ARIS Model Execution Becomes Reality: IDS Scheer and E2E Facilitate Enterprise Agility at Intrum Justitia

Business Wire, Feb 14, 2008

Intrum Gains Massive Process Improvements, Unprecedented Software Transparency and Total Alignment Between Business and IT by Leveraging the Unique Combination of BPM and SOA

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Intrum Justitia, Europe's leading Credit Management Services (CMS) company, has completed the first phase of its groundbreaking business transformation initiative. It represents the first project worldwide to successfully transform a legacy application into a Business Driven-SOA. After a nine-month rollout of the ARIS Bridge integration from IDS Scheer and E2E, Intrum has now completely modernized its cash flow processes, improving worker efficiency by six times. Due to direct ARIS Model Execution, Intrum has achieved total transparency in the dialog between business and IT, which ultimately enabled maximum business agility.

"We were initially skeptical that such an unprecedented approach could work and produce concrete results in such a short time span," said Diego Zanini, PMO Head & Process Manager at Intrum Justitia. "But after a successful proof of concept in November 2006, we were convinced of the viability and the maturity of the ARIS Bridge integration. Given the fact that Intrum had little experience with ARIS Model Execution, we further mitigated the risk by engaging the combined talent of long-time BPM partner IDS Scheer and adding the unique Model Execution expertise of E2E."

To achieve the highest levels of IT flexibility for ongoing process automation, Intrum used the ARIS Bridge integration to rewrite its proprietary ReCash application by migrating legacy PL/SQL code into nearly 1,000 executable UML models. With direct Model Execution, the documentation IS the code, leading to unprecedented transparency throughout the SOA development cycle. Intrum is now prepared to substantially reduce the cost of process change and application maintenance. Following this highly successful legacy transformation project, the ARIS Bridge integration is now positioned as the platform of choice for enterprise-wide business transformation, enabling process optimizations and cost reductions which were previously impossible.

"Our ultimate goal was for Intrum to reach a state of enterprise agility that would be unmatched in the industry," said Karl Wagner, Head of ARIS Product Management and Development at IDS Scheer. "Within less than a year, Intrum has succeeded in transforming its legacy business application into a fully Business-Driven SOA, improving the performance of its business processes massively. With this success, Intrum has established itself as a role model worldwide, where the combination of BPM and SOA has evolved into a solid foundation for sustainable business agility."

The ARIS Bridge integration is a jointly-developed combination of the E2E and IDS Scheer products. It bridges the gap, present in almost all organizations, between Business Processes Management and IT applications. The recently announced E2E Bridge 4.0 offers the first - and only - unified development, execution and testing environment based on direct Model Execution for UML, BPMN and IDS Scheer's ARIS EPC format.

The go-live for Intrum's ReCash transformation project was December 2007 in Austria and Switzerland, only 9 months after the initial project kick-off. The rollout into Germany is well underway and additional new projects based on E2E's Model Driven Integration platform are scheduled for 2008. The success of the joint effort has prompted Intrum to designate the ARIS Bridge integration as its strategic application platform for an international rollout.

"We did not originally intend to use the E2E Bridge for core business application development, and Intrum was aware of our concerns. But what started out as a proof of concept has evolved into one of the most significant achievements across the IT industry - the world's first business application based exclusively on executable models, without any code or code generation," said Serge Gansner, CEO and Co-founder of E2E. "The lessons learned from this project are already sparking broad interest across the entire IT industry."

Based on the success and the lessons learned from this first phase of process transformation, Intrum has now restructured its organization and created an integrated Project Management Office that is chartered with bringing business and IT together to work collaboratively on the continued effort. "We have the utmost confidence in this initiative and plan on using the ARIS Bridge as the foundation for future IT architecture and application projects in the DACH region," added Mr. Zanini.

About IDS Scheer

IDS Scheer is the market leader in Business Process Management (BPM) software, solutions and services for corporations and public organizations worldwide. With its unrivaled ARIS Platform for Process Excellence, the company offers an integrated, comprehensive solution portfolio for the strategy, design, implementation and controlling of business processes. Utilizing the ARIS Value Engineering (AVE) approach, IDS Scheer consultants bridge the gap between corporate strategy, business processes, IT solutions and process controlling. As a Global SAP Services Partner, strategic SAP development partner and SAP Vertical Solution Reseller, IDS Scheer offers small/medium enterprises to Global 1000 companies a process-oriented approach to optimize Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Approximately 3,000 employees in over 70 countries serve the company's 7,000 customers. In 2007, IDS Scheer's revenues reached 394 million Euro / 576 million USD (preliminary figures). Established in 1984 by Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer, IDS Scheer is listed in the TecDAX on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Germany).