New BPM, CRM Features Aim to Speed Strategy Execution

Bpm’online on Thursday introduced software update 7.11 for its intelligent customer relationship management and business process management platform, with more than 200 improvements designed to accelerate strategy execution.

Among the key new features:

• Machine learning capabilities and predictive algorithms that offer users relevant information and automation within a specific context based on analysis of historical data. These additions let the platform make intelligent recommendations across a variety of business applications, ranging from automatically identifying customer needs to specifying an opportunity category, or predicting the best agent to resolve an open case;
• A revamped campaign engine, which makes marketing process automation simple and speedy. Its new interface lets users design highly personalized campaigns, set up complex branching based on multiple criteria, and create entrance and exit conditions for campaign participants;
• Extended BPM and case management capabilities for streamlined process automation, including the ability to run processes for selected records in any section of the system; capabilities to deeply co-figure the rules and conditions of transition between all stages; tools to effortlessly track all tasks associated with a business process;
• Mobile app enhancements, including extended filtering capabilities and revamped customizable push notifications for events, system updates and other items; and
• One-click Bpm’online marketplace integration, which lets users easily install or add a wide variety of applications, add-ons or process templates directly from the marketplace.

The company provides a unified platform for marketing, sales and service.

200 New Features – Twice

Bpm’online rolled out its previous update, 7.10, this spring — also with 200 enhancements and updates, and featuring enhanced tools to help businesses accelerate strategy execution.

Two hundred “is not a magic number,” said Matthew Tharp, Bpm’online’s chief evangelist.

“It happens to be the number of updates and enhancements we were able to release for 7.11,” he told CRM Buyer. “We’re determined with each release to address as many requests and great ideas as possible.”

Bpm’online is “an agile organization, so we do updates every three weeks,” Tharp said. The company delivers three to four major releases each year that have “more substantial features and functionality.”

Machine Learning and AI

Bpm’online developed its machine learning and AI capabilities in-house using open libraries and algorithms, Tharp noted.

“Because of the strengths of the company’s BPM capabilities, it’s well positioned to use AI to automate not just recommendations, but processes for customers,” noted Rebecca Wettemann, VP of research at Nucleus Research.

“Key to getting value out of AI is operationalizing it on a broad scale,” she told CRM Buyer. “Customer device data, for example, is a ripe territory for that.”

Giving Marketing a Boost

Update 7.11’s revamped campaign engine “can work with relevant marketing applications and can orchestrate across channels for a comprehensive marketing stack,” Tharp said.

The campaign engine has open application programming interfaces that let customers add custom elements as desired.

“Revamping of the marketing engine is great news, as it should drive down the learning curve for marketers and make them more productive in the long run,” Wettemann said.

For the Enterprise

Bpm’online developed its product with the complex architectures of large enterprises in mind, Tharp noted.

“Speed is … a major challenge for larger organizations, which have more systems and more complexity, and need technology that enables them to move as fast as smaller [companies] when it comes to changing or adding new process automation, or integrating new applications into an existing process,” he explained.

“The ability to scale and deliver not just implementations, but add-on products and capabilities, depends on the strength of the ecosystem,” Wettemann remarked. “Bpm’online’s advances in this area will make it easier for partners to monetize their intellectual property and strengthen partner relationships.”

Competitors for BPM deals include Pega and Appian, Tharp said. For CRM deals, BPM’online’s competitors include Salesforce and Microsoft.