An innovative procurement solution to streamline the purchasing process work flows

President Obama's recent Executive Order: "Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service," is an excellent call to action to Defense and Civilian agencies to leverage self-service technologies to cut costs while also improving efficiencies.

President Obama's April executive order "Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service" is an excellent call to action for agencies to leverage self-service technologies to cut costs while also improving efficiencies.

Over the next 5-10 years, most public and private organizations will face a daunting challenge: the mass retirement of baby boomers. If not properly planned for, an organization’s intellectual resources and business process knowledge – shaped by their most experienced employees – could literally walk out the door.

ComputerWire’s Madan Sheina discusses the release of HandySoft’s flagship BizFlow 11. HandySoft is adding process management disciplines to a neglected area, that of knowledge-worker desktops typically overloaded with unstructured peer-to-peer email-driven processes.

This article discusses the announcement of HandySoft’s BizFlow® 11, a process management solution to seamlessly integrate ad-hoc work and structured processes to drive visibility, control and productivity across all work that happens within an organization, not simply structured processes.

According to Upside analyst Heather Ashton, business process management prepares to boldly go into uncharted territories of enterprise technology. Heather says that in the future, building agility into process automation is critical for producing the greatest returns. For example, HandySoft is evolving its BPM platform, BizFlow, to achieve a middle ground between structure and flexibility, enabling business workers to model and display work in real time.

Rok Plc, a property maintenance company, used HandySoft’s BizFlow to create RoKFlow, a seamless building services delivery application. In this article, ComputerWeekly discusses how the company is using RoKFlow to organise repairs following the recent floods in Sheffield and Hull. The RokFlow application presents Rok's office staff with the status of insurance jobs, covering the processing of an insurance claim from initial customer contact and site survey through to completion of the repairs.

ebizQ discusses the enhancement of HandySoft's Global Partner Program, which builds on a strong foundation of successful partnerships and divides partners into five tracks and focuses on joint solution delivery.

HandySoft and Plexus Scientific have joined forces to help government agencies automate and streamline succession planning while building a repository of organizational knowledge.

This article in CIO Magazine focuses on CIO’s experience with BPM projects and includes a discussion with HandySoft customer James Court from First American Property & Casualty Insurance. First American is using HandySoft’s BizFlow® to automate home, fire, and flood quotes, policy submissions, and claims, virtually eliminating paper shuffling for over 200,000 transactions annually.

ebizQ discusses enhancements to HandySoft's BizFlow®, including support for industry standards, BPEL and BPMN, and a new Web User Interface (UI). Compliance with standards such as BPEL and BPMN are key to enabling organizations to maximize their business processes and leverage them throughout their enterprise.

This article talks about how DOL is leveraging BizFlow® to streamline and automate its annual grant application funds process with the goal of reducing grant turn-around time by 20 percent.

Article discusses the findings of HandySoft's recent survey, which found that finance houses in the UK are better prepared than the EU average, but more than a quarter are still unlikely to hit the deadline. HandySoft's Wendy Cohen commented that "the IT implementation that supports Mifid compliance has become an increasingly major element of an investment company's competitive differentiation.

The Financial Times discusses the results of a new study published by HandySoft that found that almost two thirds (60%) of European financial institutions are not expected to meet the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) by the deadline of November 2007.

This article in Government Computer News discusses the Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) use of HandySoft’s BizFlow tool to consolidate and streamline human resource processes. HHS is using BizFlow to power its Enterprise Workflow and Information Tracking System (EWITS), an initiative HHS hopes will serve as a model for other federal agencies. BizFlow allows HHS to monitor and track HR-based performance metrics by providing an integrated workflow context.

HandySoft has been named one of KMWorld's '100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management.' "Now in its seventh year, our list recognizes organizations leading knowledge management innovation," said Hugh McKellar, editor in chief of KMWorld. "HandySoft has delivered an innovative solution to fill the void between process-driven work and email clutter with a solution that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional BPM. The real knowledge management impact comes from capturing and interpreting detailed task assignments and proactively serving up related information assets to knowledge workers."

