The next suite—an intelligent business performance platform—blends business intelligence, rules, and process management, linking knowledge with the processes that need it.
Improving business prospects is not easy. It fundamentally requires insight derived from a combination of knowledge about how business processes work and sound business performance measures.
This insight can lead to new and improved business processes, which then can encourage the creation of business value. In today’s complex, global enterprise, the needed alignment is rare.
Information technology can help. Vendors are developing and early adopters are implementing what PricewaterhouseCoopers calls intelligent business performance platforms.These platforms support and integrate applications, and they monitor and manage business processes and outcomes. The three core components of this emerging platform are:
- Business intelligence applications, which collect
and interpret business events. The percentage of visitors making a purchase at a Web site is a
simple example.
- Business process management applications, which monitor and manage the company’s workflow. The automated routing of claims at an insurance company is an example.
- Business rules management applications, which automatically and consistently apply business policies. Exception handling in a financial transaction system is an example.
Today, with heroic effort, these applications can be stitched together to guide management and facilitate process enhancement. Enterprises that create value through rapid process changes are beginning to define a market opportunity for a preintegrated suite of tools that supports intelligent business performance management.
