1. business and industrial
2. business operations
3. management
4. business process

WHITEPAPER
B is for Business
Putting the BUSINESS back into BPM
to ensure continuous improvement
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
2
B is for Business
Contents
Why do so many BPM initiatives fail to deliver?
3
Introducing the Bizagi BPM Stack
4
The Process layer
6
The Data layer
9
The Enterprise Mapping layer
14
Summary: Towards a holistic view
17
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
3
B is for Business
Why do so many BPM initiatives fail to deliver?
Today, business success depends largely on the ability to adapt quickly to changing
market dynamics. Yet most businesses fail to deliver the expected business agility,
primarily because they take too long to translate changing needs into software that
ultimately drives the business outcome. Many alternative solutions have been explored over the years. They range
from bespoke applications written in-house and buying best-fit, off-theshelf commercial packages right through to Business Process Management
tools. The pros and cons of each approach is illustrated in Figure 1.
Flexible
BPMS
High Implementation Cost
Low Implementation Cost
In-house
Software
Development
Off-the-shelf
Software
(ERP, CRM)
Rigid
Figure 1: Addressing business agility with software
The problem of forcing a business to adapt to a rigid technology, instead of creating a
flexible technology that adapts itself to the business, remains unsolved. The panacea of
continuous improvement, not just to anticipate problems but to facilitate change for the
better, hasn’t been fully realized…as yet. BPM systems that seemed the obvious, modern and most progressive choice still fail to
deliver on the promise. So why do so many customers find it difficult, if not impossible, to
achieve business agility? What is it about so many BPM deployments that don’t offer
speed, agility, collaboration and results?
The clue is in the title: too many Business Process Management vendors have forgotten
that business people should drive their own processes. By letting IT handle the process of
change, too few projects can truly evolve to deliver continuous improvement.
So what’s behind this fundamental issue? Take a closer look at what lies beneath BPM systems
and you’ll find little more than simple visual programming tools, lacking inbuilt support for
scalability and enterprise-wide deployments. As a result, you have a rigid platform designed
for technology people and not for business, where changes are costly and development is
slow. So what’s the answer?
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
4
B is for Business
Introducing the Bizagi BPM Stack
Bizagi believes that modern, scalable BPM systems need a “BPM stack”, or a layered
architecture, to support continuous improvement and agility. This stack helps to
separate complex problems into separate logical layers that promote usability,
flexibility and business people engagement.
Bizagi built its architectural stack ensuring the following conditions were met:
dependency questions so the impact of change can be easily located
✓✓Answer
Expose
different
of services (i.e. data, process or transactional services)
✓✓Enable business types
and IT alignment, while building upon different strengths and
✓✓skills.
What does this agile architecture look like? Figure 2 clearly separates out the key
three layers of the BPM stack: The Process layer, the Data layer, and the Enterprise
Mapping layer.
Bizagi BPM Suite
Code Free
Process Modeling
Reusable Business Objects
Widget
Form
Rule
Process Layer
Led by
Business
Data Layer
Entity Virtualization or Replication
Component Library
ESB (optional)
Enterprise
Mapping Layer
Databases
Figure 2. Layered Bizagi architecture
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
ERP, CRM, etc.
Legacy
Owned
by IT
5
B is for Business
“
Unlike most vendors, Bizagi built its system from
the bottom up. Under this unique layered architecture, elements
that clutter the process model - such as messaging and data
variables - are eliminated from the early modeling stages. This
creates a clean, seamless way of working that engages business
from the start.”
Eduardo Gonzalez.
Collaboration & Workflow IT Manager, adidas Group
In this, the core part of the paper, each layer will be treated in turn; considering
firstly the challenges that arise under the traditional, rigid architecture, the functions
of the layer itself and their respective benefits. By the end, you should have a strong
understanding of how each works in practice and how their many overlapping
points serve to strengthen the overall solution.