The Credit Union Journal talks to Rick Male and Lynne Mackan-Roy to learn how Cambrian Credit Union is using HandySoft's BizFlow to increase efficiency and pass on cost savings to their members. Using BizFlow for a range of processes, including customer enrollment and HR functions, Cambrian has achieved impressive results. For instance, Cambrian can fund a mortgage in as little as 48 hours, compared to their competitors who take anywhere from three days to three weeks. Cambrian cleared 2,600 mortgages in 2006, boasts the lowest mortgage interest rates in Manitoba, and grew personal lending by 20%.

This article discusses the increased use of BPM by financial services institutions. According to one leading consulting group, BPM in the financial services industry alone is expected to exceed UK£8 billion by 2008. Scott Byrnes, HandySoft's vice president of marketing and product development, weighs in on the biggest trends for 2007. Byrnes predicts that dynamic process management will play a key role in the continued evolution of BPM and says that we will continue to see processes become recognized as business assets and deployments move beyond departmental implementations to enterprise-wide solutions.

Business process management has matured and so has the marketplace for BPM solutions. Editorial Director Andy Moore discusses the evolution of the BPM industry and quotes HandySoft's Scott Byrnes, who says the BPM has already become a crucial part of many companies' enterprise software.

This article states that HandySoft's new OfficeEngine, the BPM's industry's first truly dynamic solution, combines the visibility and control of traditional BPM with the flexibility of email.

Jay Budzik, co-inventor of Watson and CTO of Intellext, discusses the collaboration of HandySoft's new OfficeEngine with Intellext's Watson technology. Budzik notes that OfficeEngine changes his conceptions of BPM because it is easy to use and "delivers real functionality without all the heavy configuration."

This article announces the release of HandySoft's new product, OfficeEngine, noting that it was originally designed at the request of a federal law enforcement agency but HandySoft expanded its capabilities for use in the public and private sectors.

Wabash Technologies, an automotive parts supplier to many car manufacturers, was struggling with processing of new product development forms and customer request. This article explains how HandySoft’s BPM solution allowed Wabash to eliminate a manual paper system and overcome these difficulties.

BPM is increasingly being used enterprise wide for mission-critical tasks. SRA International Inc., a systems integrator in Fairfax, Va., talks about how HandySoft's BizFlow BPM suite is helping the company accommodate rapid growth and drive efficiencies across financial operations. Vornado Realty Trust, which owns and manages 58 million square feet of real estate nationwide, is using HandySoft's BPM tool for an accounts payable and invoice-approval application.

This article discusses the growing emergence of BPM software in the government health care industry. The Veterans Health Administration is using HandySoft's BizFlow to improve the benefit eligibility process. HandySoft's chief operating officer, Brian Boxman, notes that BPM can also help health care organizations with revenue cycle management and human resources.

Three questions with Brian Boxman, a sales, marketing and services delivery executive with more than 18 years of experience in the application software sales and services industry. As chief operating officer of HandySoft Global Corporation, he is responsible for worldwide sales, marketing and professional services.

In this article on current trends in the Business Process Management industry, HandySoft Global considers strategic alternatives and discusses new exploratory directions for the company.

Insight Investment, one of the UK's largest asset managers, has selected BizFlow to manage its Incident Reporting System (IRS). Insight Investment's IRS is an automated system for reporting losses, near misses, regulatory breaches, complaints and other control failures, enabling escalation and issues tracking across the entire company. Adding BizFlow to their risk management suite will assist in the management of risk across their business by increasing the accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness of incident management and reporting.

Business process management (BPM) specialist HandySoft Global this week touted its 2005 results, reporting 79 percent sales growth year-over-year during the second half of last year, with 93 percent year-over-year growth in its sales to the government sector.

