BPM Success at Enterprise - Enabling Expansion

After testing several BPM products on the market, the department deployed an application suite called Apian Enterprise from Appian. The software includes an Appian Rules engine, which the department leveraged to enforce standards regarding IT product and service requests. The platform is also capable of supporting multiple languages, a key feature for a company with operations in many countries.

The department used Appian Enterprise to completely rebuild its request services application, which it calls Request Online. In developing the new platform, Request Services created a modeling approach that mirrored the way requests were handled previously, so users would have a familiar experience when making requests.

The revised online request system enables the department to better handle requests through a more efficient workflow, Puno says. The BPM application also gives Enterprise a common platform rather than multiple systems, and can deal with rapid change and anticipated growth in request volume.

The new platform “allows us to rapidly build new services and enhancements because there is very little coding or programming that needs to be done,” Puno says. “The majority of the ‘development’ is actually more drag and drop [configuration]. This just makes it that much quicker to implement changes.”

Interfaces in the platform that support request submissions reduce the level of manual input needed, Puno says, cutting down on errors and allowing fulfillment teams to more efficiently work tasks involved in fulfilling requests for the hardware, software and IT services that are critical to the company’s operation.
 
Having the revamped request system proved to be especially important when Enterprise Rent-A-Car acquired the holding company for National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car. The acquisition meant the addition of new IT end users and business units, which the revised request system was able to accommodate.