BPM strengthens bank, customer relationship

Information Week reports that banks will make increasing use of business-process management (BPM) and service-oriented architecture as they seek to deepen customer relationships.

Worldwide expansion, process efficiency, greater customer sophistication and increased regulatory demands will characterise the banking industry over the next ten years, a BearingPoint and Datamonitor report reveals.

"The maturity of transactional banking services will force banks to understand customer profitability and risk more accurately," says head of retail banking at Wachovia, Cece Sutton.

Business-process management software is being used to reduce manual tasks in a number of processes, including customer service, application processing and credit scoring, the report noted. In cheque processing, for example, lets banks exchange an image of a cheque in lieu of the original. Several large US banks have begun the process of capturing images at the branch or ATM and will begin exchanging images as soon as a critical mass of banks begins doing so. Workflow and document management technologies are being used to streamline the credit approval process.

Actuate 8, a spreadsheet application platform that gives corporations the ability to automate the production, distribution, updates, workflow and collaboration associated with enterprise-wide spreadsheet processes, has been released, the company says in a statement.

The application allows organisations to create specialised spreadsheet applications that contain server-managed workflow, guided analysis and automated write-back to central data stores.

Nearly every organisation relies upon manually created spreadsheets that include time-tested business logic to drive critical business processes. Unfortunately these manual processes introduce errors, inconsistencies and compliance risks for corporations, the company says.

Companies can use the platform to develop a range of applications that automate specific business processes such as sales forecasting, capacity management, portfolio management, customer self-service and order processing.

Business process provider IDS Scheer, has announced Aris Audit Manager 3.0, a compliance management solution that helps organisations document their business processes requirements.

Aris Audit Manager is a Web-based workflow system that baselines, tests and certifies internal control systems. New features of this version include automatic workflow configuration, a comprehensive escalation and sign-off management system, the Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Journal reports.

"To support both private and public sector organisations, the Aris Audit Manager includes special overview functions for management, administrators and internal and external auditors," said IDS Scheer CEO for the Americas and Japan, Mathias Kirchmer.