Canada-based Cambrian Credit Union ($924 million in assets) had to find a new solution to transmit sales information from the front offices of its 11 branches to its centralized loan processing and underwriting systems in the back office. In January 2005, the credit union decided to implement HandySoft Global Corp.'s BizFlow BPM software because it was easier to use and integrated better with Cambrian's banking system. It now processes 23% more loans per month with no additional staff and is planning to utilize BizFlow in a variety of other processes.

By integrating BizFlow and JRules via Web Services, business users can use JRules, a key offering in ILOG's BRMS product line, to create and edit corporate policies that govern complex business processes managed through BizFlow, HandySoft's BPM platform. The companies said the interoperability of the two products promotes a rapid response to changing business dynamics, competitive forces and regulations, especially those in the financial services and government sectors.

ILOG and HandySoft today announced an integration between their business process and business rule management systems. The relationship means that customers can use ILOG’s JRules to manage and change the business policies that underlie the business processes managed by HandySoft’s BizFlow solution.

HandySoft Global Corporation, a world leader in business process management (BPM) solutions, announced the release of BizFlow 10, the latest version of HandySoft's award-winning BPM platform. The new BizFlow 10 BPM Suite provides powerful new design and development features to give clients at all levels of BPM deployments the tools they need to turn process improvements into measurable ROI. This release further boosts HandySoft's industry position as the strategic choice for innovative BPM solutions.

The new BizFlow 10 BPM Suite provides powerful new design and development features to give clients at all levels of BPM deployments the tools they need to turn process improvements into measurable ROI. This release further boosts HandySoft’s industry position as the strategic choice for innovative BPM solutions.

BPO does have a foothold among European companies however it is still a developing market and there is cautious optimism towards early BPO adoption. Why is uptake slow and what are the BPO benefits that should entice the 'in-house devotees' to get onboard?

Stuart Claggett, COO of HandySoft, wants to remind companies that SOX spending, onerous as it is in isolation, can be a gateway to enterprise-wide risk management and BPM.

Eine neue Studie von Handysoft zeigt, dass fast die Hälfte der Vorstände der 10.000 größten Firmen in Europa über die Ausgliederung ganzer Geschäftsprozesse nachdenkt. Dies ist der erste Schritt auf dem Weg hin zu dem, was Managementberater "virtuelle" Unternehmen nennen. Damit sind Unternehmen gemeint, die abgesehen vom Kerngeschäft alle Geschäftsprozesse ausgliedern.

"Compliance has an ongoing nature, it doesn't end," [Daniele Chenal] said. "The questions are: how does this become institutionalized? How do you maintain it, year over year? You have to keep testing and updating the documentation. You have to think of it as a process."

Learn how HandySoft SOXA Accelerator customer UTC tackled Sarbanes-Oxley complaince.

Process management tools have risen to the challenge of compliance providing specialized modules and workflow templates that help organizations model the internal checks and approval steps required to ensure that financial information is handled properly. Process management tools also help organizations map the various touchpoints affecting financial information. A leader in this area is HandySoft, a BPM vendor that has developed a set of compliance-related applications and templates.

Business software vendor, HandySoft, has launched an Australian office and appointed a general manager for Australia and New Zealand. HandySoft has picked up customers Legion Interactive, Aurora Energy, Planning SA and Capricorn.

BPM Today, the largest BPM publication in the U.S, has officially announced the winners of the 2004 Top 5 BPM awards. These awards are bestowed in recognition of features and functions standing out in the BPM product space and are based on extensive, independent analysis by BPM Today.

With BizFlow 9, government officials can monitor events, quickly alter processes in response to real-time changes, and identify and prioritize activities that need improvement, according to company officials. The system's analysis capabilities provide a systematic approach to defining optimal performance and thereby reduce risks associated with process improvement.

ASAP is a Web service protocol for things that don't happen instantaneously, and the Wf-XML extension add on BPM and workflow, [Susan] Muldoon said on a conference call to preview the event with reporters. "So if you were placing an order that had five pieces on the assembly line... you would use Wf-XML to gain insight into each of those activities."

