ABACUS for Business Process Management

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1 ABACUS for Business Process Management Business Process Management (BPM) is one of the most popular methods for retaining business viability in a competitive market. ABACUS supports practitioners in managing the complexities of BPM, helping the business to hit its goals. Version 1.4 Published April 2016

2 ABACUS gives BPM Practitioners the ability to: Model and analyze current business process using a variety of notations Configure constraints so that users are restricted or allowed from making changes inconsistent with the chosen meta-model Perform simulations to identify bottlenecks and other areas where improvements can be made Design and evaluate new business processes using multiple scenarios Design dashboards that display real-time information about business processes and other entities Store all data in one convenient centralized repository Exchange data easily with applications including Excel, Visio and SharePoint Business Process Management (BPM) is one of the most popular methods for retaining business viability in a competitive market. ABACUS helps to manage the complexities of BPM throughout its entire lifecycle. Developing IT Governance through Business Process Management Unlike more traditional hierarchical management practices, BPM (also known as Business Process Improvement or BPI) focuses first and foremost on the needs of the customer and how effectively your organization is at addressing these needs. It is an approach which has been demonstrated to improve efficiency, deliver higher product quality, decrease time to market and ultimately provide greater customer satisfaction. In an age where customer needs are constantly changing, BPM is an agile approach that allows organizations to adapt rapidly in a manner which boosts the quality of the customer s experience. Although BPM is an important practice in its own right and can be used in isolation to deliver business value, it is increasingly playing a crucial role in the governance of modern IT programs. New technologies are constantly emerging that enable business process improvements that were not previously possible on the same magnitude. P a g e 2

3 (ABACUS BPM in the context of wider IT Governance goals) How a business does processes is defined by how employees actually perform customer service. A game is defined by what players do and not by strategy or plans. Max J.Pucher Using ABACUS for BPM BPM is only effective if it is done in a consistent and methodical manner. Without the right tool it is difficult to orchestrate who is managing what and how various team members collaborate. In this sense ABACUS puts the M into BPM. ABACUS supports BPM throughout its entire lifecycle, helping users to identify, analyze, engineer, measure, review and maintain business processes. Using ABACUS, teams can work across the organization to attain higher quality, lower costs and increase customer satisfaction though continuous process improvement. ABACUS also supports a wide range of techniques and roles in a company s IT governance. Because of this, a business optimization process or BPM can be integrated easily into other programs including Enterprise Architecture or Portfolio Management. Each approach can leverage the results of the other. Support for Notations ABACUS Architect supports all of the major business process modelling notations that are popular today including Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) 1.x and 2.0 and Event-driven Process Chains (EPC) all out of the box and at no additional cost. ABACUS also supports the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as well as basic flowcharting and other related business frameworks, including Business Motivation Model (BMM). P a g e 3

4 (Modeling using BPMN) With the ABACUS Designer add-on, users are able to fully configure the notation that they wish to use or even build a framework from scratch if that is their preferred approach. It is also possible to combine notations by simply dragging and dropping the desired elements from each notation into your meta-model. Flexible Meta-Model ABACUS Designer allows you to adjust your meta-model with its simple point and click interface so that entities not traditionally modeled in common business process notations can be seamlessly integrated into your model. These do not have to be included in your diagrams, but by storing them in a centralized ABACUS repository you can ensure that all users have the latest and most accurate information. Optimization and simulation allow you to run the process as if it were running in the real world. However unlike processes running in the real world, if the optimized and simulated process breaks, no one gets hurt. Gartner This flexibility is a feature exclusive to ABACUS users. Other modeling tools will allow you to design business process diagrams in isolation. However, they do not provide a mechanism for linking your business processes with processes at different levels of granularity or other important elements you may wish to model, such as stakeholders and technologies. Constraints to ensure teams model consistently The frameworks that ship with ABACUS Architect include constraints. These can be used to prevent or warn users from making changes that are not consistent with their chosen notation. (For example, in ABACUS users will be alerted if they are drawing a sequence flow originating from an End Event if using BPMN.) Constraints are fully configurable. Using ABACUS Designer, constraints can be added or removed for hierarchical relationships, connections and properties. P a g e 4

5 With this approach it is possible to ensure all users are modeling in a consistent manner. This ability to add and control constraints is key to avoiding the frustration caused by every team-member doing their own thing. Process Simulation and Analytics Using ABACUS Simulator, you will be able to run a complete end-to-end simulation of the processes in your BPM project. This allows you to identify bottlenecks and areas of questionable reliability. In ABACUS Simulator you can select and run simulations metrics including reliability, performance, cost, modularity and openness. These metrics can then be used to produce powerful views allowing you to calculate and demonstrate the trade-offs involved as you of make adjustments to your business processes model. This ability to run an end-to-end simulation of your model draw on the tool s powerful analytics engines including algorithms which are exclusive to ABACUS. These analytics options go well beyond the map-drawing capabilities of standard BPM tools. Best-Practice Reference Models BPM as a practice has been proven over decades. It has stood the test of time and over the years a number of best practices have emerged that are in use in leading organizations across all sectors. ABACUS Architect ships with numerous reference models that demonstrate industry best practices and can serve as templates for your own process models. (Reference Model using APQC s Process Classification Framework) P a g e 5

6 A Centralized Repository for Data Consistency Simply having great artefacts is not enough in the world of management, the right stakeholders must be able to access the information they need, when they need it. These stakeholders must be able to ensure they are working with the latest up-to-date data and have a consistent view of that data from multiple perspectives. The only way to ensure that this happens is with a centralized data store. ABACUS Enterprise Edition provides a repository in which all BPM data and artefacts that use that data can be stored in the one convenient location. Furthermore, the ABACUS repository is structured in a way that ensures all artefacts are kept consistent. Subversion (SVN) based conflict resolution ensures any incompatible changes can be managed sensibly. Quick and Easy Data Interchange ABACUS provides open access to its data and can be easily integrated to receive and publish data with other tools. ABACUS Architect can import and export from a number of common formats including Excel, Visio and SharePoint out of the box. Its open scripting environment allows for data interchange in virtually any format. Additionally, any data that is in ABACUS can be exported into a HTML format that can be freely shared on a company intranet using ABACUS Publisher Reporting and Dashboarding BPM Typically the last and arguably the most important step in BPM is to continually monitor new business processes once they have been implemented. This involves measuring key metrics of the process relating to quality, cost, time and customer satisfaction. These metrics are often best represented graphically in the form of a dashboard. ABACUS Intelligence On-Demand allows users to access powerful web-based dashboards containing a variety of charts and diagrams. This cloud-based module reads data directly from the Enterprise Repository, ensuring the most up to date information is always displayed, and displays it in an easily digestible format to the desired stakeholder without the need to install software. ABACUS Architect also supports a flexible dashboard model that allows you to create dashboards using rich visuals including heat maps, treemaps, diagrams and a variety of charts. P a g e 6.

7 If you would to try ABACUS for yourself, please sign up for a free 30-day trial by visiting If you would like a demonstration from one of our expert consultants, [email protected] Or contact one of our offices to discuss ABACUS or for pricing. P a g e 7

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