Large scale (high volume) business process automation solutions have come under increasing demand in recent years in large organizations.
These solutions are very complex – as they deal with running and managing a variety of input devices, and they often cover the entire process chain, with process steps.
As a result, such solutions today require far more functionality than traditional document scanning and often include components allowing complex image processing and conversion, digital signatures, customer-specific business logic, quality assurance, data conversion and the integration into back end systems such as ERP or customer-specific solutions and databases.
Those projects traditionally involved substantial time from professional services and had long deployment periods of up to two years.
In spite of the complexity, cost and time, users of BPA have, in the past, still achieved attractive returns on their investment by using it for different types of applications in the area of office automation. However, the rising complexity, functionality, cost for professional services and outdated software architectures of traditional BPA vendors has led to difficulties in the decision making process at larger end-users and particularly when BPA solutions should be implemented on an enterprise-wide level.
At Lexmark we have developed a new approach with our XBOUND business process automation solution which helps simplify these complex challenges and deliver a more complete, more secure and more flexible solution, faster.
Here are nine key considerations we make in each project which helps us deliver on this promise:
General Requirements of Professional IT Users
In addition to BPA-specific features and benefits sought by professional users as described above, there are a number of generic requirements a vendor must fulfill when selling larger IT systems and solutions to corporate buyers today. Those requirements are generic to IT solutions and are typically articulated early in the buying cycle of IT solutions by CIOs, IT managers and divisional managers of mid- to large-sized companies and government organisations.
Software Architecture
The core of an enterprise solution is a software architecture allowing its centralized implementation, administration and maintenance, as well as the seamless roll-out and use in a large number of outlets or subsidiaries. This has to be accomplished without the need for costly adaptation and integration efforts.
Value Extraction
Comprehensive proof of the commercial solution concept, describing and calculating in which way the value generated by the solution can be extracted in a short and predictable time period.
Protection of Investment through the Separation of Technology and Business Logic
Buyers of solutions want to protect their investment and be able to expand and modify the solution as their business requirements change without incurring (unpredictable) cost. This is possible through the separation between technology provider and specific customer business logic modules. In this context, it has to be possible to modify and expand the business logic modules (because Customer Process, content of documents etc. is changed) without the involvement of the technology provider. To fulfill this is the requirement that the complete solution of the provider must be modular and open which allows the development or purchase of features and components without the involvement of the software vendor and outside of the typical release cycles of the software. A rich product feature set is required that responds to the requirements of the customer-specific application.
Flexible Business Automation
Automating business processes of customers is not sufficient enough for the solution provider to be successful. The solution has to support the Customers’ ability to improve their processes in a flexible way and the resulting increase in cost effectiveness of their operations has to be easy to demonstrate.
Low and Transparent Pricing
Low installation costs, relative to the total solution expense. The Total Cost of Ownership (“TCO”) should be transparent and low compared to the investment in order to demonstrate an attractive return on investment. It has become a key requirement that professional service fees are predictable and low as a proportion of the total investment. Adaptation cost to vertical industries and to other applications should not trigger high fees for professional services. Recurring costs to run the system should be low relative to TCO.
Pay-as-you-go
In applications, where product benefits are not easy to proof or forecast, a licensing and service framework that allows customers to pay-as-you-go versus requiring them to make a large one-time lump sum investment.
High Quality Standards for Products and Customer Support
Very low failure rates and high delivery quality have to allow for maximum levels of business continuity of the customer’s operations. A customer support structure is often demanded that requires the vendor to offer Service Level Agreements, which are highly responsive and include global and local support services.
Easy Implementation, Expansion and Administration
The implementation time of the solution has to be short and it must not interrupt the operations of the customer. The solutions need to be easy to use and easy to design/adopt and administer.