Their overall functions can be described at the high level as:
Process layer
Business-owned part of the BPM system which allows
users to define requirements, design processes, generate
comprehensive documentation or create business rules.
Modeling can be used for process understanding as well
as for process execution (depending on individual needs
or the stage of the project). With Bizagi no external modeling
tools like Word, Visio, etc., are required.
Data layer
A separate layer owned by IT which helps to deal with
project complexities by removing data from the process discussions.
The Data layer enables entity and data interaction definitions,
serving as a repository of ‘business objects’ (rules, forms, data)
which are designed for reuse, improving the speed of development.
Enterprise Mapping layer
Owned by IT as it seamlessly manages the way data is
accessed; allowing the BPMS to reach out and interact dynamically
with any application, from back-office CRM and ERP to existing legacy
systems.
It is the tools, services and relationships within each of these areas that promote
continuous improvement. Let’s look in detail at each of these layers in turn.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
6
B is for Business - The Process Layer
The Process layer
This layer includes the organizational processes which are a
combination of manual activities (carried out by people) and
automatic activities (carried out by systems).
What’s the challenge?
Most BPM systems are visual programming tools, which
define data-in and data-out for each activity, very much
in the same manner as programmers create a procedure
with input and output variables.
Because of the complex process maps, the collaboration
between business and IT is minimal and yet business
must be involved to define process requirements and
make the process changes. Instead they switch off, if too
many variables are embedded into the process layer.
As a result, these end up being technical (not
business) processes, where vendors are ultimately
providing no more than a technical tool for IT. Worse
still, what should be a business process model,
hopefully maintained but at least understood by the
business, is turned into what could be called a Technical
Workflow.
“
Thanks to Bizagi, EY mastered an agile
methodology. By breaking our project
into small chunks, reaching a specific
level of functionality and then moving
to the next stage, we created an
incredibly agile work environment
where continuous improvement – not
perfection – is the focus.”
Alberto Serfaty,
Senior Manager – Performance Improvement, EY
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
The business process model should be just that –
‘a business process’. It should not be a technical
workflow language only understood by developers. It
should not be littered with custom activities to do such
things like access external data, or synchronize internal
data and back end systems.
Is there a hope for continuous
improvement?
If this first part of the business process solution is already
delegated to IT then it’s safe to say that it will be IT that
manages the business processes. Not management, not
the process owner – but programmers!
As processes are not readable, it is difficult to divide
the labour plus the process maintenance is difficult.
This creates a rigid architecture that can’t be easily
changed which contradicts the concept of continuous
improvement.
Not only this, the rigid architecture nearly always links
‘data variables’ (fields, objects) to the existing legacy
system via static ‘connectors’ – meaning that any change
to the process is ‘tightly coupled’ to the content and its
content delivery mechanism.
So while automating one process might be easy, inbuilt
limitations make it difficult to automate a second and a
third… all in all, it’s easy to see why so many BPMS
implementations fail at the first hurdle.
7
B is for Business - The Process Layer
What does Bizagi do differently?
In essence, business stakeholders do not need to
be distracted by data variables and their locations.
Under the Bizagi architecture, when re-working a
process, they only see a simple, elegant visualization of
all the interactions between processes, subprocesses, activities, rules and forms.
and automatically generates a web application that
supports the process execution.
The system ensures that every single process task is
executed in the right sequence and allocates work to the
right person. In that way, process owners know in detail
and in real-time who is doing what, when and where. In
addition, it ensures processes are validated and executed
according to the pre-defined policies. This ‘Modeling
instead of programming’ approach evolution is illustrated
in Figure 3.
