Home Group Limited Chooses SEQUENCE - PNMsoft's BPM Software

Home Group Limited Chooses SEQUENCE - PNMsoft's Business Process Management BPM and Workflow Platform

The Programme is Estimated at GBP1 Million Pounds (US$2 Million) Plus Home Group Limited, UK's largest social house builder and management organisation has selected PNMsoft's BPMS and workflow product SEQUENCE as its Business Process Management and workflow platform for a multi million pound programme.

LONDON ----- Home Group's programme involves the cross-organisational deployment of SEQUENCE starting with internet and extranet systems and processes. The benefits include internal and external customer satisfaction as well as savings to the company's infrastructure
costs.

The Home Group Limited turnover is GBP230 million. The company owns 55,000 dwellings in 800 different sites, and is England's largest provider of social housing solutions for Local Regional Government.

Home Group's Project Manager Paul Kelly says "The SEQUENCE BPM solution will be at the heart of all future Web-based applications deployed by Home Group, and is considered to be one of the most strategic applications, and therefore investments, in terms of future IT/IS systems.

PNMsoft's SEQUENCE offered the best value for money to Home Group and key to this decision was the close alignment to Microsoft SharePoint, a strong user interface and a
scalable platform."

Paul Sheridan, PNMsoft's VP Sales says "The objective of the deployment of SEQUENCE is to become the focal point of the company's internal and external process network. SEQUENCE will automate and manage a variety of business processes at Home Group, including handling residential customers, Local Regional Government customers, Human Resources and administrative affairs, and will reduce internal costs to the benefit of the Home Group's
operational bottom line."

About PNMsoft

PNMsoft offers flexible business-user oriented BPMS and workflow solutions. Focusing 10 years on Business Process Management, PNMsoft has achieved a position of subject matter expert in the BPM/Workflow product arena, and is a member of Microsoft's BPM Alliance. SEQUENCE is installed at over 250 companies worldwide.

PNMsoft's SEQUENCE facilitates rapid end user acceptance via the Microsoft UI, providing business users operational KPI and simulation capabilities as well as the automated management of business processes and organisational information. The system enables automated management of a multitude of business processes (Production, Development, Purchasing,
Finance, HR and more) while dramatically reducing time and resource
expenditures.

PNMsoft is headquartered in Watford England with offices and business partners across Europe an N. America. For more details on PNMsoft, please
visit www.pnmsoft.com or call Paul Sheridan: +44-207-953-0262 (UK) or
+1-646-290-5063 (USA)

For more details on PNMsoft, or call Paul Sheridan: +44-207-953-0262 (UK) or
+1-646-290-5063 (USA)

Business Process Management One Step at a Time

Business Process Management One Step at a Time

by John Footen, 8.20.2008


I have written a great deal in my TV Technology columns about change. This is because it is so critical that TV organizations be prepared to change and change often going forward. As Winston Churchill said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

That is the only way to even remotely stay close to that ever-elusive “perfect” alignment of the technology with the business goals.You can’t just change your technology, though, and expect success. With technological changes should ideally come process shifts.

There are many organizations I know of that made a “smooth” transition to file-based technology, but left in place the same tape-based processes. This is not ideal because it fails to take advantage of many of the real capabilities for improvement that the file-based system was intended to bring.

What we need is Business Process Management to manage our processes successfully through these kinds of changes.BPM is a term that, like Service-Oriented Architecture, does not have clear boundary lines defining what it is and what it is not. BPM combines workflow with software integration. It is a way of developing and improving systems that starts with the process, not with the technology!

A business process is a sequence of tasks that extends across the entire facility. This example shows a process used to ingest new material. BUSINESS PROCESSWith the advent of process automation (not broadcast automation) or orchestration technologies, BPM has become very popular. BPM concerns itself with both the development of business processes and the links that those business processes have with the underlying technology. In some ways, it is a larger concept than SOA, which considers mainly the architecture and technology itself. BPM all comes down to the business process. An example process appears in Fig. 1.

Just as the service is the fundamental building block of SOA, the business process is the fundamental building block of BPM. A process can be of many timescales—short ones that may run for a few minutes to put a news story on the Web, all the way to long ones that may run for many months as a major business goal is realized. A business process should not be limited by technological or organizational lines but should represent, as well as possible, the way that business is really done in a facility.Obviously we have many, many processes in our facilities. Some examples of processes we do that could be targets for BPM include edit a package, ingest a tape, master control changeover or distribute to Web. Basically, anything that people would say that they “do” is a candidate for a business process.

