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Are customers buying into business process management (BPM)? Analyst figures suggest a huge boom in sales, although estimates that this is already a $3 billion to $4 billion market (Aberdeen Group), or that 85% of companies are planning BPM projects (Meta Group) seem generous.

But there is little doubt that BPM has begun to gain greater corporate understanding - and acceptance. From insurance companies cutting the time taken to handle exceptions to pension providers improving customer service levels, the rollout of BPM technologies is being driven by a realisation of the potentially significant economic benefits that they can deliver. Below are some examples of the kind of results being achieved.

Easier exceptions handling

Company: ADP Brokerage Services

Supplier: Staffware

Automation means that processing share trades is usually a simple exercise. But exceptions do occur - all too often, in fact - and managing them manually can be an expensive chore.

ADP Brokerage Services - an online trade bureau that offers a service through which financial intermediaries can deal securities - knows that better exceptions handling could give it a competitive advantage, enabling the company to process trades quicker and in greater volume.

ADP, a Staffware customer, is approaching the problem in two ways, says Charlie Marchesani, a senior VP of product development. First, it is applying a number of rules to trades that can automate parts of the exceptions process. Second, workflow technology is added for those few occasions when handling an exception still cannot be automated.

The BPM system that ADP has rolled out - StaffWare's iProcess engine - is currently processing about 50,000 transactions for each client per day. The company plans to extend the system to more departments by the end of 2004. An internal workflow system for the opening of new accounts will also be migrated to the StaffWare Process Suite by January 2004.

Faster time-to-market

Company: iUniverse

Supplier: Intalio

In the fast-moving publishing industry, cutting the time it takes to release a new product can make the difference between a bestseller and a flop.

One publishing company, iUniverse, believes that granting individual authors access to publishing processes - by virtue of Intalio's n3 technology - will give it an edge over its rivals in this regard.

The BPM system, which was installed in 2002, tackles the distribution process from end-to-end. It ensures that books are available within the distribution channels, for example, and completes orders through the supply chain.

Vernon Stinebaker, iUniverse's VP of technology and operations, says the company has cut product development costs by one-third. "The system reduces the amount of time required to develop projects, and allows us to more effectively reuse the components in related workflows," he says. "Many of our competitors require three months to six months to convert a manuscript into a finished book. Depending upon the options our authors select, our manuscript-to-book production time is less than one month."

He adds: "We are also able to automatically accept the broadest possible range of orders. Many of our competitors are unable to accept online orders directly, and instead they tend to resort to fax and manual processing."

Better customer relations

Company: Mercer

Supplier: FileNet

It might be a bold claim, but Mercer HR Consulting believes it can live up to it. After announcing a multi-million pound investment in BPM and content management technology from FileNet, the company, part of professional services outfit Marsh &McLennan, said the end result would do nothing less than "change the face of the UK pensions market".

Critics say that face needs changing. In recent years, the private pensions industry has been blighted by a lack of transparency and bad investment decisions. Mercer's new system, which it will offer to pension providers on a business process outsourcing (BPO) basis, might not necessarily deliver better returns for investors, but it will make it easier for them to track the performance of their account and switch providers if it is necessary. The FileNet system automates the workflow of all administrative inquiries and alerts customer service teams at each stage of a business process. It aims to cut the time taken to process new accounts. Faster transfer of documents between providers should also reduce the headache involved in switching providers.

Paul Couchman, head of administrative process at Mercer, says the company will also plan to enable individuals to access the system online. Users will be able to make changes to personal information, get quotes for benefits and keep track of how their account is doing.

Improving efficiency

Company: Morse

Supplier: Metastorm

Manual processing of purchase orders used to be a major headache for Morse, one of the UK's biggest IT systems integrators. Orders sometimes went missing and different departments did not have easy access to order cycle information - leading to delays and customer dissatisfaction.

By 2001, the company had identified three areas that needed improvement: pre-sales resourcing, order management and tracking and customer quotations.

The company chose Metastorm's e-Work platform, which works across a single Windows 2000/Compaq server. The solution is integrated with existing SAP technology, running on Unix. The bulk of data is held on SQL databases and is delivered via web browsers.

To keep costs down, the company chose to implement the e-Work solution at a departmental level. Total spend to date is between £50,000 and £100,000, which includes installations at the three identified departments, an installation process implementation for its technical engineers, and a number of other smaller business processes. Purchase orders are now inputted into the system on receipt - meaning lost orders are practically non-existent. The Metastorm e-Work BPM system handles each order throughout its lifecycle, enabling transparency throughout the organisation and improving customer service.

"Morse is operating in a market where the margins are under pressure," explains Chris Mitchell, the company's IS director. "To be profitable, the company needs to be efficient internally. BPM plays right into this." He says the system has not only made the company more efficient, but it has made it easier to troubleshoot and report back to customers. "It has also reduced internal costs, improved customer service, and made it easier to scale the business at a low incremental cost."

Increasing transaction volumes

Company: Nedcor

Supplier: Staffware

Two years ago, Nedcor, a South African bank, began offering to process transactions of other financial institutions on a BPO basis. The ultimate aim was to increase processing volumes within Nedcor while spreading the cost of the improvements across a number of sources.

The bank secured its first customer in mid-2002 - a Swiss credit card company - and it now has six clients, which take services ranging from a single application through to end-to-end banking processes.

Nedcor implemented the Staffware Process Suite, an enterprise workflow and BPM solution, for use in its BPO service. The suite integrates with the bank's existing process modelling tools for more efficient 'straight through processing'.

"Being in the process business, we are paranoid about efficiency, quality and cost of processes," says Harry Wilson, general manager of technology and operations at Nedcor. "With manual processes, you don't have control over this."

Automating low-value tasks is a priority. "Being a small bank in South Africa, with a small system, it is imperative to increase transaction volumes to make the system profitable," he says. "The one factor that is important is volume. It doesn't matter whether you put one transaction through the system, or one million, it will cost the same."