Direct Energy powers up order-to-cash

Direct Energy has begun implementing a new business process management system, to revamp its order management process, reports ITWorld Canada.

The energy company's order-to-cash process manages transactions from potential sales leads to established customers.

This process can deal with servicing or invoicing as well as the actual payment of cash. Direct Energy executives said they needed an effective way to capture an order, provisioning that order, turning the power on and doing it all at the right time.

The Environment Agency has chosen Tibco as its technology partner to support its modernising regulation programme, reports SOA World.

The Environment Agency will leverage Tibco business process management and service-oriented architecture software to deliver independent platform-neutral support for its heterogeneous IT environment.

The three-year business change initiative will help to ensure all regulatory activities, including permitting and compliance, are delivered within a shared infrastructure and using a defined framework of common processes.

An analyst firm has said the market for business process management suites is growing rapidly, and the software is expected to become the front-end to next-generation deployment platforms used in building custom applications, reports IntelligentEnterprise.

According to IDC, the BPMS market grew by nearly 80% last year to $890 million, and the market was expected to reach $5.5 billion, reflecting a five-year compound annual growth rate of 44%.

"This year and next are critical years for BPMS vendors," IDC analyst Maureen Fleming said in a recent report. "The market has had failures and consolidation, and this will continue over the forecast period."