Note that these are not low-level tasks like assign a unique ID. Again, BPM, like SOA, is focusing on bringing process and technology more in line with the way the business and its people work.ORCHESTRATION TECHNOLOGYEven without actual process orchestration of any sort in place, BPM brings agility into an organization. Formalization of workflows and processes alone makes changing those processes easier simply because the current processes are now documented. Having a methodology in place to formalize processes, a standardized way to document them and an excuse to keep them up to date will make it easier to address each change as it comes.However, if process orchestration is in place, then there are other agility-related benefits.

Fig. 2: Continuous Process Improvement is critical to maintaining processes. Process or-chestration technology can help with that by versioning processes and managing their lifecycle. A facility can have many variations of a single pro-cess running at once. This is how it is in many facilities when change is implemented: one or two groups test out a new process or workflow while the bulk of the participants continue to use the existing, tried-and true process. Once the new methodology has been working successfully for a period of time, it can be rolled out to everyone. BPM and related technology also provide the benefits of increased visibility to those who do it. This visibility takes a variety of forms from a general increase in workflow awareness to specific, available products that track process status and statistics.

This is the area of BPM that has been most explored in recent years by IT vendors and is also one of the most exciting parts. Communication is increased when processes are formalized because each participant in the process now has situational awareness of what is going on around him or her. A producer now knows that the editors take advantage of logging notes in a particular way, so she will endeavor to capture the most useful information for them. If all producers use a single, backlogged transcoder because it comes up as default, this work can be load balanced through orchestration across all of the transcoders in the facility.

CONSTANT IMPROVEMENTAn important point is that in order to maintain agility, you are going to need to continuously seek to improve your processes, (see Fig. 2). You need to regularly reexamine processes and occasionally make additional changes to them. It is important to get started with a BPM program in your facility. The first step of this doesn’t have to involve the purchase of anything. You can start by getting people together and documenting your existing processes. Once this is done, you can consider which of your processes would most benefit from orchestration and start a small SOA/BPM project there. Putting in some sort of BPM technology doesn’t magically make everything run smoothly.

There is a Chinese proverb we have all heard that says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” But what that proverb doesn’t help us understand is which step. Yes, all of our organizations could use better process management, and if you begin making smart choices to bring that about, the returns will be tremendous.

You can count on IT!

John Footen is a vice president at National TeleConsultants and the head of its Software Solutions Group. He is also the co-author of the book, “Service-Oriented Media Enterprise.” He can be reached at jfooten@ntc.com.

OBG Consolidates It’s Practice Management Systems with PNMSoft BPM Software

OBG Consolidates It’s Practice Management Systems with PNMSoft BPM Software

Orchard Brayton Graham the top 50 IP Law Firm has announced that it had started a working relationship with PNMSoft the Workflow & BPM software platforms and solutions provider.

Full deployment of the system is expected in December. OBG who have recently expanded their practice with a number of acquisitions, will be using the PNMSoft SEQUENCE™ software tools to create a functional workflow environment as part of the change management process it is undertaking.

David Orchard, Orchard Brayton Graham LLP’s CEO said, “This is an important part of our process to build a world class provision of legal and ancillary services to international mid cap companies. Law firms must be aware that as more regulatory emphasis is placed on due diligence, firms are being required to adopt a range of policies and procedures, the operation of which must be monitored. PNMSoft’s excellent BPM software allows us to regulate this in an organised and consistent manner, reducing our risks and creating more consistency for our clients.”

Paul Sheridan, PNMsoft’s VP of Sales said: “Working with a leading legal organisation such as OBGLaw achieve their aim of reducing risk and creating consistency to improve performance is another example of how companies and organizations are benefiting from our leading BPM and Workflow product -SEQUENCE™.

The ability to utilise the Microsoft Office environment means that the user acceptance is high and reduces training costs.”

Since PNMsoft's foundation in 1996 by experts in human workflow processes, PNMSoft BPM software has focused on developing Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow Automation solutions that are specially oriented towards business users.

From the start, PNMSoft BPM software has applied our expertise and experience in BPM and BPI to build long-standing relationships with our customers and partners. PNMSoft BPM software products are complete projects, not shelfware, with the emphasis on reducing risk and enhancing incremental improvement. To this end, our activities extend far beyond the software itself, covering critical issues such as the speed of implementation, customization, risk reduction and fast ROI.

