Pretoria, 12 Mar 2009
As workflow automation has become a more established, mainstream-type technology, increasing numbers of organisations have discovered that the discipline of business process management (BPM) is no longer a "nice to have", but a necessary tool in order for their businesses to grow.
So says Richard Him Lok, Divisional Director of the Datacentrix BPM Solutions team.
"A workflow process is a set of related tasks or activities that are automated to deliver the right work to the right people at the right time, and so, optimises the processing time within a company`s operations," he explains. "BPM takes the goals of the organisation into consideration when automating workflow processes, in order to enable the more efficient running of the company`s operations.
"The benefits that BPM and workflow automation bring to a business are numerous. It is strongly associated with cost reduction and efficiency savings through the automation of many business processes, resulting in the elimination or optimisation of unnecessary and repetitive steps. As consistency within processes leads to greater predictability in levels of response to customers, workflow also offers service improvements and added value. It furthermore provides better control over the flow of transactions within an organisation, achieving improved management of business processes through the standardisation of working methods and the availability of audit trails."
In addition, this type of technology can provide flexibility - where software control over processes enables their redesign in line with changing business needs, and the strong focus on business processes leads to their streamlining and simplification.
"One of the more intangible benefits of workflow is that it encourages collaborative working, essentially joining up people and applications across an organisation," adds Him Lok.
Datacentrix Solutions` first commercial release of K2 BPM software was when it won the large Medihelp workflow tender with the technology, and the division has been automating Web-based business processes for the medical aid supplier ever since, steadily covering the business - department by department - over the past seven years.
"We started out at Datacentrix as a pure custom development shop, servicing any development requirements of our small client base of Medihelp and Eskom," says Him Lok.
The BPM Solutions business unit consists of more than 30 dedicated document workflow systems developers that have extensive K2 business process automation experience on the Microsoft Information Worker technology platform.
Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) is typically integrated with such workflow systems as document management software. The business unit also boasts a team of SharePoint specialists focusing on the creation of enterprise content management and document repository solutions.
"Since its inception, the BPM business unit has gone from strength to strength," states Him Lok. "Datacentrix is the largest K2 implementation partner in South Africa, with over 200 K2 processes implemented across its customer base over a range of business industries."
The BPM Solutions team is now fully on course with developing and deploying solutions with the latest K2 BPM server release of the technology called "K2 BlackPearl" on various enterprise clients.
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