Software and services specialist DVT has entered into a strategic partnership with BluePrint Business Intelligence (BI) to extend its toolset for clients looking for a holistic, user friendly business process management (BPM) solution.
Developed primarily for medium-to-large companies in the financial services industry, BluePrintBI is a business-oriented software toolkit that captures, documents and regularly interrogates all new and existing business processes to create an accessible ‘blueprint’ for every level of employee in an organisation.
In doing so, BluePrintBI helps companies record their business knowledge in a consistent and standardised manner, helps risk managers and analysts better understand where their inherent business risk comes from, and places management in complete control of the organisation’s operating model.
Laura Wier, who manages DVT’s Enterprise Consulting, Analysis and Design division, says that although DVT offers its clients a technology-agnostic consulting service, BluePrintBI fills a void in a very distinct niche that clients often struggle with in practice.
“As a consulting company we often manage the process development and documentation for a client but maintaining the solution is ultimately the client’s responsibility in the long run,” says Wier.
“Over the years we’ve discovered that, in many instances, the tools our clients use to map and manage their business processes are not ideal for them,” she says. “Either they’re very simplistic tools that are little more than extensions of standard office suites, without any inherent intelligence, or they’re sophisticated, expensive platforms that are difficult to use efficiently and expensive to maintain.”
Co-founder and director Francois Laurence calls BluePrintBI a “solution that’s custom-made to fill a niche that companies are looking for but aren’t necessarily aware exists.
“Many South African companies started small and have grown organically, and are now at a point where they need to be in complete control of their business processes to enable further growth, manage business risk and regulatory compliance and business efficiency,” says Laurence.
“Larger companies also need to continually refine their strategies to better service their customers in a competitive economy, and increase profitability without necessarily growing their customer base, especially in a recessionary environment.
“The problem we’re finding – and why the synergy with DVT works so well – is that processes are developed to the point of ‘business as usual’, after which many are lost, or the consultants that developed them naturally move on to other projects. As a result businesses potentially hemorrhage knowledge and put themselves at great risk.”
BluePrintBI was developed through Laurence’s personal experience working for large international as well as local South African financial services companies. Having a well defined operating model with consistently documented business processes is essential for the management of complex technology change, business restructure and other strategic initiatives. Without this information progress on these strategic projects were slowed down and introduced elements of risk where outcomes couldn’t be quickly and accurately defined.
“When you’re working for a company responsible for hundreds of millions of rands of other people’s money, the responsibility to operate in a regulated, predictable, transparent and honest environment is paramount,” he says.
“Typically the organisation has hundreds of employees – from floor staff to senior managers – responsible for working on different disciplines for different clients. How can they be expected to execute their duties efficiently if they don’t have easy access to information on every part of every process the business uses to transact?”
Wier believes BluePrintBI presents the first affordable, fit-for-purpose BPM tool for financial services and similarly governed industries that doesn’t require dedicated IT skills to install and administer.
“For us it dovetails perfectly with the best-practice methodologies we develop for our clients,” she says. “In return we can offer BluePrintBI a national footprint and access to dozens of companies that could immediately benefit from its software.”
DVT and BluePrintBI have already initiated a series of internal training sessions for consulting staff to familiarize them with the system, and will also be extending invitations for one-on-one demonstrations to select clients.