Code-free execution
To turn the Process Map into a live process solution,
Bizagi offers a business/IT collaboration environment
based on a drag-and-drop user interface which is intuitive
and requires no coding. Bizagi takes the process definition
Most BPM Competitors
Code
Process
Execution
Process
Diagrams
70 & 80’s
Code
Bizagi
Process
Execution
90’s and early 21st century
Process
Diagrams
Process
Application
The End Game
Figure 3. ‘Modeling instead of programming’ approach evolution
Agile web application
Incubating business and IT collaboration
The web application is agile in the sense that when any
element of the process is modified with Bizagi (flow,
activities, GUI, business rules) it adapts automatically to
the new process definition. The web application
generated by Bizagi distributes and optimizes the work
not only within the organization, but across all the value
chain, while guaranteeing permanent compliance with
the process definition.
Business people remain engaged, and feel far more
confident about enhancing the process in line with their
ever-changing business objectives. Whether ensuring tasks
are carried out to meet new legislation or new internal
policies, Bizagi ensures that processes are taking place the
way you want them to - and the goal of continuous
improvement is an achievable reality.
This all adds up to a far more seamless way of working.
Requirement discussions happen alongside the process
model i.e. early, while simple, clutter-free presentation
engages business. IT can be confident that processes are
being managed in a logical, elegant and modern way.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
8
B is for Business - The Process Layer
“
Bizagi’s clean process modeling engages business
and IT from the start. Business people are not discouraged
as they can visualize the process, make changes and drive
the design. Other tools are targeted at developers so they
give IT the full control. In this respect, Bizagi is unique.”
Dr. Adnan. A. Al-Tunisi
CIO, PSMMC
Benefits of the Bizagi Process layer
★★ Improved quality: business and IT are aligned from Day 1 through a simple,
elegant process model that is easy to create and update.
★★ IT & business are collaborators: speaking a common language - the language
of processes. This allows precise specifications, changes aligned with business
objectives and enables business users to control and understand the technology
that supports their processes. Decisions are made and priorities set based on
project goals.
★★ The
Process is the Application: unlike other technologies, which are too
complex to implement and too rigid to modify, Bizagi offers a complete solution
that automates business processes faster and more flexibly, thus providing the
organization with the required agility to continuously improve their critical
processes.
★★ Lower maintenance costs: code-free execution keeps long development cycles
out of the picture. Each time a process is created or redefined, a web application
is automatically generated or updated to support the latest process. There’s not
one line of code to write: the model is saved onto a standard database and
integrated in real-time into a simple, streamlined web application.
★★ Fast results: Business analysts access all the data as if it was local to Bizagi (that
is, they do not have to deal with the complexities of physical data location) and
then Bizagi will go and extract the data from the right system at the right time. This
ensures that processes are built and automated quickly to keep projects on track.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
9
B is for Business - The Data Layer
The Data layer
Process activities require sophisticated data processing and decisionmaking based on specific values embedded in data, as defined by business
rules. This functionality is supported by the Data layer which is connected
to the Process layer by a pre-defined user interface.
What’s the challenge?
Most BPM systems force the user to visualize the data
model as a flat list of variables, with the possibility to
declare individual fields, but not to express information
as objects or to adequately describe relationships
between information. This requires thinking in database
terms at the process level.
Data: the BPM ‘elephant in the room’
The Data layer – specifically, its structure, design, and
how it interacts – is something few BPM vendors talk
about, yet it is one of the most important features of a
robust and scalable BPM system.
In many ways it is the heart of a BPM suite – how do I
manage my business process information? How do I
design it? How do I access information from external
systems as if it were part of my business process? Above
all, how do I achieve all of these things while keeping the
environment easy to use and easy to understand by the
business community?
If the answers to these questions are not simple, if the
structures are too rigid or complex, then change is
difficult, momentum is lost and the project fails to deliver.
Data and Process interaction: how?
The topic of process interaction with data is one of the
most important aspects of BPMS architecture. Get it
wrong, and at best, the whole business process becomes
burdened with excessive technology and slows down; at
worst, it is simply cancelled because change just didn’t
happen.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
Finally, when data and process is managed at the same
level, reusability is stifled. This capability to share process
elements among projects is indispensable for productivity
and for consistency, but it comes at a price: in order to be
able to understand the impact of modifying a reusable
process element, the dependencies between all process
elements must be made clearly visible.
