CommerceQuest Extends Enterprise Business Process Management Reach with Universal Process Engine

Business Wire, Nov 16, 2004

TAMPA, Fla. -- Software Provider Forges Partnerships with iGrafx and Mindjet to Link Process Analysis, Mapping and Execution Capabilities and Drive Greater ROI from BPM Initiatives

CommerceQuest Inc. today announced strategic partnerships with iGrafx and Mindjet, enabling organizations to complete the entire business process lifecycle with combined analysis, mapping, and execution capabilities via a Universal Process Engine. The Universal Process Engine is a key capability designed to further enhance CommerceQuest's TRAXION Enterprise Business Process Management Suite (EnterpriseBPMS). This move signals a major step forward for the BPM marketplace, as companies will be empowered to potentially achieve 30-45 percent greater ROI by rapidly moving a process from the analysis phase to deployment and execution, allowing the process to be continuously improved, managed, and monitored in real time.

Companies are typically faced with re-working existing process models in other Business Process Analysis (BPA) tools when taking those process models to the next level of execution and integration. The Universal Process Engine allows enterprises to leverage existing IT investments and efficiently build process libraries by taking process models directly to the execution phase without re-working them in other tools. By using analysis, simulation and mapping tools, enterprises typically notice a 20-33 percent improvement in cycle time and throughput; however, by executing and integrating processes with the Universal Process Engine from CommerceQuest, an additional 25-30 percent improvement can be attained.

"There is a strong convergence factor emerging between the Business Process Analysis (BPA) and the Business Process Management (BPM) sectors," said Jim Sinur, vice president with Gartner. "This is exemplified by BPM vendors accepting models from multiple sources and the embedding of simulation and other process analysis capabilities."

By combining its Process Execution Manager (PEM), a component of TRAXION EnterpriseBPMS, with modelers from iGrafx and Mindjet, CommerceQuest enhances its execution capabilities, as well as iGrafx's powerful analysis capabilities and Mindjet's mapping capabilities. These partnerships further illustrate how companies can leverage existing IT investments by linking process analysis and mapping capabilities with process execution, management, tracking, and reporting.

"By aligning our expertise with iGrafx and Mindjet, CommerceQuest continues to demonstrate our commitment to providing the most complete Enterprise BPM solution on the market," said Mike Forster, chairman and CEO of CommerceQuest. "The integration of BPM and BPA marks a new evolution in the industry. Their existing customers now have the ability to take their business processes through each stage of the lifecycle more quickly than ever before. This is all about allowing those users to leverage previous IT investments, achieve greater ROI and optimize business performance."

Business analysts, process initiative experts and IT departments who leverage BPA solutions from iGrafx can integrate existing process maps with CommerceQuest's PEM, bringing static process maps to "life." In addition, business professionals following Six Sigma methodology can also increase the average number of projects they complete in a year and the amount of cost savings during that period by applying iGrafx's process-centric approach to their BPM initiatives.

"By working closely with CommerceQuest to develop an integration between our mapping and analysis capabilities and CommerceQuest's Enterprise BPM technology, iGrafx is able to bridge the gap between process analysis and execution," said Ken Carraher, president of iGrafx. "This combination creates a comprehensive BPM solution that allows our customers to gain a competitive advantage by leveraging their existing iGrafx process maps and deploying them in an execution system more rapidly."

Mindjet provides unique collaborative mapping tools, unlike most traditional BPA solutions on the market. With this technology, companies are able to build business maps of complex ideas, information and data, which enable them to visualize connections and relationships that can lead to new insights and ideas. With the addition of CommerceQuest's execution and integration capabilities, users will reduce the time needed to complete their business process lifecycles from weeks to days.

"Mindjet is pleased to join forces with CommerceQuest to provide companies with a powerful Universal Process Engine that leverages our unique business mapping solution, MindManager X5 Pro," said Mindjet CEO Robert Gordon. "Mindjet and CommerceQuest's combined analysis, mapping and execution tools enable enterprise users to more efficiently capture and improve business processes, launch new projects and support collaboration."

For more information on this CommerceQuest initiative, please call (813) 639-6300 or visit www.commercequest.com.

About iGrafx

iGrafx provides a comprehensive family of business process analysis solutions that help organizations understand, analyze and optimize their processes. iGrafx solutions create a team-based collaborative process visualization and analysis environment that enables companies to gain and sustain leadership and increase return on investment. The iGrafx business process analysis solutions assist in reducing costs, and increasing utilization, allocation and deployment of resources. iGrafx is a division of Corel Inc. (www.igrafx.com).