The recent ProcessWorld 2004, held in Miami's South Beach and presented by IDS Scheer North America, was heralded by attendees and thought leaders as a resounding success, exceeding expectations and doubling attendees from last year. Nearly 300 participants basked in the sunshine of Miami's famed South Beach to witness a wide array of thought-provoking sessions that addressed business process innovation at all levels.

ProcessWorld 2004 featured keynote speakers including Dr. Ravi Kalakota, CEO and co-founder of E-Business Strategies, and Dennis Moore, senior vice president, GBU xApps at SAP Labs. Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer, founder of IDS Scheer, and Dr. Mathias Kirchmer, CEO of IDS Scheer North America, also presented their views on business process innovation and next-generation business process automation tools.

Dr. Scheer opened up ProcessWorld 2004 by playing Duke Ellington's famous It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing on the baritone saxophone. At the conclusion of the piece, Dr. Scheer equated the rules and structure of a jazz band with business process innovation. In his keynote presentation, Dr. Scheer emphasized how processes are the main drivers of innovation. He also reaffirmed the company's close partnership with SAP and outlined how IDS Scheer will integrate its ARIS Toolset with SAP NetWeaver and SAP xApps.

Dr. Kirchmer focused on how the combination of best and next practices leads to innovation, efficiencies and ultimately long-term business success. He also discussed what he termed the "business process factory" that links strategy and execution and emphasized how technology is the enabler for business process management.

Moore validated key points from Dr. Kirchmer's session and brought a perspective that addressed how innovation means change and how organizations must transform their mindset from IT as a barrier to change into IT as an enabler of change. He noted key requirements for business process innovation as the following: Service Oriented Architectures will be key for application logic, processes and services must be separated, model-driven development is paramount, and change management must be embedded to support the evolution.

E-Business Strategies' Kalakota opened up the second day of ProcessWorld 2004 with a lively and candid presentation on business process innovation and offshore outsourcing. He noted how offshoring is a clear "mega-trend" with business process implications including the inherent ROI and cost savings, how competitive pressures are driving the trend, how execution is critical and that it may not be the answer for everyone.

Two panel discussions offered industry, customer and vendor insight into process innovation. In the first panel, BPM Perception vs. Reality, members of the press and actual BPM customers reinforced the importance of a model-driven architecture as well as the significance of integrating change management at all levels of an organization so individuals can be educated and introduced to the value of business processes.

In the second panel, BPA Point-Counterpoint, industry analysts went head-to-head with vendors. Common themes that emerged included: Business process automation must be deployed as a progressive rollout and more collaborative process, "keeping it simple" as process owners must roll out BPA to a wide audience and the pros and cons of changing business processes "on the fly."

For more information, visit IDS Scheer North America here.