What’s required for reusability to work?
Since many BPMS have the data variables (and the
corresponding forms that present the user interface)
defined at activity level, reusability is seriously restricted.
Specifically, they cannot compose and nest forms to
build new user interfaces that will automatically access
the appropriate data needed for those forms.
For reusability to work, the following questions need to
be answered:
•
•
•
Which customer database process variables are
being used?
Where is the “large loan” business rule being used?
What data elements does it depend upon?
In which activities and processes is this form or
screen being used? Which rules does it access?
If answers are not forthcoming, the impact of change
cannot be measured and therefore the optimization and
continuous improvement cycle is broken in enterprisewide BPM initiatives. Yet, when the process layer is
directly linked to web services these answers are
impossible to get.
10
B is for Business - The Data Layer
Modeling without a Data layer: Hospital admission example
Let’s illustrate this with a simple scenario.
Take a hospital admission process. First,
you’ll need to write a sub-process to check
the patient’s registration record. Next stage is
to list your variables and write some access
code to get hold of information needed from
the legacy hospital information system (HIS).
Then you need to do the same, but for the
outpatients’ admission. A good deal of
information that is needed – such as
outpatient’s registration – is identical to the
hospital admission process. So you cut, paste
and import all the code and database
procedures from the first process.
But what happens if you change the legacy
HIS? And what if the hospital management
decides that you need to change the
information you use about the patients?
You have to go back through every process
and change the variables, the process map,
your import routines and database code. It
gets even more complex when information
already exists on external systems. Now, you
need technically skilled developers who
understand code and database programming.
Instantly, the business model locks you into
complex mechanisms and coding routines.
This has become a maintenance nightmare
which we call ‘spaghetti BPM’.
So what’s the Bizagi difference?
Unlike other BPM providers that don’t distinguish between the Process layer and
the Data layer, Bizagi separates them out. Process elements, such as business rules,
and business objects, such as data, are linked to the process by forms at entity level.
In Bizagi, this is called the Shared Data Model. This allows business people to work
with data as if it’s local – removing complex jargon of synchronization, data access
and stored procedures – from the conversation.
By providing an independent Data layer, Bizagi encourages data objects to be shared
among several processes which is indispensable to support enterprise-wide BPM
initiatives.
Keep it local
As Bizagi assumes that the data is local, organizational processes don’t
include technical activities to access and/or update data; the automatic activities
(which involve interaction with third party applications) should be used only to
carry out transactions on external systems.
In addition, the business rules assume that all the information elements required to
make decisions are inside the Bizagi entities and therefore should not involve the
data mapping and access logic (knowledge that is foreign to the business analyst
profile).
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
11
B is for Business - The Data Layer
“
Bizagi’s Shared Data Model takes care of data
management thus helps to deal with project
complexities; by removing data from the process
discussions, the design time is significantly improved.
Without separate data layer capability, BPM systems
won’t cope with complex data structures.”
Alberto Serfaty
Senior Manager – Performance Improvement, EY
Keep it simple
The lack of technical complexities related to data access
and field mapping supported by a visual environment
(where users drag and drop different object into the
canvas) makes light work of designing even the most
sophisticated user interfaces. Users don’t have to resort
to writing code or being concerned about database
tables and stored procedures. Tables and relationships
are defined within the Data layer and they are separate
from the process, while forms are created at the entry
level to promote reuse.
Reusable business objects under the Bizagi BPM stack
include:
Reuse from the bottom up
•
•
•
•
We believe that Bizagi is the only BPM suite that is
designed for reuse from the bottom up. This is down to
removing all data technicalities from the Process layer
and creating the Data layer that is shared across
different projects and teams.
