Appian, a provider of business process management technology, and MEGA, a provider of business process analysis (BPA) and enterprise architecture solutions, have teamed up to introduce Appian Process Architect by MEGA. The new solution enables organizations to use the methodology of the MEGA Suite for process analysis and pass the results directly into the Appian Business Process Management Suite and the software-as-a-service-delivered Appian Anywhere platforms for execution and direct management of daily operations. The new integration provides organizations with an end to end business process management and improvement solution.
Customers using products from Appian and MEGA separately typically are engaged in business process analysis; modeling and describing processes; and looking for the impact of change and opportunities to reduce costs or produce products faster or at a higher quality, Terence Lee, vice president of operations, North America, MEGA, tells 5 Minute Briefing. On the other side of the house, there is business process management, where companies have automated some business process, where information is being routed from person to person, or from person to system throughout the business to achieve a goal or deliverable like processing a claims request.
"By bringing the two together, meaning doing their business process modeling and analysis in MEGA, and then simply handing it off to Appian for workflow automation, they get a couple of major advantages," says Lee. "First, they are only describing the process once whereas in the past companies described these processes twice, and the other major value is that by using a process analysis tool like MEGA, they can now relate their process to their enterprise architecture, to the software systems that support the process, to the strategies and objectives that were used in defining the process, to the technical infrastructure that supports the software that supports the process, and so on-the elements of enterprise architecture."
This enables companies to use those processes for impact analysis and reporting in other areas-not just relative to that individual process but to the rest of the company, he notes.
Typically, Lee says, BPM vendors have provided process design tools that are only sufficient to automate those processes. "They are not designed to be robust, powerful analysis tools," he explains. That's because BPA tools often have a reputation for being complex or sophisticated. Increasingly, however, companies are realizing that they actually need that sophistication to do powerful re-engineering and analysis. Yet, basic tools provided by BPM vendors are just not up to the task, Lee states. "That is why Appian and Mega came together. Appian realized they could partner with a leading BPA vendor much faster and more effectively than trying to build a tool from the ground up on their own."
For more information about Appian Process Architect by MEGA, go here.