PNMSoft BPM software believes that BPM can lead to greater business efficiencies and increased revenues when it involves everyone. Consequently we have developed the SEQUENCE family of BPM products for rapid, easy and effectively deployment across the entire business environment. A key factor in this philosophy has been our close integration with Microsoft and its products. Liaising frequently with Microsoft developers, we have ensured that new BPM users – from every culture and background - can leverage their Windows experience to rapidly become skilful in applying our BPM tools without the need for coding or programming.

PNMSoft BPM software's growing penetration within world markets is testimony to this successful approach. Business users gain numerous advantages by using our automation technology and benefiting from our strong service orientation. They save over 60% in process development time, cut their administrative costs in half and gain greater control within their challenging multi-national business environments.

Profile

PMNsoft is a multi-national company with our marketing headquarters in the UK, our R&D centre in Israel and a network of business partners and associated offices around the globe. We have solid financial backing from Goldrock Capital, an institutionally-backed fund specializing in high-tech companies that show strong growth potential.

The executives leading PNMsoft's direction have a rich track record of expertise in computer science, information systems and workflow processes. Working in close unity with our employees and business partners, they have built a reputation for their responsiveness in providing intelligent, customized BPM solutions.

As an active player within the community, PNMSoft BPM software contributes to Tmura, a charitable venture fund that supports local educational initiatives and youth opportunities. Alongside other 'green companies' we encourage our employees to be environmentally conscious, conserving resources and moving towards a paperless office.

Twentysix New York, PNMsoft Join Forces

Twentysix New York, PNMsoft Join Forces

Leading Microsoft partners join forces to offer innovative BPM solutions to growing market in the Northeastern U.S.

Twentysix New York, a leading business and technology consultancy specializing in innovative enterprise integration, business intelligence and custom application solutions, and PNMsoft, developer and marketer of software products and professional services for business process management (BPM), announced a collaborative partnership to market and deploy PNMsoft’s flagship product, SEQUENCE in the Northeastern U.S.

SEQUENCE is a powerful, business user-oriented tool for managing information and dynamic BPM workflow procedures, including workflow processes, business rules, databases, and cross-sectional analyses in the simplest, most efficient manner in any web environment.

SEQUENCE offers an intuitive user interface, flexible and open-ended components, Microsoft based architecture, and unrivaled cost–benefit advantages. Kent Brown, twentysix New York’s Enterprise Integration Practice Manager, stated “I am excited about the addition of PNMsoft’s SEQUENCE to our toolset for providing BPM solutions to our customers.

SEQUENCE complements the SOA and Business Process Automation capabilities we have with BizTalk Server, WCF, and SharePoint. With SEQUENCE, we can deliver on the true promise of BPM – business users will be able to model and automate their key business processes and monitor the processes in real time so they can make better-informed decisions. And, with the SEQUENCE tools, the processes can be automated and modified rapidly without undue technical costs and complexity, while being well-integrated with a company’s back-end systems.”

“The BPM market in the Northeast holds enormous potential for PNMsoft. It’s a market that’s constantly energized, and there’s a great demand for BPM solutions to automate and manage a range of critical organizational business processes. Implementing PNMsoft’s BPM solution in a variety of processes in a variety of industries, including financial services, healthcare, and legal services among others, guarantees immediate and clear ROI by cutting costs and labor. Our collaboration with twentysix New York will enable us to supply a perfect response to market demands, and provide an advanced, cutting-edge solution,” offered Adi Hofstein, PNMsoft’s Vice President of Business Development.

Twentysix New York’s CEO, Jay Harris Rabin stated, ”twentysix New York views this alliance with PNMsoft as a strategic opportunity to leverage our strengths in enterprise integration, business intelligence, and core development skills using Microsoft technologies. The native integration PNMsoft offers customers will enable them to attain maximum benefits from their investments in the Microsoft product suite with a quick ROI. This partnership will also assist twentysix New York in attaining the growth goals we have set to meet our customers’ needs going forward.

Gal Horvitz, PNMsoft’s CEO, stated “Being one of the ten members of the worldwide Microsoft Business Process Alliance, it is of great importance for PNMsoft to partner with leading Microsoft Collaboration and Integration business partners. Our business model for business partnerships is all about quality over quantity, so we focus on a selected group of top performing business partners , and support them with all the resources they need in order to provide the best solutions and services to our mutual clients.“