National Gallery in the picture with BPM technology

London, UK - October 19, 2004 - The National Gallery, home to one of the world's greatest collections of Western European paintings, has chosen to invest in Business Process Management technology from HandySoft to modernise the Photographic Department's existing workflow system. In line with the Gallery's strategy of phased IT roll-out, the implementation of HandySoft's BPM platform BizFlow will pave the way for possible future extension across other Gallery business processes.

Following a review of the leading BPM solutions, the National Gallery decided that BizFlow from HandySoft provided the advanced functionality and flexibility required to accommodate both current requirements and future roll-out across different applications in the Gallery. Initially, the Photographic Department will use BizFlow to boost the efficiency with which photographic jobs are processed, providing visibility of task status to the Department co-ordinators, generating management reports and creating an audit trail of completed work.

The Photographic Department is responsible for providing a variety of technical, conventional and digital photographic services. Their main tasks are to produce records of works of art during conservation, to support the Gallery's exhibition and education programmes, supply images for publication and to provide a historical record of the Gallery and its activities, so that images can be reproduced. The Department is also responsible for ensuring that the images are accurately recorded on the Gallery's asset management system and correctly stored in controlled conditions in the Photographic Archive.

Using BizFlow's graphical process design editor, analysts can easily map the business processes and rules that specify how jobs are routed. When a job instruction is received, the co-ordinator captures the details, sets deadlines and uses the pre-set processes to route the job to the appropriate photographer. Once completed, the work is sent back to the specified manager for approval. If modifications are necessary, it is again routed to the photographer until approval is given. It is a simple task for co-ordinators to produce tailored management reports and for analysts to add more business processes as required.

Richard Allen, Systems Development Manager, The National Gallery, comments, "A crucial factor in our choice of HandySoft's BPM solution is its capacity to support a variety of other business processes in the Gallery. We have approximately 300 network users and I believe that much of our work, both within and between departments, could benefit from Business Process support. It is a very positive sign for us that staff in the Photographic Department are impressed by the system's user friendliness."

Wendy Cohen, director of operations and sales EMEA, HandySoft, comments: "The application of BizFlow at the National Gallery underlines the value of standardising core business processes and enforcing best practice rules. By automating job and resource management, efficiency can be substantially boosted, and particularly so when the valuable reporting data is used to identify problems and make improvements to existing processes. With BizFlow, the benefits of BPM can be delivered on a cross-departmental basis, supporting various business processes, and the Gallery is well placed to take this step in the future."

About HandySoft Global Corporation
HandySoft Global Corporation is the premier provider of configurable software solutions that simplify and automate business processes; capture and enforce best practices; improve productivity and quality while reducing costs; integrate information technology; and foster collaboration among employees, customers, and partners.

The foundation for HandySoft's industry and departmental solutions is BizFlow, the award-winning platform for business process management, automated workflow, and collaboration. BizFlow offers complete capabilities for building and managing automated business processes, including tools for designing and monitoring the processes, presenting and accessing work, integrating existing IT systems, and administering the platform itself. As a global solutions provider, HandySoft has headquarters locations in Vienna (USA), Seoul (Korea) and London, UK, with strategic partner representation throughout the world. HandySoft has implemented business process management solutions at hundreds of sites worldwide. For more information call +1-703-442-5600, email info@handysoft.com or visit www.handysoft.com

About The National Gallery
The National Gallery houses the national collection of Western European painting from around 1250 to 1900. It is on show 361 days of the year, free of charge. The collection belongs to the people of the United Kingdom. The Gallery serves a very wide and diverse public and is open to all. The Gallery's mission is to remain a world-class gallery with a world-class collection. The Gallery's aim is to care for the collection, to enhance it for future generations, primarily by acquisition, and to study it, while encouraging access to the pictures for the education and enjoyment of the widest possible public now and in the future.

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