Business process management (BPM), and the information technology systems that support it, are defined in many different ways.

The key advance of optimization over traditional BPM technologies is the ability to address both the real time optimization of individual processes in flight as well as the ability to identify strategic changes to business processes to drive long term value and cost savings. This dual mission of optimization drives efficiency improvements as well as increased process effectiveness, or alignment with business process goals and performance indicators.

Adobe LiveCycle Workflow helps organizations design, deploy and manage automated business-process applications that connect systems and human interactions. This paper is an ideal introduction for professionals, architects and developers who are planning business-process automation.

In the past, workflow vendors created quite a bit of confusion in the market when trying to define workflow and how it could best be utilized. Today, that situation is being replicated with BPM. Ask 10 different vendors to define BPM or BPM suites, and you will likely get 10 variations of the definition, even though all vendors use the same basic terminology to explain it. This white paper helps organizations sort through the options in order to discover why a BPM suite is a different and more important application for process improvement than workflow engines.

CIOs and IT leaders are under tremendous pressure to demonstrate how they deliver real value to their businesses. They must ensure that their IT staff is working on the right activities at the right time plus ensure that Business and IT priorities are aligned. Summit Strategies analysts have identified a number of key global business process transformations that can be successfully executed when IT and business leaders share a common view – from the dynamic day-to-day operational IT priorities to the ups and downs of customer demand within key business processes.