[BPM] brings visibility to the web of interactions between systems and people, so the steps of a process can be choreographed, orchestrated, and automated. And it can deliver significant economic benefits by enabling companies to run more efficiently.

With just about five months to go before a crucial provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act takes effect, companies are well under way with compliance efforts. But it's proving to be a costly and painful exercise. Sarbanes-Oxley's section 404 requires company managers and external auditors to attest to the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting. Beginning Nov. 15, companies will have to include such documentation with their 2004 annual reports.

BizFlow's technology is solid and extensible, easily qualifying as a dependable, enterprise-class product... cross-platform support is excellent, giving BizFlow an edge when compared to products that are focused on a single platform.

HandySoft Global Corporation and Enterprise Web company Plumtree Software unwrapped version 2.0 of the SOXA Accelerator. The solution adds new and enhanced compliance functionality to the SOXA Accelerator, released in June of 2003, which has a growing roster of Global 500 customers.

David Kelly, of analyst firm Upside Research, sites HandySoft as a key contributor to new trend of increased flexibility in modeling, reporting, business rules, simulation and deployment.

European companies listed on US stock exchanges will see audit fees jump by more than a third as they are forced to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act.

NJ-based Hudson United Bank invests in SOXA Accelerator from HandySoft Global Corp. in support of its Sarbanes-Oxley compliance initiatives.

Hudson United Bancorp spent months looking for tools to help it come into compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act before choosing SOXA Accelerator software from HandySoft Global Corp. "It's very early in the process, but we're making significant progress on this pretty stringent regulatory requirement," said Mark Nagelvoort, a vice president and the internal controls manager at the company’s $8 billion-asset Hudson United Bank.

There is a dark cloud looming on the horizon called Section 409 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Companies will not only have to create an infrastructure for the rapid assessment of which critical events materially affect the company, but support real-time data as well. "[Section 409] is a significant transformation for enterprises that function in a five- to seven-day business process," said Daryn Walters, vice president of global marketing and strategy at HandySoft.

An important complement to any dashboard is analytical alert software, such as that sold by FileNet, Metastorm, and HandySoft. It monitors data such as customer payments, sales, and inventory, and alerts the CFO if a large account is seriously past due. The software also walks a CFO (or an underling) through the steps necessary to determine if the event is material -- or if someone simply forgot to record a check, says Daryn Walters, vice-president for world marketing and strategy at HandySoft.

We process about 900,000 invoices on an annual basis, and we felt that we could realize tremendous cost and efficiency savings by centralizing and automating our accounts payable processes, said Mickey Stayman, business systems manager at Stolt-Nielsen. "BizFlow Accelerator for AP enables us to almost completely automate our AP processes, reducing cycle times from 20 to three days, eliminating the re-keying of data into the ERP system and providing our managers with complete visibility of the status of any invoice at any time."

Adaptability has become a key issue today for companies that are trying to bring products to market faster to meet ever-evolving consumer demand and to drive incremental increases in revenues. But as technology "solutions" for adaptability hit the wall, HandySoft believes business process management can boost competitiveness.

BizFlow "allows customers to streamline and automate business processes throughout the enterprise," says Daryn Walters, HandySoft's vice president of worldwide marketing and strategy. The SOXA Accelerator, using BizFlow as the process engine, enables corporations to leverage legacy systems to minimize the cost of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, provides project and task management capabilities, and identifies problems and improvement opportunities in auditing and internal-control processes.

While complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations seems like a largely financial and business matter, IT can expect to be called upon-it if hasn't already been-to collect data from all parts of the company, compile it, disseminate it to the proper parties and even track the data's progress.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Accelerator combines business process management from HandySoft's BizFlow platform with collaboration, search and a portal from Plumtree's Enterprise Web Suite. The solution gives each member of the extended accounting team a personalized view of the compliance process based on his or her responsibilities.

