FileNet Announces Workflow Software Designed For Every Desktop In The Enterprise; FileNet Ensemble: Workflow Software for Novell GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange

Business Wire, April 1, 1996

COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 1996--FileNet Corp. (NASDAQ:FILE) today announced FileNet Ensemble(TM), a unique workflow application that is designed for use throughout an enterprise as a complement to existing electronic mail and groupware software.

Unlike existing workflow software that often requires business analysts or programmers to develop applications, FileNet Ensemble provides easy-to-use tools for creating automated work processes from the desktop with minimal training.

"FileNet Ensemble is an absolute world-beater of a product," said Connie Moore, industry analyst with GIGA Information Group, a Norwell, Mass.-based market research firm. "It takes workflow and messaging software in an entirely new direction. When we look back two years from now, FileNet Ensemble's introduction will be a defining moment in developing workflow for the mass market."

FileNet Ensemble is an electronic mail-based software application for managing routine or daily business tasks that can be time consuming when dependent on paper documents and inter-office mail. By using e-mail and office applications, FileNet Ensemble enhances collaboration and information sharing to streamline work processes, thus improving personal and group productivity. The software is another component of FileNet's "Foundation for Enterprise Document Management" that provides integrated software to organize, manage, and store electronic documents, and make them accessible to individuals and business processes located anywhere at any time

"By providing the ability to automate routine and ad hoc business processes to the people that participate in them, FileNet Ensemble makes timely, relevant information an integral part of daily business activities," said Ted Smith, president and CEO at FileNet. "It brings together desktop applications, e-mail and groupware, along with the individuals that need to collaborate with colleagues to improve decision-making and overall productivity."

FileNet Ensemble features an intuitive design that enables end users to author work processes graphically at their desktops, providing software tools to select participants, define tasks, establish deadlines, and attach documents. The software works with Novell GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange messaging systems and allows users to receive work items in standard e-mail inboxes. FileNet Ensemble also provides workflow monitoring capabilities that permit users to view the current status of the workflow and outstanding tasks.

Comprehensive Workflow Software Suite

FileNet Ensemble joins FileNet's family of WorkFlo(R) products, which also includes Visual WorkFlo(R). These integrated products handle the broad range of business process automation requirements across an enterprise.

"FileNet defines what ad hoc workflow is all about," said Scott McCready, Principal, IDC/Avante, a Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm. "FileNet has taken much of what they have learned from their ten plus years of workflow experience in the back office and brought it to the desktop in the form of FileNet Ensemble."

Using Microsoft Windows 95, FileNet Ensemble manages administrative and ad hoc business processes, such as customer service, proposal generation, new hire review, benefits enrollment, event management, and new product development. The product is the result of a joint product development partnership with Novell.

FileNet Ensemble enables users to visually define the steps in a business process by assembling "drag and drop" graphical icons of workflow participants and drawing routes to connect those participants. Workflow authors use e-mail address books to select participants, who can even be remote users on a corporate network. The software can route documents in any form, including text, scanned images, faxes, spreadsheets, graphics, electronic forms, CAD drawings, and video. FileNet Ensemble also is ODMA (Open Document Management API) compliant which enables fast, easy integration with document-management software.

Flexible Workflow Design

FileNet Ensemble provides workflow authors with flexibility in building an automated business process. Users can create sequential, broadcast, and conditional routes. A conditional route can be based on thresholds, such as setting a monetary value trigger to determine participants in a purchase order review (for example, items under $5,000 go to a director and items over $5,000 need approval from a vice president) or previous actions, such as rejection of a resume in an automated new hire review that triggers generation of a form letter to the applicant. Workflow authors can electronically set deadlines and reminders for all participants and set priority levels for tasks. They also can save a workflow as a template for future re-use.

"FileNet Ensemble has opened new doors to workflow throughout our organization," said Don Ryan, project manager at CareAmerica Health Plans. "The software enables us to automate those processes that require less complexity than a production workflow and are difficult to cost justify alone. FileNet Ensemble provides workflow that is easy to implement and justify."