Nimbus Control is an enterprise application which can help you improve the alignment between IT and Business. It does this by providing a simple and pragmatic way to unite enterprise architecture content based on frameworks such as TOGAF or Zachman with your operational processes.
It will help you scope, deliver and adopt enterprise software implementations more successfully (e.g. SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com) and will underpin your BPM automation initiatives because it will help you identify, govern and communicate improvements which involve automation.
By connecting enterprise applications and business intelligence data sources into a process view it enables actionable performance management to drive continuous improvement.
Stakeholders:
All IT roles with an interest in understanding business processes and corresponding system dependencies, including: CIO, Enterprise Architects, Process Analysts, Developers and Enterprise Software Implementation teams.
Key Capabilities:
Align IT and Business
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| Simple Common Language: |
Uses a “simple common language” for business processes which enables better communication and collaboration between the business and IT. Support for both BPMN and and Nimbus’ simplified diagram notations.
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| Change Management: |
Roll-out change with clear communication and optional enforcement through acknowledgement. Round trip collaboration and improvement suggestions from business to process owners and IT.
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Model Enterprise Architecture
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| Multiple model types: |
Support for multiple model types including strategy, business process, organization, BPMN, hierarchies of IT portfolios, applications and services.
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| IT architecture support: |
Enrich process content with cross reference links to flexible hierarchical frameworks which you can use to model IT application hierarchies and infrastructure.
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| Information frameworks: |
Hierarchical information frameworks can be used to support TOGAF and Zachman and can be adapted for customized methodologies using the flexible hierarchical database structure.
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Integrate with Enterprise Architecture tools, SAP and other systems
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| Integrate with System Architect: |
Exchange information between IBM Rational System Architect and hierarchical information frameworks in Nimbus Control to align business process and IT architecture endeavors.
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| Integrate with SAP Solution Manager: |
Two way exchange of SAP Solution Manager business blueprint data into Nimbus Control, enabling end user friendly business process content to integrate to SAP Business Blueprint, SAP transactions to be launched from the process and Nimbus Control process diagrams to be accessed in context within SAP Solution Manager.
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| Integration with Microsoft Office: |
Import from Visio. Export to MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Project. Optional integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for portal deployment, enterprise search and integrated content management.
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| Integrate with other BPM tools: |
Import from Visio, iGrafx, Aris and BPM Xchange. Export to XML and BPM Xchange. Integrate with BPMS / workflow tools for automation modeling via XML. Hyperlink between process description and relevant forms and workflow applications and vice versa.
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| Integrate with other systems: |
Nimbus Control provides integration with SAP, Salesforce.com and any web based application to provide end users a process front end to the systems involved in their day-to-day tasks.
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Successfully scope, deliver and drive adoption of enterprise software projects
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| Scope: |
Capture business process ‘as is’ issues and ‘to-be’ requirements in a business friendly process notation, augmented with customizable data tables. Use powerful reports to analyze and prioritize improvements. Socialize intended scope with business process participants and gain feedback, suggestions and buy-in.
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| Deliver: |
Use the process model as the basis for enterprise software configuration, further socialization of process improvement options and compromises as they emerge. Use analysis, reports and export to Excel to build role definitions, communication and training plans. Use process walkthroughs as basis of end user acceptance testing. Augment process and Storyboard content with links to ‘how to’ guides and elearning. Use process Storyboards as basis for role based training design.
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| Adopt: |
Use role based portal and personalized notifications of change, to inform the right people of the right content at the right time. Streamline communication of process change including all system implications. Lower the cost of end user process education and training with user friendly process content and Storyboards including links to relevant user guides and elearning. Use as the on-line operations manual for business as normal. Use as the end-user feedback mechanism for process improvement suggestions. Use as the notification mechanism for roll-out of further changes required for continuous improvement.
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Underpin BPM process automation projects
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| Initiate: |
The most successful BPM automation projects are those which are most successfully aligned with business requirements. Nimbus Control helps you achieve that as opportunities for process improvement and automation require a complete view of manual & automated activities and user engagement in a language the business understands. Processes which require automation can be exported from Nimbus Control via XML to BPMS type modeling tools.
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| Govern and collaborate: |
Nimbus Control includes content governance and collaboration capabilities which can help ensure process automation specialists and their customers ‘stay on the same page’.
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| Adopt: |
Link process automation workflow forms to the relevant business process descriptions in Nimbus Control. The result – an interactive operations manual which describes how the business runs and provides the jump-points to make it as easy as possible for users to adopt the new ways of working.
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Metric and Scorecard integration with BI and various data sources
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| Integrate BI Data: |
Metric links and scorecards can access data from a variety of sources, including: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PerformancePoint, MS SharePoint, SQL databases, Cognos Metrics Manager, ActiveStrategy Enterprise Measures, SAP BW, SAP NetWeaver BI.
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| Metrics: |
Metrics can be displayed in the context of relevant process diagrams against specific activity boxes. Users can add relevant metrics to a list of personal favorites in the portal. Threshold alerts can be configured to notify relevant users.
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| Scorecards: |
Scorecards can be created using Microsoft Excel, PerformancePoint Server or web archive files. Scorecards are registered in Nimbus Control and users can add relevant scorecards to a list of personal favorites in the portal.
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Govern process content and related information
The content you create will change. That’s the whole premise of Continuous Improvement. Governing that change is critical. Nimbus Control will help you govern process and related content with the following capabilities:
| Access Control: |
Access rights are applied by user or user group. Access can be controlled at map level, part of a map, individual diagram, and to individual metrics, documents or attachments on any object. Access rights can also be directly applied to metrics, scorecards and documents.
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| Version control and change log: |
Changes to diagrams and registry documents are logged and date/time stamped, together with relevant change information. Content is version numbered. Previous Mastered versions are archived and retained. Also full capabilities for audit reporting.
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| Draft + master version: |
Diagrams and documents have a Master version that is locked down (authorized) and a Draft version that can be edited by authors with suitable access rights. The Draft and Master versions are stored and managed together to maintain integrity throughout the change cycle.
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| Change requests: |
A memo can be submitted as a formal change which is managed through evaluation to implementation.
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| Review requests: |
Any number of licensed end-users can be nominated by email with a URL link to the diagram or document so that they can review the changes and make comments through the web.
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| Authorization: |
A sequence of authorizers is setup for a diagram or a structure (hierarchy) of diagrams, and for documents. Authorization requests & links are routed via e-mail. Once all sign-offs are complete, the diagrams or document are ready for promotion to Master.
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| Draft promotion: |
The decision to promote the Draft map or document to the Master is a formal, manual step as there may be training, systems development or timing reasons to delay the Promotion. Once the map or document is nominated for Promotion, the Master Copy is archived, the Draft over-writes the Master and the version numbers of each diagram or document are incremented, emails are sent to each Subscriber and each Acknowledger, and the audit log updated.
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