The Bizagi data architecture is based on
data aggregation and re-composition; the Data layer
(and other process elements such as business rules)
are completely separate from the Process layer and
the link is established by forms defined at entity
level. Forms can be composed and nested to build
more sophisticated user interfaces that are linked to
the activities of the process. What this means is that
all process elements (including the process state) can
be shared and reused among several processes.
The Data layer provides multiple reusability types when
applied to business objects, based on the assumptions
that nearly all entities can be reused.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
•
•
•
•
Processes, sub-processes and process modules:
reused through the BPMN sub-process activity or via
the BPMN Message and the BPMN signal mechanisms
both at Start and Intermediate events
Sub-process design
Business rules, routines & entities
Form templates: can be designed against business
entities, or simply as form snippets
Business Rule Policies and Business Form Vocabulary
Data models
Organizational definitions & resources
Widgets (see below).
All of the reusable business objects can then be dragged
and dropped into the end user interface reducing
development time, maintenance effort and condensing
the whole change management cycle. They can also be
easily accessed and modeled without any programming
expertise. Second processes (and ones that follow) benefit significantly through this ability to reuse everything from data objects and sub-processes to business rules,
widgets and forms.
12
B is for Business - The Data Layer
Enterprise-wide BPM
Due to data
sharing constraints
Automation
Cost / Effort
Bizagi
Other BPMS
Number of processes
Figure 4. Impact of reusability on enterprise wide BPM initiatives
Extensibility
Every business process application is unique. For example, the needs of an insurance
claims application are completely different from the hospital admission processes
in the hospital example above. While every BPM product can provide text fields,
numeric fields, date entry, etc., what if the hospital application needs to show a
dynamic growth chart for patients for example? Or a chart that is interactive and
able to import data from the business process data model?
Or what if it is needed to provide an interface to look up the patient history on an
external system and then combine the process with patient information to generate
a real-time prescription form?
Widgets
In Bizagi’s world, this is done with the help of widgets. These UI building blocks (i.e.
maps, pie charts, calculators) are data aware, so they understand and can work
seamlessly with the business process data. Widgets are intelligent enough to render
perfectly for every device – so that a table widget, for example, shows just the right
amount of rows and columns to display optimally on a PC, tablet or a smartphone.
Bizagi recognizes that creating UI objects can be time-consuming. That’s why
a comprehensive library of ready-made widgets called Widget Xchange has been
created by Bizagi and the community and is now accessible directly within the
BPM Suite.
In addition, a complete SDK is provided to help customers develop and add their
own widgets to the library. An easy-to-use design environment means that customers
can extend their own user interface with minimal effort.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
13
B is for Business - The Data Layer
“
We started with a patient registration process
followed by the patient admission; in both processes the
patient object, forms and business rules have been reused.
This resulted in 50% productivity improvement in
development time between the first and second process.”
Dr. Adnan. A. Al-Tunisi, CIO, PSMMC
Benefits of the Bizagi Data layer
★★ Instills ‘reuse’ culture: by separating the Process layer from the Data layer,
teams in charge of data definition can solely focus on this activity and take the
holistic view about the data architecture (process elements and their
dependencies), putting reuse at the heart of the project.
★★ Clean yet powerful modeling: business people don’t need to understand the
complexities associated with the data’s current physical location; Forms &
Business Rules never have to deal with data access or field mapping issues.
★★ Faster development time: drag and drop of reusable entities and modeling
building blocks (i.e. widgets) reduce development & maintenance costs, as well
as optimize change control.
★★ Increase in business engagement: clean, corporate data model for managing
and changing process information connects the dots between business and IT;
organizational procedures remain readable by a business audience.
★★ Efficient work distribution: three separate layers encourage role based focus;
while the Process layer is owned by business (analysts, process owner, modeler,
etc.), the Data and Enterprise Mapping layers are owned by IT who design,
configure and implement the entities data model and integration services.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
14
B is for Business - Enterprise Mapping Layer
The Enterprise Mapping layer
A natural extension of the Data layer, the final element of the Bizagi
stack. The Enterprise Mapping layer provides an envelope (or
“wrapper”) around the existing business assets, whether it’s a 15
year-old legacy system or modern applications and databases.
