IDS Scheer Announces Breakthrough Version of ARIS Platform for Process Excellence; Fully Web-Enabled ARIS Platform Poised to Set New Standards for Business Process Management.

BERWYN, Pa. -- IDS Scheer, the leading provider of services and tools for business process excellence, today unveiled major enhancements to its award-winning ARIS Platform. This breakthrough release, version 7, features unsurpassed levels in usability with a newly redesigned graphical user interface (GUI) that offers existing users the functionality they need while extending ARIS to a broader universe of end users that are increasingly becoming more involved in business process management initiatives. ARIS Platform provides support for the entire business process lifecycle and delivers the capability to design more efficient, standards-based enterprise architectures. In addition, the ARIS Platform provides tighter integration with SAP NetWeaver for extending the ARIS process reference models to SAP supported functionality.

Available today, the new ARIS Platform focuses on three key areas: Usability, Web-enabled Modeling and Web Publishing. The new platform offers the following products and solutions:

--ARIS Business Architect and ARIS Business Designer

--ARIS Business Publisher

--ARIS Enterprise Architecture Solution

--ARIS Audit Manager

--ARIS P2A Solution that allows integration with Microsoft BizTalk, NTIS, Tibco and a host of other solutions

--ARIS Process Performance Manager (PPM 4.0)

"Leveraging our broad customer base, the ARIS Platform addresses three key areas all designed to improve business process management initiatives. First, it opens up the doors of business process management to all levels within an organization and expands usage from business analysts and process owners to new users via an entirely new, easy to use interface," said Dr. Mathias Kirchmer, CEO of IDS Scheer for the Americas and Japan. "Second, by web-enabling the entire platform, we have given larger, distributed organizations the capability to manage business processes anywhere, anytime. We have also enhanced the web publishing aspects of ARIS to help companies create portal environments and make the business process content available throughout the entire organization. Finally, we have improved our corporate performance management functionality with enhancements to our compliance and process performance management solutions."

Beta Customers Tout New User Interface

IDS Scheer has created a new GUI that offers enhanced functionality and navigation with tabs and buttons that provide the optimal experience for first-time or occasional users that need access while offering high-level modeling functions for the power user. "Usability was such an important element in our product-launch that we conducted international usability testing with Cooper, renowned experts in designing interactive products," said Kirchmer. According to Kirchmer, 100% of the respondents were happy with the new GUI.

IDS Scheer beta tested the new ARIS products with some of its largest global customers including: NOVA Chemicals, BP, John Deere, DaimlerChrysler Research, and Siemens:

--"No problems in the migration; perception optimized and handling-oriented interface; very pleasing and intuitive new interface; extensive, very useful new functions with versatile new options (Queries, Triggers); reduction in training, administration and modeling effort. We are looking forward to working with the new version," said Thomas Beuter, REI/ID - Data and Process Management, DaimlerChrysler Research

--"Eii highly recommends ARIS Business Architect 7.0 as the enterprise architecture modeling tool," said Dr. Ray Sommer, Eii

Web-Enabled ARIS Products - ARIS Business Architect, ARIS Business Designer, ARIS Business Publisher

The web-enabled functionality is built upon ARIS Business Architect, ARIS Business Designer, and ARIS Business Publisher that are web-based tools designed for business process excellence and enterprise architecture. These tools reduce the overall TCO offering organizations web-based, intuitive and collaborative design of processes, data and IT architectures - all with minimum administration. The end result is the creation of a central repository of business processes that can be accessed throughout the organization and offers a standardized, consistent look and feel.

"These powerful web tools are so flexible and easy to use that organizations can designate users by role and customize access to the business process repository using filters. As more users become more involved in the BPM initiative, tools like ARIS Business Publisher can serve as a training tool for process management," said Kirchmer.

For example, business analysts and compliance executives can use the same repository yet use filters to present the content differently to suit their needs. ARIS Business Architect and ARIS Business Designer also provide a wide range of analysis and evaluation options by using pre-fabricated and individual reports. ARIS Business Publisher offers dynamic publishing of process knowledge or IT landscapes, maintains process quality even with frequent changes by an efficient change management and creates dynamic process content that drives the repository. Plus, ARIS Business Publisher offers the added flexibility of multi-lingual, low-cost, worldwide availability of the most current process information in the repository.

