Clear, IDS Scheer Smooth Business Process Wrinkles

Clear Technology Inc. and IDS Scheer Inc. are advancing the state of the art in business process management with upgrades to their respective BPM applications.

Clear is expanding its Tranzax BPM suite for insurance companies to make it more broadly applicable. Version 3.0 of the software, which the Westminster, Colo., company will begin shipping this week, is focused on replicating the repetitive tasks that employees perform, such as updating customer files in a call center. In this way, it frees employees from those repetitive tasks so they can perform other jobs, Clear officials said.

Tranzax 3.0 introduces an architecture that enables the modeling of state-driven processes, in addition to flow-driven processes (see screen). If a procedure requires that several pieces of data be collected before it can proceed to the next step, but it doesnt matter in what order they arrive, the state-driven model processes that procedure faster, officials explained.

A new event handler in Version 3.0 automatically processes exceptions by returning a process to a step that it previously missed or to recompile a result based on new data.

Tranzax 3.0 offers enhancements for faster time to deployment as well. A Zero-Code Configuration feature enables business analysts to build business process applications without using custom code. An XML Services Simulator lets IT managers test new applications quickly before they go live. Nested subprocedures let developers standardize some processes and reuse them.

Separately, IDS Scheers Aris 6 Collaborative Suite offers a fully Web-based suite of tools. A new Matrix Modeler lets an IT manager take a business process from an existing model and analyze, modify and optimize it, said officials at IDS Scheer, in Berwyn, Pa.

Aris 6s Cost Analyzer tool analyzes models based on time and cost of the processes so that a business analyst can determine if they are worthwhile to pursue. Analyses can be viewed using such approaches as activity-based costing and targeted costing.

Users can get an overview of recent activities in Aris 6, including changes and communications, using the new screen modeling capabilities.

IDS Scheer officials also played up the expanded collaboration and communication capabilities in Aris 6 thanks to things such as a Web-based change management tool. Version 6 also sports online reporting capabilities and supports many human languages.