What’s the challenge?
Significant issues arise when the information required in the business process already
exists in an external system (see the ‘Modeling without the Data layer’ example on page
10). The process now becomes incredibly technical, involving skilled developers who
understand both code and database programming. Instantly the business process model
becomes very tightly coupled to the mechanisms and code used to access external data,
resulting in longer development time, more costs and added application maintenance
efforts.
To keep external interfaces clean and
manageable, Bizagi avoids the creation of
unnecessary links each time an entity is
referenced by a process. These “multiple
versions of the truth” create unnecessary
complexity and stifle change control and
visibility.
All BPM vendors can integrate with external
applications: but how many do it in a clean,
elegant and efficient way that promotes
business
collaboration
and
furthers
continuous improvement?
“
Data is the core business
object; it doesn’t belong
to the BPM system;
it belongs to the back end.”
Eduardo Gonzalez
Collaboration & Workflow IT Manager, adidas Group
Won’t SOA do the job?
Yes, existing SOA layers do provide the ability to catalog and – some of them – compose
web services. However, a catalog doesn’t provide the information required to address
reusability questions, defined in the Data layer section. And as explained before, by
managing variables most BPMS don´t deal with the level of abstraction and detail
necessary to provide these answers either.
Unfortunately, SOA and BPM share something more than the media hype and “the
solution for all your problems” rhetoric: both terms are so broad that almost anything
can be included in their definition (and excluded also, if it serves your interest).
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
15
B is for Business - Enterprise Mapping Layer
“
A key differentiator for Bizagi is its unique data modeling
approach that allows process designers to create a virtualized data
model that provides a consistent way to manage and synchronize
between business process models and source data and legacy
applications. This approach allows process analysts and designers to
minimize process model complexity. Instead of embedding
unnecessary process activities for orchestrating and synchronizing
data updates, much of this complexity can be shifted into the
virtualized data model.”
Forrester WaveTM: BPM Suites, Q1 2013
What is the ‘Bizagi way’?
The core capability of Bizagi’s Enterprise Mapping layer is
its ‘Entity Virtualization’ allowing any defined process to
access any defined data source in a clean and simple
way. It works by synchronizing the information held
within the original repository (CRM, ERP, XML file, etc.)
with the Bizagi database.
The Enterprise Mapping layer is closely aligned to the
Data layer so it maintains the perception that data is
local; and like the Process layer, it shields the process
owners from unnecessary complex terminology. This was
a purposely orchestrated approach to instill Bizagi’s
mantra: ‘Think Business, NOT Infrastructure’.
How does Bizagi Entity Virtualization work?
Bizagi’s virtualization technologies support transparent
access to data administrated by third party systems in a
number of ways including: web services; solutions to
automate enterprise application integration (EAI);
messaging systems (for instance, IBM MQ Series) and
direct access to databases, among others.
The rules are very simple: if the data object exists within
the enterprise, Bizagi virtualizes it (connects to it), if it
doesn’t, it is created within the Bizagi database. There is
no unnecessary replication.
This fundamental shift to a modern, virtualized
architecture negates the need to replicate any data: the
object is created, stored and reused each time changes
are made. The ‘virtualization of corporate data’ concept
works on a premise that all entities can be virtualized,
meaning linked with their physical location in the legacy
system.
The nature of the Enterprise Mapping layer allows easy
integration, regardless of the interface. For established
applications such as SharePoint and DB2, Bizagi offers a
more advanced approach: virtualization ‘classes’ that
enable easy connectivity. As virtualization classes are
extendable, Bizagi can connect to any system.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
In BPM projects, certain business rules may require
complex calculation or processing. In order to keep the
business rules understandable and guarantee their
performance, Bizagi allows an easy registration and
access of these programmatic components, through the
use of the Component Manager or the Library Rules.
