive capabilities for the design, modeling, analysis, improvement and documentation of business processes. Corporations can leverage BPMA and its associated concepts to rapidly optimize their core business processes for improved efficiency. Process Designer supports the BPMA framework through extensive support for design, modeling, analysis and documentation activities.

How does Ultimus Process Designer benefit Six Sigma ® Methodology?

Six Sigma is a methodology for businesses to improve their processes by identifying and controlling process variations. Ultimus Process Designer plays a key role in Six Sigma implementations by providing the following capabilities:

Process Design – the ability to define and map any process – from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.
Process Modeling and Analysis – the ability to measure, analyze, and improve processes based on statistical representation, catering to the Six Sigma data-driven approach.
Process Documentation – the ability to automate the documentation of existing process specifications, and provide design details for developing new processes.

How does Ultimus Process Designer Documentation facilitate compliance with ISO 9000 Standards?

The essence of ISO 9000 quality initiative is “to say what you do, and do what you say”. Ultimus Process Designer allows you to create a Document Template using the full functionality of Microsoft Word that specifies the desired format and content of the documentation. Ultimus Process Designer’s Documentation feature offers the flexibility to format documentation output according to industry-dependant ISO 9000 standards. You can create multiple Document Templates in any format, whereby Ultimus Process Designer will automatically produce process documentation in the format of your choice. Since Process Designer uses Microsoft Word as the documentation tool, the resulting output can be easily modified or edited.

What is Business Process Modeling and what are its benefits?

Business Process Modeling is the workload and throughput analysis of business processes prior to development of workflow solutions. This capability enables business analysts to use the process design developed by the process owner and provide estimates about resource availability and completion times for each step. Ultimus Process Designer can statistically run a large number of workflow incidents through the model and produce data indicating lag time, elapsed time and bottlenecks in the process. Process owners and business analysts can use data produced by process modeling to change the process, or the resources used by the process, with the goal of optimizing its performance. Process modeling enables business owners and analysts to predict the behavior of a workflow process well before it is actually developed, deployed and used. By knowing this behavior, business owners can understand the benefits and the constraints of the workflow solution.

Do you have to purchase the Ultimus Workflow Suite in order to use Process Designer?

Ultimus Process Designer is a stand-alone product and does not require the purchase of Ultimus Workflow Suite for use.

Customers who purchase the Ultimus Workflow Suite will get Process Designer bundled with it, increasing the value of the Workflow Suite.

Ultimus Process Designer is the first step in developing automated business processes by providing design, modeling, analysis and documentations tools to define processes for automation. Ultimus Workflow Suite can then be used to build processes designed in Process Designer into fully automated workflow solutions for immediate deployment.

What computer or IT skills are needed to use the Ultimus Process Designer?

Intuitive is the best way to describe how easy it is to use Ultimus Process Designer. The Process Designer is intended for the Business Analyst and Process Owners who do not have any IT expertise. You can begin to map out business processes immediately upon installation. The Process Designer provides a user-friendly approach to graphically designing and modeling a process without requiring any scripting, programming, databases or IT knowledge. The only skill you must have is the ability to use the Windows user interface and drag and drop features.

How long will it take to design a business process model and start analyzing it?

Ultimus Process Designer is very easy to use and involves a short learning curve. In conjunction with Ultimus Process Designer tutorials, it should take no more than half a day to learn how to use the complete tool. After that, you can immediately begin to design processes in a matter of minutes. A good rule of thumb to apply is 5 minutes per step, in order to estimate the time it will take to design and model a process. Thus a 10-step process can be designed and modeled in less than one hour.

Can I run “what-if” scenarios to improve the performance of business processes?

Yes, running “what-if” scenarios is the core function of Ultimus Process Designer. Assumptions about time and cost that approximate real-life situations can be defined as scenarios for a process map and for individual steps. Each set of assumptions can be saved as a scenario. For perfecting business process performance, multiple scenarios can be developed and Process Designer can produce statistical results for each scenario for comparison. This allows for “as is” scenarios to be compared with “what if” scenarios.