Handysoft has entered into a strategic alliance with Mumbai-based Datamatics Technologies to offer BizFlow, its business process management (BPM) platform in India.

Business process management (BPM) specialist HandySoft Corp. has partnered with enterprise portal provider Plumtree Software to roll out a new solution designed to help publicly traded companies comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 — and perhaps improve their overall business processes while they're at it.

Every transaction creates at least one piece of paper, sometimes a couple of hundred pieces of paper, says Lisa Fox, senior manager for Perot Systems, which has been working with HandySoft to implement a workflow system at Conseco Insurance. Another Handysoft user, QBE, a general insurance and reinsurance group headquartered in Australia, provides workers' compensation insurance to 150,000 companies throughout that country. QBE is working with HandySoft to implement a workflow process-driven claims management solution.

Continental Teves, an Auburn Hills, MI-based provider of brake, steering and suspension systems, is using BizFlow to map out and automate processes for mission-critical tasks including handling engineering change requests, procurement orders, test orders and test report signoffs. The company expects that the reduction of errors, elimination of lost documents and time gained through parallel processing will save more than $1.3 million per year. Another benefit of BPM will be enforced adherence to the quality system.

Business process automation specialist HandySoft Corp. this week formed a global alliance with Corticon Technologies, a provider of business rules software, in a partnership that joins business process management (BPM) and decision-management solutions to create a single enterprise environment.

BizFlow is being deployed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to power its Trademark Information System. The system would bring application registration and examinations online, improving access by reviewers and the public."We're tying the process together so it can occur in a completely electronic fashion," said Doug Bourgeois, USPTO's chief information officer. "When you do away with managing a paper file, you improve the quality of the customer service" because there will be less chance for human error, such as duplicating or losing the forms.

Pure-play BPM software makers continue to push into new realms. HandySoft Corp., for example, is developing a library of business process applications to augment its BizFlow BPM engine. The packaged applications will contain business rules, process models, reporting, solutions interfaces, adapters and services for quick implementation.

Project management and workflow automation solution from HandySoft makes it faster and cheaper for Continental Teves to get products to market, offering the company a "tremendous amount of time and cost savings" estimated at "over $1 million annually."

So when the National Institute of Standards and Technology tapped Matcom International Corp., Alexandria, Va., to develop electronic versions of 350 of the agency's internal forms, the company assembled a solution that integrated public key infrastructure software from Entrust Inc., Addison, Texas, with business process management software from HandySoft.

The County of Santa Cruz, CA, has chosen BizFlow 8 business process management software from HandySoft to manage its business processes. BizFlow's platform will automate the county's property assessment and tax collection management, application and permit processing, and the procurement, HR and logistics functions.

Companies can use Visio to their advantage for executing business processes through a software product in a number of ways. Handysoft delivers products that consume Visio models to fuel internal models in their respect BPM products.

Business process management (BPM) is among the most exciting sectors in strategic software — and Web Services makes it even more so. This article gives insights into the relationship between BPM and Web Services; it cites HandySoft as an exemplar of BPM, and also includes useful Delphi Group survey results concerning preferred platforms, applications for BPM, and metrics for evaluating the success of BPM implementations.

This is an article describing how workflow solutions have evolved into business process management solutions, which include both people and enterprise applications in the flow. These applications not only route information or documents to individuals for decision-making, but also automate decisions by linking business rules to databases. The article also includes comments on BizFlow's value in supporting both vertical and horizontal applications.

Transform Magazine awarded BizFlow its "Best of AIIM 2002" award for Web Services after reviewing products and technologies exhibited at the AIIM 2002 Conference & Exposition. Transform's review committee states: "While other vendors are talking about Web Services, HandySoft's BizFlow 7 business process management / workflow software has already made the transition....It contains a SOAP broker with XML support that can pass data back and forth between Web services devices and other applications. A mortgage application sent into the BizFlow SOAP broker, for example, might trigger a workflow process in a loan origination application."