16
B is for Business - Enterprise Mapping Layer
“
Bizagi allows for an easy way to deal with virtualized data by
providing a clear mapping between logical data and distributed
(physical) data sources. This 1 –to-many logical to physical mapping
is very clean, structured and powerful.
Integration with legacy systems is much faster with Bizagi. There’s
no need to overload your BPMS - simple is beautiful.”
Eduardo Gonzalez
Collaboration & Workflow IT Manager, adidas Group
Benefits of the Bizagi Enterprise
Mapping layer
★★ Higher productivity: physical data mapping is carried out at the later stage,
shielding process owners from technicalities of data retrieval.
★★ Interoperability:
Bizagi can retrieve data from any heterogenous systems
whether legacy, database or modern applications.
★★ Improved maintenance: all entities can be virtualized; if they already exist,
they get connected so there is no replication within the legacy system(s). As a
result, the number of interfaces with external systems is drastically reduced.
★★ Guaranteed consistency & integrity: between the Process layer and the legacy
systems. For example, there might be three different activities in the process,
but because of existing validations in the legacy systems, data cannot be saved
onto them until the last activity has finished; this caching facility is provided by
the Enterprise Mapping layer.
★★ Standards-based: regardless of the age or complexity of existing applications,
the flexible Bizagi architecture can reach out to any external system using
industry standards.
★★ Greater
quality & reusability: data is never unnecessarily replicated, but
virtualized and then linked through modern web services which creates a “single
version of the truth”. The chances of creating repeated connectors that offer the
same or similar functionality (but perhaps very different performance and
quality levels!) are reduced.
★★ Data
architecture transparency: three-tier, layered approach provides far
greater control of data and its relationships; by separating the Process from the
Data and Enterprise Mapping layers, Bizagi makes it possible to eliminate
redundant or damaging data structures that inevitably developed in legacy
systems over time.
Copyright © 2002-2015 Bizagi. All rights reserved.
17
B is for Business
“
I’d use Bizagi for any project,
regardless of size, scale or complexity.
It truly is BPMS without limits.”
Alberto Serfaty
Senior Manager – Performance Improvement, EY
Summary: Towards a holistic view
To begin with, this paper presented the key challenge
faced by C-level executives globally: “How do I ensure
business agility i.e. quick adaptability to changing
market conditions?” The main argument around this
discussion is that while BPM is inherently more suitable
than any other software option for this task, many BPM
tools have basic design flaws that restrict them from
achieving true process improvement.
Top level benefits of the Bizagi stack include:
To back up the case, the concept of a BPM ‘stack’ was
introduced, which provides a clean and elegant, multilayered architecture. By delving into each of its three
layers: Process, Data and Enterprise Mapping, it was
possible to look in more detail at the challenges faced
under the traditional architecture and how the Bizagi
model addresses them. Each section was completed with
the benefits of each of the layers, which together create a
compelling solution that takes a holistic view of the
process and data model.
Closer business engagement: through the
elimination of unnecessary technicalities and
through code-free business execution.
Faster, more cost effective change: thanks to
reusable business objects designed for process
evolution.
Lower development time and total cost of
ownership: via smart integration capabilities that
avoid data replication.
About Bizagi
Bizagi (which stands for business agility) is a privately-owned company run
by software entrepreneurs who are experts in Business Process
Management (BPM). Over 350 global customers have selected Bizagi to
model and automate their business processes which results in improved
operational efficiencies, shorter time to market and business agility.
Our customers gain significant competitive advantage through Bizagi’s
freemium model, which allows enterprises to try and test software without
financial commitment. Underpinned by agile methodology, customers can
expect their first process to be delivered in 7 weeks: a risk-free approach
that explains Bizagi’s 100% project success rate.
With global headquarters in the UK, offices in Europe, US and Latin
America, Bizagi is supported by a strong implementation partner network
worldwide. For more information, please visit www.bizagi.com.
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