04/08/2008

Lombardi, a specalist in business process management (BPM), today announced the immediate availability of three Lombardi Process Definition packages.

ebizQ received the following details:

These three packages are designed to assist companies with evaluation and planning of their BPM-based process improvement projects. These unique packages are the first in a series of solutions that Lombardi is offering to help customers quickly achieve measurable and dramatic value through BPM. The first three packages are Inventory, Assessment, and Analysis.

Each Lombardi Process Definition package is a fixed-price offering that combines Lombardi technology with delivery services and template-based artifacts. Each package requires certain preliminary preparation on the part of the customer, which is also facilitated by Lombardi process experts.

"The BPM market has changed. Customers have moved beyond simple technology-based BPM decisions," said Phil Gilbert, president of Lombardi. "Business today needs to be driven with BPM methods and metrics, using roadmaps created by inventorying core processes, assessing those processes for relevance, and analyzing them for the monetary returns to be gained. By bundling our experience and technology, Lombardi is able to very quickly help those companies trying to come to grips with BPM for the first time; as well as those who are ready to move from the first project or two into an enterprise competency. The key to BPM is to move fast, based on hard data, with everyone in alignment. That's what these packages help you do: move fast, with data, everyone aligned."

Since Lombardi was founded in 2000, the company has delivered solutions to more than 2,500 customers around the world. These solutions have run the gamut from tooling only, all the way to helping establish BPM Centers of Excellence in some of the largest companies in the world. In every one of these engagements, customers have, at various times, run into the fundamental problems solved by these packages. Usually, this results in more time spent in meetings and delays than it takes to solve the problem using Lombardi�s tooling and methods. In addition to the deliverables themselves, the time-to-completion value that these packages offer is stunning.

Traditional business process analysis (BPA) solutions in the complex and increasingly challenging area of process improvement are cumbersome and difficult to use, and lack the expert guidance necessary to help customers get consensus around what major steps are performed in processes, who does them, and how to prioritize improvement efforts in a consistent fashion. In contrast, Lombardi's Process Definition packages leverage our expertise to quickly help customers gain consensus and plan for their most valuable process improvement activities.

Lombardi's three new Process Definition packages are:

• Process Inventory: a 3-week project designed to help companies identify their current processes, challenges, and goals in a specific business area. Key deliverables include a process inventory and -- as is -- process maps for all processes in the business area, the top key performance indicators (KPI) and service-level agreements (SLA) for the business area and a roadmap that prioritizes potential process improvement opportunities against the company�s strategic business goals.



• Process Assessment: a 1-week project designed to help companies understand and gain consensus around the main problem areas, metrics, and KPIs for a specific process. Key deliverables include the -- as is -- process map, key success metrics and goals, and a stack-ranked list of process problems and opportunities.



• Process Analysis: a 2-week project designed to help companies analyze and build a business case for improvement for a specific process. Key deliverables include "as is" and "to be" (future state) process maps, determination of root cause of problems, a detailed process optimization roadmap, and a business case detailing potential return.

�As BPM becomes more embedded in the industry, solutions which can quickly bring different stakeholders together to collaborate in exploring process improvement opportunities and challenges are becoming increasingly vital,� said Neil Ward-Dutton, research director with analyst company Macehiter Ward-Dutton. "Process discovery and analysis solutions such as these should be part of what every vendor purporting to offer full-lifecycle BPM provides."

"At Lombardi, our number one goal is to help companies achieve value with BPM as quickly as possible," said Rod Favaron, Lombardi CEO. "With thousands of customer process projects successfully implemented our team has truly seen it all. We have packaged our learnings into these exciting new packages so customers can receive immediate benefits by knowing which processes are the right ones to improve, and the absolute best way to improve them."

Lombardi�s Process Definition packages are licensed as fixed-price offerings starting at $15K and up. Each package also includes a Lombardi Blueprint 10-person Professional team license for 3 months.