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Workflow automation software maker Ultimus on Monday will introduce the latest iteration of its Ultimus Workflow Suite.
The biggest add to the Workflow Suite, version 5.0, is a new Process Designer tool that gives users—business process owners, analysts and IT professionals—the ability to design, model, optimize, document and deploy business processes.
By having the ability to design, model and optimize business processes, the idea is that companies will be able to demonstrate a return on investment prior to any actual implementation, according to Rashid Khan, Ultimus co-founder and CEO.
“Companies want to know ROI before incurring cost and thats very much dependent on business process itself,” said Khan in Cary, N.C. “So within Designer, business process owners can make assumptions, run scenarios through the system, all on a modeling basis…[they can] measure ROI, figure out bottlenecks and costs, then change and optimize their processes.”
The Process Designer provides business analysts and other non-IT folks with an intuitive tool for designing business processes by creating what-if scenarios that can be compared and optimized.
The new tool lets users define scenarios and perform workload and throughput analysis on processes in order to predict performance.
If the performance is not consistent with expectations (based on statistical representation), the process design can be changed or more resources added in order to optimize efficiency, officials said.
At the same time, business analysts have the ability to create process maps as graphical representations of how processes across industries flow from one step to another and what happens at each step, from initiation to completion.
Users can then pass on completed business processes directly to IT for implementation.
Other features in 5.0 include enhanced Web-based forms that integrate with Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle 9i database, providing multiple query and polling abilities and rapid refresh for requesting new tasks.
5.0 offers the ability to perform queries within Ultimus forms and provides a direct relationship between it and outside databases.
An upgrade to the Ultimus Client view of the Workflow Suite allows users to move through multiple incidents of the same process step without having to reload a form.
Workflow Suite 5.0 is currently available. A trial version of the Process designer is also available.