Morse Adds BPM from Metastorm to Its Enterprise; Process Management Capability Integrated with SAP System for Maximum Efficiency

Business Wire, Jan 9, 2003

Business Editors

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2003

Metastorm today announced that it has deployed an enterprise Business Process Management (BPM) solution at Morse (LSE: MOR), the IT services and technology integration group, to ensure the company continues to deliver ISO 9001 service levels to its corporate client base.

The current rollout involves automation and management of procedures in several areas, including order management and tracking, pre-sales resourcing and customer price quotations. The Order Management System (OMS), built on Metastorm's BPM platform, integrates with Morse's existing SAP installation, enabling access to static reference data. The new system gives multiple departments full visibility of the progress of a customer order and tighter management of staff workloads. For example, when a purchase order is received, the Metastorm solution stores a scanned version of the document, and captures additional information to help drive the business process from end to end. All participants are made aware of what needs to be done to an order and when. This means that order queries can be addressed immediately, increasing internal efficiency and significantly enhancing customer satisfaction.

"After a two-month evaluation of several BPM solutions, including Ultimus and iCom Express, Metastorm came out on top for four crucial reasons: its affordability, flexibility, speed to deployment, and transparency," said Chris Mitchell, IS Director of Morse. "Since the deployment we have not lost one purchase order, and we've been able to respond to customer queries on the status of their order immediately. In general, the system has ensured that errors are eliminated from the process, making best practice a reality."

Another stage of the Metastorm rollout was the management of the procedure for generating price quotations for customers. Using the BPM solution, Morse sales staff can ensure that quotes, originally created in SAP, are verified for accuracy and technical configuration by the appropriate consultants across the UK. This is a departure from the previous system where information was faxed to the consultants, often delaying a response if the consultant was absent or otherwise unavailable. The BPM solution ensures that the process is effectively managed at each stage, with escalations built into the system if verification is not received within the time allocated. Consultants from other offices, whether in London, Manchester or Edinburgh, are now able to verify the quotation, ensuring a smooth transition of work and ISO adherence.

"Morse is a standard bearer for the ISO9001 standards of excellence. Our staff are instrumental in ensuring we maintain these ISO standards and it was important that they embraced the BPM solutions," said Mitchell. "The Metastorm process acts as a living and breathing ISO manual and ensures ongoing best practices. We plan to further deploy Metastorm's BPM solutions over the next three months to improve additional business procedures including order cancellations, order returns and customer feedback."

"The key considerations for businesses today when investing in IT is how best to leverage existing systems infrastructure to quickly achieve ROI and cost savings," said Kim Lewin, VP of International Operations at Metastorm. "By optimizing generic enterprise applications, such as SAP, and integrating them into core business-specific processes, Metastorm's BPM platform and applied solutions enable companies to do just that."

About Metastorm

Metastorm (www.metastorm.com) is the leading provider of applied Business Process Management (BPM) solutions to global 2,000 companies. Flexible, scalable and compatible with legacy systems, these vertical solutions empower business-level users to optimize sophisticated end-to-end business processes across the extended enterprise with near-immediate and trackable ROI.

With international headquarters in the UK and corporate offices in the USA, Metastorm has hundreds of customers with thousands of users worldwide. It has experienced triple-digit revenue growth in each of the last three years.

About Morse

Morse is a technology integration and IT services company. Morse makes it easier for its clients to achieve their business goals by providing them with a one-stop service that reduces the risks of deploying and managing complex applications and systems. Morse's expertise covers design, implementation and ongoing management. Morse's clients include leading organizations from many fields, including financial services, telecommunications, media, retail and manufacturing. Morse continually evolves to meet its customers' changing requirements, helping them avoid technology dead-ends and short-term trends. As a result, over half of Morse's revenues come from long-term business relationships.