Enhancing the Business Effectiveness of the IT Landscape -- ARIS Enterprise Architecture Solution

The ARIS Enterprise Architecture Solution offers management of company architectures and IT landscapes based on standards. As further testament to its expertise in this area, IDS Scheer was recognized by Gartner as a leader in the Enterprise Architecture Tool Magic Quadrant in the research note, Vendor Details for the 4Q04 Enterprise Architecture Tool Magic Quadrant, published January 6, 2005 by Greta James. In the research note, Gartner states "ARIS is best suited to enterprise architecture work that has significant focus on business processes." This solution provides close interlacing of business processes with the whole IT landscape, reveals weak points in IT systems and the effects on the business processes, and identifies cost drivers and savings potential. It also offers portfolio analyses by the central ARIS process repository. In addition, it drives design, support and controlling of low-cost IT architectures. In terms of standards and frameworks, ARIS Enterprise Architecture Solution supports Zachman, DoDAF, FEAF, TEAF, TOGAF, ITIL, and more.

Compliance Management with ARIS Audit Manager

ARIS Audit Manager provides an organization with the tools to implement compliance requirements and internal inspection systems. This one-stop solution includes the workflow software that tests and monitors the functionality of the internal inspection system and eliminates any weaknesses. More importantly, it offers linkage of the inspection system to the processes. Compliance requirements include full documentation for the Sarbanes-Oxley section 404-certification, IKS, Basel II, Solvency II, Money Laundering Act and others. In addition, the latest version of this solution is ideal for compliance with regulations from the FDA.

Tighter Integration with ARIS for SAP NetWeaver

ARIS includes tighter integration with SAP NetWeaver(TM) -- a comprehensive integration and application platform designed to automate and optimize an organization's existing business processes. ARIS for SAP NetWeaver, the first BPM tool to be embedded in SAP NetWeaver, provides a detailed description of the process architecture including the SAP process contents, implementation with the SAP Solution Manager and integration of executable processes in SAP Exchange Infrastructure. ARIS for SAP NetWeaver is now offered with comprehensive web functionality. The solution also reduces times and costs in the implementation and configuration of the processes in SAP systems, offers transparency of the SAP processes and system landscape, provides fast adaptation of existing SAP solutions by process-oriented re-documentation, and positions process management as a prerequisite towards an Enterprise Services Architecture and SAP Business Process Platform. "With the emergence of service-oriented architectures (SOA), this solution can easily be adapted to an environment where processes are defined and loaded into the SOA to drive usage of different services," added Kirchmer.

Expanding the Enterprise Architecture Universe -- ARIS P2A Solution

In addition to its collaborative partnership with SAP, IDS Scheer has also expanded its product portfolio to integrate with other vendor's Enterprise Architecture offerings through its ARIS P2A solution. This solution provides thorough implementation of optimized business processes in current applications, offers time and cost savings in the development of individual software and implementation of the middleware (EAI, Workflow, portal software, .NET, J2EE), enables the orchestration of Enterprise and Web Services by BPM standards (BPEL, BPML, XML, XMI) and offers complete documentation for better communication between technical and development departments. ARIS P2A Solution integrates and connects with offerings from partners including Microsoft, Oracle, Fujitsu, NEC NTIS, Intalio, Ultimus, Adobe, and many others.

Corporate Performance Management -- ARIS Process Performance Manager (PPM)

The newest version of ARIS PPM provides figure-based measurement, visualization, documentation and evaluation of the "live" processes and procedures in an organization - all displayed in real time. Using a top-level management dashboard, ARIS PPM measures and displays actual processes based on existing data (ERP, CRM, Helpdesk and others). With the solution fully web-enabled, company-wide corporate performance management is a reality. ARIS PPM is based on patented process mining technologies and offers automatic organization and communication analysis.

"Simply put, the new ARIS Platform is easy, smart and powerful. It reduces the TCO of a BPM initiative and ensures its business success, becomes a focal point within the operations of an organization, combines modeling, execution and monitoring, and does this all with a lifecycle approach," concluded Kirchmer.

About IDS Scheer in North America

IDS Scheer is the leading provider of solutions for business process excellence. The company's ARIS-based solutions offer a complete portfolio for "Business Process Excellence," including the services, software and methods to address all phases of the business process lifecycle: design, implementation, execution and continuous improvement. From small/medium enterprises to Global 1000 organizations, IDS Scheer provides a wide array of solutions to help customers optimize, and profit from, their investments in Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Next Generation Business Process Automation solutions. As a SAP Global Services Partner, IDS Scheer enables customers to maximize their SAP investment and build winning businesses. As part of an organization of more than 2000 employees worldwide and over 250 in North America, IDS Scheer is built upon a foundation of business process excellence that began when the company was founded in 1984 by August-Wilhelm Scheer, widely recognized as a founding father of Business Process Management. For more information on IDS Scheer in North America, visit http://www.ids-scheer.com/us.

Copyright (C) 2005 IDS Scheer All rights reserved.

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